Scotland - The New Wild

Scotland has a vast and varied coastline surrounded by nearly 800 islands, ranging from the craggy heights of Skye to the water world of North Uist. These beautiful and remote places are a haven for some of the most spectacular wildlife in our nation - lifeboats of diversity in a wild and restless ocean. These are places where the mix of low intensity agriculture, wild spaces and a and rich ocean habitat have benefitted numerous species.

The Highlands and Islands may be the most famous part of Scotland, but it's in the Lowlands and Aberdeenshire, with its low lying farmlands, that the nation's character really comes to the fore. More than 80% of Scotland's population live in this area, a vast swathe of the country stretching from the North East, to the border with England in the South. This is a landscape characterised by sprawling urban centres, huge areas of agricultural farmland, fragmented forests and mighty rivers. It is the most intensely managed part of Scotland's landscape. But wildlife still survives here, clinging on, and in some places a few species are beginning to stage a comeback.

The hills and glens of the Highlands define Scotland for the world. Dominated by hills, glens, lochs, rivers and forests, it's a landscape that's been heavily altered by people and climate. Once a great forest covered much of this land, but now little remains. In the central highlands lie the Cairngorms, a vast plateau where Scotland's greatest Arctic alpine environment can be found and home to Scotland's only free-roaming reindeer herd.