Tradespeople in Thurso, Highland

Thurso is the most northerly town on the British mainland, sitting on the Caithness coast overlooking the Pentland Firth and the Orkney Islands, which are visible on a clear day.

With a population of around 8,000, it is the larger of the two Caithness towns and serves as the main service centre for the far north. The town has a compact grid-pattern centre with shops, schools, a leisure centre and the Caithness Horizons museum.

Thurso's economy was heavily influenced by the Dounreay nuclear research facility to the west, which at its peak employed thousands. With Dounreay now in decommissioning, the town is adapting, with growing roles in renewable energy - particularly wave and tidal power - tourism and the nuclear skills sector.

The Scrabster ferry terminal, just west of the town, provides the main vehicle ferry link to Orkney. Thurso also has a railway station on the Far North Line and is connected south to Inverness by the A9. The reef break at Thurso East is regarded as one of the best surfing waves in Europe.

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Highland is the largest council area in Scotland by land mass, covering more than 25,000 square kilometres from the Cairngorms in the east to the Atlantic coast in the west and from the Moray Firth northward to the tip of mainland Britain at Dunnet Head.

The region takes in an extraordinary range of landscapes - the Great Glen, Ben Nevis, Loch Ness, the Cairngorm plateau, the Flow Country peatlands of Caithness and Sutherland and hundreds of miles of rugged coastline dotted with fishing villages and sea lochs.

Inverness is the regional capital and the largest settlement, serving as the administrative, commercial and transport hub for the entire north of Scotland. Beyond Inverness, the population is spread across market towns and remote communities - Fort William beneath Ben Nevis, Aviemore in the Cairngorms, Thurso and Wick on the north coast, Nairn on the Moray Firth, Dingwall in Easter Ross and dozens of smaller settlements connected by single-track roads and ferry services.

Despite its remoteness, Highland has a diverse economy built on tourism, whisky distilling, renewable energy, forestry, aquaculture and a growing digital sector enabled by improving broadband connectivity. The region's cultural identity is deeply rooted in Gaelic language and tradition, clan history and a strong sense of place that draws visitors and new residents alike.

Transport links converge on Inverness, with the A9 running south to Perth, the A96 east to Aberdeen, rail services to Edinburgh, Glasgow and London and an airport at Dalcross. The more remote communities depend on trunk roads, the scenic rail lines to Kyle of Lochalsh, Wick and Thurso and the ferry services that connect the west coast to the islands.