The Scottish Highlands [antikvár]

^The ^cottish Highlands It is a world of difference which lies between the Mull of Kintyre in the south-west and Dunnet Head a few miles from John o' Groats in the north. No, it is a world of many differences. The collective name for that world is the Scottish Highlands, but it is almost as different from the rest of Scotland - whether Island, Lowland or Borders - as it is from the rest of Britain. The most obvious difference is the terrain, which is mountainous, and low-lying only in its far north-east corner or where it is wedged between the mountains and the coast. It is a land named by the Gaelic language, for the Highlands (along with the Hebrides, but not the Northern Isles of Orkney and Shetland) are the homelands of the Gaels, and the last refuge of their language. Today's Scotland embraces the Highlands with real pride and affection (although it was not always so) and nowhere on the mainland is Gaelic still the first language. But historically and culturally Highlander and Lowlander have little enough common ground. Mostly, the Highlands are difficult. Transport is, and always has been, a thorny issue, and the place's isolated distance from both Edinburgh and LOCH TORRIDON, Wester Ross. The West Highland landscape at its best, with Loch Shieldaig in the distance.