IT has been announced that The Flow Country in Caithness and Sutherland has become the latest Scottish site to be granted Unesco World Heritage status.
The landscape is the first peatland bog in the world to gain the status and is Scotland’s first natural world heritage site, joining an exclusive list which includes the Great Barrier Reef.
Overall, it is the seventh Unesco World Heritage site which you can find in Scotland – here’s a look at all of them.
The Antonine Wall
The Antonine Wall (below) runs across central Scotland and marked the most northerly frontier of the Roman Empire around 2000 years ago.
It was built for Emperor Antoninus Pius around AD 142 with the efforts commemorated by a unique group of slabs.
Old and New Towns of Edinburgh
Both the Old and New Towns of the Scottish capital help to form one of the most stunning cityscapes in the world.
Tourists flock to the city every year to see the medieval Old Town with its narrow passageways and the 18th-century New Town, which is considered the best-preserved example of Georgian Town planning in the UK.
St Kilda
St Kilda (below) is a group of remote islands and sea stacks located around 100 miles off the west coast of Scotland.
The islands host the largest colony of seabirds in Europe, according to Historic Environment Scotland, as well as unique populations of sheep, field mice and wrens.
People lived on the island for around 4000 years up until a mass evacuation in 1930.
The Forth Bridge
The famous bridge (below) which links Edinburgh and the Lothians in the south with Fife and the Highlands in the north also has World Heritage Site status.
Standing at 110 metres high and 2.5 kilometres long, it carries more than 200 trains a day.
It was designed by English engineers Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker and constructed by William Arrol of Glasgow.
New Lanark
New Lanark (below) is a restored 18th-century cotton mill village on the banks of the River Clyde, near the Falls of Clyde.
It was first created as a cotton-spinning village in the late 18th to early 19th century.
By 1799, it was the biggest cotton mill in Scotland with more than 2000 people living and/or working in the village.
Heart of Neolithic Orkney
Together, Skara Brae, Maeshowe, the Stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar make up a series of surviving Neolithic landscapes in Europe.
They date back around 5000 years and allow for insights into the society, skills and spiritual beliefs of the people who built the monuments.
The Flow Country
The latest Scottish entry to be granted Unesco World Heritage status is The Flow Country (below), located in Caithness and Sutherland.
It is largely considered to be the largest blanket bog in the world and covers around 1500 square miles.
The area is also home to a wide range of wetland and moorland species, including many birds such as the golden eagle, short-eared owl and red-throated diver.
