Thurso scientist’s ‘gratitude’ after completing epic 110km ultra-run across the Flow Country
A Thurso-based peatland expert has completed a long-held ambition to run across the Flow Country to mark World Heritage Day.
Roxane Andersen, a senior research fellow at UHI’s Environmental Research Institute at Thurso, ran 110km on tracks and paths through the peat bog on Thursday.
The experienced ultra-runner said it was her longest single-day run yet, and it took her 22 hours to travel from Crask through to Berriedale via Forsinard and Altnabreac.
Roxanne, who will celebrate her 44th birthday on Friday, said: “I’ve been thinking about it for a long, long time, that it was a landscape that you could just travel through with minimal impact and connect lots of different parts of it.
“I wasn’t sure when to start the challenge and then I saw something saying that it was World Heritage Day on April 18, so that was it.
“It’s the first World Heritage Day since the inscription in July and I thought if I’m going to do it on that day, I may as well try to raise a bit of money for the Flow Country Partnership.”
The partnership brings together organisations, landowners and the community and was incorporated as a charity last year during the bid to become a recognised Unesco World Heritage Site.
The successful effort saw the Flow Country recognised globally for its importance as the most extensive and intact blanket bog system in the world.
Roxane, who is a trustee with the partnership, joked that her full-time job as a researcher has become like two full-time jobs due to the charity, but added that the inscription is starting to have an impact.
“We know it takes time for these things to turn into impact, but we’ve already seen some positives – I’ve met people who’ve come here specifically because it’s a World Heritage Site, tourists who are coming to spend time in the area because they want to see the World Heritage Site,” she said.
“So there’s maybe different kinds of people that might be coming to visit the area that will want to take it very slowly and go to different places, compared to maybe people doing the NC500 for example.
“We’ve also been able to support projects in terms of the peatland restoration on the ground, either within or just outside the site boundaries.
“I’ve also seen quite a lot of people seeing what it can do for their business, in terms of branding or how they associate themselves with the World Heritage Site in a way that will add value to their services or produce.”
The epic run took Roxanne from Crask in Sutherland where there is a little Flows to the Future sign, which was appropriate “because I was involved in the Flows to the Future project as a scientist”.
Roxane said: “There’s a 600m road section and there’s a sign that says this is the route through to Badanloch – it’s a heritage path, a peat road, and then it connects to a number of tracks and an estate track.
“I thought I’d do it from west to east because the prevailing wind tends to be that way. It wasn’t windy on the day but I’ve been here long enough to know that’s the easier direction to go in this part of the world!”
From Badanloch her route went to Kinbrace, up to Forsinard then Forsinain, where she followed tracks over to Altnabreac and past the Glutt before following the Berriedale Water down to the village.
“I did that section [past the Glutt] in the dark and it was really nice to be outside in the middle of the bog in the middle of the night,” Roxanne added.
She finished at five o’clock on Friday morning and looking back, said it was a wonderful experience.
“When you go out for a long time there are moments that are a bit more difficult but overall the overwhelming feeling I had when I finished was one of gratitude – how the weather was so good, how many people had come to support me and how I was lucky to have finished without any injuries,” Roxane said.
“It was hard, I’m not going to lie – I didn’t finish and think ‘I’m just going to go back’!
“I did push myself as much as I could but it was also thoroughly enjoyable. I really had a good day out. The high point for me was when I came out at Badanloch my children were waiting for me with my husband and another friend. They came running towards me and that really lifted me.”
Roxane’s fundraising page will remain open for the next week at https://www.justgiving.com/page/through-flow-andersen. She had raised more than £2350 by Tuesday afternoon.
Roxane wasn’t the only one running across the Flow Country recently – Dan Ashwood, a fieldwork manager with Caledonian Climate in Perth, completed a similar 100km run between Berriedale and Ben Hope earlier this month, too.
“There’s no competing against each other in the ultra-running world, we’re all happy when somebody else completes something similarly difficult,” she added.
“But really it was a grand day out and if it inspires a few people to be active and go and explore a few parts that will be really nice.”
