high·land / ˈhīlənd/ • n. 1. (also high·lands) an area of high or mountainous land: the highlands of Madagascar | [as adj.] a highland region of Vietnam. 2. (the Highlands) the mountainous part of Scotland, north of Glasgow, often associated with Gaelic culture: [as adj.] a Highland regiment. DERIVATIVES: high·land·er n.high·land·man n. (pl. -men) .

Highland. An administrative region of Scotland, created in 1973 from the counties of Caithness, Nairn, Sutherland, Inverness (except the Outer Hebrides), Ross and Cromarty (except Lewis), and a northern part of Argyll. Between 1973 and 1996 it was a region, sharing local government activities with its eight districts, but now exercises all local government functions. It is a very large and very sparsely populated area, of which large tracts are mountainous. Many parts of the region lost population through the 19th-cent. clearances, when agricultural communities were shifted to make way for sheep-farming. Most of the present population is in the eastern part of the region around Inverness, where there is small-scale manufacturing and food-processing, established particularly with the support of the local economic development agency. Farming by crofting is still significant in the north and west and the islands, and tourism for the whole region.

Charlotte M. Lythe