These following sounds have been created, assembled and described by Rose Ferraby as part of Bog Talk. They are a selection of different sounds recorded at peatlands around the UK, using microphones, hydrophones, binaural and contact microphones. Each gives a different way of imagining the bog, and together they transport you sonically over, under and through bogs. They can be used to help inspire poetry, or as part of the education resources for schools.
Atmosphere of a wooded bog in the Cairngorms | Recorded using a microphone amongst trees and open peatland on a sunny September day.
Binaural recording of bog squelching on Bodmin Moor | Recorded using binaural microphones which allow you to trace the sound around your head when wearing headphones. It captures the sound of someone in wellies squelching in circles around the microphone on a May day, on an open part of the moor.
Contact microphone of a barbed wire fence in a bog | Contact microphones were clipped to a section of barbed wire running between posts in a bog in the Yorkshire Dales. The microphones detect minute vibrations, creating a sense of something much larger, and an atmosphere of unease.
Curlews and lapwings over peatland in Yorkshire | Recorded using a microphone in the late afternoon in June, when the curlews and lapwings were protecting their nests. The undulating calls give us a different sense of the landscape, and make us think of the air and the sky above the bog.
Hydrophone recording in the peat of someone walking over the surface of the bog | Hydrophones can record in water or soggy ground, and here they were placed into the wet peat. They pick up the sound of someone walking on the surface of the bog, but the sound is muffled, giving the listener a sense of being trapped under the blanket of peat and water.
Hydrophone recording of eddies in a stream | Underwater microphones picked up the swirl and eddies of water. The sound gives an idea of the speed and movement of the water, and how it differs from the still bog pools.
Hydrophone recording of underwater plants photosynthesising and bubbles | The underwater microphones detect the ticks and pops of gases given off by plants underwater, and sometimes to the clicks and whirrs of insects. The sounds of photosynthesis change speed as the sun comes in and out of clouds. It is extraordinary that we can hear the processes that generate life in the bog.
Raven flying over a peatland | The low ‘cark’ of the raven gives a sense of atmosphere to the bog. The sound reminds us of myths and legends, and perhaps makes us imagine bogs as more desolate or lonely somehow.
Someone walking over a really wet bog | Recorded using ordinary microphones, this captures the squelch and squish of someone walking through a very wet bog. These sounds are really evocative, and perhaps make good ones to try and copy with your mouth!
Bog Talk is part of RENEW at the University of Exeter, in collaboration with Natural England, the Poetry Society and the South West Peatland Partnership. It was funded as part of the Protected Sites Strategy at Natural England. Creative Commons copyright.
