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Mapping Scotland's wildness and wild land

SNH's policy statement includes a map of 'Search Areas for Wild Land', which identifies where the most significant and valued areas of wild land are most likely to be found.  The map is a preliminary one, prepared in 2002 for debate and further refinement, and does not include small areas of wild land, or attempt to precisely define the boundary of an area.

SNH has now undertaken new mapping work to refine our understanding of wild land.  Phase I of the work, which maps relative levels of wildness for the whole of Scotland, is presented on this page.  Phase II of the work is intended to identify and define more precisely areas of wild land, which will replace the map of search areas.

We asked for comments on the Phase I work in February - March 2012.  We are currently reviewing all the comments received.  If you have any questions on this work please email  Landscape@snh.gov.uk.

How have we mapped wildness?

Wildness is a quality experienced by people when visiting places of a certain character.  Measuring wildness is inherently difficult, as people respond differently according to their experience and their expectations of a place.  However, we consider wildness depends on a number of physical attributes that can be measured being present, and this is the basis of our approach.

Based on earlier work undertaken by the University of Leeds for the Cairngorms National Park, our approach uses existing information contained in a Geographic Information System to assess the level to which 4 physical attributes are present.  These are:

  • the perceived naturalness of the land cover,
  • the ruggedness of the terrain which is therefore challenging to cross,
  • remoteness from public roads or ferries, and
  • the visible lack of buildings, roads, pylons and other modern artefacts.

The results of these separate analyses are then combined to produce a map of relative wildness of Scotland.

A more detailed explanation of the methodology  PDF document  can be viewed here.

The maps

Note that these are large files.  The map of relative wildness of Scotland  PDF document   (6.9 Mb) combines the results of the four individually mapped layers:  

1. Map of perceived naturalness  PDF document - 6 Mb 

2. Map of ruggedness  PDF document   - 3.5 Mb

3. Map of remoteness from public roads and ferries  PDF document - 5 Mb

4. Map of absence of modern artefacts  PDF document - 7 Mb

This data can be downloaded through the SNHi Natural Spaces web page.

What next?

We will consider comments on the Phase I mapping and methodology in developing Phase II.  Phase II will examine options for identifying wild land areas, which are considered of particular importance from a national perspective because of their quality and extent.  It is hoped to present the results of this work in Spring 2012.