to the whole of northern Scotland - roaming far beyond the increasingly popular 516-mile North Coast 500 (NC500) driving route. Coupling a wide, personal selection of places to explore with focused advice on travel practicalities, Scotland's North Highlands (Slow Travel) encourages visitors to adopt a leisurely approach designed to tease out the region's many special qualities - and contribute positively to local communities. In the far northern reaches of Scotland, Sutherland, Caithness and Ross-shire are regions that, by their very nature, demand to be taken slowly. Single-track roads dominate, skirting lochs and winding up and over moorland and mountains carpeted with blanket bog, settlements are few and far between, and you'll often feel outnumbered by sheep as yet another flock ambles across a road leading to a crumbling castle, old fishing port or alluring ancient site. But biding your time is no inconvenience here, not when every corner reveals a yet more staggering view, when remote coastal cliffs throb with the cries of seabirds, or when following a sign down a potholed road leads to an empty cove of sand that shimmers pink and blue in the ever-changing Highlands light.