A unique and breath-taking Highlands landscape has been named as one of the world’s must-visit destinations by a prestigious publication. The New York Times included the Flow Country in Caithness and Sutherland as a place where tourists must visit before they die.
The location is one of just three UK locations to make the list of 52 hotspots, with Jane Austen’s south-west of England named top and East London 35th. The Flow Country, which is a beautiful bog, broke into the top 20, and is joined on the list by the likes of Greenland and Sydney.
It is one of the most iconic parts of Scotland, with the Flow Country becoming the first peatland to earn UNESCO recognition as a world heritage site. The New York Times wrote: “It is one of the world’s biggest carbon stores, which makes it key to the fight against climate change. It is home to diverse wildlife. And it happens to be stunning.
“Yes, a bog system has joined the ranks of the Grand Canyon and the Great Barrier Reef. But it’s not just any bog. The first peatland to earn the recognition, it is one of the world’s biggest carbon stores, which makes it key to the fight against climate change.”
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The newspaper highlight that the area is home to diverse wildlife while the destination is looked after by a bunch of hardy volunteers. Visitors can also walk and cycle between viewpoints where they can peer into the bog, as well as being home to museums and visitor centres.
It adds: “Still, get ready for ruggedness. It is far from almost anywhere and not yet set up for mass tourism.” In July, the Flow Country secured World Heritage status, becoming the first site in Scotland to do so for purely natural criteria, and the first in mainland UK for the global importance of its natural ecosystems.
The open water and bog mosses of The Flow Country make Sutherland and Caithness one of the top destinations for travellers in 2024
The Flow Country joined a number of other unique destinations such as the Galapagos Islands and the Everglades in gaining the status for its incredible ecosystem. It is a vast peat bog that cover much of Caithness and Sutherland in the north of Scotland, and stores approximately 400 million tonnes of carbon which is more than all the UK’s forests and woodlands combined.
It is called blanket bog because it covers the landscape like a blanket and is an incredibly rare type of habitat that couldn’t blossom unless it was in Scotland due to the climate and maritime location. The carbon stored by a 9,000-year accumulation of dead vegetation in the form of peat acts as a carbon sink.
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This traps and stores carbon, preventing it being released into the atmosphere, helping to prevent further emissions. It is also an internationally important place for birds like red-throated divers, golden plovers and greenshanks. It is also very deep, with the peat up to 33ft deep.
The UNESCO status is for seven areas totalling 49,421 acres (20,000ha). The peatlands are said to be “the lungs of Scotland”, and home to some of the UK’s rarest wildlife, including white-tailed sea eagles; curlews; otters and pine martens.
1.Jane Austen’s England
2.Galápagos Islands, Ecuador
3. New York City Museums
4. Assam, India
5. ‘White Lotus’ Thailand
6. Greenland
7. Aix-en-Provence, France
8. Sun Valley, Idaho
9. Lumbini, Nepal
10. Sydney, Australia
11. Coimbra, Portugal
12. Angola
13. Hamburg, Germany
14. Nicaragua
15. Dolomite Mountains, Italy
16. Asheville, N.C.
17. Magdalena River, Colombia
18. Los Cabos, Mexico
19. Alishan, Taiwan
20. Flow Country, Scotland
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