Site-based Recommendations
Very few historic wooded landscapes have been studied in depth or had dendrochronology applied, and those few which have been studied are so varied that each new site is likely to add significantly to our understanding of woodland heritage in Scotland. It is important at the site level that each project is designed to record the necessary information to interpret and contextualise the tree-ring samples in a manner that allows the woodland history information to be extracted. The metadata necessary to work out stem origin dates is particularly important, as is the tree-form information and the evidence for management interventions. Complementary evidence is required to gain a fuller understanding of a woodland’s origin and changes over time, including historic maps, documentary evidence, and where available, archaeological, palynological and ecological information.
Research recommendation: Expand the number of historic woodland studies of individual sites in Scotland where dendrochronology is one of several inter-related strands of information gathered, so that chronological control is possible for discerning the origins and changes in a woodland over time.
Research recommendation: Seek opportunities to apply and share historic woodland studies beyond archaeological and history ‘audiences’, to inform ecological restoration and conservation management work.
Place-based Recommendations
Most historic woodland studies involving dendrochronology so far undertaken have been for specific woods or areas within much larger landholdings. Given that cultural woodlands often formed an aspect of an estate-wide economy, then it would make sense to study woodlands at an estate scale, including targeted use of dendrochronology. There were often different types of woodland within the same estate, for example, designed woodlands around the main residence, working woodlands and plantations further from it, and sometimes semi-natural woodland surviving in places. Changes in each estate’s ownership and economy would be reflected in the woodland record. The resources required for larger scale studies would be greater of course, but studies at an estate level scale would provide a more holistic understanding of the role and fate of woodlands in the economy of an estate and in the livelihoods of the people living on that land in the past. So far, there have been few opportunities for undertaking dendrochronology on both woodlands and buildings within one landholding. An exception is at Drum Castle, Aberdeenshire, with discoveries of prolonged local oak use, woodland loss and replanting, showing how this approach can reveal the longer histories of people and woods in a particular locality and expand native chronology coverage (Mills & Crone 2012).
Research recommendation: Seek opportunities to investigate historic wooded landscapes at an estate-wide scale, including targeted dendrochronological work.
Research recommendation: Undertake combined dendrochronological studies of woodlands and historic buildings in particular localities where native woodland use was likely.
Regional and Landscape Recommendations
Following on from the last section, comparative studies of historic woodland cover between different places within a region could also be very informative, for example across different estates on one island or region. The historic woodland sites studied so far are so few, so varied and so dispersed that it is not yet possible to infer regional patterns of change. As more studies are added, it would be valuable to consider how the woodland histories vary within and between ScARF regions.
Research recommendation: Seek opportunities for further regional historic woodland studies where dendrochronology is included, which would provide a chronological framework for comparison.
Research recommendation: Seek opportunities for comparative studies between wooded landscapes/landholdings/estates within a region.
Research recommendation: As the knowledge base grows, consider how wooded landscape history varies between ScARF regions.
Strategic and overarching recommendations
At a national scale, there would be advantages of deploying dendrochronology in studying examples of certain types of woodlands across the country, for example: to compare the age, origins and management history of surviving old wood pastures in different parts of Scotland; to consider the age and origins of trees within medieval parks and hunting forests; to distinguish ancient planted trees from ancient natural origin trees to assist ecological restoration objectives; to reveal and promote the cultural heritage dimension in certain foci of native woodland restoration work, such as the ‘Atlantic Rainforest’ (a name often used to describe the wetter woodlands of the west) or the Caledonian pinewoods. Many such wooded landscapes were more populated places in the past.
Research recommendation: Undertake thematic national historic woodland studies of examples of key historic woodland types, including those which are the foci of ecological restoration work, using dendrochronology amongst the methodologies to reveal and promote their cultural heritage aspects.