The peatlands of the far north of Scotland are unique. The cool moist climate and low rolling hills of this part of the world have provided ideal conditions for peat to form.

This vast area with its unique landscape is covered in sphagnum moss, studded with thousands of pools (dubh lochans).

They form the largest single expanse of their type found anywhere in the world. Covering about one million acres (c400, 000 ha) it represents about half the entire land area of Caithness & Sutherland equating to about 1500 square miles. Blanket bog is a globally rare habitat and the UK has an international responsibility to safeguard this special habitat.

The combination of their extent, form, diversity and importance to wildlife makes the peatlands of international importance. Much of the peatlands in Caithness & Sutherland are now protected by both national (Site of Special Scientific Interest) and European legislation for their bird interest - Special Protection Area.

    (Special Protection Area Citation)

    (Special Area of Conservation Citation)

Blanket bog is restricted to a few parts of the world. In Europe, the habitat is restricted to the United Kingdom, Ireland, south-west Iceland and western Norway. Further afield, the habitat is confined to the east coast of Canada, southern Alaska, part of the north American Pacific coast, the southern tip of South America, north-east Asia and parts of southern Tasmania and South Island, New Zealand.

Closer to home, active blanket bog occurs in the north and west of Britain extending from Devon in the south to Shetland in the north, and throughout much of Northern Ireland. Britain holds approximately 13% of the world resource of blanket bog of which the peatlands of Caithness and Sutherland in Scotland (401,000 ha) form the largest, single expanse of the habitat found in the world. Other extensive areas occur in Lewis (Western Isles, Scotland) and in the North Pennines.

The peatlands are the stronghold for some of the UK’s rarest nesting birds such as black-throated diver, red-throated diver, common scoter, greenshank, golden plover, dunlin and hen harrier. The plant life is equally diverse including specialists such as sundew. This interest is steadily being threatened by the changes introduced by the afforestation, and the insidious impact of thousands of kms of hill drains.

In Caithness & Sutherland long-term monitoring plots have been established to determine changes in populations of key bird species. Golden plover, dunlin and skylark have all declined since monitoring began in 1988. Annual monitoring is carried out on the peatland reserves and throughout the area for species such as black-throated diver and common scoter.

How are peatlands formed?
Blanket bog requires specific climatic conditions - persistently wet and cool in order to allow the growth of Sphagnum mosses, the driving force behind peat formation. The acidic, waterlogged environment ensures plant decomposition rates are low, resulting in peat formation. The process is very slow, perhaps no more than 1mm every year. An uninterrupted period of suitable conditions during the past 4000 years has resulted in the entire rolling landscape being hidden beneath a blanket of peat up to 4m in depth. Forming a colourful carpet, the sphagnum mosses acts as a permanent sponge capable of holding eight times their own weight in water. Although the peat contains less solid material than milk, incredibly its safe to walk on.

Historical Context
For centuries, the peatland landscape has remained largely intact thanks to generations of traditional management. In more recent times, however, significant areas have been seriously damaged. An extensive network of hill drains was dug in the 1950s and 60s to improve the bog for agricultural purposes. More recently, in the 1970s and 80s, large areas were planted with non-native conifer trees.

Afforestation

From the 1970s until the early 1980s many thousands of hectares of the peatlands were drained, ploughed and planted with non-native conifers such as Lodgepole pine and Sitka spruce. Many important areas were lost and others seriously damaged. Today, the climate of opinion has changed. The LIFE Peatlands Project symbolises this change and through the Management Strategy will take a much more holistic approach as to how the peatlands should be managed.

Blanket afforestation

Drainage
Extensive areas of blanket bog have been drained in an attempt to agriculturally improve the land. At a local level, the drains serve to reduce the water table and thereby dry out the bog surface. While drains on flat land generally fill in over time, drains on sloping land have a tendency to get deeper, and in time, may result in a considerable loss of peat.

Traditional Land Use
Ironically, until the spate of planting in the 1980s, the original peatlands had remained more or less intact providing one of the last few natural habitats in Europe. Traditional land use of the bogs for grazing sheep and cattle, peat cutting and sporting estates (deer stalking and fishing) had coexisted much as it does today. Locally, peat has been cut and used as fuel for hundreds of years and despite a reduction in peat cutting, peat stacks can still be seen today. Peat is also burnt as part of the malting process in the production of whisky. The ‘peatiness’ of the water adds to the characteristic flavour of whisky. There are two distilleries in the area in Sutherland (Brora - Clynelish Distillery and Caithness - Pulteney Distillery).

Sporting Management
After the infamous Highland Clearances of 1806 and 1820 in which people were forcibly evicted to make way for sheep, there was a re-distribution of the population. Many people were forced to leave the straths (river valleys) others relocated to the coast. Once cleared, much of the ground was turned over to sheep. Large estates were set up and the land managed with a view to improving the sporting interest of the area (fishing and deer stalking).