Scottish Highlands

In the Scottish Highlands altitudes are low by Alpine standards but much of this area lies above 2000ft. The Great Glen Fault, stretching from Loch Linnhe to the Moray Firth, acts as a divide between the Grampian Mountains and the North West Highlands. The Cairngorms are an extensive tract of land above 3 500ft punctuated by peaks rising to over 4 OOOft (Cairn Gorm 4 084ft-1 245m ; Ben Macdui 4 296ft·1 309m and Braeriach 4 248ft·1 295m). 
West of the Spey are the Monadhliath Mountains, a featureless rolling upland of peat and moorland. Here are to be found some of the highest peaks (Ben Nevis 4 406ft-1 344m, Ben Lawers 3 984ft-1 214m) finest sea lochs (Lochs Fyne and Long) and freshwater ones (Lochs Lomond, Katrine, Awe and Tay) and great rivers (Spey, Tay, Dee and Don). The Buchan and Moray Firth (Laigh of Moray) lowlands fringe the mountains to the east and north.

The Highlands to the north and west of the Great Glen are a wilder and more remote area where isolated peaks rise above a plateau surface with an average height of 2 OOOft. Outstanding examples are the spectacular Torridon peaks of Suilven (2 399ft·731 m) Canisp (2 779ft·846m) and Ouinag (2 653· 808m), and in Sutherland Bens Hope (3 042ft-927m) and loyal (2 504ft-764m). The indented western coastline where sea lochs separate peninsulas, is fringed offshore by the Inner and Outer Hebrides. Scotland's long coastline is deeply indented and largely rocky, although the east coast is generally smoother and straighter.

The coastline is one of impressive cliff faces with offshore arches and stacks as at Hay in Orkney, Cape Wrath and St Abb's Head, or great stretches of dune-backed sandy beaches, the asset of such east coast resorts as Montrose, Aberdeen, Fraserburgh and Nairn.