Waterfall in Inverness-shire

The Fairy Pools at Glenbrittle on the Isle of Skye are among the most beautiful natural features on an island already exceptional for the quality of its scenery, a series of crystal-clear mountain pools and waterfalls on a stream descending from the Black Cuillin mountains whose extraordinary blue-green water colour, resulting from the clarity of the flow over pale quartzite and gabbro, has made them one of the most photographed locations in Scotland. The setting below the dark, serrated ridge of the Cuillin adds drama and scale to what would already be a compelling natural feature. The walk from the car park at Glenbrittle follows the stream upward through a succession of pools and cascades over approximately two kilometres, each pool having its own character and depth. The lower pools are the largest and most accessible, with some deep enough for wild swimming that attracts visitors willing to enter water temperatures rarely exceeding ten degrees even in midsummer. The experience of swimming in this clarity of water with the Cuillin rising steeply behind is one of the most elemental available in Scotland, the combination of mountain, rock and cold clear water creating a landscape encounter of considerable intensity. The underwater arch connecting two of the lower pools is a particular feature, and at low water flows it is possible to swim through from one pool to the next, a passage that rewards the cold and the commitment with a perspective on the rock formations quite unlike the view from above. The Black Cuillin, visible throughout the walk, provide the most technically demanding mountain terrain in Britain and contrast strikingly with the accessible magic of the pools below them. The combination of the Fairy Pools walk with a drive through Glen Brittle and views over the sea toward the Outer Hebrides makes this one of the most rewarding short outings on Skye.

The Falls of Measach in the Corrieshalloch Gorge near Braemore Junction in Ross-shire are the finest waterfall in Scotland, a spectacular cascade of approximately 45 metres where the River Droma plunges into one of the deepest and most dramatically formed river gorges in Scotland in a display of geological and hydrological power that has made it one of the most visited natural features in the northwest Highlands. The National Trust for Scotland manages the gorge and the combination of the falls, the suspension bridge across the gorge and the extraordinary depth of the canyon creates a natural heritage experience of exceptional drama. The Corrieshalloch Gorge is a box canyon cut by glacial meltwater at the end of the last Ice Age approximately 10,000 years ago, the violent meltwater erosion cutting down through the ancient Lewisian and Torridonian rocks of the Ross-shire landscape in a period of intense geological activity. The gorge is approximately one kilometre long and its vertical walls drop approximately sixty metres to the river below in a narrow slot of considerable dramatic effect. The suspension bridge across the gorge near the falls provides the finest view of the waterfall and the combination of the bridge, the falls and the depth of the gorge creates a memorable and slightly vertiginous experience. The Falls of Measach are designated as a National Nature Reserve for the remarkable plant communities that colonise the shaded, humid walls of the gorge, the rare filmy ferns and the diverse mosses and liverworts creating a botanical interest that complements the dramatic geological and hydrological character of the site.