Misunderstood Landscapes of the Highlands : Natural Woods
1. The natural woods of the Highlands and Islands have often been misunderstood; this has affected how they have been viewed and how they have been managed. In some quarters, many of these misunderstandings remain; this short paper hopes to present a more accurate picture of these woods, in particular the West Coast woods, and how they come to be the way they are. The intention is to assist a more realistic appreciation of these woods, and of the light they shed on the lives of the people who lived for centuries in, or close to them. These people did, of course, value the woods as one of the significant natural resources of their surroundings; it was only when the woods lost their value, that historic woodland really began to dwindle and disappear.
2. The idea of endless, coast-to-coast woodland, the ‘Great Wood of Caledon’, still endures in some quarters. In ‘Scottish Woodland History’, (edited by T C Smout; Scottish Cultural Press, 1997), Dr David Breeze exposed the shaky evidential basis of what he called the “Great Myth of Caledon’. And the first chapter in this volume, written by Chris Smout himself, entitled: ‘Highland Land-use before 1800-Misconceptions, Evidence and Realities’ should be required reading before anyone ventures a word on this subject.
3. Frans Vera has, more recently, proposed a very different view of early woodland: it is his belief that as our native trees advanced over the country, so, too, did large herbivores. They would have created open spaces, grazed saplings and bushes heavily, and generally created a very dynamic landscape full of change and biodiversity. For a very readable account of Vera’s theory see ‘Wilding’ by Isabella Tree (Picador, 2018). Highland cows may have performed the same role in much later woods.
4. Even a coast-to-coast woodland would have been discontinuous, broken up by mountain summits and ridges, freshwater lochs and extensive wetlands. Those who still insist that ‘we have cut down all the trees across the Highlands’ do so in ignorance of the very important natural phenomena which would have significantly reduced already islanded woodland. Periods of climatic downturn, particularly from around 2000 BC, altered soils and encouraged the formation of peat over large areas; many stumps found in eroding bogs date from around 4000 years ago. And repeated volcanic eruptions in Iceland (roughly every 500 years) deposited toxic chemicals over areas of Northern Scotland, which must have affected the natural vegetation through time.
5. Farmers from as early as the Neolithic (from 4000 BC to around 2500BC) will, of course, have cleared areas for agriculture, but there is evidence that in places like Northwest Skye, Orkney and Caithness, they moved into a landscape with ‘tree-cover’ (possibly more like ‘scrub’) already reduced by climatic factors-especially wind. In any case, prevailing winds from one dominant direction (often the west), effectively move woodland from exposed locations eastwards into shelter. And we cannot assume that these cleared, farmed areas would remain in active agriculture from then on; in the much poorer conditions of the climatic downturn, some western areas appear to have had a much reduced population, which would leave the land to evolve naturally; often this was towards blanket bog, (but it might also be to alder and willow). In later periods, too, individual glens or catchments might well be abandoned, perhaps for a few generations, (as a result of recurrent plague), allowing local regeneration to take over.
6. In a chapter I wrote for Scottish Woodland History, based on my study of Assynt Woodlands, (Noble 2001), I showed that it seemed to be areas which were comparatively remote from human habitation and exploitation which had been most reduced from the time of Home’s Survey of Assynt (1775) to the present. Woods close to the pre-Clearance ‘farms’ such as Drumbeg, Nedd, Glenleraig and Ardvar, remained, showing plenty of evidence of exploitation; some had actually increased in area. And while we have plenty of evidence for the felling of large areas of woodland during this period, (especially during the early years of the Industrial Revolution), in places like Loch Mareeside, Speyside, Glen Affric, Glen Cannich and Strath Farrar, parts of Argyll and Loch Lomond-side, it must be known to everyone that these same areas retain important woodland to this day. Again, it can be stressed: use does not destroy woods, (not even felling), unless it is immediately followed by prolonged heavy grazing.
7. Coming more up-to-date, in 1947 Frank Fraser Darling produced his ‘Natural History in the High-lands and Islands’. In it, he follows what had become customary, referring to ‘Pine Forest, Birch Wood, Oak Wood’; the separation into woodland types based on the most dominant tree. However, he does, elsewhere, note the great variety of species in locations such as Dundonnell, at the head of Little Loch Broom. He does not mention the important, natural dynamic in pine woods which is progressively to shade out the deciduous trees like birch and rowan, (leading ultimately to large tracts of one species), unless interrupted by episodes of fire which allows these pioneer species to re-establish for a period.
8. Fraser Darling did notice a phase of regeneration in the birchwoods “under the high hill masses of Quinag and Suilven”. This is the first reference to the wave of young birches which grew up around me in the late 50s and 60s, and which could be seen in many West Coast locations, particularly growing on the Lewisian Gneiss. It is a shame that F F-D did not try to ascertain what caused this widespread phase of regeneration in an era and locations where sheep were still numerous. Nor did he notice that these belts of dense young birch were masking, in many areas, something much older, very different in character and much more diverse in species.
9. As a result of much work initiated by Peter Quelch, (and many others, including me), we now see that these waves of regeneration often emanated from core woods which, in character, resemble the typical ‘wood-pasture’, exemplified by Glen Finglass. These tend to be much more open than our usual view of ‘woodland’, with groups of visibly very different, obviously managed, veteran trees. The woods of this type which I studied in Assynt retained coppices and pollards of many species: ash, alder, birch, holly, oak, rowan, willows, wych elm. Although it is possible, perhaps, to argue about the origins of the coppices, groups of pollards offer unequivocal evidence for management of these trees over centuries. The cuttings from the pollards may have been used as fodder for the stock which no doubt wandered-or were herded-through these open woods when there was little for them on the hill; this would also, of course, have helped maintain the open character of such woods.
10. There were also in many of these woods, clear areas which were used for agriculture; they were sometimes really quite small. I identified some in Glenleraig by the faint presence of cultivation ridges; they had been listed and mapped in the 1775 Survey of Assynt done for Sutherland Estates by John Home. And in Rassal ‘Ashwood’, such agricultural areas could be identified by the occasional presence of clearance cairns. (Strangely, SNH subsequently planted rowan on these level open spaces, which will make it even harder to appreciate how this important place actually functioned).
11. The waves of regenerating birch go, relatively quickly, through distinct phases, which we might call: youth, maturity, and senescence. During these, the ‘wave’ of birch seedlings and saplings thins out as it ages; the later phases may again be quite open. Accordingly, in a natural situation where such a wood, (consisting of the wood-pasture core, surrounded by one or more sequences of birch regeneration), is only limited by natural features such as bogs, rivers and lochs, what we, (or NatureScot), might call a ‘wood’ will be remarkably mobile along its edges. Topography and wind direction complicate this already rather fugitive picture, which does not lend itself to tidy definition, mapping, classification, or, importantly, management. Parts of the periphery, the mostly-birch regeneration, will always be in ‘unfavourable condition’, while the ancient core will slowly die off, will certainly lose its ancient character, unless traditional management, the coppicing and pollarding, are carefully reintroduced.
12. Even this complex picture is over-simplified; holly and rowan still seem to seed easily, and will form little ‘pockets’ within the older and newer parts of the whole, while, ‘entirely doing its own thing’. aspen clones appear almost anywhere, and thread through birch, or oak, with complete equanimity. Aspen is a bit odd; in places, its shoots seem much grazed and come to nothing, in others they seem to succumb to fungal or other infection. Oliver Rackham talks of aspen in ancient English woodland as ‘weakly competitive and living no more than about 50 years’, which might seem consistent with my previous observations. But in Assynt, and in other places in the Highlands, in a wide variety of landscape settings and exposure, it grows strikingly strongly, with many substantial, tall, straight stems, despite grazing pressure.
13. There is a need, too, to recognise other woodland types which may have been historically more evident and important than they are now. I am thinking here particularly of slope alderwoods: I found the scanty remains of one in Glenleraig, with one fine, double-pollarded tree, and three, pollards of different ages, at Oldany, also in Assynt. The finest of which I am aware is in Strath Farrar, a much bigger group above Loch a’ Mhuillidh. Here there are some very impressive trees, many of which appear also to be pollards. (When I was last there, there was almost no sign of any regeneration of these remarkable trees).
14. The effect of all the above is that what we call, simply, ‘woods’ hides some rather separate entities, of different ages, origins, and tendencies. At least, in the Highlands and Islands, they are often relatively unconfined; free to move around the landscape to some extent. But that very fact makes the management of such ‘woods’ more difficult, rather than easier. And the pressure of grazing by deer presents added problems. Fencing, whether long- or short-term, will protect regeneration if there are adequate seed sources, but, even with such protection, heavy-seeded trees like hazel and oak seem to find regeneration very difficult under current conditions. It is crucial to maintain the historic diversity of all our surviving native woods, which means that they must all be adequately surveyed, a full species list drawn up, and the regeneration or otherwise of each ascertained. Seedlings and saplings should be protected if progress seems really to be slow. It is good to record that this is at least done in certain places. In, for instance, the ‘Caledonian Pine Wood’ of Glen Affric there is a very old, informative, managed oak (above the Coire Loch), whose offspring have been protected and are now growing well.
15. But removing all grazing will mean that many of the old, managed trees, especially hazel and perhaps alder, will spring from the base, and in time their characteristic, big, single trunks will rot...and the evidence of past use will disappear. It is crucial that where these old relics of wood pasture remain, especially if concealed by subsequent phases of regeneration, the veteran trees are at the very least adequately recorded. If this is not done, much of the visible evidence of how the pre-Clearance population of the Highlands and Islands actually lived, of the care they took with their trees, will disappear, and the misunderstanding of the evolution of our landscapes will grow. Along with wood banks and ditches, clearance cairns and cultivation ridges, the veteran trees are part of cultural landscapes which are still far from being adequately recognised.
16. Areas of old woodland in the Highlands which are in a lowland setting, ie limited by agriculture or housing, for instance, are unfortunate in their inability to move. They will eventually become over-mature, then moribund, and retain little natural history interest. They need room to regenerate internally, so clearings have to be created within the wood to allow for this. This is also required where there are large, dense stands of woodland, as for instance in many parts of Speyside. An effective alternative in deciduous woods is to coppice and pollard compartments; this not only takes the canopy down to an earlier phase, but it helps prolong the life of the tree, sometimes almost indefinitely........while letting light down to the forest floor, with sometimes spectacular benefits to woodland flowers, butterflies and bees etc. Management of woodland can be very good for biodiversity, but grazing must always be managed too.
