Highlands

The Scottish Highlands is the vast mountainous region occupying the northern and western part of Scotland, encompassing some of the most wild, remote, and scenically magnificent landscapes in the British Isles. The region contains Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the British Isles at 1,345 metres, along with the Great Glen fault line occupied by Loch Ness, Loch Lochy, and the Caledonian Canal. The population is extremely sparse, with large areas of moorland, mountain, and ancient Caledonian pine forest virtually uninhabited, and the region experienced dramatic depopulation during the Highland Clearances of the 18th and 19th centuries. Inverness, on the shores of the Moray Firth at the northern end of the Great Glen, serves as the capital of the Highlands.