Honest Truth

Oh, for the love of peat!

From ancient rituals to its associations with whisky, peat continues to have a historical and cultural importance in the Scottish way of life. Robin A Crawford, author of new book Into The Peatlands told Murray Scougall the Honest Truth about his peaty voyage of discovery

What is your background?

Art and books. I have a degree in sculpture from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee and have worked as a bookseller and bookshop manager for 25 years.

Why did you write a book about peatlands?

My wife Angie comes from the Isle of Lewis. On holiday there a couple of years ago we were discussing that year’s bestseller, Norwegian Wood, about the Scandinavian craft of stacking wood. I casually remarked: “Someone should write a book about Hebridean peat stacks,” to which she replied “On you go then,” …and so I did.

What is peat?

It is layer upon layer of dead and decaying sphagnum mosses. Approximately one millimetre of peat forms each year so a bog 1.5 metres deep will be about 1,500 years old.

What makes the Outer Hebrides peatlands different from elsewhere?

Moors by their nature are different places – half land, half water. That mingling of land and water is even more obvious on an island far out in the Atlantic Ocean. It seems to emphasise both the bleakness but also the extreme beauty of the peatlands.