North-West Highlands

The North-West Highlands are geologically ancient and visually unlike anywhere else in Scotland. The Torridonian sandstone mountains — Slioch, Beinn Alligin, Beinn Eighe, An Teallach — are 750 million years old and their profiles are completely different from the rounded Cairngorm plateau or the jagged Cuillin. They rise directly from sea level or from Lewisian gneiss moorland in freestanding towers and ridges that look almost architectural. An Teallach, the most celebrated of them, has a summit ridge of pinnacles that requires confident scrambling in dry conditions and genuine mountaineering skill in winter.

The landscape between the mountains matters as much as the summits. The moorland between the mountains is treeless, wet and strangely compelling, and further north-east the Flow Country of Caithness and Sutherland holds one of the largest blanket bogs in Europe. The coastal scenery around Torridon, Gairloch, and Assynt includes white-sand beaches that would look at home in the Caribbean if the water temperature were thirty degrees higher. In June and July, the combination of evening light at high latitude and clear Atlantic air produces photography conditions that professionals travel from across Europe to use.

There are no cities here and very few towns of any size. Ullapool is the biggest settlement — population around 1,500 — and it functions as the ferry terminal for the Outer Hebrides and the main resupply point for anyone heading further north or west. Torridon village and Kinlochewe give access to the mountains of the same names. Public transport is minimal outside the Inverness–Ullapool bus. A car or van is essentially required for independent access to most of the range.