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.

Farming in the uplands varies markedly from place to place. But whether tenanted farms on large estates or small crofts in the Scottish islands, all our upland farming systems have one thing in common – they are livestock based systems with each farm or croft being heavily dependent on the grazing of sheep and cattle on large areas of less productive moorland grazing.