Administrative Boundary of Highland

About Highland

Highland is a council area in northern Scotland and the largest local authority area in the United Kingdom by land area. Covering approximately 25,657 square kilometres — nearly a third of Scotland's total landmass — Highland had a population of approximately 238,000 at the 2022 Census, giving it one of the lowest population densities in Europe. The council area stretches from the Great Glen and the Cairngorms in the east to the Atlantic coast and the Isle of Skye in the west, and from the Central Highlands north to Cape Wrath and John o' Groats. Ben Nevis, Loch Ness, and Glen Coe Ben Nevis, near Fort William, is the highest mountain in the British Isles at 1,345 metres, attracting more than 100,000 ascents a year via the Mountain Track. Loch Ness, stretching 37 kilometres along the Great Glen, is the largest body of fresh water in Great Britain by volume, holding more water than all the lakes of England and Wales combined; it is world-famous for reported sightings of the "Loch Ness Monster," first widely reported in 1933, and Urquhart Castle on its shore is one of Scotland's most visited ruins. Glen Coe, in the western Highlands, is renowned both for its dramatic mountain scenery and for the Massacre of Glencoe in 1692, in which members of Clan Campbell killed 38 members of Clan MacDonald under trust of hospitality — one of the most notorious episodes in Highland history. Culloden and Clan Heritage Culloden Moor, east of Inverness, was the site of the Battle of Culloden in 1746, the final pitched battle of the Jacobite Risings and the last fought on British soil; the defeat of Bonnie Prince Charlie's army led directly to the suppression of Highland clan culture, the Dress Act, and the Highland Clearances that depopulated much of the region in the following century. Eilean Donan Castle, on an islet where three sea lochs meet near Dornie, is one of the most photographed castles in Scotland, rebuilt in the 1910s after lying ruined since 1719. Inverness, the administrative centre and only city in Highland, is known as the "Capital of the Highlands." GIS and Boundary Data The administrative boundary of Highland Council is available for free download in GeoJSON and KML formats, sourced from the OS Open Geography portal (Crown copyright 2024). Compatible with QGIS, ArcGIS, Mapbox, and Google Earth, the dataset supports mountain and freshwater ecology, clan and battlefield history, tourism planning, and demographic analysis across the Highland council area.

📍 Administrative boundary of Highland county