Late-glacial and Holocene vegetation history of the Flow Country, northern Scotland.

The vegetation history of an important conservation area, the Flow Country in northern Scotland, is described using the results of pollen analysis from two closely spaced cores from the Cross Lochs, eastern Sutherland. Buried lake sediments and shallower surface peats yield a continuous record covering the Devensian Late-glacial and the Holocene. The earliest Late-glacial pollen spectra recovered suggest a transition from open habitat to more stable communities, dominated by *Empetrum heath.