NSA Special Qualities
View our lists of the Special Qualities that underpin each National Scenic Area’s designation as one of Scotland’s finest landscapes.
NatureScot is developing guidance on how to assess landscape effects on Special Qualities.
To produce the lists, NatureScot surveyed all of Scotland’s National Scenic Areas (NSAs) over the course of 2008 and 2009.
Special Qualities are defined here as “the characteristics that, individually or combined, give rise to an area’s outstanding scenery”. Special Qualities work was in partnership with Historic Environment Scotland (as it is now known). Identifying these will help to safeguard the NSAs for future generations to enjoy. NatureScot is developing guidance on how to assess landscape effects on Special Qualities.
The full survey report also includes a map and description of each NSA.
Read about The Special Qualities of the National Scenic Areas: NatureScot Commissioned Report No. 374
For the survey methodology, view the Guidance for identifying the special qualities of Scotland's National Scenic Areas.
You can also find out about any NSA in Scotland on our SiteLink website.
Special qualities of National Parks
We used the same method to determine the Special Qualities of Scotland’s two National Parks. Each contains two NSAs, the qualities of which haven’t been separately examined.
View:
- The Special Landscape Qualities of the Cairngorms National Park: NatureScot Commissioned Report No. 375
- The Special Landscape Qualities of the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park: NatureScot Commissioned Report No. 376
NatureScot is developing guidance on how to access landscape effects on Special Qualities.
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