Rampant Scotland Directory!

Tourism - Highlands and Islands

The Scottish mountains are not particularly high (Ben Nevis is only just above 4,000 feet) but made of granite and other hard rock they have not been worn down by the elements so the crags and peaks are still spectacular. For city dwellers the empty wide open spaces are a welcome relief and the mountain streams support one of Scotland's main exports - whisky.

If you are planning a trip to Scotland you may wish to use a specialist company offering guided tours. Rampant Scotland has teamed up with Go Scotland to provide quick access to a one stop shop for a very wide range of tours in Scotland. Go Scotland offers tours from a number of recommended tour guide companies in Scotland with sightseeing tours from Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness.

Click the graphic to see what they have on offer:-

Use the Go Scotland Tour Search to find a tour departing on your desired time frame. If you can't find what your looking for contact them and they'll find it for you. Go Scotland Tours also arranges private driver guided tours and customised itineraries with tailor-made bespoke Scotland tours.

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    The sites listed in this page either relate to the whole of the Highlands or to a number of different areas within the Highlands.

    There are other separate pages for sites covering all of the Highlands and the following regions:

Places to Visit in the Highlands

Part of an extensive feature on this site covering places to visit across all of Scotland, the places in the Highlands which are described and illustrated include:

Highlands of Scotland Tourist Board

The Highland Tourist Board (HOST) site is bright and fresh. You'll find details of places to go, activities, events, maps, guides to areas within the Scottish Highlands and travel, transport and car hire information. There is also a search facility. The virtual tour includes:

National Trust for Scotland

The National Trust looks after a wide range of properties around Scotland. The Web pages give brief description of each one, together with opening times and a (small) illustration. The Trust properties in Highland and Islands are as follows:

Internet Guide to Scotland

Written by Joanne Winters whose grandmother was born in Harris, this is a very detailed travel guide to a growing number of areas, towns and islands of Scotland. Written by someone who clearly knows her subject, the pages cover how to get to the various locations, where to stay, what to see and where to eat. Areas and places covered in the Highlands include:

In addition, a large number of the Islands around Scotland have an individual page to themselves, including:

Photonet Images of Scotland

We all like to look at illustrations of the Highlands and Islands and Colin Palmer has over 500 wonderful images of Scotland here, covering the mainland and many of the individual Western Isles (and other parts of Britain too). Indexed by thumbnails to reach the individual photographs, the main sections (they're growing all the time) are:

Scotlandview

The Picture Gallery on this site has around 150 high-quality pictures of the remote parts of Scotland such as Islay, Jura, Skye, Wester Ross, Loch Maree & Beinn Eighe, Sutherland, Poolewe, Morar, Argyll and Rum. Prints of all the pictures are available for purchase. There's also useful information on aspects of Scotland such as whisky, walking, history, castles, weather info, travel information, live webcams, getting married in Scotland etc.

Hi-Ways

Describing itself as an on-line gateway to the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, it provides a single point access to the region's public-sector information and interactive services and is designed for local residents, communities and businesses (and anyone else interested in the area). It features information on Highlands and Islands communities, tourism, education, local services, employment, business, regional news, transport, health, environment, sport, Gaelic, history, arts and emergency services.

Heritage North

The Heritage North Website was created for supporters of the heritage of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, particularly those who work or operate in some capacity in the sector. There are articles, an events guide, multimedia files to download, experts to consult and a database with entries for museums, heritage centres, clan societies, local history groups and sites of heritage in all areas of the Highlands and islands.



Scottish Mountain Archive

An extensive list of links dedicated to climbing in Scotland (and elsewhere) plus 30 scenic photos in their Visions of Scotland. And if that is not enough, there is a"Hills Theme" for Windows 95/Windows Plus to download.

Assynt Field Centre

Provides a good introduction to this officially designated "National Scenic Area" with accommodation and a number of atmospheric pictures of Assynt Mountains including Stac Pollaidh and Suilven. Cuillin Guides is an illustrated guide to backpacking holidays in Skye with an excellent picture gallery. Elsewhere, there is a description of the classic climb at Ardverikie Wall behind Binnean Shuas in the Central Highlands.

North-West Frontiers

A programme of guided walking holidays/hiking vacations in Scotland's Highlands and Islands. Winter breaks are based around Ullapool, Torridon and Glen Affric. Summer programme include such places as North & South Uist, Isle of Harris, Mountains of Assynt, Skye, Glenelg & Knoydart and the Great Ridges of the NW Highlands. Many of the destinations are illustrated on the site.

Images of Bagged Munros

All the Munros (mountain peaks over 3000 feet) with links to sites where you can see photos of them. Some are not yet recorded - but most are! There is also a useful list of links to Munro Web Sites.

Scotland's Mountains

A beautiful series of pictures of Scottish mountains. Thumbnails lead to graphics of such varied places as Fisherfield Forest as well as Skye & Mull and Cairngorms

Anthony Dyer's Mountain Diary

Anthony's description of hill walking and climbing in the Highlands of Scotland is illustrated by over 400 superb pictures of the Highlands of Scotland. Despite some of the graphics being quite large, they downloaded quickly - which is just as well as you will want to acess more and more of these great views. Seeing pictures like these makes you realise why mountain climbing in Scotland is so popular!

NCR Hillwalking and Climbing Club

The Club is based in Dundee and not only provides a timetable of walks being organised by the club but also excellent guides and photo galleries, including a Guide to Scottish Mountains There are specific pages on areas such as the Cairngorms and Torridon as well as Assynt and the Fisherfield Forest. Their Top 20 Scottish Mountains includes Ben Nevis plus Liathach and The Inacessible Pinnacle. The 1997 revisions to the Munro's Tables are also set out in detail.

Views from Scottish Mountains

Panoramic views of Cairn Gorm, Braeriach, The Cairnwell, Carn Aosda, Mount Keen, Ben More, Beinn Narnain, Beinn Ime, Beinn Ghlas, Ben Lawers. Even the thumbnails take a wee while to download!

Walking Land Scottish Painting

A delightful sequence of lyrical graphics of an odyssey in Scotland with a sequence of connected images and text put together after walking and exploring the Scottish landscape, carrying water-colour and paper.

Scottish Highlands Explorer

An excellent wide-ranging site with a point and click Map of the Highlands which leads to reasonably detailed maps of :

Highlands Explorer also makes available a map of Inverness and hosts Beauly, "Heart of the Highlands". There is also a section on the town of Cromarty with information on arts and crafts, a business directory, entertainment, events and leisure activities. Cromarty's past is illustrated by its Courthouse Museum and the cottage which was the birthplace of Hugh Miller the renowned geologist and theologian. Tourism in the area is enhanced by Dolphin Ecosse your opportunity to see the world's most northerly colony of Bottlenose Dolphins.

The site also hosts Nairn on the Web In Nairn can be found Nairn Museum and Nairn Fishertown Museum. There are also pages on the Highland Museum of Childhood at Strathpeffer and Discover the Picts at Groam House Museum and Tain Through Time visitor centre with traditional instruments (want to learn to play the harp?). Whew!

Walk Highlands

Over 340 free, detailed walk descriptions with GPS waypoints, maps and photos across the Highlands of Scotland, with over 1,200 places to stay and things to do - plus history, culture, wildlife and more... The areas covered include:

Highland Senior Citizens’ Network

Established to campaign for issues which are important to the older generation, the Highland Senior Citizens’ Network has tackled subjects ranging from charges for community care services to cold weather payments. This is the Highlands of Scotland element of a nationwide organisation. Their motto is "Don’t complain - Campaign".

The Old Home Town

This site is all about pictures and people's memories as communities use Plexus Media's Image Library software to create online collections of photographs and comments. All the communities using the system so far are in the North of Scotland. The towns covered so far include:

Crofters Commission

The Crofters Commission was set up in 1955 to develop and regulate the crofting system and to promote the interests of crofters. The Web site provides information about becoming a crofter, history and background to crofting and a glossary of crofting terms.

Megalithic Mysteries - Stones of Scotland

This is an excellent collection of photographs of standing stones and megalithic remains, emphasising the mystical aspects of these reminders of the ancient inhabitants of Scotland. Sites in Orkney, Caithness, Loch Ness and the Western Isles are covered in an illustrated narrative (with larger versions of the graphics also available) and there are instructions on how to get to the various sites too. The sites include:

The site also contains links to many other Web sites and based on these there is a master index of Prehistoric Web Sites (not just in Scotland) with hyperlinks to pages featuring each megalithic or other prehistoric site.

Net.media Highlands of Scotland

A mixture of pages on business, entertainment, news, sport, organisations and services in the Highlands. The A-Z photographic section provides an excellent selection of illustrations of many aspects of the Highlands from castles to tartans. The thumbnail page provides access to larger graphics.

Scottish Treasures consists of a delightful series of pictures taken around Scotland divided into sections on Castles and Prehistoric Stones as well as a more general Image Gallery of some of the scenic beauty of Scotland. There are also pages covering Loch Shin and Fairy Glen in the Black Isle.

Scotland 1994

A nice collection of photographs from a holiday in the Highlands of Scotland covering:

Highlands Astronomical Society

After a day of viewing the scenery in the Highlands, what better than to spend the hours of darkness gazing into space through a telescope? And out in the countryside, away from street lighting, astronomers get a brilliant view of the heavens. This Web site has a photo gallery as well as information about the society, a what's on section and astronomy news, what to see in the night sky, a message board and lots of advice on equipment to get you started on this fascinating hobby.





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