In addition to mainland Scotland there are over 790 islands including the Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland isles..

There is estimated to be around 6,000 miles of coastline and to be over 31,460 freshwater lochs (the Scottish word for lake or fjord) in Scotland. There are also many beautiful sea lochs in Scotland, mainly on the west coast, so you are never very far from water!

Some of the more famous lochs include Loch Ness, which alone contains almost double the amount of water as all the standing water in England and Wales combined and, of course……a rather famous monster! Loch Lomond, close to Glasgow, is famous in song for its ‘bonny, bonny banks’ and is the largest Scottish loch by area.

Scotland’s major cities are the capital Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee and ‘the capital of the Highlands’, Inverness.

Scotland is the most mountainous country in the UK and the main mountain ranges are in the Highlands. Mountains over 3,000 feet are called Munros, after Sir Hugh Munro who complied a listing of them in the late 1800’s.

The southernmost of the 284 Munros is Ben Lomond near the famous loch of the same name. The highest mountain in the UK is Ben Nevis, close to Fort William in the west Highlands.