Heather moorland in the Scottish Highlands: the history of a cultural landscape, 1600–1880

Stevenson, 1993, Long-term changes in the extent of heather moorland in upland Britain and Ireland: palaeoecological evidence for the importance of grazings, The Holocene, 3, 70, 10.1177/095968369300300108 A.C. Stevenson and H.J.B. Birks, Heaths and moorland: long-term ecological changes and interactions with climate and people, in: D.B.A. Thompson, A.J. Hester and M.B. Usher (Eds), Heaths and Moorland: Cultural Landscapes, Edinburgh, 1995, 224–239; R. Tipping, Palaeocological approaches to historical problems: a comparison of sheep grazing intensities in the Cheviot Hills in the Medieval and later periods, in: J.A. Atkinson, I. Banks and G. MacGregor (Eds), Townships to Farmsteads: Rural Settlement Studies in Scotland, England and Wales, Oxford, 2000, BAR British series no. 293, 130–143. D.A. Ratcliffe and D.B.A. Thompson, The British uplands: their ecological character and international significance, in: M.B. Usher and D.B.A. Thompson (Eds), Ecological Change in the Uplands, Oxford, 1988, British Ecological Society, special publication no. 7, 9–36. R.A. Dodgshon, The Little Ice Age in the Scottish Highlands and Islands: A documentary perspective, Scottish Geographical Jnl., in press. T.C. Smout, Nature Contested. Environmental History in Scotland and Northern England Since 1600, Edinburgh, 2000, 37–63. C.H. Gimingham, Heaths and moorlands: an overview of ecological change, in: Thompson, Hester and Usher (Eds), Heaths and Moorland, 10. H.J.B. Birks, Past and Present Vegetation of the Isle of Skye: A Palaeoecological Study, Cambridge, 1973, 176. Birks, Past and Present Vegetation of the Isle of Skye, 176; D.N. McVean and D.A. Ratcliffe, Plant Communities of the Scottish Highlands, London, 1962, 80–1. Gimingham, Heaths and moorland, 15. Gimingham, Heaths and moorland, 9; Stevenson and Birks, Heaths and moorland, 224. Birks, Past and Present Vegetation of the Isle of Skye, 178–179. Birks, Past and Present Vegetation of the Isle of Skye, 178–179. Stevenson and Thompson, Long-term changes in the extent of heather moorland, 70–76; Stevenson and Birks, Heaths and moorland, 224–239. See, for example, Stevenson and Birks, Heaths and moorland, 224–239; Mann, 1998, Global-scale temperature patterns and climate forcing over the past six centuries, Nature, 778 Tipping, Palaeocological approaches to historical problems, 130–143. Stevenson and Thompson, Long-term changes in the extent of heather moorland, 70–76; Stevenson and Birks, Heaths and moorland, 224–239. Tipping, Palaeocological approaches to historical problems, 130–143. R.A. Dodgshon, From Chiefs to Landlords, Edinburgh, 1998, 163–197. R.A. Dodgshon, The Scottish Highlands before and after the clearances, in: I.D. Whyte and A. Winchester (Eds), Society, Landscape and Environment in Upland Britain, Society for Landscape Studies supplementary series no. 2, 2004, 67–78. National Archives of Scotland (=NAS), Forfeited Estates, E656/23, Declaration of wadsetters and tenants of Trotternish over poverty caused by murrain, 1716. Dodgshon, The Little Ice Age in the Scottish Highlands and Islands, Scottish Geographical Jnl., in press. Dodgshon, From Chiefs to Landlords, 181. Tipping, Palaeocological approaches to historical problems, 138. See, for example, GD50/136/1, Court Books of the Barronies of Menzies and Rannoch, Vol. 1, 1660; W. Cramond, The Court Book of the Regality of Grant, Banff, 1897, 21 and 23; Old Statistical Account of Scotland (hereafter OSA), viii, 338; A. Bil, The Shieling 1600–1840. The Case of the Central Scottish Highlands, Edinburgh, 1990, 176. A.M. Smith, Jacobite Estates of the Forty-Five, Edinburgh, 1982, 82 and 85. Smout, Nature Contested, 54–56. NAS, RHP2488, A Short Description of Strath Avin, 1762. For example, Dunvegan Castle, MacLeod of MacLeod Papers, 2/500, Mr. Nicol's Report on the Value of the Woods of Glenelg, 1776; NAS, Breadalbane Muniments, GD112/16/10/2/20, Survey of the Woods and Plantations, November 1792. A 1783 report dealing with Inveriger, beside Loch Tulla on Rannoch, talks about sheep being ‘Great Enemys to trees of very kind & eat up every young firr that appears’, NAS, Breadalbane Muniments, GD112/16/10/2/3, Report of the Situation of Lord Breadalbane's Woods in Argyllshire, 1783. See, for example, NAS, GD201, Clanranald Papers, GD201/1/227A, Minutes of the Baron Court of Borrodill, Arisaig, 1739; NAS, Forfeited Estate Papers, E741, William Morison Report, 1771; Smith, Jacobite Estates, 82. The report observed ‘several stools of woods here & there…if cared for would in a few years be considerable whereas now they are open to cattle in winter who destroy them’, Armadale House, Lord Macdonald Papers, GD221/3695/2, Memorial of Abuses in the Present Management of Macdonalds Estate, 1733. See also, A. Wills, Reports on the Annexed Estates 1755–1769, Edinburgh, 1973, 65. NAS, RHP2488, A Short Description of Strath Avin, 1762. NAS, RHP1746, East and West Dalavorar, 1773. See, for example, NAS, E783/98, The Report and Observations…Barrony of Strowan, 1756. These surveys bear out Smout's suggestion that ‘montane scrub of creeping willow, dwarf birch and juniper, as well as rowan, holly’ were ‘probably quite common’, Nature Contested, 127. Examples are provided by GD50/135/1, Court Book of the Barronies of Menzies and Rannoch, Vol. 1, 1630 and 1632; Armadale Castle, Macdonald Papers, GD221/3695/4, Memorandum on estate matters, 1730; F. Watson, Rights and responsibilities: woodland management as seen through baron court records, in: T.C. Smout (Ed.), Scottish Woodland History, Dalkeith, 2002, 100–113. NAS, Breadalbane Muniments, GD112/17/11, Disher and Toyer Court Book 1722–1734, 28th June 1728. Smith, Jacobite Estates, 59; Armadale House, Lord Macdonald Papers, GD221/3695/2, Memorial of Abuses…Macdonalds Estate, 1733. NAS, Gordon Castle Muniments, GD44/51/743/7, A Short description of Lochaber, 1767. 1909, lvii, 141 NAS, Breadalbane Muniments, GD112/17/11, Disher and Toyer Court Book 1722–1634, 22nd July 1728. NAS, GD50/2/2, Survey of Lochiel Estate, 1771–1772. Acts of Parliaments of Scotland (hereafter APS), i, 214. APS, ii, 6. APS, ii, 1503, 242; ii, 1535, 343; iii, 1567, 41. NAS, GD112/17/1/6/2, Acts and Ordinances Set Down in ye Court, 1660. Cramond, The Court Book of the Regality of Grant, 22. Cramond, The Court Book of the Regality of Grant, 22. NAS, Breadalbane Muniments, GD112/17/4, Court Book of Disher and Toyer 1615–1620. References to heather burning occur in NAS, Balnagown Castel MSS, GD129/2/3, Balnagown Barony Court Register, 30th May 1661; John McGregor Collection, GD50/136/1, Court Books of the Baronies of Menzies and Rannoch, Vol. 1, 1634; Breadalbane Muniments, GD112/17/9, Disher and Toyer Court Book 1691–1713, 1702. Breadalbane Muniments, GD112/17/9, Disher and Toyer Court Book 1691–1713, 1702. An example of tenants being banned from muir burning within a quarter of a mile of young wood also occurs in NAS, Balnagown Castle MSS, GD129/2/3, Balnagown Barony Court Register, 30th May 1661. One of the stipulations issued to tenants in Lochaber, 1770, was that ‘no muirburn shall at any time be made where there is any stool or appearances or growth of Timber’, NAS, Gordon Castle Muniments, GD44/25/2/76, Notarial Copy Articles and Regulations…the Tenents of Lochaber, 1770. NAS, John MacGregor Collection, GD50/159, Barony Court of Lude 1621–1806, 1742; NAS, Breadalbane Muniments, GD112/17/11, Disher and Toyer Court Book 1691–1713, 4th June 1702. Cramond, The Court Book of the Regality of Grant, 14. Acts of Parliament of Scotland, ii, 1503, 242. For seventeenth century references to control over the shooting of capercaillie and grouse. See NAS, Balnagown Castle MSS, GD129/2/353, Balnagown Barony Court Register, 30th May 1661. GD112/16/10/5/17, A True Copy of the Report of Heather Brunt in Forbidden Time, 1802. Stevenson and Birks, Heaths and moorland, 233–235. Dodgshon, 1998, Livestock production in the Scottish Highlands before and after the clearances, Rural History, 9, 19, 10.1017/S0956793300001424 Tipping, Palaeocological approaches to historical problems, 136. Stevenson and Thompson, ‘Long-term changes in the extent of heather moorland in upland Britain and Ireland’, pp.70–6; Stevenson and Birks, ‘Heaths and Moorland’, 233–236. For example, a survey of Glenorchy, 1818, nearly 30 years after the spread of sheep, shows cattle on every farm, NAS, Breadalbane Muniments, GD112/16/13/1/21, Souming etc of the principal ffarms in the Lordship of Glenorchy, 1818. For data on stock increases, see Dodgshon, The Scottish Highlands before and after the clearances, 74–5. Gibson, 1988, The size and weight of cattle and sheep in early modern Scotland, Agricultural History Review, 36, 162 NAS, Breadalbane Muniments, GD112/16/13/4/18, Report of the State of Cropping…Lochtayside, 1821. Smith, Jacobite Estates, 84. NAS, Breadalane Muniments, GD112/16/5/6/19, New Souming Regulations of Breadalbane, 1805. OSA, iii, 430. OSA, vi, 88. OSA, ix, 122. OSA, iv, 556; see also OSA, iii, 364. OSA, viii, 338. OSA, iii, 163; see also, OSA, v, 465. NAS, Gordon Castle Muniments, GD44/25/2/76, Notarial Copy Articles and Regulations…the Tenents of Lochaber, 1770. NAS, John McGregor Collection, GD50/2/3, Survey of Lochiel, 1771–1772. Miller, 1967, Land use by summer shielings, Scottish Studies, 11, 193 Tipping, Palaeocological approaches to historical problems, 138. R.A. Dodgshon, Agricultural change and its social consequences in the Southern Uplands 1600–1780, in: T.M. Devine and D. Dickson (Eds), Ireland and Scotland 1600–1800: Parallels and Contrasts in Economic and Social Development, Edinburgh, 1983, 46–59. Latham, 1853, Deterioration of mountain pastures and suggestions for their improvement, Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society, 111, 185 Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Condition of the Crofters and Cottars, 45; Smout, Nature Contested, 125–126; A.S. Mather, The environmental impact of sheep farming in the Scottish Highlands during the nineteenth century, in: T.C. Smout (Ed.), Scotland since Prehistory: Natural Change and Human Impact, Aberdeen, 1993, 79–88. Macdonald, 1880, Agriculture of the County of Sutherland, Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, 4th series xii, 45 Hunter, 1973, Sheep and deer: highland sheep farming, 1850–1900, Scottish Studies, 1, 202 Macdonald, Agriculture of the County of Sutherland, 83–84. Hunter, Sheep and deer: highland sheep farming, 1850–1900, 203. Innes, 1983, Landuse changes in the Scottish Highlands during the nineteenth century: the role of pasture degeneration, Scottish Geographical Magazine, 99, 146, 10.1080/00369228308736563 Mather, 1978, The alleged deterioration in hill grazings in the Scottish Highlands, Biological Conservation, 14, 181, 10.1016/0006-3207(78)90010-1 For reviews of the problem, see Hunter, Sheep and deer: highland sheep farming, 1850–1900, 199–222; Mather, The environmental impact of sheep farming in the Scottish Highlands, 79–88; Smout, Nature Contested, 125–131; Innes, Landuse changes in the Scottish Highlands, 141–149. D.N. McVean and J.D. Lockie, Ecology and Land Use in Upland Scotland, Edinburgh, 1969, 36–37. McVean and Lockie, Ecology and Land Use in Upland Scotland, 37, who claimed that ‘systematic’ burning is barely two centuries old. Stevenson, 2000, Palaeoenvironmental evaluation of the importance of fire as a cause for Calluna loss in the British Isles, Palaeolecology, Palaeogeography and Palaeoclimatology, 164, 195, 10.1016/S0031-0182(00)00186-3 A summary of the debate over nutrient loss is provided by Mather, The environmental impact of sheep farming in the Scottish Highlands, 79–88. Innes, Land use change, 144–146; see also, McVean and Lockie, Ecology and Land Use, 39; I.G. Simmons, The Moorlands of England and Wales. An Environmental History 8000-BC–AD 2000, Edinburgh, 2003, 217–219. Mather, The environmental impact of sheep farming, 79–88; Smout, Nature Contested, 126. Latham, Deterioration of Mountain Pastures, 112; Macdonald, Agriculture of the County of Sutherland, 85. Sheep numbers in Sutherland, for example, rose from 168,170 in 1853, to 240,096 in 1875, see Macdonald, On the Agriculture of the County of Sutherland, 65. Macdonald, 1872, Agriculture of Inverness-shire, Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, 4th series iv, 52 Dodgshon, Livestock production in the Scottish Highlands, 33. Dodgshon, Livestock production in the Scottish Highlands, 32–33. H.M. Armstrong and J.A. Milne, The effects of grazing on vegetation species composition, in: Thompson, Hester and Usher (Eds), Heaths and Moorland: Cultural Landscapes, 163; Grant, 1985, Comparative studies of diet selection by sheep and cattle: the hill grasslands, Journal of Ecology, 73, 987, 10.2307/2260163 Its potential role is noted by Smout, see Nature Contested, 126, but Innes was more cautious, see, Landuse changes in the Scottish Highlands, 147.