The sparsely populated north of Scotland offers superb scenery as well as the country's most mysterious monster (Nessie) and most important distilleries.

Along the beautiful valley of the River Spay are slate-roofed buildings with pagoda chimneys. Here they produce the finest of all the fine Scotch whiskies, or so the local enthusiasts insist. The Malt Whisky Trail takes in seven distilleries where you can watch malt being distilled by a process that has remained virtually unchanged for 500 years.

The Highlands is surrounded by majestic castles; Inverness, capital of the Highlands since the days of the ancient Picts, boasts the Cawdor Castle, a fortress home of the Earls of Cawdor very important for the setting that Shakespeare used for the murder of Duncan by Macbeth.

In The Northwest Coast Near Dornie on the road towards Kyle of Lochalsh is the romantic and much-photographed Eilean Donan Castle, connected to the land by a causeway.  On Dunnet Head stands a lighthouse with red foghorns. This windy promontory is the northernmost point of the Scottish mainland.