In this national park in Scotland, people also registered feelings of calm in roadside areas (marked white here). | Image: F. Wartmann and W. Mackaness (2020)

It turns out that we don’t need remote places to find rest and quietness. This is proven by a study conducted at Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park in Scotland by the landscape geographer Flurina Wartmann. She asked visitors in different places in the park (see the red dots) how calm they felt there (maximum: 5). She was surprised to find that high marks were also scored by places near the roads, even though it is very noisy there (see the white sections of the map) when compared to the quieter sections of the Park (here in dark blue).

F. Wartmann and W. Mackaness: Describing and mapping where people experience tranquillity. An exploration based on interviews and Flickr photographs. Landscape Research (2020)

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