Blanket Bog

An ombrotrophic bog type that forms a continuous layer of peat draped over the landscape — including slopes and hilltops — rather than the confined, basin-grown dome of a raised bog. Blanket bogs form only where rainfall is high and near-constant (typically 200+ rain days a year), so the ground stays saturated regardless of underlying topography.

Where It Occurs

Restricted to cool, hyper-oceanic climates: Ireland, western Scotland, parts of Norway, and a few similar coastal zones worldwide. Ireland’s peatlands are a mix of blanket bog and raised bog (see Peat in Ireland), which is part of why Irish cosmetic peat marketing emphasizes organic content rather than a specific balneological tradition — blanket bog is not the deposit type Central European Moortherapie was built on.

Peat Character vs. Raised Bog

Chemically similar to raised-bog peat (rain-fed, acidic, sphagnum-derived, mineral-poor) since both are ombrotrophic. The difference is geomorphological, not chemical: blanket bog peat tends to be shallower and more variable in depth/humification across a single deposit than the more uniformly deep, basin-grown profile of a raised bog, which has implications for consistent sourcing at commercial scale.