The interior of the estate makes up part of an area known as the Lewis Peatlands – one of the largest areas of undisturbed blanket bog in Europe. It is characterised by areas of small shallow pools frequently interspersed with drier areas of vegetation. The Peatlands are an important breeding area for a variety of nationally important bird species and because of this it is protected by a variety of environmental designations such as RAMSAR, SPA (Special Protection Area) and SAC (Special Area of Conservation).
When the rainfall is higher than the rate of drainage or evaporation the soil becomes permanently waterlogged, this soil contains little oxygen which restricts the activity of bacteria which normally break down plant material so it fails to rot completely. A virtually sterile environment is created.
The dead remains of the mosses pile up and get pressed together to form the dark, fibrous soil known as peat. This is a very slow proccess, it can take 100 years for 1cm of peat to form.
There are a limited variety of plants and animals that can live in nutrient- poor peat, those that do are highly adapted to this environment. Heather, cross-leaved heath and mosses are common in drier areas. Common peatland flowers include insect eating sundew and Butterwort, bog asphodel and cotton grass.
Peat acts as a carbon source and because of this it burns extremely well and dried peat is commonly used for fuel in the islands. The traditional method of cutting peats is by hand, using a peat iron or Tairsgeir. Once cut, the slabs are lifted and left to dry. Once dried the peats are taken home and stacked – a skill in itself!!!
Peat bogs store a vast amount of carbon as the plants absorb Carbon Dioxide from the atmosphere. It is reckoned that Scotland's bogs store around 22 billion tonnes of Carbon which would otherwise be released into the atmosphere and contributing to global warming.
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