Portnancon is a small remote crofting

Crofting

Crofting is a form of land tenure and small-scale food production unique to the Scottish Highlands, the Islands of Scotland, and formerly on the Isle of Man....

 township, and former, now disused fishing station, on the west shore of the sea loch, Loch Eriboll

Loch Eriboll

Loch Eriboll is a long sea loch on the north coast of Scotland, which has been used for centuries as a deep water anchorage as it is safe from the often stormy seas of Cape Wrath and the Pentland Firth...

 in Sutherland

Sutherland

Sutherland is a registration county, lieutenancy area and historic administrative county of Scotland. It is now within the Highland local government area. In Gaelic the area is referred to according to its traditional areas: Dùthaich 'IcAoidh , Asainte , and Cataibh...

, Scottish Highlands

Scottish Highlands

The Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...

 and is in the Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 council area of Highland. The village of Durness

Durness

Durness is a huge but remote parish in the northwestern Highlands of Scotland, encompassing all the land between the Moine to the East and the Gualin to the West...

 lies 8 miles along the A838

A838 road

The A838 road is in Sutherland, in the Highland area of Scotland. It runs generally northwest from the A836 in the Lairg area to Laxford Bridge on the west coast of Scotland, then generally northeast to Durness on the north coast, and then generally east/southeast to Tongue, where it rejoins the A836...

 road to the west. The village of Laid

Laid, Sutherland

Laid is a small remote, linear crofting township, on the north shore of the sea loch, Loch Eriboll in Sutherland, Scottish Highlands and is in the Scottish council area of Highland....

is located 1 mile southwest from Portnancon along the A838 road.

Only a few buildings remain of the fishing station, in Portnacon, or Port-na-con, meaning "Port of the Dogs". The fishing pier was also used by a ferry, which crossed the loch until the 1930s.