Environment of Scotland

The landscape of the country is diverse; ranging from rugged mountain terrain to arable flat land with many rivers and lochs.

The black and red grouse populate Scotland's moorland and the country has significant nesting grounds for seabirds.

Warm air from the Gulf Stream makes Scotland's climate much warmer than other areas on similar latitudes.

As Scotland occupies the cooler northern section of Great Britain, temperatures are generally lower than the rest of the United Kingdom.

The coldest ever UK temperature of -27.2 °C was recorded at Braemar in the Grampian Mountains on 10 January 1982 and at Altnaharra, Highlands on 30 December 1985.

Wet, warm is forced to rise on contact with the mountainous coast, where it cools and condenses forming clouds.

It runs 96 kilometres (60 miles) in a north-easterly direction from the Solway Firth in the west to the North Sea on the east coast.

By international standards, Scotland's mountains are not high, but their exposure to changeable and very unpredictable weather influenced by the meeting of European and Atlantic air streams gives them seriousness that is out of proportion with their height.

The city of Aberdeen and the nearby surrounding area is more like the Central Lowlands as their fertile plains are not similar to the rest of the highlands.

This was based on the large reserves of coal and iron ore found in the Central Lowlands, which was supported by the development of canals and railways.

The east coast is more regular with series of large estuarine inlets, or firths, and long sandy beaches.

Much of Scottish coastline consists of machairs, a dune pasture land formed as sea levels subsided.

[6] The act includes the framework for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and other duties for government ministers.

The 1949 National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act excluded Scotland, but introduced the concept of Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), which were to become a key part of managing nature conservation.

[8] The SSSI were strengthened by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, which for the first time introduced the concept of payments to farmers for inactivity in relation to specific sites and shifted the burden of proof from conservationists having to prove harm, to landholders having to prove that harm was not taking place.