Laid, Sutherland
| Laid Gaelic: An Leathad | |
| Sutherland | |
|---|---|
 Laid along the A838 and Loch Eriboll | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | NC411591 |
| Location: | 58°29’28"N, 4°43’37"W |
| Data | |
| Post town: | Lairg |
| Postcode: | IV27 4 |
| Dialling code: | 01971 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Highland |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross |
Laid is a remote, linear crofting township scattered along the A838 road on the western shore of the sea loch, Loch Eriboll, on the north coast of Sutherland.
The township is close to the north coast of Great Britain around six miles south of the coastal village of Durness. The township of Portnancon is just a mile north-east of Laid, along the A838 road.
The township was first settled in 1832, being created to house residents of Eriboll who had been cleared from the eastern shore of Loch Erriboll as part of the Highland Clearances.[1] The population has always been low with a small number of crofts on the land. The primary school closed in 1955.[1]
The area was considered as a site for a proposed "superquarry" during the 1990s. The plan would have meant a Liechtenstein company, Vibel SA, develop the area for quarrying for aggregate use. The plans were dropped and the council excluded the possibility of a major quarry in the area in its late 1990s structure plan, although plans for some mineral development continued.[2][3]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Loch Eriboll: Undiscovered Scotland
- ↑ Highland estate to change hands: Herald Scotland, 27 March 2000
- ↑ 'Crofters want mineral rights loophole closed': Herald Scotland, 3 January 2003
- Laid: The Gazetteer for Scotland (University of Edinburgh and The Royal Scottish Geographical Society)