Editing Sutherland (section)

===County council===
{{See also|Politics of the Highland council area}}
[[File:Sutherland coat of arms.png|thumb|right|150px|Coat of arms of the former Sutherland County Council, granted 1957<ref>{{cite book |last1=Urquhart |first1=Robert Mackenzie |title=Scottish Burgh and County History |date=1973 |page=59 |url=https://www.historylinksarchive.org.uk/pictures/document/12115.pdf?r=1245501 |access-date=24 September 2024}}</ref>]]
Elected county councils were established in 1890 under the [[Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889]], taking most of the functions of the commissioners of supply (which were eventually abolished in 1930). The first provisional meeting of the council was held on 13 February 1890 at the County Buildings in Dornoch, but it was decided that a more accessible location was needed for the council's meetings. Although Dornoch was the county's only [[burgh]], it was in the extreme south-eastern corner of the county and lay some seven miles from its then nearest railway station at [[The Mound railway station|The Mound]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Sutherland County Council |url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/search-newspapers |access-date=17 September 2024 |work=Highland News |date=15 February 1890 |location=Inverness |page=3}}</ref> The council's first official meeting was held on 22 May 1890 at [[Bonar Bridge]], and subsequent meetings were generally held in [[Lairg]], with occasional meetings in other places, including Dornoch, Golspie, [[Brora]] and [[Lochinver]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Sutherland County Council |url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/search-newspapers |access-date=17 September 2024 |work=Inverness Courier |date=23 May 1890 |page=5}}</ref>

[[File:County Offices, Golspie.jpg|thumb|left|[[County Offices, Golspie]]: Main offices of Sutherland County Council, built 1892]]
Although the county council generally met in Lairg, from its creation in 1890 the county council's clerk was based in Golspie, and in 1892 the council moved its main administrative offices to a new building on Main Street in Golspie called [[County Offices, Golspie|County Offices]], initially sharing the building with the village post office.<ref>{{cite news |title=Notes from Golspie |url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/search-newspapers |access-date=17 September 2024 |work=Northern Ensign |date=13 December 1892 |location=Wick |page=3}}</ref><ref>{{London Gazette|issue=18541|page=179|date=3 March 1967|city=e}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://cosuthgolspie.blogspot.com/2016/02/main-street-101-to-end.html|title=Main Street|access-date=16 September 2024}}</ref>

The 1889 Act also led to a review of boundaries, with parish and county boundaries being adjusted to eliminate cases where parishes straddled county boundaries. The parish of [[Reay]] had straddled Sutherland and Caithness prior to the act; the county boundary was retained, but the part of Reay parish in Sutherland was transferred to the parish of [[Farr, Sutherland|Farr]] in 1891.<ref name=Hay>{{cite book |last1=Shennan |first1=Hay |title=Boundaries of counties and parishes in Scotland as settled by the Boundary Commissioners under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889 |date=1892 |publisher=W. Green |location=Edinburgh |page=130 |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_meygAAAAMAAJ/page/n167/mode/2up |access-date=10 September 2024}}</ref>