Scenic Place in Highland

The Old Man of Storr is the most distinctive and most photographed geological feature in Scotland, a great rocky pinnacle 55 metres high rising from the Trotternish Ridge on the Isle of Skye in a cluster of rock towers and spires that stand against the sky above Loch Leathan with a profile simultaneously alien and deeply natural. The pinnacle and the surrounding rock formation are the product of one of the largest and most active landslip systems in Europe, the slow but continuous movement of the basalt plateau above sliding over the underlying softer rocks and creating the chaotic, dramatic landscape of towers, pinnacles and faces visible today. The walk to the Old Man from the car park below takes approximately forty-five minutes and involves a sustained steep ascent through plantation forestry and then open hillside to reach the base of the pinnacle cluster. The approach is straightforward in good weather but the path can be muddy and slippery after rain, and the cloud that frequently envelops the Trotternish Ridge can reduce visibility significantly. The reward in clear conditions is a close encounter with rock towers of imposing scale and the wide views over the Loch and Sound of Raasay toward the mainland mountains. The Trotternish Peninsula as a whole is one of the most geologically extraordinary landscapes in Britain, the ongoing landslip processes having created a succession of dramatic features along the ridge from the Old Man in the south to the Quiraing in the north. The thirty-kilometre ridge walk connecting these features is one of the finest hill walks on Skye, combining continuous geological drama with exceptional views in both directions across the island and the surrounding sea. The Old Man of Storr appears frequently in film and television productions requiring a dramatic, otherworldly landscape, and its profile has become as recognisable internationally as any natural feature in Scotland.

Aviemore is the main gateway town for the Cairngorms National Park, the largest national park in the British Isles, and has been developed since the 1960s as a year-round outdoor recreation destination serving the ski fields, walking country, mountain biking trails, wildlife watching and watersports that the surrounding landscape offers in exceptional abundance. The town itself is a functional resort rather than a historic settlement, its modern hotel and leisure infrastructure reflecting its purpose-built character, but the landscape it serves is of the most remarkable quality. The Cairngorm plateau, the high arctic mountain environment that forms the core of the national park, covers an area of over five hundred square kilometres above five hundred metres and contains five of the six highest mountains in Britain. The plateau's character is genuinely subalpine: harsh, exposed, subject to violent weather at any season and supporting plant and animal communities more typical of Scandinavia than of most of the British Isles. Dotterel, ptarmigan, snow bunting and the Scottish subspecies of the crossbill breed here in summer, while reindeer, introduced to the Cairngorms in 1952, roam the open mountain slopes in a herd that is the only free-ranging population in Britain. The Cairngorm Mountain funicular railway, one of the highest mountain railways in Britain, carries visitors from the Coire Cas ski area to a visitor centre near the plateau summit, providing year-round access to the high mountain environment for those who prefer not to walk. The ski area is Scotland's largest and operates from approximately December to April in most years, though snow reliability has reduced in recent decades with changing climate patterns. In summer the ski area transforms into a mountain biking and walking venue of considerable scope. The River Spey, one of Scotland's great salmon rivers, flows north from the national park through Aviemore, and the surrounding forests of ancient Caledonian pine, remnants of the great forest that once covered much of the Scottish Highlands, support capercaillie, red squirrel, crested tit and osprey in habitats of international conservation importance.

Neist Point is the most westerly point of the Isle of Skye, a dramatic basalt headland jutting into the Atlantic from the Duirinish Peninsula with a lighthouse at its tip and cliff scenery of exceptional quality on all sides. The combination of the dramatic volcanic geology, the lighthouse approach descending steeply from the cliff top to the headland below, the views across the Minch toward the Outer Hebrides and the wildlife that gathers in the surrounding waters makes Neist Point one of the most rewarding and most photographed viewpoints on Skye. The walk from the car park at the top of the cliff to the lighthouse is one of the finest short walks on Skye, descending steeply on a clear path to the broad lower headland and then following the cliff edge to the lighthouse buildings. The basalt geology of the headland is displayed clearly in the cliff faces, with the characteristic hexagonal column jointing of cooled basalt visible in sections and the dramatic black rock contrasting with the green of the cliff-top grass and the deep blue of the Atlantic when the sky is clear. The waters around Neist Point are excellent for whale and dolphin watching. Minke whale, common dolphin and harbour porpoise are regularly seen from the lighthouse headland and from the clifftops, and less frequently orca and other large cetaceans are reported in these waters. The combination of the Atlantic swell, the cold nutrient-rich water and the concentrations of fish that gather in the tidal races around the headland attract marine mammals reliably enough that a patient vigil from the cliff edge is frequently rewarded. The sunsets from Neist Point, with the sky over the Outer Hebrides turning red and orange above the Atlantic horizon, are among the most celebrated on Skye and draw photographers and visitors at every appropriate evening throughout the year.

John O'Groats occupies a unique place in the British imagination as the northeastern terminus of the most famous end-to-end journey across Britain, the 1,407-kilometre route from Land's End in Cornwall to this remote corner of the Caithness coast in the far north of Scotland. The name alone has come to signify both geographical extremity and personal endurance, and thousands of charity walkers, cyclists, runners and even wheelchair users complete the journey each year, drawn by the particular satisfaction of traversing an entire island from tip to tip. The settlement itself, it must be said, is smaller and simpler than the mythology might suggest. A cluster of buildings around a small harbour, the famous signpost, a hotel, some craft shops and a visitor centre: John O'Groats is a destination that rewards for what it represents rather than what it contains. The signpost pointing to distant cities and the mileage to Land's End is the mandatory photograph for those completing the journey, and the sense of accomplishment felt by those who have walked, cycled or driven the full length of Britain to reach this point is visible and genuine. The landscape surrounding the settlement is what gives the location its real character. The coast here is wild and dramatic, with grey cliffs, grey sea and the constant presence of wind that shapes everything from the stunted vegetation to the stone walls of the farms inland. The Pentland Firth between the mainland and Orkney is one of the most dangerous stretches of water in Britain, with racing tidal currents and standing waves that can challenge even experienced sailors. On clear days the Orkney Islands are plainly visible across the firth, close enough to seem reachable but surrounded by waters that demand respect. The nearby village of Duncansby, two kilometres east, provides access to Duncansby Head, the true northeastern tip of mainland Britain and, many would argue, a more dramatically beautiful destination than John O'Groats itself. The lighthouse here overlooks sea stacks, natural arches and spectacular cliff scenery that constitutes some of the finest coastal walking in the far north. The Duncansby Stacks, particularly, are among the most photogenic geological features in Scotland. Regular ferry services to Orkney depart from nearby Gills Bay and from the ferry terminal at the town of Thurso, making John O'Groats an excellent staging post for the short crossing to explore the remarkable prehistoric and Norse heritage of the Orkney Islands.

Beinn Eighe National Nature Reserve in Wester Ross was established in 1951 as the first national nature reserve in Britain, a designation that recognised both the exceptional natural quality of the mountain, loch and woodland landscape and the importance of protecting the ancient Caledonian pine forest remnants that survive at the foot of the mountain on the shores of Loch Maree. The reserve covers approximately 4,800 hectares of some of the most scenically dramatic and ecologically important mountain country in the northwest Highlands. The mountain itself, whose name means file or ridge in Gaelic and refers to the serrated quartzite ridge that crowns the massif, is composed of some of the oldest rocks in Britain, Torridonian sandstone and ancient Lewisian gneiss overlaid by pale Cambrian quartzite that gives the upper slopes their distinctive white scree character. The combination of these ancient geological materials with the dramatic erosional forms of the glaciated Highland landscape produces a mountain environment of raw geological power that feels genuinely ancient in a way that the younger rocks of most British mountains do not. The Caledonian pinewood remnants at the foot of the mountain on the shores of Loch Maree are among the finest surviving fragments of the ancient forest that once covered much of the Scottish Highlands. These woods, dominated by Scots pine with juniper, birch and rowan, support red squirrel, pine marten, crossbill and a range of woodland invertebrates and fungi associated with ancient forest habitats that are increasingly rare across the British Isles. A programme of deer management and natural regeneration is gradually expanding the pinewood area, one of the conservation successes of the reserve. Two waymarked trail networks provide access to the reserve at different levels of ability, with the Mountain Trail providing a challenging ascent to the quartzite ridge and the Woodland Trail a gentler exploration of the lochside pinewoods and their wildlife.

Ben Nevis is the highest mountain in Britain at 1,345 metres, and the tourist path, officially known as the Mountain Track but colloquially as the Ben Path or Pony Track, is one of the most walked mountain routes in the country, carrying an estimated 150,000 ascents annually up the western side of the mountain from the visitor centre near Fort William to the vast plateau summit. The path was originally built in the nineteenth century to service a meteorological observatory on the summit and the route it follows, while not technically challenging, involves a considerable and unrelenting ascent of approximately 1,300 metres over approximately seven kilometres with correspondingly demanding descent. The experience of ascending Ben Nevis via the tourist path is one of contrasts. The lower section through the valley of the Allt a' Mhuilinn is gently graded and passes through pleasant moorland and river scenery before the path begins its sustained ascent of the mountain's broad western shoulder. The upper section above the Red Burn is increasingly exposed and demanding, the path crossing boulder fields and scree before reaching the plateau, where the walking surface becomes more level but the conditions can deteriorate rapidly and dramatically at any time of year. Snow can remain on the summit into August and the plateau is subject to violent weather that claims lives every year among walkers who underestimate the mountain's conditions. The summit plateau provides one of the most dramatic mountain experiences in Britain on clear days, with panoramic views extending across the Scottish Highlands to the distant peaks of the Cairngorms to the northeast, Ben Lomond to the south and, on exceptionally clear days, the mountains of Ireland to the west. The ruins of the Victorian observatory, the emergency shelter and the memorial cairn mark the summit area, and the dramatic cliffs of the northeast face, falling nearly 700 metres to the Coire Leis below, provide a sudden and vertiginous contrast to the gentle western approach. The Mountain Track approach via the Allt a' Mhuilinn should not be confused with the much more serious mountaineering routes on the north face, which include some of the finest winter climbing in Britain.

Suilven in the Assynt region of northwest Sutherland is one of the most distinctive mountains in Scotland, a great sandstone tower rising from the Lewisian gneiss moorland in a profile of extraordinary individuality unlike any other mountain in Britain. Its silhouette of a flat-topped ridge with steep conical peaks at each end, visible from a wide area of Assynt and from the sea offshore, has made it one of the iconic images of the Scottish Highlands. The geology of Suilven reflects the extraordinary ancient landscape of northwest Sutherland, where Torridonian sandstone deposited approximately 800 million years ago sits on Lewisian gneiss three billion years old, among the oldest exposed rock on Earth. The ascent requires a walk of approximately five miles across trackless Assynt moorland before the mountain itself is reached, a commitment that contributes to the wild and remote character of the experience. The landscape of Assynt visible from the summit, with its hundreds of lochans reflecting the sky across the gneiss moorland and the Atlantic visible to the west, is one of the most extraordinary in Scotland. The combination of the geological antiquity, the mountain drama and the profound remoteness makes Suilven an experience unlike any other available in the British Isles.

The Quiraing on the Isle of Skye is one of the most dramatic and otherworldly landscapes in Britain, a spectacular landslip terrain on the eastern escarpment of the Trotternish Ridge where the slow, continuing collapse of the ridge's basalt cap onto the softer sedimentary rocks below has created a landscape of towering pinnacles, hidden plateaus, sheer faces and grassy hollows that looks more like a film set for a fantasy epic than a real Scottish hillside. The name comes from the Norse for round fold or cattle fold, a reference to the hidden plateau where islanders are said to have concealed their cattle from Viking raiders. The landscape was created by the largest mass movement of rock in the British Isles. The basalt lavas of the Trotternish Ridge, laid down in the Paleocene epoch around 56 million years ago, overlie much softer Jurassic sedimentary rocks. As the softer rock erodes and slumps, the massive weight of the basalt cap causes it to crack and slide, creating the dramatic broken terrain visible today. The process continues at a geological pace, and some of the rockfalls within the Quiraing are geologically recent. The distinctive features of the Quiraing each have their own names and character. The Prison is a massive free-standing block of basalt that rises abruptly from the hillside. The Needle is a slender pinnacle of rock that punctuates the skyline dramatically. The Table is a remarkably flat grassy plateau, hidden behind a curtain of cliff, that was apparently used for shinty matches by local communities in previous centuries. Finding the Table, up a steep scramble from the main path, has the quality of a genuinely unexpected discovery. The walking route from the car park above Staffin passes along the base of the cliffs with views across the Sound of Raasay and the mainland mountains throughout. The full circuit, which loops over the ridge and returns along the escarpment, takes around two to three hours for fit walkers and provides an experience of this extraordinary landscape from multiple angles. The starting car park on the Staffin to Uig road can be busy in summer, and early morning visits are rewarded with better light and fewer crowds.

Glencoe is the most dramatic and most historically resonant mountain valley in Scotland, a great glacially carved trough in the western Highlands whose combination of towering mountain walls, the dark waters of the River Coe flowing through the valley floor and the melancholy historical associations of the Massacre of Glencoe create an atmosphere of brooding grandeur that has made it one of the most visited and most emotionally powerful landscapes in Britain. The National Trust for Scotland manages extensive areas of the glen and the surrounding mountains, and the visitor centre at the head of the valley provides orientation for the extraordinary landscape. The mountains surrounding Glencoe are among the finest and most varied in Scotland. The Three Sisters, the great buttresses projecting from the south wall of the glen, and the Aonach Eagach ridge on the north wall, the most technically demanding ridge traverse in mainland Scotland, frame the valley in rock walls of enormous scale. Bidean nam Bian, the highest peak in the former county of Argyll at 1,150 metres, occupies the massif behind the Three Sisters and with its satellite peaks provides some of the finest mountain walking in the Highlands. Buachaille Etive Mòr at the eastern entrance to the glen, the great pyramid visible from the A82 approach, is one of the most photographed mountains in Scotland. The Massacre of Glencoe in February 1692 is one of the most notorious acts of calculated treachery in Scottish history, when government soldiers billeted with the MacDonald clan turned on their hosts in the early morning and killed approximately thirty-eight men, women and children in an attack that violated the ancient Highland laws of hospitality and trust. The massacre was carried out on the orders of the Secretary of State for Scotland and with the knowledge of King William III, and the bitter memory of it has contributed to the atmosphere of the glen ever since.

Rannoch Moor is one of the most remote and elemental landscapes in Britain: an enormous expanse of blanket bog, lochan and rock stretching across some 150 square kilometres of the Scottish Highlands between the Black Mount to the south and Loch Rannoch to the east. No road crosses its centre. The few paths that exist require careful navigation and decent footwear, and the combination of scale, exposure and the simple absence of human infrastructure gives the moor a character of genuine wildness that is increasingly rare in these islands. The moor occupies a high plateau between 300 and 400 metres above sea level that was extensively glaciated during the last Ice Age. The ice stripped the bedrock almost bare in places, depositing boulder fields and moraines across the landscape while excavating the numerous small lochs and lochans that dot the surface. After the ice retreated the poor drainage and high rainfall of the area allowed peat to accumulate to depths of several metres across vast areas, creating the blanket bog habitat that now characterises most of the moor. In places the peat has been carved by erosion into hags and channels that make cross-country travel demanding. The West Highland Line crosses the southern edge of the moor between Rannoch Station and Bridge of Orchy, providing one of the most extraordinary railway journeys in Britain. The line was constructed across the moor in the 1890s using methods that included floating sections of track on a raft of brushwood and rubble across the deepest peat. The train journey across Rannoch Moor, with the vast open bogland stretching to the horizon and the mountains of Glen Coe visible to the southwest, is an experience that puts the passenger briefly in touch with the vast indifference of this wild and ancient landscape. Despite its apparent emptiness, Rannoch Moor supports significant wildlife. Red deer roam the moor in considerable numbers and are frequently seen from the railway or the road. Golden plovers nest on the higher ground, short-eared owls quarter the moor for voles, and red-throated divers breed on the lochans in summer. The rare floating plants of the deep bog pools, including sundews and bog asphodel, reward those who take the time to look closely at the low vegetation.

The Old Man of Storr is the most distinctive and most celebrated rocky pinnacle on the Isle of Skye, a 50-metre column of basalt standing on the Trotternish escarpment above Portree whose unusual profile, created by a massive ancient landslide that left the pinnacle and its companions isolated on the hillside below the main cliff face, has made it one of the iconic images of the Hebrides and one of the most visited natural features in Scotland. The walk from the car park below to the pinnacles takes approximately one hour and provides increasingly dramatic views of the stack and the surrounding Trotternish landscape. The geological history of the Old Man of Storr explains its unusual isolated position. The Trotternish escarpment is the largest landslide complex in Britain, created when the heavy basalt rock that caps the peninsula slid westward over the softer underlying sedimentary rocks in a series of catastrophic slips that have created the extraordinary landscape of isolated pinnacles, tilted blocks and jumbled rock scenery visible across the northern section of the Trotternish ridge. The Old Man and its companions are the most impressive and most photographed remnants of this process. The views from the vicinity of the Old Man encompass Portree Harbour and the Portree Bay below, the Sound of Raasay and the island of Raasay itself, the mainland Hills of Torridon visible across the Minch and the Cuillin ridgeline to the south, a panorama that captures the full extent of the extraordinary Skye landscape from a single vantage point.

The Rothiemurchus Estate in the Cairngorms National Park is one of the finest and most accessible areas of ancient Caledonian pine forest in Scotland, a privately owned estate of approximately 10,000 hectares that encompasses ancient woodland of Scots pine, birch and juniper, the beautiful Loch an Eilein with its island castle, the River Spey and some of the finest accessible Cairngorm mountain terrain between Aviemore and the high plateau. The estate has been owned by the Grant family for over four centuries and their continuing management combines traditional land uses with conservation of the ancient woodland and a comprehensive programme of visitor activities. The ancient Caledonian pinewood of Rothiemurchus is one of the largest and most ecologically intact fragments of the forest that once covered much of the Highland landscape before millennia of human clearance. The old Scots pines, some of considerable age, grow with the space and character of genuinely ancient woodland, the open understorey of heather, blaeberry and juniper creating the conditions for the specialist pinewood wildlife including red squirrel, Scottish crossbill, crested tit and capercaillie that depend on this habitat type. Loch an Eilein, accessible by an excellent circular walk of approximately five kilometres through the forest, is one of the most beautiful lochs in Scotland, its island castle ruin reflected in the clear water and the surrounding ancient pines providing a landscape of perfect composition. The castle, a fifteenth-century tower house, was a stronghold of the Wolf of Badenoch, the notorious younger son of Robert II who terrorised this area in the fourteenth century. The estate visitor centre at Inverdruie provides interpretation and the access point for a comprehensive programme of ranger-led activities, fishing, cycling and walking.

The Isle of Skye is the largest and most visited of the Inner Hebrides, a dramatic and scenically extraordinary island off the northwest coast of Scotland whose combination of the Black Cuillin mountains, the Trotternish Peninsula's geological features, picturesque fishing harbours and a strong Gaelic cultural tradition have made it one of the most celebrated tourist destinations in Britain. The island is connected to the mainland by the Skye Bridge at Kyle of Lochalsh, making it accessible year-round, and the volume of visitors it receives has grown substantially in recent years as social media has circulated images of its most dramatic features worldwide. The Black Cuillin, the dark gabbro mountain range in the south of the island, is the most technically demanding mountain terrain in Britain, its jagged ridgeline and sheer rock faces providing the only true alpine ridge scrambling available in the British Isles and attracting mountaineers from across the world. The traverse of the complete Cuillin Ridge, which has over thirty Munros and tops, is the most serious and committing multi-day mountain challenge in Britain and is completed in a single continuous traverse only by very experienced parties in settled weather. For the majority of visitors the mountains provide exceptional walking on their lower approaches and extraordinary visual drama from the roads, beaches and villages below. The Trotternish Peninsula in the north of the island contains a series of geological features produced by the ongoing collapse and slipping of the great lava flows that cap the peninsula. The Old Man of Storr, the Quiraing and the Kilt Rock are among the most dramatic results of this process, their towers, pinnacles and tilted rock formations creating a landscape of surreal grandeur unlike anything elsewhere in Britain. Portree, the island's capital, provides a charming harbour setting and a good range of restaurants and accommodation, and the Skye Bridge approach from the mainland through Glen Shiel and over the Ratagan Pass is one of the finest drives in Scotland.

Corrour is the most remote railway station in Britain, a halt on the West Highland Line to Fort William on the bleak and beautiful moorland of Rannoch Moor at 411 metres above sea level, accessible only by train as there is no public road within several kilometres of the station. The combination of the extraordinary remoteness, the bleakness and the beauty of the surrounding Rannoch Moor landscape and the memorable experience of arriving or departing by the single railway line that crosses this uninhabited expanse creates one of the most distinctive and most memorable railway destinations in Britain. The station became widely known following its appearance in Danny Boyle's 1996 film Trainspotting, in which the characters travel to Corrour to walk on Rannoch Moor in a sequence that captures the appeal of this remote place with unusual accuracy. The station tearoom, the only facility within walking distance, provides warmth and refreshment that takes on an outsize significance in this context of extreme remoteness. The walking available from Corrour on Rannoch Moor and to the surrounding mountains is exceptional, the complete absence of roads creating a landscape of genuine wilderness quality unusual in the Scottish Highlands where most mountain walking involves road approaches. The circuit of Loch Ossian from the station is one of the finest accessible wilderness walks in Scotland, and the more demanding routes to the Munros of the surrounding hills provide serious mountain walking of the highest quality.

The Torridon Mountains in the northwest Highlands are one of the most magnificent and most ancient mountain landscapes on Earth, a group of isolated peaks formed from Torridonian sandstone approximately 800 million years old rising from Lewisian gneiss that is the oldest exposed rock surface in Europe at approximately three billion years of age. Beinn Eighe, Liathach, Beinn Alligin and the surrounding peaks provide mountain walking of exceptional quality in a landscape of primordial grandeur unavailable elsewhere in the British Isles. Liathach, the grey one, is the most imposing peak, its great buttresses of Torridonian sandstone rising from the valley floor in continuous cliff faces to the summit ridge at 1,054 metres. The Traverse of Liathach is one of the finest mountain expeditions in Scotland, its combination of sustained exposure, demanding terrain and extraordinary views providing an experience that ranks with the best mountain walking available in Britain. The Beinn Eighe National Nature Reserve, the first national nature reserve declared in Britain in 1951, provides interpretation of the geological antiquity of the landscape. The mountain trail from Kinlochewe ascends through four billion years of Earth history from valley floor to summit. The combination of the ancient geology, the mountain drama and the profound remoteness of Torridon creates an experience unlike any other in the British hills.