It has land borders with the council areas of Aberdeenshire, Argyll and Bute, Moray and Perth and Kinross.

Off the west coast of the mainland the council area includes some of the Inner Hebrides, notably the Isle of Skye.

Highland was one of the regions, and it was divided into eight districts: Badenoch and Strathspey, Caithness, Inverness, Lochaber, Nairn, Ross and Cromarty, Skye and Lochalsh and Sutherland.

(Scotland) Act 1994 saw the regions and districts created in 1975 abolished and replaced with single-tier council areas.

The rural population of the Highlands (both within and outwith the council area) declined in the late 19th century even as Scotland's grew substantially.

[14] The highest point in the Highland council area is Ben Nevis, the tallest mountain in both Scotland and the United Kingdom as a whole.

Highland contains the northernmost and westernmost points of the island of Great Britain, respectively at Dunnet Head and Corrachadh Mòr.

Three of the region's constituencies, each electing one MSP, are within the Highland area: Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Inverness and Nairn and Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch.

In the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom the Highland area is represented by Members of Parliament (MPs) elected from four constituencies: Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross; Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire; Moray West, Nairn and Strathspey; and Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber.