The Drentsche Aa valley system in the glacial sandy landscape of the north-eastern Netherlands, is one of the many regional drainage systems in the north-western to central European Lowlands. Following deep incision in the Weichselian, ca 7 m of eutrophic peat has accumulated in the lower to middle reaches of the valley system in the Holocene, completely filling the Weichselian incision. We reconstructed the rate of water-level rise controlling peat growth at three locations in the valley system (representing the upper, middle and lower reaches), using 14 C peat dates from compaction-free sampling sites on the sloping valley margin where the peat directly overlies the sandy Pleistocene subsurface. The 14 C dates enabled the construction of curves showing the water-level evolution at each location. Our results show variable rates of Holocene peat growth in the valley system in response to different drivers of hydrological change: a strong increase in annual precipitation (onset Holocene), a decrease in ...