More than 70 per cent of Scotland’s land area consists of hills and mountains or has vegetation with upland characteristics. Our mountains, moors, hills and heaths extend from near sea level in the north and west to the highest mountain tops across Scotland.

So don’t just imagine the jagged peaks of the Highlands or the bulge of the Cairngorm massif. Even in the lowlands most of us are never far from a view of some of Scotland’s uplands. Think, for example, of the Pentland Hills behind Edinburgh, the Ochils and Campsie Hills in the Central Belt, the Galloway Hills in the far south-west, or the island of Arran rising out of the Clyde.