While each of the four nations that comprise the United Kingdom boast mountain regions of their own, Scotland’s high places are the highest, most extensive and the most spectacular. The country’s south is dominated by the wild, uninhabited Southern Uplands, a region of mostly modest hills and moorland. This gives way to the lowland Central Belt, where you’ll find the cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, as well as more than two-thirds of the country’s population.
Travel north of the Central Belt and you come to Britain’s most vast and awe-inspiring landscapes, those of the Scottish Highlands and Islands. The sheer variety is astonishing, from the sub-Arctic plateau of the Cairngorms, where many of Scotland’s highest mountains are found, and the tight-knit peaks and ridges of the West Highlands; to the ancient, peculiar mountains of the Northwest and the intimidating and jagged Black Cuillin of Skye.
