West Helmsdale is a small settlement, lying on the right bank of the River Helmsdale

River Helmsdale

The River Helmsdale is one of the major east-flowing rivers of Sutherland in the Highlands of Scotland...

, on the east coast of 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 Helmsdale

Helmsdale

Helmsdale is a village on the east coast of Sutherland, in the Highland council area of Scotland. The modern village was planned in 1814 to resettle communities that had been removed from the surrounding straths as part of the Highland Clearances....

 lies on the left bank of the River Helmsdale

River Helmsdale

The River Helmsdale is one of the major east-flowing rivers of Sutherland in the Highlands of Scotland...

.

A number of small Crofts are still there. Many new ones are springing up from people who have visited Helmsdale and loved it.
Most crofts in West Helmsdale date back over 100 years.

Notable people

• Roderick Ross
  Roderick Ross
  Roderick Ross CVO CBE KPM was Chief Constable of Edinburgh City Police from 1900 to 1935.Ross was born in West Helmsdale in the parish of Kildonan, Sutherland, the son of a crofter...
  
  (1865–1943) CVO CBE KPM (1865–1943) was Chief Constable of Edinburgh City Police from 1900 to 1935. Born 24 May 1865 the son of a Crofter whose grandfather (his namesake) a Chelsea Pensioner had been evicted out of Kildonan during the Highland Clearances. Ross was born in West Helmsdale in the parish of Kildonan, Sutherland.