Tradespeople in Ullapool, Highland

Ullapool is a village of around 1,500 people on the shore of Loch Broom on the north-west Highland coast, about 60 miles north-west of Inverness by the A835.

It was founded in 1788 by the British Fisheries Society as a planned herring port and its grid-pattern layout of whitewashed buildings along the lochside gives it a distinctive and photogenic character that draws visitors year-round.

The village is the ferry port for Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis and serves as the main service centre for the surrounding Wester Ross and Coigach area, with shops, a school, health centre, swimming pool and a lively arts scene anchored by the annual Ullapool Book Festival and regular live music at the Ceilidh Place.

Ullapool is a natural staging post on the North Coast 500 route and a gateway to some of the most dramatic mountain and coastal scenery in Britain, including Stac Pollaidh, Suilven and the Summer Isles.

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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.