It is a fishing port at the mouth of the River Helmsdale, and was once one of the most important herring ports in Scotland. The river itself is very well known for its fishing.

Every year the Helmsdale Highland Games are always held on the 3rd Saturday in August.

Helmsdale did have a castle – Helmsdale Castle, though the remains of were demolished in the 1970s . It was here that the 11th Earl of Sutherland was murdered in 1567. The Earl and his Countess Marie Seton were poisoned by Isobel Sinclair.

There is a Thomas Telford bridge which still stands that was built, and completed, in 1811