The Flow Country

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The Flow Country: A Carbon-Rich Blanket Bog Landscape in Northern Scotland

The Flow Country, located in the Highland Region of Scotland, is a unique and significant natural wonder that spans approximately 4,000 square miles (1,500 square miles) across Caithness and Sutherland. This expansive region, recognized as the most outstanding example of an actively accumulating blanket bog landscape, was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2024.

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UNESCO Description of the World Heritage Site

The serial property, located in the Highland Region of Scotland, is considered the most outstanding example of an actively accumulating blanket bog landscape. This peatland ecosystem, which has been accumulating for the past 9,000 years, provides a diversity of habitats home to a distinct combination of bird species and displays a remarkable diversity of features not found anywhere else on Earth. Peatlands play an important role in storing carbon and the property’s ongoing peat-forming ecological processes continue to sequester carbon on a very large scale, representing a significant research and educational resource.

Encyclopedia Record: Flow Country

The Flow Country is a vast area of bog peatland in Caithness and Sutherland, northern Scotland. It is the largest blanket bog in Europe, and covers about 4,000 km2 (1,500 sq mi). It is an area of deep peat, dotted with bog pools, and is a very important habitat for wildlife. As peat is largely made up of the remains of plants, which are themselves made up of carbon, it locks up large stores of carbon for thousands of years. This carbon would otherwise be released to the atmosphere and contribute to global warming. In 2024 the Flow Country was awarded World Heritage status by UNESCO on account of its unparalleled blanket bog habitat. It includes the Forsinard Flows National Nature Reserve and the Caithness and Sutherland Peatlands.

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