West coast
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For many people, the Highlands' starkly beautiful west coast - stretching from the Morvern peninsula (opposite Mull) in the south to wind-lashed Cape Wrath in the far north - is the finest part of Scotland. Serrated by fjord-like sea lochs, the long coastline is scattered with windswept white-sand beaches, cliff-girt headlands, and rugged mountains sweeping up from the shoreline. The fast-changing weather rolling off the North Atlantic can be harsh, but it can also often create memorable plays of light, mood and landscape. When the sun shines, the sparkle of the sea, the richness of colour and the clarity of the views out to the scattered Hebrides are simply irresistible. This also is the least populated part of Britain, with just two small towns, and yawning tracts of moorland and desolate peat bog between crofting settlements. Beware the dreaded midge, which drives even the hardiest of locals to distraction on warm summer evenings.
The Vikings, who ruled the region in the ninth century, called it the "South Land", from which the modern district of Sutherland takes its name. After Culloden, the Clearances emptied most of the inland glens of the far north, however, and left the population clinging to the coastline, where a herring-fishing industry developed. Today, tourism, crofting, fishing and salmon farming are the mainstay of the local economy, supplemented by EU construction grants and subsidies to farm the sheep you'll encounter everywhere. For visitors, cycling and walking are the obvious ways to make the most of the superb scenery, and countless lochans and crystal-clear rivers offer superlative trout and salmon fishing. The shattered cliffs of the far northwest are an ornithologist's dream, harbouring some of Europe's largest and most diverse seabird colonies. The area's craggy mountaintops are the haunt of the elusive golden eagle.
The most visited part of the west coast is the stretch between Kyle of Lochalsh and Ullapool. Lying within easy reach of Inverness, this sector boasts the region's more obvious highlights: the awesome mountainscape of Torridon, Gairloch's sandy beaches, the famous botanic gardens at Inverewe, and Ullapool itself, a picturesque and bustling fishing town from where ferries leave for the Outer Hebrides. However, press on further north, or south, and you'll get a truer sense of the isolation that makes the west coast so special. Traversed by few roads, the remote northwest corner of Scotland is wild and bleak, receiving the full force of the north Atlantic's frequently ferocious weather. The scattered settlements of the far southwest, meanwhile, tend to be more sheltered, but they are separated by some of the most extensive wilderness areas in Britain - lonely peninsulas with evocative Gaelic names like Ardnamurchan, Knoydart and Glenelg.
There's a reasonable train service from Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh and from Fort William to Mallaig, and a useful summer bus service connects Inverness to Ullapool, Lochinver, Scourie and Durness. However, services peter out as you venture further afield, where you'll have to rely on postbuses, which go just about everywhere - albeit slowly and at odd times of day.
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