The study visit on which this report is based was undertaken as part of a 1 arger research project entitled "Rura 1 development strategies in the west of Ireland" being carried out by members of the Department of Geography at St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, and funded by the National Board for Science and Technology. A major focus of this research project is the respective roles of, and relations between, locally-based and state-sponsored approaches to the promotion of rural development. The first part of the project concentrates on the Irish Gaeltacht, where the community development co-operative movement (representing a particularly dynamic form of locally-based development) is well established and where a specific state development agency, Udaras na Gaeltachta, (the Gaeltacht Authority) operates. A similar situation obtains in the Scottish Highlands and Islands region, where the establishment of community development co-operatives has been promoted in recent years by the corresponding regional development agency, the Highlands and Islands Development Board (HIDB). The principal focus of the study visit was to examine the HIDB scheme for the promotion of community co-operatives. This involved visits to selected co-operatives, and interviews with HIDB field officers and headquarters personnel, along with reviews of pertinent literature. A secondary focus of the visit was an examination of the HIDB itself as a regional/rural development agency. The following report, therefore, is divided into three parts: firstly, a brief introduction to the Highlands and Islands: secondly, a brief review of the HIDB's performance as a regional development agency; and thirdly, an assessment of the HIDB scheme for the promotion of community development co-operatives. The authors are extremely grateful to all those who so willingly co-operated with our quest for information during the course of the study visit. We also wish to thank Paul Ferguson for the cover design, Maureen Redmond for typing, and John Saults for reproducing and binding, the report. A special travel grant from the National Board for Science and Technology towards the cost of the study visit is gratefully acknowledged.