There are currently two national parks of Scotland: Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park, created in 2002, and the Cairngorms National Park, created in 2003. These national parks were designated as such under the National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000, passed by the Scottish Parliament, 51 years after the establishment of the National Parks of England and Wales. It was a Scot, John Muir, who had initiated the first national park in the world, at Yosemite in the United States.

In June 2005, the Scottish Executive announced their intention to create Scotland’s first coastal and marine national park during 2008. Five possible locations for this are being considered:

- Solway Firth
- Argyll Islands and Coast
- Ardnamurchan, Small Isles and South Skye Coast
- North Skye Coast and Wester Ross
- North Uist, Sound of Harris, Harris and South Lewis

Private Land Ownership
Like the national parks of England and Wales, neither of the Scottish parks are wilderness areas owned by the government. The majority of the land is in private ownership; more importantly, much of the land has been worked by humans for thousands of years, in places quite extensively. Like many areas of the Scottish Highlands, historical deforestation, overgrazing by sheep and deer, and extensive 20th century afforestation with non-native tree species (particularly conifers) have resulted in landscapes which are semi-natural. Like their English and Welsh counterparts, then, the parks in Scotland are effectively "managed landscapes".

The official National Parks web site, click here...

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