Coigach and Assynt, located in north west Scotland, is one of nine distinctive landscapes in the UK to be awarded a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).

The investment, totalling £21m, will help to conserve the natural heritage sites, as well as boost rural areas and provide long-term social, economic and environmental benefits.

The Scottish site will receive £3m from the fund to help conserve the landscape.

HLF's Landscape Partnership (LP) programme – which has been running for a decade – is the most significant grant scheme available for landscape-scale projects, with more than £160m being invested in 91 different areas across the UK.


Head of Landscape and Natural Heritage at HLF, Drew Bennellick, said: "HLF's landscape-scale funding has helped forge strong local partnerships which have secured the future of some of our most threatened landscapes.

"The nine schemes we are supporting this year have all demonstrated a need for urgent conservation work to the natural and built heritage as well as reconnecting communities to these places. They are important on many levels, including being an integral part of our health and well-being and a significant contributor to the tourist economy.

"The UK's amazing countryside is under ever-increasing pressure and we must act now to make sure it continues to be one of our greatest assets."

The remaining eight landscapes are:

• The New Forest



• Humberhead Levels, spanning Yorkshire and Lincolnshire



• Ingleborough Dales



• North York Moors



• Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland



• Rusland Valley and Fells



• Derwent Valley



• East Wight, the eastern tip of the Isle of Wight.

(JP/MH)