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Bridge House, Loch Leven (Kinross) Perth & Kinross, Scotland. by PHOTOGRAPHY by DM & DBM.

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Loch Leven is a fresh water loch located immediately to the east of the burgh of Kinross in Perth and Kinross council area, central Scotland. Roughly triangular, the loch is about 6 km (3.7 mi) at its longest. Prior to the canalisation of the River Leven, and the partial draining of the loch in 1826–36, Loch Leven was considerably larger. The drop in water level by 1.4 m (4 ft 7 in) reduced the loch to 75% of its former size, and exposed several small islands, as well as greatly increasing the size of the existing ones.

There are seven islands on the loch, the largest being St Serf's Inch. Lochleven Castle, where Mary, Queen of Scots was imprisoned in 1567, lies on one of these islands, and it can be reached by a ferry operated from Kinross by Historic Environment Scotland during the summer months.

NatureScot describe Loch Leven as "one of Scotland's top natural assets", due to its rich ecosystem that supports many different species of plants, insects, fish and birds. It is of particular significance to migrating birds, who use it as a stopover when flying between their breeding and wintering grounds, due to its lowland location, shallow nutrient rich waters, large water surface, and islands (which provide safe nesting sites). Loch Leven holds numerous national and international conservation designations, including being a national nature reserve (NNR).

As the largest lowland loch in Scotland, Loch Leven is an important site for waterfowl, with up to 35,000 birds present in the winter months. These birds migrate from a variety of places, such as Greenland, Iceland, Ireland, Siberia and northern and central Europe. Loch Leven is particularly important for pink-footed geese, and up to 20,000 such geese (nearly 10% of the world's population) may be present at times, although many geese move south from the loch as winter progresses. Other bird wintering at Loch Leven include greylag geese, whooper swans, goldeneyes, tufted ducks, pochards, teals, gadwalls, cormorants, and shovelers.

Loch Leven is also important for breeding birds, and hosts one of the largest concentrations of breeding ducks of any non-coastal site in Europe. The most numerous species are tufted duck and mallard; gadwall, shoveler, shelduck, pochard, teal, pintail and wigeon are also present. The loch is also used by birds such as mute swans at the end of the summer for moulting, as the loch is large enough to allow them to avoid predators during a period when they are flightless as the shed their summer feathers and grow new winter plumage.

The two main fish species present in Loch Leven are brown trout and perch: the loch's trout have long been noted for their unusual colour and high quality. Other fish living in the loch include sticklebacks, pike, eels, and minnows. Some species of fish noted in historical records are no longer present: it is thought that Arctic char were impacted by the lowering of the loch's water level, whilst the damming of the River Leven and rise in pollution due to the increase in industry are the likely reasons for the demise of the population of Atlantic salmon.

The loch supports many species of invertebrates, which provide a food source for many of the species of birds, fish and mammals. During the summer months large clouds of small flies form a vital part of the food for ducklings. Some rare species of beetle are present, including the carrion beetle Thanatophilus dispar, the reed beetle Macroplea appendiculata and the ant beetle Anthicus scoticus. Other invertebrates found at the loch include aquatic snails and several species of dragonflies and damselflies.

Otters are found around the loch and the burns that feed into it, and water shrews and water voles live along the banks of ditches and burns. A total of six species of bat have been recorded at the NNR: Daubenton, brown long-eared, noctule, Nathusius, soprano and common pipistrelle bat. Grey squirrel numbers are controlled and this has allowed red squirrels to re-establish themselves in woodlands around the loch. Fox, mink and brown rat are also present on the reserve. As with the grey squirrels numbers are controlled, for these pest species this is to protect nesting birds.

The Loch Leven NNR hosts a wide assemblage of vascular plant species that grow around the loch shore, including three species listed on the IUCN Red List (coral root orchid, Loch Leven spearwort and lesser water-plantain) and other species rated as "nationally rare" or "nationally scarce" such as holy grass, threadrush and mudwort. Lesser water plantain, Loch Leven spearwort, mudwort and threadrush live on areas of mud, sand or gravel around the lochside. They require sites that are intermittently exposed, and either natural erosion or active management is needed to prevent reeds or other aquatic plants from out-competing them. Coral-root orchid is found at only one location on the reserve.

The area around Loch Leven has been inhabited for millennia, and the remains of a crannog (a dwelling constructed on an artificial island, probably during the Iron Age) have been found off Kirkgate Park.

St Serf's Inch was the home of a Culdee and then an Augustinian monastic community, St Serf's Inch Priory. There was a monastic community on the island which was old in the 12th century. The monastery produced a series of Gaelic language charters from the 11th and 12th centuries which were translated into Latin in the late 12th century. It was here that Prior Andrew of Wyntoun wrote the Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland.

Loch Leven Castle is strongly associated with Mary, Queen of Scots, who was imprisoned here in 1567–1568, and forced to abdicate as queen, before escaping with the help of her gaoler's family. After her escape her forces were defeated at the Battle of Langside, and she fled to England. Several relics were found during the partial draining of the loch in 1826–36, one of them being a sceptre, "apparently of cane, hilted with ivory, and mounted with silver, upon which … were the letters of the words, 'Mary, Queen of Scots'", found near the Mary Knowe, where she is supposed to have landed after her escape from the castle. Kinross House lies on the western shore of the loch facing out to the castle. It was built in 1684-95 by its owner, the architect Sir William Bruce.

Visitors to Loch Leven have long noted the abundance of wildlife here:

In this lough is fish every day gotten for store, none in Britain like, and consider the bigness of it as also for fowl. There is a river they call the Leven running out of it eight miles to the sea, and in it is salmons... there be great store of all kinds of wildfowl, of wild geese there being continually seen 3,000 or 4,000, and swans many.

— Sir Christopher Lowther, 1692.

What appears to contribute most to the redness and rich taste of Loch Leven trout is the vast quantity of small shellfish, red in colour, which abound all over the bottom of the loch especially among the aquatic weeds.

— Statistical Accounts of Scotland, 1793.

In 1827 an Act of Parliament was passed "for recovering, draining and preserving certain lands in the counties of Fife and Kinross; and for better supplying with water the mills, Manufactories and Bleach fields and other works situated on or near the River Leven in the said county of Fife." The work was undertaken to provide a more reliable water supply to industries along the River Leven, and involved the lowering of the level of the loch, and straightening of the River Leven: the old meanders of the river are visible in aerial photographs of the area.

There is an all abilities path around the loch, known as the Loch Leven Heritage Trail, which can be accessed from seven different car parks around the loch at Kinross Pier; Kirkgate Park; Burleigh Sands; Loch Leven's Larder; Findatie; RSPB Loch Leven car park; and the car park at the Cashmere Factory. The trail was completed in 2014, and as of 2016 NatureScot estimated that 200,000 people were using it annually. The RSPB run a visitor centre on their section of the reserve which as of 2016 was receiving around 70,000 visitors each year. The centre has facilities including a shop, café, observation room, educational facilities, toilets, and marked trails leading to three bird hides. A further three open hides are provided at locations around the loch.

Loch Leven is strongly associated with the sport of curling, and Kinross Curling Club, founded 1668, is reputedly the oldest in the world. The loch has been the site of the most extensive outdoor tournaments in the sport, the Grand Match or Bonspiel, however the ice has not been thick enough for this since 1959. The cold weather of the 2010/11 winter led to much speculation that a Bonspiel could be held, however due to safety concerns only informal matches were held on the loch. The loch is also a popular location for angling (chiefly for brown trout) and wildfowling.

Loch Leven forms the main part of the Loch Leven national nature reserve (NNR), which covers 1,823 ha (4,500 acres) of loch and islands. The NNR is managed by NatureScot, with the wetlands on the southern shore being managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and the fishing and shooting managed by Kinross Estate. Castle Island is managed by Historic Environment Scotland, who also run the ferry to the island. Loch Leven was first declared a National Nature Reserve in 1964 and re-declared in 2002, when it was extended to include the RSPB Loch Leven section. The NNR is classified as a Category II protected area by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

As an internationally important site for wildlife Loch Leven holds a number of different conservation designations, being designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), a Special Protection Area (SPA), and a Ramsar site.

There are also sites designated for their historical value surrounding Loch Leven. Loch Leven Castle and St Serf's Priory are Scheduled Monuments. Kinross House is a Category A listed building, and its grounds are listed in the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland.

The Highlands is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots language replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands. The term is also used for the area north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault, although the exact boundaries are not clearly defined, particularly to the east. The Great Glen divides the Grampian Mountains to the southeast from the Northwest Highlands. The Scottish Gaelic name of A' Ghàidhealtachd literally means "the place of the Gaels" and traditionally, from a Gaelic-speaking point of view, includes both the Western Isles and the Highlands.

The area is very sparsely populated, with many mountain ranges dominating the region, and includes the highest mountain in the British Isles, Ben Nevis. During the 18th and early 19th centuries the population of the Highlands rose to around 300,000, but from c. 1841 and for the next 160 years, the natural increase in population was exceeded by emigration (mostly to Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand, and migration to the industrial cities of Scotland and England.) and passim The area is now one of the most sparsely populated in Europe. At 9.1/km2 (24/sq mi) in 2012, the population density in the Highlands and Islands is less than one seventh of Scotland's as a whole.

The Highland Council is the administrative body for much of the Highlands, with its administrative centre at Inverness. However, the Highlands also includes parts of the council areas of Aberdeenshire, Angus, Argyll and Bute, Moray, North Ayrshire, Perth and Kinross, Stirling and West Dunbartonshire.

The Scottish Highlands is the only area in the British Isles to have the taiga biome as it features concentrated populations of Scots pine forest: see Caledonian Forest. It is the most mountainous part of the United Kingdom.

Between the 15th century and the mid-20th century, the area differed from most of the Lowlands in terms of language. In Scottish Gaelic, the region is known as the Gàidhealtachd, because it was traditionally the Gaelic-speaking part of Scotland, although the language is now largely confined to The Hebrides. The terms are sometimes used interchangeably but have different meanings in their respective languages. Scottish English (in its Highland form) is the predominant language of the area today, though Highland English has been influenced by Gaelic speech to a significant extent. Historically, the "Highland line" distinguished the two Scottish cultures. While the Highland line broadly followed the geography of the Grampians in the south, it continued in the north, cutting off the north-eastern areas, that is Eastern Caithness, Orkney and Shetland, from the more Gaelic Highlands and Hebrides.

Historically, the major social unit of the Highlands was the clan. Scottish kings, particularly James VI, saw clans as a challenge to their authority; the Highlands was seen by many as a lawless region. The Scots of the Lowlands viewed the Highlanders as backward and more "Irish". The Highlands were seen as the overspill of Gaelic Ireland. They made this distinction by separating Germanic "Scots" English and the Gaelic by renaming it "Erse" a play on Eire. Following the Union of the Crowns, James VI had the military strength to back up any attempts to impose some control. The result was, in 1609, the Statutes of Iona which started the process of integrating clan leaders into Scottish society. The gradual changes continued into the 19th century, as clan chiefs thought of themselves less as patriarchal leaders of their people and more as commercial landlords. The first effect on the clansmen who were their tenants was the change to rents being payable in money rather than in kind. Later, rents were increased as Highland landowners sought to increase their income. This was followed, mostly in the period 1760–1850, by agricultural improvement that often (particularly in the Western Highlands) involved clearance of the population to make way for large scale sheep farms. Displaced tenants were set up in crofting communities in the process. The crofts were intended not to provide all the needs of their occupiers; they were expected to work in other industries such as kelping and fishing. Crofters came to rely substantially on seasonal migrant work, particularly in the Lowlands. This gave impetus to the learning of English, which was seen by many rural Gaelic speakers to be the essential "language of work".

Older historiography attributes the collapse of the clan system to the aftermath of the Jacobite risings. This is now thought less influential by historians. Following the Jacobite rising of 1745 the British government enacted a series of laws to try to suppress the clan system, including bans on the bearing of arms and the wearing of tartan, and limitations on the activities of the Scottish Episcopal Church. Most of this legislation was repealed by the end of the 18th century as the Jacobite threat subsided. There was soon a rehabilitation of Highland culture. Tartan was adopted for Highland regiments in the British Army, which poor Highlanders joined in large numbers in the era of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1790–1815). Tartan had largely been abandoned by the ordinary people of the region, but in the 1820s, tartan and the kilt were adopted by members of the social elite, not just in Scotland, but across Europe. The international craze for tartan, and for idealising a romanticised Highlands, was set off by the Ossian cycle, and further popularised by the works of Walter Scott. His "staging" of the visit of King George IV to Scotland in 1822 and the king's wearing of tartan resulted in a massive upsurge in demand for kilts and tartans that could not be met by the Scottish woollen industry. Individual clan tartans were largely designated in this period and they became a major symbol of Scottish identity. This "Highlandism", by which all of Scotland was identified with the culture of the Highlands, was cemented by Queen Victoria's interest in the country, her adoption of Balmoral as a major royal retreat, and her interest in "tartenry".

Recurrent famine affected the Highlands for much of its history, with significant instances as late as 1817 in the Eastern Highlands and the early 1850s in the West. Over the 18th century, the region had developed a trade of black cattle into Lowland markets, and this was balanced by imports of meal into the area. There was a critical reliance on this trade to provide sufficient food, and it is seen as an essential prerequisite for the population growth that started in the 18th century. Most of the Highlands, particularly in the North and West was short of the arable land that was essential for the mixed, run rig based, communal farming that existed before agricultural improvement was introduced into the region.[a] Between the 1760s and the 1830s there was a substantial trade in unlicensed whisky that had been distilled in the Highlands. Lowland distillers (who were not able to avoid the heavy taxation of this product) complained that Highland whisky made up more than half the market. The development of the cattle trade is taken as evidence that the pre-improvement Highlands was not an immutable system, but did exploit the economic opportunities that came its way. The illicit whisky trade demonstrates the entrepreneurial ability of the peasant classes.

Agricultural improvement reached the Highlands mostly over the period 1760 to 1850. Agricultural advisors, factors, land surveyors and others educated in the thinking of Adam Smith were keen to put into practice the new ideas taught in Scottish universities. Highland landowners, many of whom were burdened with chronic debts, were generally receptive to the advice they offered and keen to increase the income from their land. In the East and South the resulting change was similar to that in the Lowlands, with the creation of larger farms with single tenants, enclosure of the old run rig fields, introduction of new crops (such as turnips), land drainage and, as a consequence of all this, eviction, as part of the Highland clearances, of many tenants and cottars. Some of those cleared found employment on the new, larger farms, others moved to the accessible towns of the Lowlands.

In the West and North, evicted tenants were usually given tenancies in newly created crofting communities, while their former holdings were converted into large sheep farms. Sheep farmers could pay substantially higher rents than the run rig farmers and were much less prone to falling into arrears. Each croft was limited in size so that the tenants would have to find work elsewhere. The major alternatives were fishing and the kelp industry. Landlords took control of the kelp shores, deducting the wages earned by their tenants from the rent due and retaining the large profits that could be earned at the high prices paid for the processed product during the Napoleonic wars.

When the Napoleonic wars finished in 1815, the Highland industries were affected by the return to a peacetime economy. The price of black cattle fell, nearly halving between 1810 and the 1830s. Kelp prices had peaked in 1810, but reduced from £9 a ton in 1823 to £3 13s 4d a ton in 1828. Wool prices were also badly affected. This worsened the financial problems of debt-encumbered landlords. Then, in 1846, potato blight arrived in the Highlands, wiping out the essential subsistence crop for the overcrowded crofting communities. As the famine struck, the government made clear to landlords that it was their responsibility to provide famine relief for their tenants. The result of the economic downturn had been that a large proportion of Highland estates were sold in the first half of the 19th century. T M Devine points out that in the region most affected by the potato famine, by 1846, 70 per cent of the landowners were new purchasers who had not owned Highland property before 1800. More landlords were obliged to sell due to the cost of famine relief. Those who were protected from the worst of the crisis were those with extensive rental income from sheep farms. Government loans were made available for drainage works, road building and other improvements and many crofters became temporary migrants – taking work in the Lowlands. When the potato famine ceased in 1856, this established a pattern of more extensive working away from the Highlands.

The unequal concentration of land ownership remained an emotional and controversial subject, of enormous importance to the Highland economy, and eventually became a cornerstone of liberal radicalism. The poor crofters were politically powerless, and many of them turned to religion. They embraced the popularly oriented, fervently evangelical Presbyterian revival after 1800. Most joined the breakaway "Free Church" after 1843. This evangelical movement was led by lay preachers who themselves came from the lower strata, and whose preaching was implicitly critical of the established order. The religious change energised the crofters and separated them from the landlords; it helped prepare them for their successful and violent challenge to the landlords in the 1880s through the Highland Land League. Violence erupted, starting on the Isle of Skye, when Highland landlords cleared their lands for sheep and deer parks. It was quietened when the government stepped in, passing the Crofters' Holdings (Scotland) Act, 1886 to reduce rents, guarantee fixity of tenure, and break up large estates to provide crofts for the homeless. This contrasted with the Irish Land War underway at the same time, where the Irish were intensely politicised through roots in Irish nationalism, while political dimensions were limited. In 1885 three Independent Crofter candidates were elected to Parliament, which listened to their pleas. The results included explicit security for the Scottish smallholders in the "crofting counties"; the legal right to bequeath tenancies to descendants; and the creation of a Crofting Commission. The Crofters as a political movement faded away by 1892, and the Liberal Party gained their votes.

Today, the Highlands are the largest of Scotland's whisky producing regions; the relevant area runs from Orkney to the Isle of Arran in the south and includes the northern isles and much of Inner and Outer Hebrides, Argyll, Stirlingshire, Arran, as well as sections of Perthshire and Aberdeenshire. (Other sources treat The Islands, except Islay, as a separate whisky producing region.) This massive area has over 30 distilleries, or 47 when the Islands sub-region is included in the count. According to one source, the top five are The Macallan, Glenfiddich, Aberlour, Glenfarclas and Balvenie. While Speyside is geographically within the Highlands, that region is specified as distinct in terms of whisky productions. Speyside single malt whiskies are produced by about 50 distilleries.

According to Visit Scotland, Highlands whisky is "fruity, sweet, spicy, malty". Another review states that Northern Highlands single malt is "sweet and full-bodied", the Eastern Highlands and Southern Highlands whiskies tend to be "lighter in texture" while the distilleries in the Western Highlands produce single malts with a "much peatier influence".

The Scottish Reformation achieved partial success in the Highlands. Roman Catholicism remained strong in some areas, owing to remote locations and the efforts of Franciscan missionaries from Ireland, who regularly came to celebrate Mass. There remain significant Catholic strongholds within the Highlands and Islands such as Moidart and Morar on the mainland and South Uist and Barra in the southern Outer Hebrides. The remoteness of the region and the lack of a Gaelic-speaking clergy undermined the missionary efforts of the established church. The later 18th century saw somewhat greater success, owing to the efforts of the SSPCK missionaries and to the disruption of traditional society after the Battle of Culloden in 1746. In the 19th century, the evangelical Free Churches, which were more accepting of Gaelic language and culture, grew rapidly, appealing much more strongly than did the established church.

For the most part, however, the Highlands are considered predominantly Protestant, belonging to the Church of Scotland. In contrast to the Catholic southern islands, the northern Outer Hebrides islands (Lewis, Harris and North Uist) have an exceptionally high proportion of their population belonging to the Protestant Free Church of Scotland or the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. The Outer Hebrides have been described as the last bastion of Calvinism in Britain and the Sabbath remains widely observed. Inverness and the surrounding area has a majority Protestant population, with most locals belonging to either The Kirk or the Free Church of Scotland. The church maintains a noticeable presence within the area, with church attendance notably higher than in other parts of Scotland. Religion continues to play an important role in Highland culture, with Sabbath observance still widely practised, particularly in the Hebrides.

In traditional Scottish geography, the Highlands refers to that part of Scotland north-west of the Highland Boundary Fault, which crosses mainland Scotland in a near-straight line from Helensburgh to Stonehaven. However the flat coastal lands that occupy parts of the counties of Nairnshire, Morayshire, Banffshire and Aberdeenshire are often excluded as they do not share the distinctive geographical and cultural features of the rest of the Highlands. The north-east of Caithness, as well as Orkney and Shetland, are also often excluded from the Highlands, although the Hebrides are usually included. The Highland area, as so defined, differed from the Lowlands in language and tradition, having preserved Gaelic speech and customs centuries after the anglicisation of the latter; this led to a growing perception of a divide, with the cultural distinction between Highlander and Lowlander first noted towards the end of the 14th century. In Aberdeenshire, the boundary between the Highlands and the Lowlands is not well defined. There is a stone beside the A93 road near the village of Dinnet on Royal Deeside which states 'You are now in the Highlands', although there are areas of Highland character to the east of this point.

A much wider definition of the Highlands is that used by the Scotch whisky industry. Highland single malts are produced at distilleries north of an imaginary line between Dundee and Greenock, thus including all of Aberdeenshire and Angus.

Inverness is regarded as the Capital of the Highlands, although less so in the Highland parts of Aberdeenshire, Angus, Perthshire and Stirlingshire which look more to Aberdeen, Dundee, Perth, and Stirling as their commercial centres.

The Highland Council area, created as one of the local government regions of Scotland, has been a unitary council area since 1996. The council area excludes a large area of the southern and eastern Highlands, and the Western Isles, but includes Caithness. Highlands is sometimes used, however, as a name for the council area, as in the former Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue Service. Northern is also used to refer to the area, as in the former Northern Constabulary. These former bodies both covered the Highland council area and the island council areas of Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles.

Much of the Highlands area overlaps the Highlands and Islands area. An electoral region called Highlands and Islands is used in elections to the Scottish Parliament: this area includes Orkney and Shetland, as well as the Highland Council local government area, the Western Isles and most of the Argyll and Bute and Moray local government areas. Highlands and Islands has, however, different meanings in different contexts. It means Highland (the local government area), Orkney, Shetland, and the Western Isles in Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue Service. Northern, as in Northern Constabulary, refers to the same area as that covered by the fire and rescue service.

There have been trackways from the Lowlands to the Highlands since prehistoric times. Many traverse the Mounth, a spur of mountainous land that extends from the higher inland range to the North Sea slightly north of Stonehaven. The most well-known and historically important trackways are the Causey Mounth, Elsick Mounth, Cryne Corse Mounth and Cairnamounth.

Although most of the Highlands is geographically on the British mainland, it is somewhat less accessible than the rest of Britain; thus most UK couriers categorise it separately, alongside Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, and other offshore islands. They thus charge additional fees for delivery to the Highlands, or exclude the area entirely. While the physical remoteness from the largest population centres inevitably leads to higher transit cost, there is confusion and consternation over the scale of the fees charged and the effectiveness of their communication, and the use of the word Mainland in their justification. Since the charges are often based on postcode areas, many far less remote areas, including some which are traditionally considered part of the lowlands, are also subject to these charges. Royal Mail is the only delivery network bound by a Universal Service Obligation to charge a uniform tariff across the UK. This, however, applies only to mail items and not larger packages which are dealt with by its Parcelforce division.

The Highlands lie to the north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault, which runs from Arran to Stonehaven. This part of Scotland is largely composed of ancient rocks from the Cambrian and Precambrian periods which were uplifted during the later Caledonian Orogeny. Smaller formations of Lewisian gneiss in the northwest are up to 3 billion years old. The overlying rocks of the Torridon Sandstone form mountains in the Torridon Hills such as Liathach and Beinn Eighe in Wester Ross.

These foundations are interspersed with many igneous intrusions of a more recent age, the remnants of which have formed mountain massifs such as the Cairngorms and the Cuillin of Skye. A significant exception to the above are the fossil-bearing beds of Old Red Sandstone found principally along the Moray Firth coast and partially down the Highland Boundary Fault. The Jurassic beds found in isolated locations on Skye and Applecross reflect the complex underlying geology. They are the original source of much North Sea oil. The Great Glen is formed along a transform fault which divides the Grampian Mountains to the southeast from the Northwest Highlands.

The entire region was covered by ice sheets during the Pleistocene ice ages, save perhaps for a few nunataks. The complex geomorphology includes incised valleys and lochs carved by the action of mountain streams and ice, and a topography of irregularly distributed mountains whose summits have similar heights above sea-level, but whose bases depend upon the amount of denudation to which the plateau has been subjected in various places.

Climate

The region is much warmer than other areas at similar latitudes (such as Kamchatka in Russia, or Labrador in Canada) because of the Gulf Stream making it cool, damp and temperate. The Köppen climate classification is "Cfb" at low altitudes, then becoming "Cfc", "Dfc" and "ET" at higher altitudes.

Places of interest

An Teallach

Aonach Mòr (Nevis Range ski centre)

Arrochar Alps

Balmoral Castle

Balquhidder

Battlefield of Culloden

Beinn Alligin

Beinn Eighe

Ben Cruachan hydro-electric power station

Ben Lomond

Ben Macdui (second highest mountain in Scotland and UK)

Ben Nevis (highest mountain in Scotland and UK)

Cairngorms National Park

Cairngorm Ski centre near Aviemore

Cairngorm Mountains

Caledonian Canal

Cape Wrath

Carrick Castle

Castle Stalker

Castle Tioram

Chanonry Point

Conic Hill

Culloden Moor

Dunadd

Duart Castle

Durness

Eilean Donan

Fingal's Cave (Staffa)

Fort George

Glen Coe

Glen Etive

Glen Kinglas

Glen Lyon

Glen Orchy

Glenshee Ski Centre

Glen Shiel

Glen Spean

Glenfinnan (and its railway station and viaduct)

Grampian Mountains

Hebrides

Highland Folk Museum – The first open-air museum in the UK.

Highland Wildlife Park

Inveraray Castle

Inveraray Jail

Inverness Castle

Inverewe Garden

Iona Abbey

Isle of Staffa

Kilchurn Castle

Kilmartin Glen

Liathach

Lecht Ski Centre

Loch Alsh

Loch Ard

Loch Awe

Loch Assynt

Loch Earn

Loch Etive

Loch Fyne

Loch Goil

Loch Katrine

Loch Leven

Loch Linnhe

Loch Lochy

Loch Lomond

Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park

Loch Lubnaig

Loch Maree

Loch Morar

Loch Morlich

Loch Ness

Loch Nevis

Loch Rannoch

Loch Tay

Lochranza

Luss

Meall a' Bhuiridh (Glencoe Ski Centre)

Scottish Sea Life Sanctuary at Loch Creran

Rannoch Moor

Red Cuillin

Rest and Be Thankful stretch of A83

River Carron, Wester Ross

River Spey

River Tay

Ross and Cromarty

Smoo Cave

Stob Coire a' Chàirn

Stac Polly

Strathspey Railway

Sutherland

Tor Castle

Torridon Hills

Urquhart Castle

West Highland Line (scenic railway)

West Highland Way (Long-distance footpath)

Wester Ross

Definite Immutability by id-iom

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Although for this picture we've gone for the slightly highbrow name of 'Definite Immutability' you wouldn't know it to look at us that we even know such big words. But we do. Well, one of us does anyway. And I'm the one writing. Immutability is attribute of something which is not subject or susceptible to change. You might wonder why this woman has definite immutability. And you'd be right to wonder. But revealing the secrets of the Universe is not my job. I'm just here to do some pictures and write the nonsense that goes with them....

Cheers

id-iom

Title: Definite Immutability

Materials: Paint pen, watercolour, spray paint, acrylic, pencil, pastel and charcoal

Size: A4

Dynamic Intellectualism. by Steve Hammond

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Dynamic Intellectualism.

Methodologica metaphysica penitus mentionem, huius temporis philosophi forti,

παρεμβολή ερμηνείες ανέλαβε σχόλια σχετικές ριζική επιχείρησης ενδεχόμενες,

Intellektualität Gründen numerisch Verständnis Argumente Prinzipien Urteil gehör,

constitué essence existence transformée précède évidentes comptes de substances immatérialité,

вкушая принципы вопросы, имитирующие различные предложений внешние интеллектуальные умы с дыханием,

impossibili determinati influenzando strumenti virtù potenza cercati,

illumining anweddau pryd bynnag gweithrediadau cyfryngu ymwneud ddeallusion croes llai,

fhírinní indisposing dtéitear assimilations bhonn leordhóthanacht lorg harmonies natures cumhacht,

לעגאַמרע אַפפירמינג סופּעראַדדעד ביינגז עקסטרייניאַס קאַנסעפּס ינפאַנאַט סייכל פאַרשידענע,

العدالة للتحويل دائم الفكر الإلهي غير قابل للفساد الحقائق الحكمة,

breyta einstaklingum ástæður réttmæti immutable samanburð greind forgang eilífar,

哲学者は、必要な精神的な指導のショーを誘因.

Steve.D.Hammond.

Kanab Yucca at Coral Pink Sand Dunes, 1985 by Tony Frates

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Yucca angustissima var. kanabensis (Yucca kanabensis).*

A fairly narrowly restricted endemic. Found mainly in southwestern Kane and eastern Washington Cos. in Utah, and also in scattered locations in adjoining Arizona.

Growing with Wyethia scabra (treated more recently as Scabrethia scabra).

When some of the narrow-leaved species in the Yucca genus grow in more or less pure sand, they seem to have particularly noticeable erect-ascending leaves, more so than usual.

May 2, 1985, Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, Kane County, Utah.

Scanned from a Kodachrome slide.

*A good case can be made for treating this at the species level, and one that is supported by DNA studies. The FNA handling is weak in terms of varietal treatment based on the fact that it hybridizes with other taxa in the genus. So do many other species. Species are not immutable. One of the taxa it forms intergrades with is Y. utahensis, a taxon that nonetheless FNA recognizes at the species level. So the logic used is inconsistent. Kanab Yucca does also form intermediates with other varieties of Yucca angustissima

in areas where they come into contact with one another.

Embo Beach, Sutherland, Highlands, Scotland. by PHOTOGRAPHY by DM & DBM.

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Embo is a village in the Highland Council Area in Scotland and the former postal county of Sutherland, about two miles (three kilometres) north-northeast of Dornoch.

On 16 July 1988, Embo declared itself independent from the rest of the United Kingdom for one day. The prime minister was Mr. Donald Ward. This was done to raise funds to convert the unused primary school in the village into a community centre.

Pier and Embo's harbour

The village issued its own currency, called the Cuddie. The rate of exchange was two Cuddies to the pound. Cuddies were accepted in the local public house, Grannies Heilan' Hame, in exchange for a measure of Clynelish Malt Whisky. The owners of the distillery, in nearby Brora, sponsored the bid for independence by issuing a commemorative label on 50 cases of Clynelish Malt Whisky – "The Spirit of Free Embo".

The Battle of Embo took place in 1245 between Scots and Vikings.

Bronze Age remains were excavated to the south of the village in 1956, other burials having previously been discovered in the area.

The school in Embo was designed by William Fowler in 1859.

Nancy Dorian's research of the local East Sutherland Gaelic dialect showed that in 1964, over 100 of the village's total population of fewer than 300 still actively spoke Gaelic, and that many more had a "smattering" or were perfect passive bilinguals. This percentage even briefly increased during the 1970s with "returners" to the village. Until the end of the 1970s at least, Embo was a bilingual Gaelic and English speaking community. Brora and Golspie had much smaller percentages of Gaelic speakers at that time.

As with the entire region of East Sutherland, the end of the 19th century and the collapse of the fishing industry coincided with the decline of Gaelic as the majority language of the people.

Embo is informally "twinned" with Kaunakakai on the island of Molokai in Hawaii.

Coul Links, an area of sand dunes protected as part of a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), lies to the north of the village. As of February 2019 a company led by American Todd Warnock is proposing to build a golf course on the links; the Scottish Government has referred the proposal to a planning inquiry, which will determine whether the development is to be permitted.

The nearest railway stations are at Tain and Golspie, both about 10 miles (16 kilometres) away.