Lakes & lochs in HighlandHighland, Scotland

A ruined island castle stands in this Rothiemurchus loch, ringed by ancient Cairngorm pinewood and a much-loved shore path.

Wooded islands and old Caledonian pines fill this Wester Ross loch, watched over by the quartzite cone of Slioch.

Deepest by volume of the Great Glen lochs and the most storied water in Britain, its peat-dark length running 23 miles past Urquhart Castle.

Ringed by the Cuillin of Skye, this wild freshwater loch is reached by boat from Elgol or a scramble past the Bad Step.

Small ornamental loch amid pines above Glencoe village with easy walking trails and glen views.

Ringed by Scots pine with a rare mountain beach, this Cairngorms loch lies below the plateau near Aviemore.

Stretching south-west from Glenfinnan, whose monument and railway viaduct mark where Bonnie Prince Charlie raised his standard in 1745.

Below Quinag's shattered peak, the gaunt ruin of Ardvreck Castle stands on a promontory of this Sutherland loch.

Loch Morar plunges over 300 metres, the deepest freshwater in the British Isles, between Mallaig and the silver sands of its western shore.

Cluster of small lochans in Glen Feshie near Kincraig with a short trail to the Farletter crag viewpoint over Strathspey.

Its dam was among the last in Britain built by hand by migrant navvies, high on the moor above Kinlochleven.

In wooded country near Plockton, this small loch runs close to the Kyle of Lochalsh railway in Wester Ross.

Reached by the track up Glen Achall past an old limestone quarry, in the hills above Ullapool.

Glen Affric, often called Scotland's finest glen, holds this loch among remnants of old Caledonian pinewood.

Highland

Lost Jacobite gold is said to have been hidden along the shores of this remote Lochaber loch after Culloden.

A sinuous loch spread across the wilds of Rannoch Moor, a classic foreground for the peaks of the Black Mount.

In Glen Affric, this hydro reservoir scatters pine-crowned islands among the finest scenery in the Highlands.

Below the Five Sisters of Kintail, this West Highland hydro loch lines the great road west to Skye.

Highland

Under the quartzite cliffs of the Foinaven range, in the far north-west of Sutherland.

Highland

The short loch at the northern outflow of Loch Ness, where the River Ness and the Caledonian Canal part ways near Inverness.

In Glen Carron on the Kyle of Lochalsh line, this Wester Ross loch sits among birch woods and rocky knolls.

An island-dotted loch on the Road to the Isles between Lochailort and Glenfinnan, familiar from film for its scattered islets.

Walled by the crags of Braeriach and Sgoran Dubh, this loch fills the head of Gleann Einich in the Cairngorms.

Running dead straight for fifteen miles, this loch lies between Dalwhinnie and the roadless hills of Ben Alder.

An important goose roost on the Tarbat peninsula in Easter Ross, drawing pink-footed and greylag flocks.

Seen from the road above near Invergarry, this Great Glen loch is said to trace the outline of a map of Scotland.

Highland

An Abernethy pinewood loch famous as the place ospreys first returned to nest in Britain, now watched from an RSPB hide.

Sea-trout anglers know this long far-northern loch below Ben Hope, Scotland's most northerly Munro.

Highland

Near Kincraig in the Spey valley, this loch is used for watersports and topped by an ancient hilltop church on its northern shore.

East of Fort William, its shores stood in for the fictional Glenbogle in Monarch of the Glen.

On Skye's Trotternish peninsula below the pinnacles of the Storr, its shore begins the walk to the Old Man.

On the Caledonian Canal in the Great Glen, this deep loch saw the 1544 clan battle known as Blar na Leine.

Ben Loyal, the so-called Queen of Scottish mountains, rears above this far-northern loch on the road from Tongue.

Classic views of Stac Pollaidh and Cul Beag rise from this loch in the Coigach hills of Assynt.

On Skye's Trotternish coast, this loch spills straight over a sea cliff at Kilt Rock in a much-photographed waterfall.

Above Bonar Bridge, a Bronze Age hoard of jet and bronze ornaments was unearthed by this quiet Sutherland loch.

Deep in the Ross-shire hills, this hydro reservoir is ringed by trackless Munros in one of Scotland's emptiest quarters.

Highland

Its raised dam at the head of Glen Cannich is the gateway to some of Scotland's remotest Munros.

Highland

Below Ben Klibreck at the head of Strathnaver, it recalls a strath emptied during the Highland Clearances.

Highland

The summit water of the Caledonian Canal, linking Loch Ness and Loch Lochy along the wooded floor of the Great Glen.

Reached only on foot or by train to Corrour, it holds one of Scotland's most isolated hostels on its shore.

In remote Knoydart, a hydro dam raised this reservoir over drowned lodges and old stalking paths.

Highland

South of Inverness, this RSPB reserve is Britain's chief stronghold of the rare Slavonian grebe.

Up in the hills above Glen Carron, this loch lies in the deer-forest country of Wester Ross.

Dammed for hydro power above Lairg, this long Sutherland loch stretches north-west toward the wild Reay Forest.

Source of the River Spey, one of Scotland's great salmon rivers, this small loch lies in the Corrieyairack hills.

A deep, steep-sided loch south of Ben Nevis, dammed to feed the Lochaber smelter through a tunnel to Fort William.

Deep in the Inverpolly wilds of Assynt, this loch links Cam Loch to Fionn Loch beneath the prow of Suilven.

Highland

Renowned among anglers for wild brown trout, this shallow Caithness loch lies on flat farmland near Wick.

Strewn with islets on Rannoch Moor, this lochan is one of the most photographed foregrounds for the Black Mount peaks.

An island castle on the Dava moor here was once held by the Wolf of Badenoch, the outlaw Alexander Stewart.