Dogs in the North Highlands and what to expect

Two black-and-white collies rest on a wooden café floor beside a table, with a smiling woman seated behind them.

You don’t need to bring a dog to the North Highlands to find yourself spending some of your holiday in their company. This is a largely rural region, where herding dogs and gun dogs are part of working life, alongside the family pets accompanying their owners through the day. Sheepdog trials still celebrate that working partnership, but you may also encounter a dog settled beneath a pub table. If dogs tend to stay at home wherever you come from, their presence here might take a little getting used to.

Many pubs welcome dogs, including in areas where meals are served, and you may encounter them in shops and some cafés too. Hotels sometimes welcome them in bedrooms, lounges or bars while keeping the main restaurant dog-free, so arrangements vary even within the same building. In my experience, most dogs you meet in these places are well behaved and accustomed to having people around them. A dog sleeping beside its owner while you have lunch is generally an unremarkable part of the day.

Outdoors, you’re likely to meet dogs on beaches, paths and woodland walks, and some will be off their leads. That alone doesn’t mean their owners are doing something wrong, because Scotland doesn’t have a blanket requirement for dogs to be on leads everywhere. They do need to be under proper control, with particular care around livestock and wildlife, and individual places may have specific restrictions. For visitors, the useful thing is simply to expect dogs sharing these spaces rather than assume that every walk will be a dog-free one.

Of course, not everybody enjoys having a dog close by, and you don’t have to pretend otherwise. A friendly word with the owner is usually the easiest way to explain that you’re uncomfortable, while staff may be able to suggest another table if you’d prefer a little more space indoors. Where dogs are welcome, it helps to know beforehand that you may be sharing the space, rather than arrive expecting different arrangements. Being prepared makes it easier to enjoy your visit, whether or not you have a four-legged companion of your own.