Why the 'Flow Country' is my favourite place

A winding river crosses green fields dotted with cottages, beneath heather-covered hills and conifer forests, with a broad mountain under cloudy skies.

The Flow Country is my favourite place in the North Highlands, although I can understand why some visitors initially struggle to see its appeal. After the cliffs, beaches and rocky mountains of the coast, this enormous spread of open country can seem rather uneventful. There are distant hills around its edges and a great deal of ground between them, with little human activity to claim your attention. For me, that space is precisely the attraction, particularly when we stop long enough to experience it without the engine running.

I have no particular stopping place, because the light decides where the landscape is most interesting on the day. Much of the Flow Country feels as though it lies in a broad bowl of distant hills and mountains, with an immense sky shaping what happens beneath it. Strong summer sunshine picks out the water until pools shine across the ground, while low winter light can spread an orange glow beneath heavy clouds and deepen the browns of the peatland. A place that might look unremarkable on one visit can feel entirely different when the light falls another way.

Wherever we stop, I switch off the engine and invite guests to step outside, or lower the windows if the weather makes staying in the Land Rover more appealing. Then I ask them to listen, allowing considerably longer than the few seconds we usually give to deciding whether somewhere is quiet. We may still be getting to know one another, so remaining silent together can initially feel rather unfamiliar. As our ears adjust after the engine and conversation, the wind becomes apparent, perhaps the movement of water, then birds and the smaller sounds of life around us.

That gradual discovery is one reason I encourage visitors to explore the interior rather than spend their entire journey following the North Coast 500 around its edges. The Flow Country offers a different experience, with room to look and listen without another attraction demanding that we move along. In the audio blogcast, I recall stopping with a father and son from the West Midlands, and the unexpected response of a man discovering a landscape and soundscape he had never known existed in his own country.

To learn more, listen to the blogcast or book one of our North Coast Explorer private tours.