Loch Ness, one of Scotland's best loved visitor attractions, is bordered by a rugged world of hill country. This is an inspiring landscape, with mountains held apart by a series of long parallel glens, and broader straths cloaked with pine and birch woods. There is much to treasure here for those who love wildlife and the great outdoors.
The wild high ground is used mainly for deer stalking, with the sweeping expanses of heather in the lower northeast managed as grouse moors. Ben Wyvis, within easy reach of Dingwall, is a National Nature Reserve where walkers can enjoy spectacular views from its long summit ridge. The deep glens of the Northern Highlands hold some of Scotland's most spectacular lochs and rivers.
Many have been harnessed to generate power through hydroelectric schemes. The mountains are home to rare plants and the haunt of high altitude breeding birds like dotterel, ptarmigan and snow bunting. Keep a look out, too, for golden eagle and merlin. In an often wet area, carpets of sphagnum moss colour the blanket bog which forms on soggy ground where nutrients have been washed away. This is the type of area where wading birds like dunlin and golden plover find nesting sites. Large Caledonian pine forests also grow here.
Attractive in their own right as a distinctive feature of the landscape, they also provide a home for rare insects, red squirrels and birds like black grouse and the Scottish crossbill. This is an area with the classic popular appeal of the Highlands. The lower ground of the glens, straths and forests attracts riders, cyclists and walkers. The more adventurous are drawn to the challenging Munros and Corbets that shape the high country. The Great Glen is a tourism hotspot and an important road link from east to west, with Loch Ness a magnet for visitors from around the world.
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