woodland history conference

WOODLAND HISTORY CONFERENCE

NOTES XV

Woods as Working and Cultural Landscapes, Past and Present

FIFTEENTH MEETING

WEDNESDAY 27th

OCTOBER 2010 BIRNAM ARTS & CONFERENCE CENTRE,

BY DUNKELD, PERTHSHIRE

NWDG Woodland History Conference: Notes XV (2010)

i

A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S

The Native Woodlands Discussion Group is indebted to the undernoted for their sponsorship and

help in making the fifteenth meeting of the woodland history group a success:

ISSN 1470-0271

In 2010, the NWDG Woodland History Conference (formerly the Scottish Woodland History Discussion Group

conference) was organised by Mairi Stewart & Chris Smout, assisted by NWDG committee members Peter Quelch,

Jonathan Wordsworth & Coralie Mills.

Mairi Stewart is thanked most warmly for her many years as Notes editor; Mairi has handed the editorial baton to

Coralie from 2010. The administrative support provided by Margaret Richards for this and many previous conferences

is also gratefully acknowledged. Assistance with the conference by Ruth Anderson, Alison Averis and all the other

helpers is also much appreciated.

Front cover illus clockwise from Top Left: Re-cut ash pollard in Lake District (Angus Winchester); Pont

manuscript extract of Stobhall (Christopher Dingwall, reproduced by kind permission of the Trustees of the National

Library of Scotland); Enclosed oak wood near Moniaive (Archie McConnel); Ordnance Survey 1st Edition 6” map

extract of Rassal Ashwood (Thomas Cooper, reproduced by kind permission of the Trustees of the National Library

of Scotland).

University of

St Andrews


ii

Woods as Working and Cultural Landscapes, Past and Present

Edited by Coralie M Mills

© Native Woodlands Discussion Group 2011

© The papers, their individual authors 2011

CONTENTS

The fifteenth annual conference (now known as the „NWDG Woodland History Conference‟,

formerly known as the „Scottish Woodland History Discussion Group Conference‟) was held at

Birnam on Wednesday 27th

October 2010. The following papers were presented:

Page

INTRODUCTION

Chris Smout

iii

THE WOODS OF THE LAKE DISTRICT AS A CULTURAL LANDSCAPE

Angus J L Winchester (Department of History, Lancaster University)

1

WOODLANDS AT STOBHALL : CONTINUITY AND CHANGE

Christopher Dingwall (Independent Consultant)

6

DARNAWAY: THE AGONY AND ECSTASY OF MANAGING A SCOTTISH FOREST

Lord Doune (now Earl of Moray) (Moray Estates)

11

THOMAS CARLYLE, HARES AND RED MANGROVE : LEGISLATION AFFECTING THE

WOODLAND LANDSCAPES OF THE SOUTH WEST 1600-1900

Archie McConnel (McConnel Wood Products)

17

THE HISTORY OF WOODLAND DYNAMICS IN RELICT EAST GLEN AFFRIC PINEWOODS :

A LACK OF HUMAN IMPACT?

Helen Shaw (Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University)

22

RASSAL ASHWOOD NNR : EXPLORING THE CULTURAL DIMENSION

Thomas Cooper (Forestry Post-graduate, Bangor University)

29

HOW WOODLANDS FIT IN TO THE JOHN MUIR TRUST VISION

Helen McDade (Head of Policy, John Muir Trust)

35


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INTRODUCTION

Chris Smout

The 2010 NWDG Woodland History Conference (formerly known as the Scottish Woodland History Discussion

Group conference) took place on October 27th

, at the Birnam Conference Centre outside Dunkeld, about 50 members

attending. The topic was „Woods as Working and Cultural Landscapes, Past and Present’. Angus Winchester of

Lancaster University opened the day with a talk on the woods of the English Lake District, which perfectly

exemplified the theme. The Lakeland woods had been managed by the local farmers for a wide variety of purposes,

ranging from tanning, cooperage and basket making, to nutting and potash manufacture: ash pollards in particular

were valuable for leaf foddering, a practice curiously difficult to document in Scotland except occasionally for holly.

The oak woods were also much in demand for charcoal manufacture by the iron-masters of Furness (who also

operated in Argyll in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries) and later by bobbin makers from Lancashire. There was

often conflict between the farmers and the landowners who rented woods to iron-masters. Strong customary rights, of

a kind unknown in Scotland, limited the owners‟ freedom of action. Nevertheless, the landowners became increasingly

interested in commercial forestry from the late seventeenth century onwards, seeking to produce high quality timber.

Then their understandable wish to harvest it in prime condition led, from the middle of the eighteenth century, to

opposition from a new breed of objector, the aesthetic tourist who disliked seeing the picturesque ruined. These

conflicts continued through the Victorian saga of using the lakes for Lancashire‟s water supply, and in the inter-war

years the Forestry Commission‟s programme of planting the local hillsides up with conifers was opposed by the

National Trust, with partial success. Now events have run full cycle, with the Trust reintroducing ash pollarding on

their properties to demonstrate the cultural history of the trees.

This excellent start was followed up by Christopher Dingwall‟s account of the history of woodland management at

Stobhall outside Perth, which he had been tracing through various ownerships since the fifteenth century. Pleasure

and profit had always been significant motives, though with different weights at different times. The monks of Cupar

Angus used the woods as a hunting ground for the abbot, while also laying out the first rules for cutting, grazing and

fencing. Stuart kings hunted and flirted in the „pleasant forest‟, the Annexed Estates in the eighteenth century tried to

make money out of it, later owners had successively planted beech and Sitka, and were now turning back to native

trees. What was particularly striking was how the landscape itself clearly bore the trace of so many changes in sylvan

practice and fashion.

Lord Doune then told the tale from the perspective of an owner, whose family had had the „agony and the ecstasy‟ of

managing the great forest of Darnaway, 7500 acres, since the Middle Ages. Of the earliest wood the most striking

traces were the oaks fringing the Meads of St John, including one with the biggest girth in Scotland. There was also a

pristine tract of sessile oak, birch, holly, juniper and blaeberry, tucked away far from forest roads, only discovered to

be particularly interesting by Nature Conservancy surveyors in the 1980s („our eyes were opened‟). The eighteenth

century had seen big changes, with 13 million trees planted, used later for shipbuilding, tanning and bobbin

manufacture. The twentieth century experienced the heavy fellings of the two world wars, the move to softwoods, and

recently a shift back again to larch and hardwoods. Beech regeneration was a big and unwelcome problem where the

oldest parts of the woods were concerned. Darnaway‟s owners and foresters had over the centuries been through the

whole gamut of timber production, sporting use and landscape amenity, to which had been added in the last hundred

years concerns about recreation, ecology and recently even public health and spirituality. It is splendid that the forest

is in such sympathetic hands.

The morning session was completed by Archie McConnel, Dumfries saw-miller, who took us down to the south-west

to consider the effect of state law on the woods of one region. It was fascinating to follow how the law of unintended

consequences had had such an influence. Restriction on the Irish exports of live cattle in the seventeenth and

eighteenth centuries led both to an intensification of animal husbandry in Dumfries and Galloway (with obvious

impacts on woodlands) and to an enhanced demand for tanbark from the local oaks as the Irish turned to processing

their hides. With changes in tariffs, Scottish oak bark became less profitable, and twentieth century war and policy led

rather to the planting of softwoods on which saw-millers depend today. One fascinating diversion was to tell us how

the town council of Dumfries, in building their Mid-steeple in 1703, undertook what we would now call a cost-benefit

analysis to see if they should use Norway pine or local oak, and came down in favour of local wood.

After an excellent lunch on the premises, we assembled for the afternoon session led by Helen Shaw‟s account of her

palynological investigations into east Glen Affric in search of the dynamics of tree cover. Here, she suggested, cultural

landscapes and human interference were less evident than in most places. The wood had encroached in parts on open


iv

moorland, notably to the east and west. In the middle of the glen there were traces of cycles of pine and birch, but with

little trace of charcoal to indicate that fire was the agent. At the eastern end of the glen, now wooded, there had been

open land with repeated evidence of fire going back to the Iron Age, suggesting just how long muirburn might have

been practiced.

From Caledonian pine we moved to Thomas Cooper‟s account of Rassal ashwood, where, by contrast, there was every

sign of anthropogenic pressure in its history. The form of the trees in the wood pasture suggested a mixture of pollards

and standards. Most of them belonged to cohorts from 50 years either side of 1800 when the now-abandoned

settlement in the immediate proximity was still in its prime. Regeneration and grazing must have co-existed then

through some unrecorded form of management, which presumably involved close herding of the stock. This

marvellous wood, the most northerly ash-wood in Britain and a National Nature Reserve, needs a new management

plan to ensure its continued existence.

The afternoon‟s papers concluded with Helen McDade of the John Muir Trust explaining the Trust‟s vision of how

woods fit into their vision for wild places. The answer was complex, as there is a wide range of practice on their

properties, and many views both of locals and of the membership to take into account. The trust was suspicious of

overly academic attempts to define the wild, which led to a lively discussion in the session after tea, when we

discussed the relationship between the wild and the cultural, and attempted to come to terms with the day‟s events. It

had been a good meeting, the papers fitted in with each other in a happy and partly serendipitous way. We look

forward to further stimulating meetings in future years, and welcome all new members to join us: please see the Native

Woodlands Discussion Group website (www.nwdg.org.uk) for details.

http://www.nwdg.org.uk/


1

THE WOODS OF THE LAKE DISTRICT AS A CULTURAL LANDSCAPE

Angus J L Winchester

The modern distribution of „ancient‟ woodland in the Lake District exhibits a north-south contrast, the southern parts

of the modern National Park being noticeably more heavily wooded than the northern valleys. This pattern is usually

interpreted as reflecting the concentration of woodland-demanding industries in southern Cumbria, particularly the

Furness Fells area, from the late-medieval period. The key driver is seen as the iron industry, the application of water

power to bloomery forges in the 17th century and the introduction of blast furnaces from 1711 (which remained

charcoal-powered until the early 20th century) resulting in a persisting demand for charcoal, which surged in the 18th

century. Even as the number of ironworks declined across the 19th century, demand for coppice wood remained

buoyant for cotton bobbins – the woods of the Lake District becoming an outpost of the Lancashire cotton industry.

This paper sets the Furness coppice woods in a wider context, by examining the history of Lake District woodlands as

a whole from the late-medieval period to the 18th century, taking as a central theme the concept of woodland as a

contested resource, focusing on the tensions between customary use and commercial exploitation and also (from the

later 18th century) between „use‟ and „delight‟, as the Lake District came to be „discovered‟ by tourists.

1. CUSTOMARY USE OF WOODLAND IN THE CUMBRIAN DOMESTIC ECONOMY

From the medieval period, woodland was subject to a body of local law which determined the right use of, and

equitable access to, a community‟s resources. Customary use of woodland was governed by a framework of manorial

custom, central to which was a legacy from the status of most of the Lake District as private forest in the medieval

period, namely that trees were deemed to belong to the lord of the manor, even when growing on a tenant‟s holding.

On many manors a distinction was drawn between „woods of warrant’ – the more valuable timber (defined in Kendal

barony as oak, ash, holly and crab apple), to which tenants had limited access – and „underwood‟, to which tenants

had a more general right of access. Access to woods of warrant was strictly controlled by the lord of the manor:

tenants were required to apply to the bailiff for timber (for repair of houses etc.), who would assign one or more trees

for their use. Access to underwood, by contrast, was governed by concepts comparable to common rights. The

tenants often paid a notional sum of rent called „greenhew‟, which gave them rights to species such as hazel, alder,

and birch for fuel and other necessary uses. In some places „dales‟ (i.e. „doles, shares‟) of underwood were assigned

to individuals and rights to these were protected by the manor courts. In Windermere the court ordered in 1477 that

no one was to fell wood for fuel „in the woode assigned to his neighbur for croppynge butt ellers or byrkes’ and that

anyone who „fellid any wandes or spelkes in the daile of hes neighbur without leif or any greyne woode forfeittes vis

viiid.‟

The role of woodlands in the Lake District‟s pastoral economy was both multi-faceted and vital. As elsewhere in

upland Britain, trees formed an important source of winter fodder. When the tenants of Eskdale petitioned against the

destruction of woodland on their farms c.1640 (discussed below), top of the list of the benefits of trees on their

holdings was their role in „feedeing their Cattell in the Wintter seasone’ – a use reinforced by the numerous references

to „croppings‟, that is branches, particularly of ash and holly, cropped for fodder. Other uses of underwood

mentioned in the petition included making hedges and securing thatch (usually bracken thatch) with „spelkes‟ (slender

wands), requiring the crops of poles for which pollarding was ideally suited.

The ash pollards along hedgerows, one of the characteristic elements in the Lake District landscape, are a reminder of

the importance of ash as a fodder crop. But, by the 18th century, pollarding was seen as being detrimental to the

lord‟s interest. In Eskdale again, in 1718, the steward reported that trees growing on the tenants‟ farms were: „very

much abused by cutting of[f] the topes, their being not one in sixty with the top on. They are generly topt about 7 or

8 foot high. When the top is cut of[f], the tree generly takes water, and when they are watered it hinders them to

thrive‟.


2

Plate 1 Ancient ash pollard at Gillbrow Farm, Newlands valley. Typical of hedgerow pollards in farmland, this tree (which blew over a few years after this photograph was taken) had probably not been cropped since the late 19th century.

Plate 2 The Keskadale oaks, on the open fellside at the head of the Newlands valley. In the late 16th century the tenant at Keskadale combined farming with tanning, perhaps making use of oak bark from this woodland

A wide range of traditional crafts and industries were supported by woodland. Oak, which occurs widely in the Lake

District, yielded bark for tanning: in the Keswick area, for example, a deep-seated rural tanning industry is recorded.

Eight tanneries were recorded in the area in 1278 and a „tanning mill’ in the mid 15th century. Farmer-tanners

survived into the 16th century in Thornthwaite and Newlands. One of them, William Walthwaite, whose possessions

included leather (valued at £11), bark (25s.), three cisterns and a bark „mell‟ (mallet) when he died in 1574, lived at

Keskadale, at the head of Newlands valley, where a bank of unenclosed oak woodland, the Keskadale oaks, survives

today on the open hillside. Other woodland industries listed in the Furness area in 1537 included „bastyng‟ (making

coarse matting and swill baskets), „bleckyng‟ (i.e. „bleaching‟, burning potash for scouring textiles),

„byndyng‟(cooperage) and „making of Sadeltrees, Cartwheles, Cuppes, Disshes and many other thinges wrought by

Cowpers and Turners‟.

We sometimes catch glimpses of local woodland specialisms, as in Borrowdale, where the harvest of hazel nuts

appears to have formed a significant part of the local economy. Writing in 1687, Thomas Denton recorded the „great

plenty of Nuts in this dale upon their large hasyl trees, wherof the inhabitants make a profit, having a custome never

to gather any nuts there under a penalty untill a certain day after Michaelmas, when they all come generally with

long clubbs & beat them down from the trees (being full ripe), and then they all gather them from off the ground &

sell great quantities of them in the marketts.‟ This was clearly a communal harvest, probably overseen by the manor

court.

2. THE COMMERCIAL EXPLOITATION OF WOODLAND

Commercial demand for timber and charcoal and the desire of landowners to increase income from their estates led to

an increase in active woodland management across the early-modern centuries. Demand for charcoal as fuel for the

metal industries drove the movement towards coppice management. There is some evidence for lords bringing land,

which had formerly been leased out as wood pasture, back into hand to be managed for charcoal production in the

15th century: two enclosures on the western shore of Derwentwater, „Catbelclose‟ and „Scurlothyn Parke’, were

enclosed in 1454 to be sprung to yield charcoal for the local lead mines – and there was almost certainly a substantial

increase in coppicing in the Keswick area when lead- and copper-mining expanded under the Mines Royal from 1564.

By the mid-16th century there is ample evidence of coppice woods in southern Cumbria and records of coppices being

divided into „hags‟, enclosed sections of oak, ash and hazel cut on rotation. In the Kendal area in 1549 the „hags‟


3

were scattered through the tenants‟ lands but the cost of walling them was borne by the lord, confirming that this was

lordly exploitation for commercial ends.

Plate 3 Charcoal platform (or 'pitstead') at Great Bank Coppice, Miterdale, an oak coppice replanted with conifers in the 1960s.

By the 17th century there is also evidence of active management for timber production. One early proponent of

forestry in the Lake District appears to have been Sir Wilfred Lawson (d. 1688) of Isel, an estate described by Thomas

Denton as being „plentifully stored with large timber wood and other woods’. Lawson had „raised portions for all his

younger children‟ (he had five sons and eight daughters!) out of the woods on his three Lake District manors.

Denton‟s comment that „he takes so great care to spring those falls of wood, that they rise and grow much streighter

and taller then before‟ suggests that Lawson was an active forester, managing his woods for profit, probably by

singling to grow timber from coppice stools.

The growing commercial exploitation generated tensions with the tenants‟ customary use of woodland. Customary

tenantright restricted a landowner‟s ability to maximise the „improvement‟ possibilities of his estate, since he could

not bring customary land into his own hand unless he bought out the tenant‟s tenantright. One consequence of this

was continuing and growing tension between lords and tenants over woodland resources into the 18th century, as lords

insisted on exercising their rights over woods on their tenants‟ farms, by selling it to ironmasters or timber merchants,

for example.

A vivid example of the impact of the demand for charcoal comes from the Eskdale area, where a new bloomery forge

was built at Muncaster Head in the 1630s. In 1639 the earl of Northumberland, lord of manors of Eskdale, Miterdale

and Wasdale, sold 1000 trees „standing and growing in and upon [those] manors, grounds and lordships‟ to the

ironmasters – only young trees under 10 inches in circumference at two feet above ground were excepted. The

ironmasters were also given the right to make charcoal platforms („pitsteads‟) and to „get, dig and delve sods earth

and mould‟ to cover them. This was wholesale tree-stripping on the tenants‟ farmland, with destructive consequences.

The response of the tenants was to petition the earl, claiming that the sale of the woods ‘tendes to the utter ruine of

your poore tenauntes ... and of their posteritie‟. They cited the importance of woods for winter fodder for cattle, for

house and bridge building, for repair of fences and thatching and feared that „there will be no woodes left in the

countrie with this wastfull and uncharitable burneinge‟. They also complained that the ironmasters refused to

compensate them for damage done „in throweinge downe their walles, spoyleing their hedges, and cutteinge up their

groundes for cover for their coalepitts‟ and that the charcoal-makers were cutting down „as well the groweinge

plantes and younge siplinges as the elder woodes, thereby to cut of[f] all hopes of woodes to growe in those groundes

afterward for ever‟ (Cumbria Record Office, D/Lec, box 265). The impression of this detailed petition is that the earl

was engaged in asset-stripping, a „slash and burn‟ approach for short-term gain, which was to the detriment of the

tenants and their customary rights. There is little evidence of attempts at sustainable management and no indication

that this charcoal production involved coppice management.


4

Similar confrontations are recorded from the mid-18th century. John Pennington, lord of Muncaster, attempted to

deny his tenants‟ rights to „woods of warrant’ in a dispute which culminated in a sale of timber to two ships‟

carpenters from Whitehaven in 1752, which allowed them to cut down all wood growing on the tenants‟ farms. The

case came to court and in this case the tenants‟ rights were upheld in law. Other disputes included one at Braithwaite

& Coledale, near Keswick, in 1757, where the lord had sold trees in the tenants‟ hedgerows for pit props in the west

Cumberland coalmines, and at Bassenthwaite in 1759, where the lord sold all the timber on his tenants‟ estates for

charcoal (Searle 1986). Ultimately, these tensions were resolved through the enfranchisement of tenant holdings (i.e.

by the tenants buying out the freehold interest) which gathered pace from the mid-18th century. This had the effect of

disentangling the competing rights of lord and tenant in woodland on the tenants‟ farms.

3. ‘USE’ VERSUS ‘DELIGHT’: WOODLANDS AND THE ‘DISCOVERY’ OF THE LAKE DISTRICT

The middle decades of the 18th century saw the beginnings of the tensions between the commercial exploitation of

woodlands and aesthetics, which persist today. In the Lake District, this became an area of contest at a comparatively

early date, as the area was „discovered‟ by tourists from the 1750s. One of the first expressions of this tension was the

outcry that accompanied the felling of timber at Crow Park, Keswick, c.1750. Thomas Denton had commented in the

1680s on what appeared to be a striking stand of oak beside the lake: „By Derwent-water side there grows the loveliest

grove of large oak trees, all of an equall hight & bigness, each tree being worth £5 at the least; the whole wood being

worth £1,000‟. The wood at Crow Park was felled by contractors after the trees were sold by Greenwich Hospital, to

whom the former Lord Derwentwater‟s estate had passed in 1737. The felling became a cause celèbre, long-

remembered in the Keswick area and blackening the name of Greenwich Hospital. It was an iconic moment in the

Lake District, where the aesthetics of a wider elite collided with the property rights of the owners of woodland. By

the 1790s the impact of coppicing and timber extraction on the picturesque scenery was being noted more generally.

Footnotes were added to descriptions of the beauty of scenery „cloathed in wood’, for example on the west bank of

Derwentwater: a note to the 5th (1793) edition of Thomas West‟s Guide to the Lakes (first published 1778) read

„There is one impediment attends [West’s] descriptions ... and that is the annual fall of timber and coppice wood’ .

The consequence of the felling of woodland on the western bank of the lake was said by another commentator to be

that „the lake is deprived of one of its chief ornaments‟.

Plate 4 Re-cut ash pollard in the Newlands valley, part of a National Trust initiative to restore traditional woodland management on their properties in the Lake District

The story of the Lake District‟s semi-natural woodlands since the medieval period illustrates the effect of changing

cultural paradigms on the use and exploitation of woodland, as the transition from one dominant perception to another

results in contests over the right use of resources. Two such transitions have been touched on in this paper: first, that

from the customary uses of woodland in support of the domestic economy of local communities to the commercial

exploitation of woods, in the context of growing demand for both charcoal and timber during the age of

„improvement‟; and, second, that from the era of improvement to awakening of an aesthetic and conservation ethos in

the later 18th century. In recent years, the story has come full circle, as the landscape heritage of customary use of


5

woodland in the Lake District is being actively preserved, notably by the National Trust, which has taken a lead in re-

establishing pollarding rotations on hedgerow ash after c.100 years of neglect.

FURTHER READING

Bowden, M (ed.) 2000 Furness Iron: the physical remains of the iron industry and related woodland industries in

Furness and south Lakeland (London: English Heritage).

Denton, T 2003 A Perambulation of Cumberland, 1687-8, including descriptions of Westmorland, the Isle of Man

and Ireland (ed. AJL Winchester with M Wane), Surtees Society Vol. 207 (Woodbridge: Boydell).

Parsons, M 1997 'The woodland of Troutbeck and its exploitation to 1800', Transactions of Cumberland &

Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society, new series 97, 79-100.

Searle, CE 1986 „Custom, class conflict and agrarian capitalism: the Cumbrian customary economy in the eighteenth

century‟, Past & Present 110, 106-133.

Winchester, AJL 1987 Landscape & Society in Medieval Cumbria (Edinburgh: John Donald), Chapter 6 („Woodland

and Water‟).


6

WOODLANDS AT STOBHALL : CONTINUITY AND CHANGE

Christopher Dingwall

Today‟s talk has its origins in work which I was commissioned to do on the history of the woodland at Stobhall, near

Perth, intended to inform future woodland management on the estate. For those not familiar with this area, the old

house of Stobhall lies on the east bank of the River Tay, almost exactly halfway between Dunkeld and Perth. Brief

mention will be made in my talk of other nearby places such as Kinclaven and Cargill, a mile or so to the north on

opposite banks of the Tay, and the settlement of Coupar Angus, six or seven miles to the north-east, all of which have

a part to play in the story.

Those of you who know of my past work as Conservation Officer with the Garden History Society will not be

surprised to learn that my talk is concerned with what are best described as „policy‟ woodlands, being the Scottish

term for the landscapes and planting associated with high status houses. In searching the records for the earliest use of

this term in connection with woodlands, it is a curious coincidence that this turns out to occur in 1540 in Sinclair‟s

Practicks, a 16th century legal document, in a case concerning woodland on the estate of Kinclaven, where the Crown

was in dispute with the lessees of the wood. I should be very interested to know if anyone has come across an earlier

use of the term „policies‟ than this in the course of their research.

Extract from Pont 26, Lower Angus & Perthshire East of the Tay, c.1595 Reproduced by kind permission of the Trustees of the National Library of Scotland

Nearly contemporary with Sinclair‟s Practicks are the manuscript maps compiled by Timothy Pont c.1595 – with Pont

25 marking the aforementioned lands of Kinclaven on the west bank of the Tay, and Pont 26 depicting the lands of

Stobhall on the east bank of the Tay, flanked to the north by those of Cargill, and to the south by those of Campsie and

Scone. The house and lands of Stobhall and Cargill, which had been granted to Richard de Montfiquet (or Montifex)

by King William I at the end of the 12th century, subsequently came into the ownership of the Drummond family in

1356 through the marriage of Sir John Drummond to the daughter of William de Montfiquet. Thereafter, Stobhall

served for more than a century as the principal residence of that family until Sir John Drummond of Cargill built

Drummond Castle, by Crieff, in the 1490s. It is clear from both the tree symbols and the place names marked on Pont

26 – East Wood, Woodhead – that there was a fair amount of wood in the area at the time of Pont‟s survey.

Immediately to the south, between Stobhall and Scone, lay the lands of Campsie, formerly in the ownership of the

nearby Cistercian Abbey of Coupar Angus, which had been founded in 1162 by King Malcolm IV, elder brother of

King William I. In the surviving abbey records, dating back to the 15th century, there is mention of a chapel, together

with a house or „mansion‟ at Campsie, for the use of the abbot and monks. In 1443 there is a record of a tack or lease

of the Wood of Campsie made to one David Davidson, who was described as „forester‟ to the abbey. We know that in

1460 Thomas Robertson and David Anderson were fined for the destruction and sale of timber from the wood. And


7

yet another tack of 1474 saw Robert Pullour being granted half the fishings of Campsie, where he was also permitted

to inhabit the abbot‟s mansion, and to graze his cattle in the west part of the Wood of Campsie.

One can walk down to the Linn of Campsie today, where traces still survive of the chapel and mansion, dedicated to

St Adamnan. Here in 1551, less than ten years before the havoc wrought on Scotland‟s religious houses by the

Reformation, a tack was granted to one Alexander McBreck, who had responsibility for ‘…deviding of owar wod of

Campsy … be sufficient dykys for the hayning, conseruatioun and keping of ilk part fra the destruction of ony beist

habill to destroy the wod’ ; ‘…for the constructioun, bygging and reforming of our said place, [including] hall,

chapell, chalmer, kychyn, baikhouss and brewhouss’ ; and for the Abbot and brethren ‘…als oft as it sal happyn ws

or any ane of ws … come thairto, furnist with fower fedder beddys, fowr uthiris beddys, conuenient for seruandis,

with all the syndry necessarys conuenient to the saidis auoht beddis ; and attour fynand burd clathis, towallys, pottys,

pannis, platis, dischis, and vtheris necessarys…‟, not to mention putting fires in at 24 hours notice before visits.

The site of the chapel and mansion of Campsie, where are the remains of substantial stone structures is now a

Scheduled Ancient Monument, while in the nearby woods are the traces of old stone dykes, very much degraded and

overgrown, but possibly those dating from the enclosures created in monastic times.

The woods of neighbouring Stobhall also feature in the love poem Tayis Bank, dating from c.1500, attributed to

James IV of Scotland. This poem is said to be in praise of Margaret Drummond, James‟ true love and mistress prior

to his arranged marriage with Margaret Tudor. The poem is preserved in the so-called Bannatyne Manuscript, some

800 pages of late medieval poetry collected and transcribed by George Bannatyne of Newtyle in the 1560s, while

plague raged in Edinburgh.

A paradyce that place but peir / Was plesant to my sicht ; / Of forrest, and of fresch reveir, / Of firth, and fowl of

flicht (…) Joy was within and joy without, / Under that vnlenkest waw, / Quhair Tay ran down with Stremis stout /

Full strecht under Stobschaw.

Incidentally, poor Margaret Drummond seems to have paid with her life, as she was poisoned, along with her two

sisters c.1502.

Although Sir John Drummond had moved the family seat to Drummond Castle in the 1490s, Stobhall was retained as

a dower house or second residence. So it was that in 1610, not long after the secularisation of the of the abbey lands

of Coupar Angus, Sir James Drummond of Stobhall was able to add the lands and woods of Campsie to those of

Stobhall and Cargill. On John Adair‟s Map of Strathearn of 1683 we see Stobhall depicted as a high status house

with walled gardens and small wooded park, with two large blocks of broadleaved woodland to the south and east.

The same features are evident on Roy‟s Military Survey of c.1750, which shows surrounding land as an unenclosed

mixture of grazing and cultivation, and the surviving woodland apparently enclosed by stone walls and managed as

plantation, save for a narrow strip of natural wood lining the river bank. By this time the estate woodland was under

Government control, following the attainder of James Drummond, 2nd Duke of Perth, in the wake of his support for

the Old Pretender, James the III and VIII. That said, Drummond‟s widow Jean was allowed to remain in the house as

liferenter until her death in 1773, where it seems that she continued to have an active part in the ongoing management

of the estate.

It is thanks to the attainder placed on James Drummond that that we get a clear picture of the condition of the Stobhall

woodland in the 18th century, from the reports made to the Commissioners of the Annexed Estates. A report compiled

by John Campbell of Barcaldine c.1755 indicates that the woods were being managed as coppice – thus ‘…The woods

and planting upon this barony are quite ripe for cutting and, as woods are scarce in that country, they will probably

sell to their full value …[However] it does not appear by the present growth that they have been well taken care of

when they were young, and it is plain that they suffered greatly in the 1745, 1746 & 1747, and are suffering daily,

notwithstanding of all the care that it’s possible to take of them.‟

A second report compiled by Archibald Menzies of Culdares c.1765, suggests that the woods had not fared well in the

intervening decade. „There are pretty extensive woods upon this barony, but mostly consisting of stinted birch. At

last cutting it yielded but 700 bolls of oak bark. There are some ashes coming up from the stools of last cutting

[which] would require to be thinned by a judicious hand. Quantities of more valuable timber might be planted

amongst the birch lately cut, as they would serve to nurse them up.‟, adding that ‘…Great havoc has been made

amongst the woods and planted timber at Stobhall by the Strelitz colony‟. This last reference was to the planned

village of Strelitz, near Burrleton, which had been established as a „colony‟ for soldiers discharged from military


8

service at the end of the Seven Years War in 1763. Further depredations were noted by Menzies in a supplement to

his report, made in the following year.

In spite of these depredations the impression given by the only contemporary historical picture of Stobhall to have

come down to us, a drawing made by John Clerk of Eldin c.1785, is of a well-wooded landscape around the house, at

least. It was about this time that the lands of Stobhall were restored to the Drummond family, who soon began a

programme of enclosure and new planting. In his Statistical Account for the Parish of Cargill (1793) Rev. J.P.

Bannerman was able to report that;

‘…This parish exhibits a surface diversified by wood and water, and variegated by ascents and declivities … if

improvements go on as they are doing at present it will be soon all under cultivation, and laid out in regular

enclosures … In former times, the Parish of Cargill abounded with wood much more than it does at present … There

are at present about 400 acres of planted wood, mostly Scotch firs ; and upwards of 100 acres of coppice, or natural

woods, consisting chiefly of birch and oak.’

Reduced plan of the Barony of Stobhall c.1820 – Drummond Castle Archives

James Drummond, having regained the property and title of the Earl of Perth, died in 1800, and was succeeded by his

daughter, the Hon. Clementina Sarah Drummond. In 1807 she married the Hon. Peter Robert Drummond Burrell,

eldest son of Lord Gwydir and Baroness Willoughby d‟Eresby. It is their names which appear together on the

Reduced Plan of Stobhall c.1820, by which time the present-day landscape of roads, houses, fields, plantations etc.

had been more or less established. Sadly larger-scale plans, hinted at in the title of this plan, do not appear to have

survived.

With the coming of the Ordnance Survey in 1863, and the publication of maps at a scale of 1:2,500 (25 inches to the

mile), we can get an even clearer picture of the distribution and composition of woodlands at Stobhall, supplemented

in some cases by the notes kept by the surveyors in the so-called Object Name Books.

The mid-19th century saw Stobhall and its woods extolled once more in verse by local poet David Millar with the

publication of his composition The Tay : A Poem in 1850.

… Away, away / Sole empress of thy will, fair Tay ! / Thine is no vulgar course today, / Nor ever was. There sits the

queen, / Rock-perched, of all this forest scene. / High tower her ancient walls, but ne’er / May might arrest thy high

career ; / Nor would old Stobhall, though she could, / Baulk thy wild wanderings, noble flood …

We are also fortunate, in this part of the world, to have Thomas Hunter‟s account of the Woods, Forest and Estates of

Perthshire (1883), which points to continuing investment on the estate throughout much of the 19th century. Hunter


9

describes the house at Stobhall as being surrounded by ‘…a wealth of timber both old and young.‟ Mention is made

of several large silver fir and larch trees, together with some a few Scots pine trees, including one particularly large

specimen in Pleasance Wood. Hunter also talks of good specimens of hardwoods, singling out one lime and one

poplar tree for special attention, but concludes his account by saying that ‘…there are many good beech, oak and ash

trees, but none of them exceptionally large.‟

A period of comparative neglect followed in the first half of the 20th century, when the house and estate became

surplus to the Drummond family‟s requirements, and were put on a care and maintenance regime. Following the sale

of the northern and southern parts of the estate, the historic „core‟ of the estate remained, to be bought by the 17th Earl

of Perth from his Drummond kinsmen in 1953. Descriptions of the various lots in the sale particulars provides us with

another useful fix, the estate being described as ‘…well timbered, and offering a fine selection of soft and hard woods,

principally oak, and thriving plantations, some of which will shortly be coming into maturity … [also] a quantity of

valuable field and hedgerow timber, again mainly oak.‟

The 17th Earl of Perth set about re-vitalising the estate woodlands, by felling much of the old 19th century oak and

underplanting it with commercial conifers, encouraged by Forestry Commission Grants at the time – many of the

principal plantations being included in the FC‟s Dedication Scheme, or in subsequent grant schemes.

Old oak – one of a few veteran trees on Stobhall Estate

Given the continuous and well-documented history of the woodlands at Stobhall, from late medieval times to the

preset day, I had hoped to find significant remnants of earlier planting. It is disappointing, therefore, to report that

evidence of this sort is hard to find, with veteran trees being few and far between – the few noteworthy examples

being a curious old holly coppice and a huge Scots pine within a plantation known as the Pleasance, a line of old oak

pollards in one of the fields, and the remains of a huge multi-stemmed oak on the riverbank below the house.

In spite of this, in walking the plantations at Stobhall, as I have done, one is conscious of being within a complex and

many layered cultural landscape, characterised by numerous features such as old banks, ditches, and abandoned roads,

dating back to Roman times. Away from the public road, amidst well cultivated fields and commercial planting there

are undisturbed pockets of great natural beauty and tranquillity, where one can feel connected with these earlier

phases in its history.

Stobhall is a landscape where it can be demonstrated from documentary and other evidence that parts have been

continuity of woodland cover and active management over several hundred of years. At the same time it is a


10

landscape of change, in which, to ensure its survival, the woodland has had to adapt itself to constantly changing

economic circumstances.

WRITTEN SOURCES

Bannerman, JP, Sinclair, Sir J ed. 1793 [Old] Statistical Account of Scotland for the Parish of Cargill, Edinburgh Campbell, J of Barcaldine, c.1755 Of the Barony of Stobhall, manuscript report to the Commissioners of the Annexed

Estates, NAS Ref. E729/2

Hunter, T 1883 Woods, Forests and Estates of Perthshire, Perth

James IV, King c.1500 „Tayis Bank‟ in Bannatyne Manuscript, NLS Adv.MS.1.1.6

Menzies, A of Culdares c.1765 Barony of Stobhall, manuscript report to the Commissioners of the Annexed Estates,

NAS Ref. E729/8

Millar, D 1850 The Tay : A Poem, Perth

Rogers, C ed. 1879-1880 The Register of Coupar Angus Abbey, Grampian Club, 2 Vols. London

Sinclair, J Not Dated Sinclair’s Practicks, Unpublished MS edited by Murray, A.L. for the Stair Society

Wood & Co, JD Stobhall Estate Sale Particulars 1953

MAPS Anon. Reduced Plan of Stobhall Drummond Estate Archives : ND (probably c.1820)

Adair, J Mappe of Straithern, Stormont & Cars of Gourie, c.1785 : NLS Ref. Adv. MS 70.2.11 (Adair 2)

Forestry Commission, Dedication Scheme : Plan1956

Ordnance Survey 1:10,560 Perthshire, Sheet LXXIV, 1864

Ordnance Survey 1:2,500 Perthshire, Sheet LXXIV, 6,7.10,11 and 13, 1864

Pont, T Lower Strathtay from Dunkeld to Benchil, c.1595 : NLS Ref. Adv. MS70.2.9 (Pont 25)

Pont, T Lower Angus and Perthshire East of the Tay, c.1595 : NLS Ref. Adv. MS.70.2.9 (Pont 26)

Roy. W Military Survey of Scotland, c.1747 BL Ref. Roy Map 17.3.f

Wood & Co, JD Plan of the Stobhall Estate, 1953 in Sale Particulars


11

DARNAWAY: THE AGONY AND ECSTASY OF MANAGING A SCOTTISH FOREST

Lord Doune (now Earl of Moray)

I started my talk to the NWDG Woodland History Conference by referring to a serendipitous incident that occurred in

Darnaway forest last summer. An acquaintance was walking through the forest when he came across a glade of beech

trees of such exquisite beauty that he broke down in tears. When the story was relayed to me, I likewise, shed a

couple of tears but more from frustration than anything else. The reason why will become apparent later and sheds a

little light on why managing a forest today can be full of contradictions.

The Glade of Tears

Darnaway Forest currently forms part of the significant band of forest that extends between moors and farms, parallel

to the south shore of the Moray Firth. Morayshire has the largest area of semi-natural woodland in the UK and the

ground currently forested is probably larger than at any time since the Middle Ages.

Why an area of forest at Darnaway was spared during wholesale forest clearances of the Middle Ages is not clear,

perhaps even then it was valued for the quality of its timber. By the 12th Century Darnaway was a royal Scottish

possession, possibly annexed from the Pictish Royal House. Edward I bestowed 40 Darnaway oaks to the High

Church of Caithness and trees from the forest were used in the construction of many other great medieval buildings,

such as Dornoch Cathedral and Stirling Castle. Included amongst these was the roof of Randolph‟s Hall at Darnaway

dated by dendrochronological analysis to 1387, thus making it the earliest surviving roof of its type in Britain. The

oldest tree from the 20 samples taken for the analysis was 420 years old when it was felled thus indicating that there

was some kind of forest cover at Darnaway in the 10th Century and that the forest was in some way protected from at

least then onwards.

The descendants of these original trees still grow along the banks of the Findhorn. One in particular, which grows at

the Meads of St John, has the largest girth, (33 feet in circumference), of any hardwood tree in Scotland and is one of

the country‟s „hundred heritage trees‟.


12

Darnaway Oak

It is also conceivably the oldest oak tree in Scotland with one survey suggesting an age of 730 years though this has

been disputed in others. The roof trusses in Randolph‟s Hall, resembling an inverted Viking longship in

configuration, are embellished with carvings which provide cultural reference points to the relationship between the

Hall, its builders and the Forest in the 14th Century. The breadth of subject matter is startling, everything from the

heads of kings and queens to a priapic homunculus in a state of great excitement. There is an image of a man hunting

what is perhaps a wolf with a bow and arrow, mysterious Gemini figures and forest birds seemingly pecking at seeds.

Fantastical dragon heads peer down at oblique angles, again invoking the Vikings and the figured prows of their long

ships.

Randolph’s Hall

That the forest had significance beyond timber production and hunting in the C15th is illustrated by Sir Richard

Holland‟s „Buke of the Howlat (owl)‟. Holland was Chamberlain to Archibald Douglas, Earl of Moray and in c1450

wrote his political polemic based on analogies with the forest at Darnaway and its wildlife inhabitants. The Douglas

tenure at Darnaway was short lived and, with the fall of the house of Douglas in 1455, James II regained control of it

for the royal house. It is said that the medieval forest wall that defined the extent of the royal hunting forest was

constructed at around this time. It enclosed approximately 1500 acres between the Castle and the river, portions of

which still exist, and it is likely that at this point the forest was at its smallest ever extent.


13

In the early 16th Century James IV kept his mistress „Flaming Janet‟ Kennedy and their young son at Darnaway where

the joys of hunting and other pleasures were indulged. The trunk of an ancient beech tree still exists at Darnaway, not

long dead and still standing, which, according to one recent survey, was a sapling in the 1530s - not many years after

King James and his fellow „Flowers of the Forest‟ lay trampled on Flodden Field. By 1843 the beech was 50 feet high

and 17 feet in girth. Beech trees thrive at Darnaway, which is one of the principal reasons why management decisions

in the forest currently can be agonising, a factor which I will elaborate on later.

Big Beech

The 9th Earl of Moray inherited the Darnaway in 1760 and commissioned Thomas Winter to survey it, thus resulting

in our earliest Estate map. The survey paved the way for a major program of afforestation that saw the planting of

1,114,260 oaks, 727,290 ash, elm and beech and 10,346,000 Scots pine between 1767 and 1810. As a result the extent

of the forest increased to almost its current size of 4500 acres.

By the 1960s most of the wartime clear fell areas had been re-planted and forest management settled into a new

formula. The previous larch sites were converted to Douglas fir, wetter areas were planted with Sitka spruce and pine

remained the principal species of choice everywhere else. With the value of hardwoods becoming ever less,

encroachments were regularly made into the original hardwood areas as part of their conversion to softwood. The

forest philosophy in those days was pretty straight forward and was based on the post war ethos of the maximisation

of commercial forest output. With regard to the hardwood areas beech was the easiest species to manage; it naturally

regenerated everywhere, needed little tending and looked beautiful when mature.

Little did the family anticipate at this time the changes and pressures that would soon make managing the forest much

more challenging and interesting. These changes can be grouped under three broad categories: access, conservation

and spirituality.

With regard to access, in 1976 Darnaway hosted the World Orienteering Championships and the estate has hosted

many orienteering events since. Also in the 1970s Volvo used the forest to launch a new luxury car; quiet forest rides

became temporary race tracks as Volvos sped around in their attempts to impress discerning motor journalists.

Pressure for access increased rapidly and by the early 1980s a series of public footpaths were laid out in the forest.

Nowadays these form part of the Core Path Network and the preference for quiet and solitude by many rare species

has to be juxtaposed with joggers, ramblers, horse riders and mountain bikers. For the first time in many centuries the

howls of wild(ish) dogs can be heard in the forest as it is now the popular venue for Siberian husky racing. Adventure

sports are making an appearance and on most days during the summer kayaks and flotillas of inflatable rafts ride the

foamy white water of the Gorge.


14

With regard to environmental concerns, during the 1980s a reaction began against intensive commercial forest

practices and people‟s eyes were opened to the damage being inadvertently inflicted on fragile eco-systems. The

Nature Conservancy Council surveyed the Findhorn Gorge and quickly designated it a SSSI. Of the many important

ecological features noted perhaps of greatest interest was a remote area near the river which had all the characteristics

of forest which had never been influenced by man. The critical combination of oak, pine, juniper, blaeberry and

heather provided a poignant glimpse of how much of Scotland must once have looked. Having never before looked

twice at the area its importance and vulnerability was revealed to us, especially when it became evident that it was

threatened by the encroachment of young beech saplings.

Dunearn Wildwood

A realisation dawned that the Darnaway beech trees were perhaps not entirely desirable after all. Up to that point

there was a blissful ignorance of any damage they were causing. It was a revelation that the ascetic beauty of a stand

of beech trees could equally well be regarded as an „arboreal desert‟ on a par with the most intensive Sitka spruce

plantation. The dense beech canopy prevents the growth of both an understory of shrubs and ground vegetation

leaving a seemingly sterile forest floor of dead leaves. In a complete reversal of previous hardwood management, a

new policy of converting beech areas to oak and other indigenous species was instigated. This brings me back to the

start of these notes and the anecdote of the weeping man in the beech glade - this was an area we had our eye on to be

clear felled and re-planted with oak. Oh the agony!


15

Beech Encroachment

By the turn of the new century, interest in the forest intensified and fragmented into ever more specific interests and

concerns. It became too complicated to just look at the forest as a whole or to sub-divide it into one or simple facets,

i.e. commercial forest versus amenity. Single issue concerns reared their heads in the national conscience to the extent

that they required their own unique solutions when applied at forests like Darnaway.

The plight of the iconic Capercaillie has become an acute concern. From once having numbered several hundred

individuals the population, over the relatively short period of perhaps 20 years, inexplicably crashed to just a couple

of dozen. Wet weather in the breeding season, egg predation, tick infestation and habitat loss were among the

suspects. In 2005 most of the forest was designated a Special Protection Area and forest practices adjusted

accordingly.

The success of one species often seems to be at the expense of another. In 1926 the Head Forester drew particular

attention to the devastation caused in the forest by the out-of-control population of red squirrels; he could hardly have

imagined that ninety years later their very existence would be threatened by the predations of the ever more numerous

pine marten and the pending arrival of pox-riddled greys. Among other myriad concerns is the seeming collapse of the

adder population, the disappearance of the wildcat and the threat of tree diseases such as „sudden oak death‟.

In recent years mycological groups have regularly surveyed the forest for fungi and lepidopterists studied the diversity

of local moth populations, often looking for individual species for which they have a particular concern. Last year the

hunt was on for the Maiden‟s Blush, which has not been seen in the forest since 1986. Likewise ornithologists prowl

the forest looking for ospreys, peregrine falcons, hobbys and honey buzzards. If something special is discovered,

locations are often kept secret and it is one of the great pleasures of managing a place like Darnaway in being party to

the secret location of, for example, Scotland‟s only breeding pair of „something special‟.

As people‟s expectations rise terminology used to define objectives are subtly changing, „sustainable‟ is no longer

sufficient and ecosystems should now be no less than „resilient‟. Resilience however comes at both an actual and an

opportunity cost. For example, the process of establishing hardwoods is an expensive, long term commitment and

ground is removed from income-producing commercial production. Likewise, the easiest and cheapest season to

extract timber is in the spring; this is now no longer possible owing to the risk of disturbing Cappercaillie leks. The

financial viability of the commercial forestry, besides paying staff wages and providing an income for the family, is

essential for providing funds for conservation efforts.

As interest in the forest expands in both breadth and depth one might expect opinions, requirements and expectations

to become ever more polarised; however this doesn‟t appear to be the case. In recent years views have become less

trenchant, there is more empathy and more people have multiple overlapping interests that transcend the old

boundaries, a far cry from the 1980s.


16

The spiritual dimension of the forest is a new and growing phenomenon. An early harbinger of this emanated from the

nearby Findhorn Community, founded in 1962 and arguably the oldest extant New Age community in the world. By

the 1970s minibuses would regularly appear from Findhorn at disparate spots in the forest; hirsute cosmopolitan folk

would disgorge themselves and, much to the incredulity of the locals, were soon to be glimpsed engaging intimately,

on both the spiritual and physical level, with the guileless trees.

In the Thomas Winter map of 1760, almost invisible to the naked eye, is marked the Witches Well, a spring rising on

a bank above the Meads of St John. Who the witches were is a long forgotten mystery but the name points to an

ancient pagan presence in the forest. Today it is not unusual to find cairns and strange offerings in the forest as

discombobulated people connect to something they regard as more tangibly spiritual than conventional religion. In

our increasingly confused world people are perhaps rediscovering a resonance with the forest the significance of

which would have been unquestioned by the witches in the dim and distant past.

Meads of St John

Sometimes I feel more like the unwitting proprietor of a spiritual sanctuary than a forest owner. The estate was

recently approached by a woodland burial company looking for an area of forest to expand its business and last year

the estate was delighted to provide the site for a Native American tree dancing festival held over the course of a week.

I was the honoured guest at the Peace Pipe ceremony and watched with my children as the dancers supplicated

themselves energetically round their chosen Spirit Tree. The tree, standing proud at the centre of a leaf-strewn glade,

was tall with a magnificent crown and was, needless to say, a beech!


17

THOMAS CARLYLE, HARES AND RED MANGROVE : LEGISLATION AFFECTING THE

WOODLAND LANDSCAPES OF THE SOUTH WEST 1600-1900

Archie McConnel

„Maeth logh scal land byggaes‟ (With Law shall land be built): Jutland 1241.

1

There are two types of law when it comes to woodland in the landscape: that of local custom and right, and that which

is handed down via the state apparatus. When cattle and sheep became a large-scale industry in Dumfries and

Galloway in the 17th

century it had been encouraged by various legislation. Similarly, when we look at the growth of

coppice woodland at the end of the 18th

century and into the second half of the 19th

we find the industry supported by

legislation.

The legislation is fourfold; The Union of the Crowns and Parliaments, The Irish Cattle Acts, Acts of Enclosure and

the Acts for the Encouragement of Leather Working. Concentrating on oak, being the predominant economic species,

I shall outline the documented evidence for woodland in the South West and then indicate the legislation that

prompted it and show how this began to change over the course of the next two centuries.

Pont‟s maps (1590s) include Nithsdale only. This map along with General Roy‟s later map (1750s) confirm that the

majority of woodland was growing along the rivers while the hills were in the main bare even of scrub, apart from the

less accessible „boscy hillside’.2 Virtually all written evidence, subsequent to Pont, reports on woodland that is within

an easy haul to the riverbank and transport. The maps of „semi-natural ancient woodland‟ for the area also concur

with this riparian habit. Even with the inaccuracies of early mapping there seems to be no reason to suppose most

woodland to have been in places other than the river valleys in this period.

There are 37 deeds from the National Archives of Scotland that refer to the cutting and extraction of timber dating

from 1611 to 1753.3 They concentrate on the rivers; mainly the Nith and the Cree with later interest around Canonbie

and Langholm in the 18th

century; only two of the 37 that concern the Dee and Glenkens. Several industries are

mentioned including mining (mainly near Sanquhar), tanning (mentions of bark are ubiquitous), house construction

(raft and upshot, later rather than earlier), and one directly mentioning smelting (Canonbie).

Garlies Wood near Creetown

A late 17th

century manuscript 4 mentions a number of woodlands. Amongst them are Shirmers on the side of Loch

Ken, Earlston near Dalry that was in the „middle of a very great wood‟, and Kenmure near New Galloway had „a

wood of great oaks‟. It continues „Garlies castle stands in the midst of a very fine oak wood pertaining to the earls,


18

who also have another oak (wood) in this parish lying upon the water of the Cree two miles above the kirk and toun.

This wood will be more than two or three miles in length and hath good timber in it from whence the greater part of

the shire of Wigton furnished all timber for building of their houses and other uses‟. This argues in favour of some

form of consistent management, probably including planting, grazing management and controlled felling.

The Deeds from the Creetown areas confirm this to be the case with several deeds, the earliest being 1633.

Enclosures are demanded by the land owners and typically the woodland utiliser is required „to bigg, uphauld and

manteine sufficientlie guid dykes about the hail cutting park‟.5 Indeed the similarity of each deed from the NAS leads

one to believe that even less official arrangements would have been of a similar kind. The woodlands would have

been let out to a „mannadger‟6 who would make what money he could in the allotted time span. This „mannadger‟

would have sold the logs, bark and firewood where and when he could. Perhaps some of them worked into „rafts‟

(rafters, sometimes split: sharing the same etymological root as “rive”) and „upshots‟ (bends for crucks: also possibly

paired and/or split).

In 1703 it was decided to build a Midsteeple in Dumfries and the timber to be used for the construction was to be

oak.7 Having first considered the possibility of importing the timber, the councillors eventually chose home-grown

material. The lengths that they required were over 24 feet and they needed around 45 pieces at about 9x9 inches

square. This would require oak grown in this region to be around 230-250 years old to get anything of an appropriate

quality. But the quality had to be balanced by the cost of transport. They viewed four different sites: two farms in the

Cairn valley (a tributary of the Nith), Loch Ken near Parton, and a place on the Cree - on rivers for ease of transport.

One of the Cairn woods is mentioned in the NAS Deeds and there are plenty of references to the Cree woodland.

Finally, they purchased their timber from the Cree site. Extraordinarily the „mannadger‟ of the woodland where the

purchase is made is also mentioned in the deeds.

Midsteeple, Dumfries

There is plenty of other evidence for existing woodland from around Thornhill, to Cannonbie, to Caerlaverock, and

over by the Fleet etc. Even if the woodlands were not plentiful, they did supply local wants with ease. There seems to

have been enough to export, too: there is a variety of reference to timber exports (mostly to Cumbria) later in the

eighteenth century, sometimes in the form of charcoal.8

Although Galloway was a pastoral community in the 16th

century, the 17th

century saw the approach to livestock

change radically as two sets of legislation turned subsistence on livestock into an industry. The first of these dealt

with the union of the crowns (and much later of the parliaments). The second, starting in 1663 with the wonderfully

named „Act for the encouragement of Trade‟, saw the English parliament enact a series of bans on the importation of

cattle from Ireland9, finishing with the final bit of legislation passed by the Scottish Parliament in 1667 that officially


19

closed all the loop holes.10

This left the way clear for other suppliers to develop their own trade in cattle and in a

remarkably short period of time the hills of Galloway geared up for this new English marketplace - the first time that

the region had a volume market for any particular product. By the end of the 18th

century the transition to a livestock

industry was fairly complete.

As Defoe points out in 1720 11

„The people of Galloway do not starve, though they do not fish, build ships, trade

abroad etc. yet they have other business, that is to say, they are meer cultivators of the soil and in particular breeders

of cattle, such as sheep, the number of which I may say is infinite, that is to say, innumerable: and black cattle, of

which they send to England, if fame lies not 50-60,000 every year.‟ He also says „This part of the country is very

mountainous, and some of the hills prodigious high; but all covered in sheep: In a word, the gentlemen here are the

greatest sheep-masters in Scotland, (so they call themselves) and the greatest breeders of black cattle and horses.‟

There was a lot of import and export in livestock going on (not all of it legal). In 1793 we find that the toll taken for

cattle going across the bridge at Dumfries amounted to over 24 thousand head (and half of those were Irish)12

. Along

with the sheep, goats and horses, the cattle must have scoured Galloway‟s hills of all bushes and shrubby growth with

the beginning of the 18th

century being perhaps the time of lowest tree cover in the region‟s history. This however

does not mean that the woodlands were unappreciated and unused.

1700 in Dumfries and Galloway was pre-enclosure. The land was farmed in open rigs and having looked at the maps

we can imagine a landscape up the valleys that had the rigs interspersed with woodland. The rigs would have been on

the flatter land and the trees would have been on the steeper banks, or on the drumlins and gravel shelves that abound

throughout the Galloway valleys. The species will have been only deciduous (predominantly oak with a fair amount

of ash, elm, birch etc) with no pine to speak of in the area. The only conifers that would have been planted would

have been in the lairds‟ policy woodlands. On the other hand there are plenty references to hedging before 1700 and

arguments as to who owned what within the hedge itself. These were normally used to confine the yairds of the cottar

and land-holder.

The livestock would have been herded away from woodlands and rigs. In 1649 there was legislation passed in the

Scottish parliament that encouraged the better herding of livestock to keep them from straying onto neighbouring

territory. In Dumfries during the seventeenth century there was town legislation passed that allowed the immediate

slaughter of geese and pigs should they stray into a neighbour‟s yaird. There was also an instance of a prosecution of

someone who allowed his cow to eat the thatch off his neighbour‟s roof13

. The control of livestock was an important

issue. Thus most of the herding, at least during an extended summer time, was done up on the hill away from the

arable rigs with their more valuable arable crops. Woodlands were used for over-wintering stock as well.

Cunningham of the Duchrae wished to sell a wood in 1775 and had to recompense his tenant when he sold the wood

to the tune of the price of two bullocks.14

Thus we should see the woodlands as being managed, perhaps not as we

manage them today but managed none the less.

Enclosures per se were nothing new - many of the NAS Deeds demand that felled woodland should be enclosed to

allow re-growth. It was the 1695 law of enclosure in Scotland that had officially allowed rigs to be enclosed and

various commonties divided. But formal enclosure appears to have been a long term and gradual process and though

enclosures were common further north, it was perhaps another 100 years before its full effect was seen in the South

West with the more permanent & expensive dry-stone dykes that we see today not really completed until the end of

the Napoleonic Wars. The first larger enclosures can be dated back to 1640 and had begun near both Wigton and

Kirkcudbright (probably to fatten Irish store cattle); these could each cover several square miles. By the 1720s rather

more of these ranches existed than the local population thought appropriate. When evictions began so did the

„Levellers‟ - protesting against eviction rather than enclosure; they possibly did much to slow up the agricultural

revolution that was taking place.15

One can see enclosure happening on Roy‟s map but Crockett describes the Duchrae farm (on Loch Ken side) as being

enclosed and leases being lengthened in 1775 whereas his neighbour across the river is still sticking to the old

fashioned yearly tacks for the tenants16

. Stone dykes tend to go in straight lines and only occasionally curve to follow

contours, burns and roads. It was much cheaper that way. Trees on the other hand will hug gravel banks and drumlins

and other uncultivated areas or areas that are more difficult to access. There were differing types of walling, including

the use of turf walls, and hedging. One can still spot areas of oak that have been cut off by straight dyke building.


20

Oak woods enclosed near Moniaive

By the mid-18th

century the tanning trade was one of the UK‟s largest employers, using quantities of hides and bark

(which accounted for up to 25% of all costs) so taxation of these and the finished leather goods was a big earner for

the Treasury. It did face the problem, though, of how best to tax without taxing too much. The taxation on imported

raw hides for instance provoked continual outbursts from English tanneries (1690-1720) as it meant that tanning

became more viable in Ireland to the detriment of the English industry. To fill the demand in Ireland for tanning

materials, bark was exported from English ports. I would suggest that the Irish were again making their presence felt

in Galloway over that period. We know that before 1704 bark constituted an important forest product in the area as

the pressure to acquire timber before the end of June in 1704 for the Dumfries Midsteeple was driven by the need to

get it into the felling time limit when the bark would still be at its best. This was actually a matter for legislation in

England as early as 1603; felling of oak could only take place between 1st April and 30

th June.

17

Coppicing in the South West was a growth industry through the 18th

and 19th

centuries. The coppicing and stripping

of bark was a big earner for the rural communities. Dumfries became renowned for the export of lamb, hare, dog and

swan skins in the 18th

century. In hare skins alone we are looking at the extraordinary figure of 24,000 being exported

from Dumfries in 1793.18

By the end of the 18th

century, however, bark was achieving excellent prices and over the

next 25 years nine different tanneries were established in the region.19

Prices increased. An article in the Times (June

1805) records „Oak bark has attained the enormous price of eight guineas per ton; a few years since it was

considered dear at 2s/cwt.‟

Leather production required new sources of tannin. They included things like Red Mangrove bark from the Caribbean

and Central America, Black Oak and Sumac bark from North America, and periodic looks at lesser materials like

Larch bark.20

21

Some of them were indeed more efficient than the local oak. However an import duty made them less

attractive. In 1792 an act was passed by parliament for „Encouraging the manufacture of leather‟. When the price of

oak bark reached a certain level in the UK the import tax was reduced so that it would become competitive. This

import tax basically fixed the price of bark at a decent level for home production and the system remained in place for

the best part of 100 years. Between 1790s and the 1850s there appear to have been around 10 acts altering the import

tax rates. In essence the guaranteeing of the price encouraged the huge growth in the coppice growing and Dumfries

and Galloway got on the bandwagon with the rest of Scotland. If the imports had been allowed in without duty

through a consistent protectionist government we would not have had this legacy of oak woodland.

‘Our woods give us strength in war and comfort in peace‟ Cicero once remarked. Similar things were said in our

period. „To this might be added a clause for planting oaks and firs in the hedgerows of every enclosure. Which

seems necessary for our future Defence, as the other for maintenance, unless we intend to leave the ages to come, to

send their old shipping abroad to buy timber to build new at home.‟22

The whole coppice-growing fad was tied into a

patriotic fervour to grow oak for the navy.23

The growing of oak was encouraged for coppice in order to make money

and as a help to the navy and patriotic duty.


21

In the 1820s Thomas Carlyle moved to Craigenputtock. He records that much new dyking was done on the farm and

mentions the planting of trees as well. There was one particular shelterbelt that was planted with mainly oak and a

spot of beech. It is an extraordinary planting and these oaks were in fact coppiced. The height above sea level is

around 800 feet and the ground, though capable of growing oats is not of the best at all. This planting is perhaps an

illustration of the high point of the coppice fashion: a high that perhaps lasted another 30-40 years.

However in 1865 when the Navy ceased building wooden hulled ships and when protectionism had run its course the

whole oak coppice industry began to disintegrate. Imports began to move in from Europe, the use of Black Wattle

and Mallet Bark, that provided higher percentage tannin than oak, began to be a serious issue. Even Mangrove bark

tried to make a comeback from the Caribbean but the market was too flat. In the 1880s chrome tanning was beginning

to make its presence felt, cutting curing times and increasing speeds. This form of tanning began to remove the need

for bark at all and by WWI little was required.

In Dumfries and Galloway, although seemingly not as widespread as in the Forth valley and down the west coast, we

had a significant amount of oak coppice. A large area centred around the Fleet, but it seems that there was plenty in

Upper Nithsdale around Thornhill, in the mid-Urr area along the Esk northwards from Cannonbie and in the west a

fair volume up the Cree. After the rise of chrome tanning there is evidence of oak being thinned out and left to grow

on for railway sleepers … but with the arrival of creosote these were essentially redundant as well.

During this period we see our region entering the global marketplace for the first time. It was not a subsistence

economy any more but was deeply influenced by the machinations of central government. The woodland was a

reflection of this. The oaks that we see now are often industrial relics from a protectionist era very much modified by

the hand of man and of parliament. Legislation was in effect the driver of the landscape, through the encouragement

of the livestock and leather industries. Both are indirect forms of influence but none the less important and we can

indeed say „With Law shall land be built’. 1 Recovering the substantive nature of Landscape by Kenneth R Olwig Dec 1996

2 SR Crockett, local author, The Raiders

3 A set of transcripts for this region was kindly given to me by Prof Smout after the conference. They set me right on

a number of things but also consolidate much of the other evidence. 4 A large description of Galloway by the parishes in it Undated manuscript, pre-Hanovarian, due to Episcopal

references, amongst other papers of early 1680s. The Earlston Papers, Edinburgh University Library 5 Monygoff, 1633. NAS

6 Kirkcudbright and Drummuckloch, 25

th and 26

th May 1725 NAS, and Dumfries Town Council Midsteeple

Committee Minute Book (1704 entry) 1703-1709 7 Dumfries Town Council Midsteeple Committee Minute Book 1703-1709

8 Broomholm 20

th May 1760 NAS, Bardarroch, Dumfries and Whitehaven 18

th and 19

th December 1752 and 20

th

January 1753, SR Crockett in All About Grey Galloway (1902) referencing Cunningham Papers of The Duchrae

1775. 9 The Anglo-Irish Livestock Trade of the Seventeenth Century by Donald Woodward, Irish Historical Studies Vol 8

No.27 (Sept. 1973) pp 489-523 10

Ibid 11

A Tour through the whole Island of Great Britain, Letter XII Daniel Defoe 1720 12

Statistical Account for Dumfries 1793 13

Dumfries Town Council Minutes 17th

century 14

SR Crockett in All About Grey Galloway (1902) referencing Cunningham Papers of The Duchrae 1775 15

Who were the Galloway Levellers? By Alastair Livingston 2005 16

SR Crockett in All About Grey Galloway (1902) referencing Cunningham Papers of The Duchrae 1775 17

A Discourse concerning the most seasonable time of felling of Timber; written by the advice of the Honourable

Sam. Pepys Esq. Secretary of the Admiralty….etc. by Robert Plot (Philisophical Transactions (1683-1795), Vol16

(1686-92) 18

Statistical Account for Dumfries 1793 19

The Industrial Archaeology of Galloway by Ian Donnachie 1971 20

Experiments to determine the Quantity of tanning Principle and Gallic Acid contained in the bark of various trees

by George Biggin, Royal Society – read by Joseph Banks 6th

June 1799 21

Tanning with the Bark of Larch by Thomas White, Belfast Monthly Magazine 1813 22

An Old Almanack 1710, British Library 23

Forester’s Guide by Robert Monteath (1820s) et al


22

THE HISTORY OF WOODLAND DYNAMICS IN RELICT EAST GLEN AFFRIC PINEWOODS :

A LACK OF HUMAN IMPACT?

Helen Shaw

INTRODUCTION

This paper explores the history of the presumed relict elements of the Glen Affric woodlands beside the Lochs Beinn

a‟ Mheadhoin and Affric. The theme of this Native Woodland Discussion Group conference was woods as working

and cultural landscapes past and present. Cultural landscapes are defined by the UNESCO and the World Heritage

Committee (1972 p2; 2008 p14) as those shaped by the „combined works of nature and of man‟. The committee go on

to categorise three major cultural landscape types (WHC 2008 p86):

‘landscape[s] designed and created intentionally by man’

‘organically evolved landscape[s]’

‘associative cultural landscape[s]’

There can be no doubt that the Glen Affric landscape of the 20th

and 21st Centuries falls into the second group; an

organically evolv[ing] landscape shaped by the results of „an initial social, economic, administrative, and/or religious

imperative [that] has developed its present form by association with and in response to its natural environment’.

Much of the appeal of this landscape is the existing tract of semi-natural native woodland (Figure 1) and the relict

status assigned to this; embodied in the phrase „to stand in them is to feel the past’ (Steven & Carlisle 1959). The

value of this pine forest was highlighted during the creation of a major hydro-electric scheme and in the 1950s became

the subject of a battle between conservationists and planners. A meeting of foresters in the area in the 1950s,

stimulated by the seminal text The Native Pinewoods of Scotland by Steven and Carlisle (1959), set the path for the

development of the site as a National Nature Reserve (designated in 2000). The area has a further enhanced cultural

value; as the site for the Trees for Life initiative (http://www.treesforlife.org.uk/) which is dedicated to restoring the

Caledonian Forest and brings people into the Glen for environmental holidays planting native woodland species in the

more open areas to „regenerate‟ the forest. There is little doubt therefore of the value of Glen Affric as a cultural

landscape in the 20th

and 21st Centuries.

Figure 1: Location of Glen Affric semi natural (Native) woodland; sites used for palynological analysis (Shaw & Tipping 2006).


23

But, what impact has human activity had on the relict woodland in the glen; and is the pattern of former woodland,

which thins to open heath and moor to the west, really a product of recent human impact? The focus of the research

upon which this paper is based was not the sociological understanding of a cultural landscape, but the understanding

of the ecological dynamics of the semi-natural Glen Affric pine woodland. The purpose was to contribute to an

understanding of the ecology of the woodlands in order to better understand the drivers and influences on stand

structure. Knowledge of past processes can be an aid to future conservation management. The research, carried out

between 2001 and 2004, uses palaeoecological data to question to how the vegetation composition of the semi-natural

pine wood changed through time.

Human occupation in the glen has a millennial history. Pine forest degeneration in Scotland (Bennett 1984) and in the

west of Glen Affric (Davies 1999; 2003) begins c.4000 BP (BP: before present). The reduction in pine woodland may

have been rapid (Bennett 1984; although contrasting arguments are coming to light eg Moir et al 2010) and is likely to

have been due to climatic as well as human influence. Despite claims that the current extent of semi-natural forest has

been relatively recently diminished the actual impact of humans in Glen Affric is less clear. The area was used for

deer shooting in the 19th

Century and for forestry; however there is little information on the exact location of arboreal

exploitation. More recently, in the early twentieth century vast tracts of the surrounding hills were planted with trees

that include Scots pine of non-native origin, larch and lodgepole pine and these areas are obviously impacted by

human use. But what is less clear is the nature and longevity of the boundary with semi-natural woodland. To the

south and west of Loch Beinn a‟ Mheadhoin alongside Loch Affric the woodland thins and becomes scattered (Figure

1), with the appearance that the core woodland has broken down to the west and receded though time.

Froyd & Bennett (2006) provide a pollen analysis from a small loch; Loch an Amair on the South side of Loch Beinn

a‟ Mheadhoin. This demonstrates, both from pollen and pine stomata, a long and continuous history of pine wood in

east Glen Affric. In their study Froyd & Bennett find that pine first appears in the early Holocene, earlier than

previously thought, leading to the postulation that it may have survived in presence in a vestige population somewhere

off the west coast. This continuous Holocene presence contrasts with diagrams further to the west (Davies 1999, 2003,

see above). The single diagram from east Affric does not however produce the spatio-temporal information that

describes and explains the dynamics leading to the current spatial arrangement of woodland throughout the glen.

METHODS

Small peat hollows (as opposed to large peat bogs or lakes) can be exploited by palynologists to obtain pollen

diagrams that depict vegetation change at the local or stand scale due to properties of pollen dispersal (Jacobson &

Bradshaw 1981). Palynological analyses of peat cores from several small peat basins across a landscape, when dated,

can therefore provide an opportunity to examine variation in vegetation through space as well as change through time.

This approach was taken for palaeoecological research in this study of Glen Affric. Woodland history was examined

via a suite of 8 peat cores from small hollows within the semi natural woodland (see Figure 1 for core locations). The

peat basins cored for pollen analysis were situated in three groups; to the side of Loch Affric where pine woodland

stands thin out into open blanket bog and heath; to the side of Loch Beinn a‟ Mheadhoin where patches of birch and

Blaeberry occur among scattered pines; and around the mixed broadleaved and pine woodland above Dog Falls

(Figure 1).

Peat was extracted using a modified golf hole cutter and a standard Russian peat corer. Pollen was extracted from

subsamples of peat using standard acetolysis methods (Moore et al 1991). Radiocarbon dates were obtained from the

NERC Radiocarbon Laboratory, East Kilbride, and the SUERC AMS dating facility (Allocation No. 1078.0404) and

used to date the lower part of the core. The uppermost cores were dated at the University of Stirling using the 210

Pb

isotope which, with a half life of c. 22 years, can help to define a chronological control for recent peat layers to c. 150

years. For a full discussion of methods and chronological controls see Shaw (2006).

Data are presented as summary pollen diagrams using Tilia software (Grimm 1991). In this short paper a selected

illustrative pollen diagrams are presented; for full diagrams for all sites see Shaw (2006).

RESULTS

Palynological data from pollen sites in Group 1 to the furthest west of the studied area are published in Shaw &

Tipping (2006). Site NHP (Grid ref: NH 17441 22153) is the furthest west in this study. The pollen data show a major

shift to the current pine woodland at c. AD 1850 from an area previously dominated by heathland with some scattered

pine trees. The site near Pollan Buidhe (PB; Grid ref: NH19791 23041) shows a similar trajectory of woodland

change; however the peat at this site accumulated at a slower rate and a radiocarbon date shows that the peat core,

analysed to one metre depth, represents some c. 5000 years of peat accumulation with a period of more mixed

woodland near the base of the analysed section. This lower section may represent woodland from the end of the


24

postglacial expansion and the c. 4000 BP pine decline Bennett (1984), and demonstrates that, as at NHP, until the

current pine stand developed in recent centuries the area was dominated by open moorland vegetation with heath

species dominant and scattered sporadic influxes of patchy arboreal cover. The site at BEAT (Grid ref: NH 21150

22630) has a basal date of c. 2000 year BP but within this shorter time period pollen analysis depicts four major

periods of change in vegetation cover surrounding the basin (Figure 2) starting with a mixed woodland at 2000 years

BP and moving through more open phases dominated by sedges and heaths before developing the current mixed stand

structure in semi-open woodland.

Figure 2. PCA ordination of pollen % TLP for the BEAT core samples; numbers reflect sample depth in cm. Four distinct phases of vegetation are evident. Sample points within each vegetation type are coloured by vegetation type to clarify this.

Group 2 (ANI Grid Ref: NH 24239 26328 and ARC Grid Ref: NH23786 25360) is situated in an area currently

characterised by mixed woodland with ANI surrounded by birch with an understory rich in Blaeberry. The cores from

these sites contain histories spanning c. 3500 years and c. 900 years respectively. Palaeoecological analysis reveals

(Figure 3) cyclic patterns of dominance between birch and pine which appear to be driven by natural processes. There

are no marked rises in pollen species indicative of heavy pastoral land use; although a few pollen grains of species

such as Ribwort plantain (Plantago lanceolata) do occur they are not in sufficient quantities to be indicative of

increased human land use. The longevity of the pine wood in this zone (albeit with fluctuations in cover) correlates

well with previous palaeoecological evidence from Loch an Amair for a continuous woodland cover in east Glen

Affric (Froyd & Bennett 2006). However, pine stomata (Sweeney 2004), also counted on the pollen slides, are only

present during the two lower peaks of pine pollen at 54-64cm and below 85cm. Pine stomata demonstrate local

presence of a pine stand, whereas even reasonably high percentages of pine pollen may only indicate extra-local pine

presence in the absence of stomata (Parshall 1999; Sweeney 2004; Shaw 2006). In contrast to sites in Group 1 to the

west, these sites to the east of Glen Affric demonstrate that the local area maintained a woodland cover throughout the

late Holocene. There were, however, periods of birch dominance in some stands, and a mix of tree species including

alder and some oak and rowan. Pine was by no means the dominant tree.


25

Figure 3: ANI summary pollen diagram. All land pollen taxa displayed as a percentage of Total Land Pollen (TLP); other taxa as a percentage of TLP+Group.

0 5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

55

60

65

70

75

80

85

90

95

100

Depth (cm)

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

Estimayted Chronology (years before 2005)

2860

2480

100

210

Pb and

14

C age estimates

20

Aln

us g

lutin

osa

40

80

Bet

ula

20

40

60

Pin

us s

ylve

stris

Que

rcus

Sor

bus

aucu

paria

Ulm

us

Cor

ylus

ave

llana

Myr

ica

gale S

alix

20

Cal

luna

vul

garis

Vac

cini

um u

ndiff

20

Cyp

erac

eae

Gal

ium

Hor

deum

type

Mel

ampy

rum

Pla

ntag

o la

nceo

lata 2

040

Poa

ceae

(ann

ulus

<8

μm)

Pot

entil

la-ty

pe

Suc

issa

20

Pte

ridiu

m a

quili

num 2

040

60

Sph

agnu

m

*Pin

us s

tom

ata

Cha

rcoa

l 26-

50

μm

Cha

rcoa

l 51-

75

μm

Cha

rcoa

l 76-

100

μm

SC

P

40

80

Tree

s Shr

ubs

Hea

ths H

erbs

Zone

AN

I6

AN

I5c

AN

I5b

AN

I5a

AN

I4

AN

I3

AN

I2

AN

I1c

AN

I1b

AN

I1a

24

6

Tota

l sum

of square

s

CO

NIS

S


26

Figure 4: Summary pollen diagram for CLH site. All land pollen taxa displayed as a percentage of Total Land Pollen (TLP); other taxa as a percentage of TLP+Group.

0 5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

55

60

65

70

75

80

85

Depth (cm)

10

00

20

00

30

00

40

00

Estimated Chronology (years before 2004 AD)

26

50

10

0

210

Pb and

14

C age estimates

20

Aln

us g

lutin

osa

20

40

60

Bet

ula

20

40

60

80

Pin

us s

ylve

stris

Que

rcus

Sal

ix

20

Cal

luna

vul

garis

Eric

a te

tralix

Ave

na T

ritic

um

type

20

Cyp

erac

eae

Hor

deum

type

Pla

ntag

o la

nceo

lata 2

0

Poa

ceae

(ann

ulus

<8

μm)

Pot

entil

la-ty

pe

Ran

uncu

lus

acris

- ty

pe

Rum

ex a

ceto

sella S

ucis

sa

Ble

chna

m s

pica

nt

Dip

hasi

astru

m

Equ

isite

m

20

Lyco

podi

um a

notin

umP

olyp

odiu

m

Pte

ridiu

m a

quilin

um

20

Pte

rops

ida

Sel

agin

ella

sel

agin

oide

s 20

Sph

agnu

m Woo

dsia

20

Pin

us s

tom

ata

20

40

60

Cha

rcoa

l 8-2

5

μm

20

Cha

rcoa

l 26-

50

μm

Cha

rcoa

l 51-

75

μm

Cha

rcoa

l 76-

100

μm

Cha

rcoa

l >10

0

μm

Dia

tom

SC

P

20

40

60

80

10

0

Tree

sS

hrub

s Hea

ths H

erbs

Zo

ne

CL

H2

d

CL

H1

a

CL

H1

b

CL

H2

a

CL

H2

b

CL

H2

c

12

34

To

tal

su

m o

f sq

ua

res

CO

NIS

S


27

Group 3 cores (CLH Grid ref: NH29571 28135: CLP2 Grid ref: NH29482 27904 and CLKH Grid ref: NH29398

28306) as with those from Group 2 show evidence of continuous woodland cover. The CLH core represents the

longest time period with a calibrated radiocarbon date of 2590 BP at 73cm depth (SUERC-3964). Within this core a

gradual shift is depicted from mixed, mainly broadleaved woodland to woodland with greater dominance of pine

(Figure 4). Again, there is no obvious and sustained evidence of human impact and grass (Poaceae) pollen values

remain low throughout the diagram.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

The pollen data show a definite longevity of woodland cover in east Glen Affric, but that further to the west woodland

has encroached in recent times onto former heath. A summary of the pollen data from c. 300 years ago (Figure 5)

illustrates the difference between east and west of the glen; a difference that, from the pollen evidence provided, was

maintained with some minor fluctuations throughout the last c.3-4 millennia. This evidence indicates that the scattered

open woodland to the side of Loch Affric at the western extent of its current range is perhaps a recent regeneration

phase rather than a receding stand. The charcoal signal in pollen diagrams from the Group 1 cores is significantly

greater than in the eastern groups of sites and perhaps indicates a management boundary; although fragments are small

and could represent scattered natural heathland fires in that more combustible vegetation type.

Figure 5: Map of Glen Affric showing, in pie chart form, the percentage of pollen from the major arboreal and non-arboreal pollen taxa to show the major differences between east and west of the Glen at approximately 300 years cal. BP (The sampling resolution was such that the age range of samples was actually from 265 to 315 years before present (see 7.1b above). It must be noted that errors surrounding the chronological models may be wide - see the comments in Shaw 2006 Chapter 4 regarding accuracy of the chronology.

The boundary between forested east and open west in Glen Affric could therefore be natural or human induced

landscape change. Given the climatic differences between east and west and evidence from these pollen diagrams and

from Davies (1999; 2003) it is likely that the current transition boundary between wooded east and open west

represents an ecotone, possibly exploited by human land use. It is to the east in the extant woodland stand however,

that interesting questions of cultural landscape emerge. Pollen evidence above, and that from Froyd 2006, show a

remarkable longevity of woodland in east Glen Affric. Despite forestry activity, grazing, and human land use in recent

centuries around the area, this tract of woodland has survived seemingly unscathed, with a continuous canopy

throughout the Holocene. In this case there is limited evidence of human activity evident within the pollen diagrams.

Why this particular woodland survived is unclear. It seems that the cultural value is indeed as a relict woodland and

given the relict status it perhaps, more than in many areas correctly identifies and associative cultural landscape where

„to stand in [it] is to feel the past’ (Steven & Carlisle 1959). However, the arguments for expanding woodland to the


28

west in order to mitigate recent degradation are not substantiated and perhaps lie in current cultural values rather than

ecological argument.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This research was undertaken as part of a PhD at the University of Stirling, funded by Stirling University and Forest

Research and supervised by Richard Tipping, Andrew Tyler and Philip Wookey. AMS Radiocarbon dates mentioned

in the text were funded by an application to the NERC Radiocarbon Laboratory. I am grateful to the NWDG history

group for an invitation to speak at the NWDG conference in Birnam and to Professor Chris Smout for subsequent

discussion on the cultural activities in Glen Affric.

REFERENCES

Bennett, KD 1984 „The Post-glacial history of Pinus sylvestris in the British Isles‟, Quaternary Science Reviews, 3,

133-155.

Davies, AL 1999 „High spatial resolution Holocene vegetation and land-use history in west Glen Affric and Kintail,

Northern Scotland’. PhD Thesis. Environmental Science. University of Stirling.

Davies, A 2003 „Torran Beithe: Holocene history of a blanket peat landscape‟. In Tipping, R M, (Ed.) The

Quaternary of Glen Affric and Kintail. Field Guide. London, Quaternary Research Association. pp.41-48.

Froyd, C & Bennett, K 2006 „Long-term ecology of native pinewood communities in East Glen Affric, Scotland‟,

Forestry, 79, 279-291.

Grimm, EC 1991 Tilia and Tilia Graph. Illinois State Museum, Illinois.

Jacobson, GL Jr & Bradshaw, RHW 1981 „The selection of sites for paleovegetational studies‟, Quaternary Research,

16, 80-96.

Moir, AK, Leroy, SAG, Brown, D & Collins, PEF 2010 „Dendrochronological evidence for a lower water-table on

peatland around 3200-3000 BC from subfossil pine in northern Scotland‟, The Holocene, 20, 931-942.

Moore, PD, Webb, JA & Collinson, ME 1991 „Pollen Analysis’, Blackwell, Oxford.

Parshall, T 1999 „Documenting forest stand invasion: fossil stomata and pollen in forest hollows‟ Canadian Journal

of Botany-Revue Canadienne De Botanique, 77, 1529-1538.

Shaw, HE 2006 „A palaeoecological investigation of long-term stand-scale ecological dynamics in semi-open native

pine woods: Contributing to conservation management in east Glen Affric’, PhD Thesis. School of Biological and

Environmental Sciences. University of Stirling https://dspace.stir.ac.uk/handle/1893/201

Shaw, H & Tipping, R 2006 „Recent pine woodland stability and disturbance: high spatial resolution

palaeoecological approaches in east Glen Affric, Northern Scotland‟, Forestry, 79, 331-340

Steven, HM & Carlisle A 1959 „The native pinewoods of Scotland’, Edinburgh. Oliver and Boyd

Sweeney, CA 2004 „A key for the identification of stomata of the native conifers of Scandinavia‟, Review of

Palaeobotany and Palynology, 128, 281-290

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, 1972 ‘Convention concerning the protection of the

world cultural and natural heritage’, Adopted by the General Conference at its seventeenth session Paris, 16

November 1972. http://whc.unesco.org/archive/convention-en.pdf [accessed 31st March 2011]

World Heritage Committee 2008 „Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention’

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation http://whc.unesco.org/archive/opguide08-en.pdf

[accessed 31st March 2011]


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RASSAL ASHWOOD NNR : EXPLORING THE CULTURAL DIMENSION

Thomas Cooper

BACKGROUND

My first visit to Rassal was in the spring of 2008 during my first encounter with the NWDG. At the time I was an

undergraduate at Auchincruive College, so I was looking out for something to base my dissertation on, although I had

been interested in woodland history for a long time. Observing the lively discussions and debate that ensued

throughout the visit, it occurred to me that this would be an ideal site on which to base a study. Rassal seemed to be

such an interesting place - the geology, the woodland and all its associated flora seemed almost out of place amongst

the otherwise relatively bare hills, and it seemed to me that this pocket of fertile land must have been an appealing

place to settle and cultivate for a very long time, so it was sure to have had an interesting history.

The site

Rassal Ashwood is about eight miles south of Torridon, on the eastern side of the Kishorn River estuary. Tucked

away to the back of Loch Kishorn, it extends from just above sea level, up a gradual and sheltered valley side then

into the neighbouring gorge. Rassal owes its existence to an outcrop of limestone that has been exposed by the Moine

Thrust Geological Fault, which skirts the south eastern boundary of the reserve, and has been carved out to form the

Allt Mor Gorge (Radcliffe 1977). This patch of outcropping limestone has created a topography unlike any other in

the region, where narrow strips of limestone pavement with deep grykes form parallel ridges, creating a terracing of

the hillside, and supporting flatter areas of deep and fertile soil.

The variety of the limestone topography adds to the sheer variation in soil conditions, where rocks jut out in nodules

interspersed by flushes of acidic mire, adjacent to dry but patchy ash woodland that favours the more alkaline

conditions. Recognition of the importance of Rassal is demonstrated by a series of designations that cover the area.

The National Nature Reserve (NNR) covers 86 ha, including the woodland all the way into the gorge, while part of it

is overlapped by a SSSI and a SAC, which both extend beyond the NNR boundaries into the wider region.

The ash woodland, a little over 15 ha, has a varied structure with some parts resembling a lowland wood pasture,

while other areas have a much more closed canopy. The trees can be easily divided into cohorts based on their form,

and many of the mature trees appear to be open grown, with the occasional multi-stem. Often these forms have low

and open crowns, which produce lateral and twisted branches, indicating that the trees may have been cut in the past,

perhaps as part of a formal tree management cycle.

A deer fence encloses the area, and dissects a number of old stone walls and building remains. Along with other

exclosures within it, the deer fence is changing the bioscape at Rassal and has allowed tree regeneration to take place

at a considerable rate. This has caused some of the open space to become dominated by bracken and scrub, shading

out much of the rich and diverse plant life.

Walking through the reserve, it is easy to get the sense that there is a pattern in the way the trees have grown,

especially the mature trees which seem to exclusively occupy the rockier areas. It has been suggested in the past that

Rassal is a remnant pre-improvement agricultural landscape, and that the terraced open space has been cleared of

stones and kept free of trees as the result of cultivation or grazing (Quelch 2001). However, much of the reserve‟s

management in recent decades has treated Rassal as a woodland that has become degraded, and phases of planting

have taken place infilling much of the open space. So the overall aim of my study was to look at the form and

distribution of the ash trees and examine the degree to which they have been subjected to anthropogenic influence, to

try to discern the development of the woodland. This influence may have been silvicultural, pollarding, or perhaps

Rassal was part of a grazing regime. But with ash being a relatively short lived tree, and Rassal at the northerly limit

of its natural range, it was firstly important to obtain the ages of some of the trees there and to look at other aspects of

their growth and the area‟s history.

Previous work at Rassal

In the Journal of Terrestrial Ecology in 1986, George Peterken wrote about the possible derivation of the woodland at

Rassal. After examining the stumps of seven trees felled for a way leave, he concluded that the current stand must

have grown up during a period of reduced, but not entirely absent grazing pressure. This, he gathered from the

spacing of the rings on the stumps, and the number of mature multi-stems around the place, a further indication of a

grazing pressure.


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STUDY METHODS

Tree form

Drawing on a study of tree form and distribution in a highland agricultural landscape (Mills et al 2009), I devised a

surveying strategy that quantified the form of a number of ash along two transects. Using the pollard score developed

by Peter Quelch, a record of trees was created which could then be used to inform a sample from which cores could be

taken for dendrochronological analysis. Cores were taken from a range of locations and tree forms, and to help give

accurate dendrochronological readings slices were cut from the trunks of dead fallen trees that had been the victims of

wind throw.

Dendrochronological sampling

Dendrochronological analysis of the samples taken produced a site chronology that spans AD 1789 – 2009 (Mills

2009). The dendrochronological analysis, however, showed that on the trees sampled there was no clear evidence of a

pollarding signal (Mills 2009). Such a signal in the trees‟ growth would be expected to show a pattern of a sudden

and sharp drop in growth, where the tree rings suddenly become very close together, until they gradually widen as the

tree recovers from being cut, until it is cut once more, thus creating a repeating pattern if pollarding was undertaken in

a regular cycle. With the absence of such a signal in the sample taken from Rassal, it seems unlikely that the trees

were pollarded or cut systematically as part of a cycle. It is however possible that branches were cut on an ad-hoc

basis, or even chewed and ripped down by livestock, as they were witnessed doing over the summer of 2009 and this

may have contributed to the unusual form of the trees.

The dendrochronological results help to provide some very useful insights into the growth history of the trees. The

site chronology, when plotted on a bar graph showed that there were quite clearly defined cohorts of trees with similar

ages. This showed that within the sample, there had been defined of periods of growth that took place in stages. Of

these cohorts, the two largest groups began life approximately fifteen years either side of 1800, with some earlier

growth in the mid 18th century and regeneration in the later 19th century. So, the next step was to try to bring

meaning to these cohorts, by cross-referencing and considering the stages of regeneration with the dated components

of the woodland‟s history.

THE HISTORY OF RASSAL AND THE APPLECROSS ESTATE

Rassal was part of the Applecross estate for centuries, which was owned by the Mackenzie family up until the 1830s

when it was sold to the Duke of Leeds (Murchison, pers comm; Robertson, 2007). Unfortunately, estate papers from

both the Mackenzie and Duke of Leeds eras have been very difficult to track down, with some papers residing in a

collection in Yorkshire, while limited older papers from the Mackenzies provide only a sketchy outline of events.

The first indication to what may have shaped Rassal is the archaeology that can be seen in and around the woodland.

The stone walls which run down the westerly and southerly side flank the tree line, suggesting a function that relates to

the woodland and its associated small pastures. Small pre-improvement building remains can also be seen in the north

west corner, either side of the deer fence. But above the tree line is the small shaft of a copper mine, barely visible

from a distance (Plate 1). Copper, an ore rare in Scotland and whose deposits are associated with limestone, is known

to have been mined at Rassal intermittently from the 18th century until the early 20th century, although exact dates are

unknown (Wordsworth 2005). The mine, designated an Scheduled Ancient Monument, does not feature in any of the

current interpretive literature about Rassal, and it would easily be missed on a visit to the reserve unless you were

familiar with the greenish ore lying on the ground nearby the entrance to the shaft.


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Plate 1: The Rassal copper mine (foreground R) is above the tree line

The relevance of the copper mine at Rassal to the current ash woodland is debatable, but there are signs that the two

were associated and recognised as an asset when hard times fell upon the Mackenzie family. An advertisement taken

out in the Edinburgh Evening Courant in 1762 by Mackenzie offered a number of items on the Applecross Estate for

sale, including: a number of land holdings; lime for agricultural improvement; and the copper mine (Edinburgh

Evening Courant, 05/03/1762). Furthermore, Mackenzie referred to the advertisement later on that year in a letter to

the owner of an iron works in Falkirk, making mention of the copper mine „with woods fit for charcoal’ (Mackenzie,

1879).

Other historical records referring to Rassal include the rental accounts for the Applecross Estate, which register a

number of families living at Rassal from around the 1720s to the 1780s. The accounts record that rents were paid in

produce such as cheese, butter, and chickens, showing that a small-scale system of subsistence agriculture was

practiced here. The next references to these inhabitants come from the 1840s, when the Duke of Leeds began

evictions in the area, which were documented in the local press. But the archaeology and history highlights that the

Rassal landscape has been worked and inhabited during the living history of the oldest trees that are there today, and

shows that the tree pattern growing today may resonate with the association that the inhabitants had with their

environment.

BRINGING THE DATA TOGETHER

By cross-referencing tree ages with known dated components of Rassal‟s history, a closer association of the woodland

character and anthropogenic influence can be explored. A site diagram showing the distribution of trees by cohort has

allowed their pattern to be compared to other historical sources such as Roy‟s military map of c.1750. This early map

has provided a useful insight into the age and development of the woodland. It shows much of the woodland that can

be recognised today, with some of the tree lines the same as today‟s. Importantly, it also shows a cluster of buildings

in the south west corner, which were possibly inhabited but now is the site of a borrow pit and the reserve car park.


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Figures 1 and 2: While the shape of the woodland today (Fig 2) resembles Roy’s depiction in c.1750 (Fig 1), the area with the two oldest trees, shown in green and yellow, is not featured as woodland. Figure 1: © The British Library. Licensor www.scran.ac.uk. Licence 000-000-610-005-R

The comparison with Roy‟s map raises a number of interesting points. Using the estimated sprouting date of the trees

as opposed to the dendro date (which starts at the first ring measured at the sampling height), it is possible to see that

both of the oldest trees are in an area mapped by Roy‟s cartographers as having no trees, with one of these trees pre-

dating the map altogether. Of course Roy‟s map is impressionistic to a degree, and also may not necessarily have

included small young trees at that time. It is possible therefore that this tree is the remainder of that generation that

was mapped, and may have acted as a seed source for later woodland regeneration. This line of reasoning would also

be consistent with the letter from Mackenzie in 1762, referring to a woodland next to his copper mine. But what the

letter does not tell us, and what is absent from any other records found during this investigation, is whether the

woodland was actually sold for charcoal, or indeed harvested for any other reason at all; if Rassal was used in such a

way, then these two oldest trees at the bottom of the hill were not affected.

Another notable aspect of these two oldest trees is their location in the north west corner of the woodland, which

through the course of the research was revealed to be the area where two historic burial grounds are thought to be

situated (Murchison, pers comm 2009). Local parishioners used the first for suicides, which local tradition dictated

had to be buried out of sight of the sea. The second burial ground, assumed to be adjacent to the first, was used for

workers of the copper mine, who being an itinerant workforce were not buried amongst the local parishioners. So,

this could have restricted the way that this area was used, affecting the tree management and allowing these trees to

grow on while the others up the hill did not.

Turning attention now to the later regeneration, and a later and more accurate map than Roy‟s, the 1st edition

Ordnance Survey 6” map of 1875 shows two clear enclosures of woodland - one smaller block in the south west and

the larger block in the east (Figure 3). Referencing the main spurt of regeneration in the site chronology with these


33

enclosure boundaries has illustrated that the boundaries have a meaningful relationship with the regeneration that took

place either side of 1800.

Figures 3 and 4: The 1st

edition Ordnance Survey 6” map of Rassal (Fig 3) shows two clear enclosed woodland blocks. Mapping of ash tree ages in 2009 (Fig 4) indicates a dominance of trees originating between 1791 and 1815 in the eastern enclosure, with the slightly younger, 1817-1841 cohort more widely distributed. Figure 3 reproduced by kind permission of the Trustees of the National Library of Scotland.

The first of these two cohorts, shown as the blue trees (Figure 4), began growing between 1791 and 1815 and are all

found in the larger eastern woodland enclosure, while the second which grew after 1816 and are shown in black, has a

much wider distribution, and appears not to conform to these boundaries. It is possible that the woodland blocks were

meaningful to the early era of regeneration recorded in the sample, and whatever happened in this area may have

removed any older trees, while encouraging regeneration to take place thereafter. Whether this was a silvicultural

practice, storm damage or something else is mere speculation with the limited facts available, but the correlation

between tree distribution and age indicates some form of management was practiced.

It is well known that the Improvement Era of the 18

th C encouraged new modes of forestry as much as agriculture and

also that the value of home grown woodland products increased greatly from the end of the 18th century as a result of

restrictions on imports from the Napoleonic Wars (Smout et al 2005). These influences brought about a systematic

change in approach to the management of woodlands, especially those on large estates. During this era, many

woodlands became enclosed and highly regulated and it seems likely that Mackenzie, either through necessity or

realisation of the value of the woodland at Rassal, began to enclose it, presumably then preserving the majority for

construction on the estate, or for local and national markets. By enclosing it, natural regeneration could take place,

growing on to dominate the woodland that is present today, which as Peterken suggested largely developed under

reduced grazing pressure. The dendrochronological results correspond well with such an interpretation.


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SUMMARY

The possible history of regulation of the woodland at Rassal is largely borne out by the results of this study, which has

showed that there was a co-existence of ash regeneration with a permanent population who practiced small scale

agriculture. So the timber needs of this population must have been either very modest, or met in other ways to have

left no discernable imprint on the woodland. But although the way in which the land was used at Rassal left little

imprint on the actual ash trees that remain today, with no clear evidence of pollarding having taken place, the

distribution of the trees and their absence from the flatter areas is almost certainly a remnant from a pre-improvement

agricultural practice.

The incredible range of biodiversity found at Rassal has developed from a pattern of historical working in which the

needs of the woodlands inhabitants was countered by the tenurial regulation of the landlord. Understanding this has

implications for the management of Rassal today but it is important to remember that whilst nature conservation may

form the basis for management, the woodland composition and overall structure has been created by historic

developments that could not possibly be emulated, and finding an optimal method of management may therefore be

very difficult.

So while this study did not reveal any evidence of cultural modification that could be attributed to individual trees, it

has shown that Rassal is indeed a cultural landscape, one which hosts a range of rich archaeological features that are

mirrored in the historical ecology of the woodland. Given the designatory status of Rassal, as a National Nature

Reserve inter alia, understanding the historical ecology of the woodland habitat is crucial when it comes to

considering a future approach to management. And after examining the current condition of the woodland, it seems

that its history of inhabitation and working increased the habitat value, improving the biodiversity. In modern times,

bracken encroachment has become a problem, something the recent re-introduction of some limited cattle grazing is

aiming to address. Management of Rassal over recent decades has ensured the continuation of woodland cover in the

reserve with the planting of a species mix that may prove to be more resilient in the face of climate change, but time

will be the testimony to the price that might be paid by the loss of habitat value, and the woodland‟s historical

integrity.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to Colin Edwards from Forest Research, Kenny Nelson, Peter Crighton and Eoghain Maclean from SNH,

Bruce Philp of SAC, Helen Murchison from the Lochcarron Heritage Centre and Malcolm Bangor-Jones from

Historic Scotland. Particular thanks to Peter Quelch and Jonathan Wordsworth for their time and support, and to

Coralie Mills for her supervision, enthusiasm and expertise throughout the whole project.

REFERENCES

General Roy Military Survey of Scotland 1747 – 1755, available from http://maps.nls.uk/roy/

Mackenzie 1762 Advertisement for let and sale of property. Edinburgh Evening Courant, March 7, p.7.

Mackenzie, A 1879 History of the Clan Mackenzie. Oxford University Press, Oxford

Mills, C 2009 A dendrochronological analysis at Rassal Ashwood NNR, Wester Ross. Client report for Forest

Research/SNH.

Mills, C, Quelch, P & Stewart, M 2009 The evidence of tree forms, tree-rings and documented history around

Bealach Nam Bo, Loch Katrine. Client report for the Forestry Commission Scotland.

Murchison, H 2009 Personal Communication. (Lochcarron Smithy Heritage Centre), Achintrad, Applecross.

Ordnance Survey Map of Scotland 1840-1880, available from www.nls.org.uk

Peterken, GF 1986 „The status of native woods in the Scottish Uplands‟, in Jenkins, D (ed.) Trees and wildlife in the

Scottish Uplands, Institute for Terrestrial Ecology Symposium 17, NERC/ITE pp14-18

Quelch, PR 2001 Upland wood pasture in Scotland Part II: Possible origins and examples. Scottish Forestry 55 (2)

pp. 85-92

Quelch, P 2008 Pollard Score Method. Accessed via electronic communication 24/6/09

Radcliffe, D 1977 A Nature Conservation Review, Vol. 2: Site Accounts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Robertson, M 2007 Archaeology and built heritage in Applecross. Archeolas. Available from

www.applecrosstrust.org.uk [last accessed 21/4/10].

Smout, TC, Macdonald, AR & Watson, F 2007 A history of the native woodlands of Scotland, 1500-1920.

Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press

Wordsworth, J 2005 Rassal NNR Wester Ross: Nature Conservation in a Historic Landscape. Council for Scottish

Archaeology Case Study.

http://maps.nls.uk/roy/

http://www.nls.org.uk/

http://www.applecrosstrust.org.uk/


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HOW WOODLANDS FIT IN TO THE JOHN MUIR TRUST VISION

Helen McDade

INTRODUCTION

The John Muir Trust was founded to promote John Muir‟s ethos in the U.K. John Muir is regarded by many as the

„founder‟ of the conservation movement and a major factor in getting the US National Park system, by taking

President Teddy Roosevelt out camping in Yosemite and lobbying for its protection. Much of Muir‟s writing are

focused on the forests, for instance –

„The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.‟

- John of the Mountains (1938), page 313.

So the Trust aims to follow John Muir‟s example by protecting and enhancing wild land and ensuring that wild places

are valued by all sectors of society. The Trust does this in three main ways often summarised (loosely) as

„conserving; inspiring; campaigning‟:

By owning and managing wild land

By raising awareness of its value

Through advocacy for better protection

JMT Skye woodlands

OWNING AND MANAGING LAND

The Trust aims to work with local communities and to give nature a helping hand to flourish. A key aspect of that is

to allow improved natural ground cover, including native trees, to grow.


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The Trust owns 8 key areas of wild land, works with crofting and community interests in those areas and works in

partnership with communities in other key areas, where invited. The Trust has always welcomed exploration and

discovery on its land.

Volunteer tree planting – Keppoch, Skye

The Trust has taken varying approaches to woodlands on its land although it has a preference for getting a species

balance which allows natural regeneration without fencing. In Scotland, this is often not possible, at an early stage of

regeneration. Li and Coire Dhorrcail, on Knoydart, was the first land the John Muir Trust bought, in 1987. There had

been almost total clearance of native trees, and most of the Trust‟s work since then has been to restore woodland, by

new planting, and by giving natural regeneration a chance. This has involved reducing deer numbers, and making

fenced exclosures to keep deer out. In 2010 we started removing some of the fences as the enclosed trees are mature

enough to cope with the current level of browsing by deer.

Another property which the Trust has is Strathaird, on the Elgol peninsula on Skye. The Trust has put considerable

effort into working to „soften‟ existing commercial forestry, reducing its impact and area and also to regenerate natural

woodland. Over the last several years, there has been the equivalent of several man-days a week spent on woodland

work.

Conifer removal


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What has the community gained? Jobs in the community have been created and also wood is being sold locally as

fuel. The Trust recently had a project, employing a sustainable communities officer, engaging with local communities

on our properties on how to reduce energy consumption and be more sustainable. Focusing on the wood available in

Strathaird led to the Trust looking at wood fuel boilers, learning lessons together and sharing information. The Trust

expects to install a wood fuel boiler in its own office property on Strathaird, also fuelling a rented property, and to

have an open day to allow the neighbours to see what would be involved for them. In this way, the Trust hopes to

increase sustainability in the area and help people improve their own energy supply.

RAISING AWARENESS

The John Muir Award (JMA) is run by the John Muir Trust. It is an environmental, non-competitive award scheme,

open to all, focused on wild places and can be done anywhere from a mountaintop to a city garden. To achieve a John

Muir Award, participants meet four Challenges. They Discover a wild place (or places), actively Explore it, do

something to Conserve it, and Share their experiences.

The John Muir Award staff did a „Conserve‟ audit over two months to see what had been achieved in that time by

JMA participants. Many different activities are undertaken by participants but here are a few of the many outcomes.

140 groups completed their John Muir Awards in April and May 2009 – some of the results were:

580m of boundaries maintained, including dry stone walls, willow hurdles and fencing;

989m of hedging created by 9 groups.

Many more activities would have contributed to restoring a more natural environment and here are a few quotes which

demonstrate the impact on those taking part:

‘Tree planting was the best part for me. My trees are going to be there for 100s of years!’

Iain, Conserver Award recipient.

‘I thought there were only a few colours in the forest, but there was millions, such as purple, red, yellow, pink

and there were so many smells as well… I didn’t know there were so many different kinds of butterfly.’

Stacey, Youth Support Summer Project Participant.

ADVOCACY

The third strand of Trust work is strategic policy work. Some of the policy work involves assessing the Trust‟s

position regarding woodlands of varying kinds. Informed audiences, such as NWDG and environmental professionals

often might feel there are good and bad woodlands. The „good woods‟ would be for example Caledonian forest and

the „bad woods‟ would often be exotic conifer plantations. But now there are new „good woods‟ - the new plantations

needed for 25% of Scotland to be forested as part of the climate change targets. What kind of forestry will they be?

Another vexed issue is the felling of forestry for another policy objective. In current times, this is mostly for

renewable energy projects; wind and biomass. An example is in Highland Perthshire where a number of projects will

have major impacts around the Amulree - Dunkeld areas. These include:

The consented Griffin wind development - 68 turbines, 125m high – which is sited in commercial forestry

which will be a very significant clear felling

The neighbouring Calliachar wind development of 14 turbines,100m high is not sited in wooded ground but

will join together in visual impact with the other projects

As will the new 400kV Beauly Denny transmission line – pylons up to 65m

Associated construction sites

This area is signposted as a tourist route from Crieff to Aberfeldy and Pitlochy and is part of the area called „Big Tree

Country‟ which has been a significant marketing phrase. Whilst the special trees in this area are not threatened, the

image and landscapes of the area will change.

So the wild land which the Trust exists to protect is often not wooded but the questions surrounding them are similar

to those which might be asked for ancient woodlands. The questions are:

How much of the land should be wooded?

With what species?

What benefits can be gained from woods on the land?


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How can the wild land – wooded or otherwise – be protected?

Natural landscapes in Scotland are threatened. Wild land in the UK is facing major threats as shown by a Scottish

Natural Heritage „Natural heritage indicator‟ which shows the change in the visual influence of built development and

land use change between 2002 and 2008. It states that in that time:

‘The extent of Scotland unaffected by any form of visual influence declined from 41% to 31% ...’

The John Muir Trust is running a Wild Land Campaign and petition to get better protection for wild land through a

wild land designation.

A couple of quotes from John Muir to ponder:

‘Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.

The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like

autumn leaves.‟ John Muir, 1898

‘Any fool can destroy trees. They cannot run away; and if they could, they would still be destroyed - chased and

hunted down as long as fun or a dollar could be got out of their bark hides. Branching horns, or magnificent bole

backbones. Few that fell trees plant them; nor would planting avail much towards getting back anything like the

noble primeval forests. It took more than three thousand years to make some of the trees in these Western woods -

trees that are still standing in perfect strength and beauty, waving and singing in the mighty forests of the Sierra.

Through all the wonderful, eventful centuries God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease,

avalanches, and a thousand straining, leveling tempests and floods; but he cannot save them from fools - only

Uncle Sam can do that.’ Chapter 10 of „Our National Parks‟, John Muir 1901

Showing that Muir was a lobbyist, amongst other things!

woodland history conference

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