Even today Perth and Kinross has considerable areas of marsh and other wetlands, and these were much more extensive at the beginning of the post-medieval period. The 17th, 18th and 19th centuries saw drainage projects in many parts of the region. Particularly extensive drainage took place in the Carse of Gowrie. In the mid-18th century, the travel writer Richard Pococke noted that the Carse of Gowrie ‘was all a morassy soil till it was drained some years ago’ (Kemp 1887, 259). Similarly, in the 1790s the minister of St Madoes remarked on the decline in prevalence of the ‘ague’, probably a term for malaria, in the Carse of Gowrie. He attributed this change ‘to the rapid improvements in agriculture, particularly … the draining of the low marshy ground, which formerly lay under water during a great part of the year’ (Black 1792, 569).
Field drains and other remains of post-medieval drainage efforts are frequently discovered during excavation. Often these features are regarded as of limited interest and little effort is made to date them. Yet they provide evidence for important changes in the use and appearance of the land. Further study of the form and distribution of post-medieval drains might yield valuable insights regarding both the lost wetlands of Perth and Kinross, and the processes by which these areas were drained and improved. The manufacture of ceramic field drains is an under-researched topic, and is of relevance to this region. The brick kilns at Errol were an important local production centre for field drains and their surviving products in museum collections, and any business archives, might benefit from fresh examination.
Greater research into how undrained wetlands were exploited during the post-medieval period would also be desirable. In particular, interdisciplinary investigation of the planting of reedbeds in the River Tay could be of interest. The Tay has the largest area of continuous reedbeds in the UK and commercial harvesting of the reed for thatching continued until 2005 (Price 2020).
In contrast to natural wetlands, water was also deployed to irrigate certain areas. Notably, there is evidence for the deliberate creation of English-style water meadows during the 18th and 19th centuries. The development of water meadows at Strathallan, Bertha and Glendevon has received a degree of study (Fraser 2001). However, more research is needed into the wider use of irrigation in the region.