County in Scotland
Scottish Highlands
Britain's fiercest gust of wind, its coldest-ever shared temperature and its highest peak all belong to a region that Victorians turned into a romantic fantasy.
Key information
- Nation
- Scotland
- Known for
- Ben Nevis, Loch Ness, Glencoe, Culloden, whisky, Highland cattle, shinty
- What locals are called
- Highlanders (Gaels in Gaelic: Gàidheil)
- Famous people
- Neil Gunn, Sorley MacLean, Duncan Ban MacIntyre
- Football clubs
- Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Ross County
About Scottish Highlands
The wind that nearly flattened a mountain
On the summit of Cairn Gorm in March 1986, an anemometer recorded a gust of 173 mph, still the strongest ever measured in Britain. The Cairngorms plateau is a sub-arctic landscape in the middle of the UK, with snow patches that can last deep into summer. The cold records are Highland too. Altnaharra, in Sutherland, hit -27.2°C on 30 December 1995, matching the lowest temperature ever recorded in Britain. And then there is Ben Nevis, at 1,345 metres. From 1883 to 1904 it had a weather observatory on top, staffed through winters that most people would not walk up in. The ruins are still there.
Why 1746 still echoes
Charles Edward Stuart, Bonnie Prince Charlie, raised his standard at Glenfinnan on 19 August 1745 and started the last Jacobite rising. It ended on Culloden Moor, near Inverness, on 16 April 1746, in a battle that lasted about an hour. What followed reshaped the Highlands. The government banned Highland dress for a time, curbed the power of clan chiefs and built military roads and forts. Later came the Highland Clearances, when tenants were removed from glens, often to make way for sheep, and many families emigrated or moved to the coast. That is why the empty glens of Sutherland and Wester Ross are scattered with ruined houses. Glencoe carries an older scar. In February 1692 government troops, who had been guests of the MacDonalds, killed members of the clan in the glen. It is one of the best-known massacres in Scottish history.
A canal through the middle of the map
The Great Glen is a geological crack that runs from Fort William to Inverness, and Thomas Telford threaded the Caledonian Canal through it. It opened in 1822, linking lochs Lochy, Oich and Ness so that ships could avoid the long, stormy trip round the north of Scotland. The canal also passes Loch Ness, whose monster has been reported since the 1930s. Whatever you think lives in the loch, it holds more fresh water than all the lakes of England and Wales put together. Further west, the Glenfinnan Viaduct on the West Highland Line was finished around 1901. It was built largely in mass concrete, which earned its contractor Robert McAlpine the nickname "Concrete Bob". Millions know it today as the bridge in the Harry Potter films.
Whisky, venison and the Highland cow
The Highlands are the home of Scotch whisky for many people. Glenmorangie at Tain, Dalwhinnie and Talisker on Skye are among the distilleries that make the region's reputation. Peat, cold water and Atlantic air all end up in the glass. On the plate, expect venison from the hills, salmon from the rivers, haggis with neeps and tatties, and cranachan, a pudding of oats, raspberries, cream and whisky. The shaggy Highland cow, with its swept-back horns and fringe, is the region's mascot. It is a breed built for wet, windy hills, and it features on a thousand shortbread tins.
Shinty, cabers and a famous cup upset
Shinty is the Highlands' own game, a fast stick-and-ball sport that looks like hockey played with the rules mostly removed. Kingussie and Newtonmore are two of its great clubs, and the Camanachd Cup final is the sport's big day. Highland games add the caber toss, hammer throwing and piping, all summer long. The caber toss is judged on how straight the log lands relative to the thrower, not how far it flies. In football, Inverness Caledonian Thistle shocked Celtic 3-1 in the Scottish Cup in February 2000, prompting the famous tabloid headline "Super Caley Go Ballistic, Celtic Are Atrocious". Inverness won the Scottish Cup in 2015, and Ross County of Dingwall won the League Cup in 2016.
The language on the signposts
Look at a Highland road sign and you will see Gaelic, the language of most of the region for centuries. Place names are often descriptions: Ben Nevis is often linked to Gaelic words for 'venomous' or 'cloud-capped', and Inverness means 'mouth of the Ness'. Gaelic literature is still alive. Sorley MacLean of Raasay, one of the great Gaelic poets of the 20th century, wrote about the Clearances and the landscape. Neil Gunn of Dunbeath wrote novels about Highland life, and Duncan Ban MacIntyre's 18th-century poems praised the deer and hills of Glen Orchy. Walter Scott called Scotland the "land of the mountain and the flood", and the phrase stuck to the Highlands more than anywhere else.
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