The high mountains and remoter land of the north and west are home to many of the most distinctive of Scotland's animals and plants. However, the farmland and woodland in the eastern and southern parts of the country also provide important homes for wildlife. Two of the country's most important wildfowl refuges are to be found here, on farms owned by the Trust, and even the gardens and designed landscapes around large houses contain sites of European importance for some plants. The houses themselves provide roost sites for most of the species of bats that are found in Scotland. the National Trust for Scotland cares for all aspects of the natural environment and strives to manage all of its properties to allow them to prosper while providing its visitors with opportunities to see and enjoy them.

Almost all of Scotland's plants and animals can be found on NTS properties or in the waters around them. Whether you want to seek out the elusive capercaillie - the largest of our grouse - watch shy otters, wild cats and pine martens, study some of Scotland's rarest plants or marvel at the biggest seabird colony in Europe, all can be achieved somewhere on the 76,000 ha of Scotland's countryside under NTS ownership.

• Seabirds
• Rare plants
• Mosses and lichens
• Bats

Seabirds
Almost a fifth of all of the seabirds in Scotland breed on NTS properties - whether among the wheeling clamour of nearly a million birds at the remote islands of St Kilda or on the more accessible but no less crowded cliffs of St Abb's Head. Even some of our lesser known properties, such as Murray's Isles off Gatehouse of Fleet, contain regionally important colonies of gulls and cormorants.

In all, seven properties have been designated as being of European importance for their breeding seabirds. St Kilda plays host to nearly a quarter of the world's population of northern gannets, 80% of the European population of Leach's petrel and Europe's largest colony of Atlantic puffins. The fearsomely impressive cliffs of Mingulay and Berneray hold Scotland's largest colony of razorbills; Canna, one of the largest colonies of shags; and Fair Isle, better known, perhaps, as a sanctuary for migrant birds battling across the storm-tossed seas between Orkney and Shetland, has nationally important populations of eight species of seabirds.

The cliffs of St Abb's offer perhaps the easiest opportunity to view a seabird colony in mainland Scotland and this is made still easier, for those with limited mobility, by the installation of a CCTV camera, linked to the Visitor Centre. It is hoped that video technology will soon provide a direct link between St Kilda and the Scottish Seabird Centre in North Berwick, thereby providing access to this remote archipelago for people throughout Central Scotland.

Rare plants
The Scottish mountains are not particularly rich in flowers compared to their Continental counterparts, owing to the generally infertile nature of the soil. However, a rich flora can develop in the few areas containing nutrient-rich rock and some of Scotland's rarest plants are found here - often Arctic or Alpine species left behind after the Ice Age. The best site in Britain for these must be Ben Lawers, which has been in the ownership of the National Trust for Scotland since 1950 - and Glencoe cannot be far behind. Additionally, Grey Mare's Tail in the Borders is a southern outlier for many of these flowers. The list of species on these Trust properties includes rare saxifrages and willows, as well as Arctic-Alpine grasses, sedges, rushes and ferns.

One particularly rare plant in Scotland is the diminutive Arctic purslane Koenigia islandica, which occurs at the Trust property of Burg on Mull, and in only one other area of Scotland - Skye.

Mosses and lichens
The wet and clammy climate of Scotland must be one of the best in the world for mosses, liverworts and lichens - lowly plants in name, but distinctive and interesting in close-up. the National Trust for Scotland owns some of the finest sites in Scotland for these species: the woods clinging to the crags of Glencoe, and the moors of Torridon are the richest in Scotland for their mosses and liverworts, whilst Ben Lawers with its calcareous rocks and great altitude is internationally famous for both mosses and lichens.

The high fell fields of Beinn a'Bhuird on Mar Lodge Estate contain an assemblage of lichens more akin to the Arctic than Scotland, whilst the sea-spray-drenched St Kilda contains its own unique assemblage of mosses, liverworts and lichens, regarded as being of national importance.

Bats
Bats are a common sight within and around many Trust buildings and countryside. In 2001, the Trust carried out a survey of many of its properties in order to see how many properties support bats. The initial findings suggest that over three-quarters of our properties provide a home for support over seven different species of bats, including noctules, Daubenton's, Natterer's, long-eared bats, whiskered and both species of pipistrelle. This figure is likely to rise as more precise surveys are carried out over more properties and it is hoped that more data on actual bat numbers will be collected in the future. Several properties have records for more than three species of bat, from Kellie Castle in Fife, to Crathes Castle Estate near Aberdeen, to Culzean Country Park on the Ayrshire coast. A summary report has been produced and is available via email if you contact Lindsay Mackinlay, Nature Conservation Adviser, on lmackinlay@nts.org.uk or tel:0131 243 9443.