The railway also loops a long way inland between Tain and Golspie, running via Lairg, which has never been on the A9; it was envisaged at the time of construction that this diversion would open the centre of Sutherland to trade.

It also takes a large inland detour north of Helmsdale, running via the Flow Country, which the A9 also never passed through; this diversion was dictated by the unfavourable terrain of the Caithness coastline.

The single track crosses both the River Ness and the Caledonian Canal before it leaves Inverness and parallels the A862 road[a] towards the village of Beauly.

Closed in 1960, the station reopened in 2002[2] and its single operational platform has the distinction of being the shortest on the National Rail network, at just 15.06 metres (49 ft 5 in).

[I] Located approximately 1.2 miles (1.9 km) west of Hill of Fearn, the primary source of traffic at the station, it is also the nearest railway stop to the Seaboard Villages.

The railway then takes a sharp turn to run northwest for approximately 3 miles (5 km) until it reaches Tain station[J] on the south side of the Dornoch Firth.

[8][d] There is no direct road connection between the two sides of the Kyle at this location, and a public footpath was only built alongside the viaduct in 2000; prior to this, the railway was the only way to travel between the two stations without taking a 7-mile-long (11 km) detour via Bonar Bridge.

This is the furthest point away from the coast on the Lairg loop; beyond the station the line curves sharply eastwards and heads back towards the Moray Firth along Strath Fleet, now paralleling the A839 road.

[11] The railway then turns northeast and returns to the coast at Golspie, with the station[P] located at the western end of the village.

[13] The line continues along the coast for another 15 miles (24 km), occasionally coming just metres away from the shoreline, passing through Brora station[R] before reaching the village of Helmsdale, located at the mouth of the river of the same name.

Beyond Helmsdale, the railway is forced to divert away from the Moray Firth coast and from the A9 once again, avoiding the unfavourable terrain of the Ord of Caithness.

Instead, the line takes a sharp turn northwest and heads inland towards the Flow Country – the largest expanse of blanket bog in Europe.

[U] Beyond Kinbrace, in stark contrast to the rest of the line (and most of the Scottish Highlands), the topography of the surrounding area becomes flat and low-lying, and will remain so until the railway's two northern termini.

The line carries on northwards alongside the A897 for seven and a half more miles (12.1 km) until it reaches Forsinard station[V] which, despite its isolation, is not a request stop.

[8] There are, however, a handful of houses in the immediate vicinity of the station, accessed by a private dirt road, which is marked as a public cycle trail on Ordnance Survey maps.

Adjoining the station on the south side is a freight terminal built in 2012 by Direct Rail Services; this was used by trains taking nuclear material from Dounreay to Sellafield.

[1] The loops at Rogart and Brora are not timetabled to be the passing place for any scheduled passenger services,[13] but they can be used as such during major disruption on the line.

The new system, developed by Transport Scotland, envisaged the installation of an automatic kiosk (with a button for passengers to press) at each request stop.

[20][18] Following the successful trial, the system was expanded on 20 December 2022 to cover five more request stops on the line, namely Culrain, Invershin, Rogart, Kildonan and Kinbrace.

That the line extends beyond Ardgay in the county of Ross and Cromarty is due, to a large extent, to the railway enthusiasm (some might say madness) of the 3rd Duke of Sutherland.

The building of the line through the Flow Country – one of the most scarcely populated parts of Scotland – was to avoid the Berriedale Braes.

The remaining 270 miles (430 km) of network to Kyle of Lochalsh and The Far North line had to be operated from a temporary maintenance site at Muir of Ord.

The exact stopping pattern varies between each station, as not all trains run the full length of the Far North Line.

[13] The service pattern is infrequent and very irregular, with intervals between consecutive trains at Inverness varying from just 15 minutes to as long as two-and-a-half hours.

[13] Georgemas Junction has been used for freight handling and had a new railhead opened in 2012 for the transportation of nuclear flasks, but the terminal has not attracted any commercial operators since.

[25] In 2020, a trial project funded by a £195,000 grant from the Scottish Government saw timber transported from Georgemas Junction to a processing facility near Inverness by Victa Railfreight.

In the Scottish Government's National Transport Strategy, published in February 2020, it was stated that the section between Inverness and Tain would be electrified with overhead lines by 2035; an alternative to diesel traction - ostensibly hydrogen - would be used for the remainder of the route.

Discussions have been held concerning the shortening of the Far North Line involving a bridge over the Firth and the possible use of the trackbed of the former light railway;[7][35] however, there have been no confirmed plans for such a shortcut to date.

One campaign, supported by the Highland Council and HITRANS, seeks to build a new station at Evanton (between Dingwall and Alness), which was closed in 1960.