Scotland Lairg, Sutherland - locations for night & astral photography?

Headed to Tongue in Lairg, Sutherland for a week on Sunday. Supposedly a fishing and shooting week but I'm hoping to get some photography done too. I'd be very interested in hearing suggestions for dusk/night/astral photography in particular. Any coastal castles, ruins or other good locations that would be a nice foreground for a night sky shot? Any good aurora locations if I'm lucky enough to get a KP4 or 5 while I'm there?

Thanks in advance.

Castle Varrich will be your ticket I think. Superb location, and very photogenic.

While you're in the area, Lochan Hakel gives some great sunset views of Ben Loyal, and that may also work well for astral photography (the road is single track all the way, but just enough space to park in two or three spots). Another stunning view is if you drive across from Tongue to where the A838 meets Loch Eriboll - the elevated view down Loch Eriboll is stunning (it's a drive but it's a superb road and will only take a few minutes - from there the road goes back to single track all the way around Loch Eriboll, but is fine to that elevated point).

Further afield there are some nice view of Arkle across Locah Stack which would compose well, but that's a bit more of a drive (although you may pass it, depending which road you take up).

Excellent stuff. Many thanks for that. I know Castle Varrich and will check out the rest.

Also have a look at the Photographer's Ephemeris - http://photoephemeris.com/tpe-for-desktop. It shows the time an direction of sunrise and sunset and is handy for checking out potential shots. The OS map for the area is also useful to have.

Given good weather you should get some moonlight shots but for most of next week the moon is very close to being full so Milky Way and Aurora (if any occur) shots are going to be limited.

However, it is a superb area.

Dave