Tongue – Masterplanning and Housing

Tongue, Sutherland

Eight homes in Tongue offered an opportunity to create more than housing: a small, connected piece of village life.

Dualchas was commissioned by WildLand to provide six staff homes and two further homes for the community development trust UpNorth!, helping support employment and population retention in North Sutherland.

A contemporary clachan
The steep, exposed site overlooks the Kyle of Tongue. Rather than impose a conventional estate layout, the masterplan draws on traditional crofting settlements and clachans, arranging houses, walls, gardens and shared spaces as a closely related group shaped by the contours.

Caithness stone lower storeys and boundary walls anchor the development into the slope. Above them, naturally weathering timber-clad living spaces open towards the Kyle. Cross-laminated timber structures are left as exposed spruce internally, giving the homes warmth while clearly expressing their construction.

Landscape and community
Working with landscape architects Urban Pioneers, shelter belts protect houses and gardens while retaining views. Species-rich grassland and heather connect the development with the wider landscape, and shared seating and play areas help it operate as a neighbourhood.

The historic Cockle Steps route is reinstated as a public connection between the upper village and proposed North Coast health and social care facility. The project therefore provides community infrastructure as well as homes.

Construction began in autumn 2025, with completion scheduled for autumn 2027. The development shows how housing, employment, landscape and public connections can reinforce one another in a remote rural community.

Visuals by @touch3d_cgi