The Royal Mail has suspended deliveries to four addresses in part of Caithness.
It said its staff faced hour-long round trips to reach the homes at Altnabreac on private tracks which are in a poor condition.
A spokeswoman said postal staff were also unable to call for help if they had a breakdown due to there being no mobile reception in the area.
Residents can arrange to pick up mail from another address or in Halkirk, a round trip of more than 40 miles.
Altnabreac is in an area known as the Flow Country, a vast area of peatland that covers parts of Caithness and Sutherland.
There is a railway station in Altnabreac which is one of Britain’s most isolated stations. It is a request stop used almost solely by walkers and those who enjoy visiting obscure locations.
Altnabreac remains the eighth-least-used station in Britain The spokeswoman for Royal Mail said: “Royal Mail has suspended deliveries to four addresses at KW12 at Halkirk and we are sorry for the inconvenience this causes customers.
“This step has been taken after a detailed assessment, as we believe that there is a risk of safety to our postmen and women who are delivering on private tracks off the public highway.”
She said watchdog Ofcom’s regulations state delivery staff should not spend more than 15 minutes in a single trip on private roads to deliver mail. The spokeswoman added: “Royal Mail wants to work with the customers to find a safe and sensible solution to this suspension.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here