Abstract
Palynological, archaeological, and ecological
evidence indicates that certain established explanations of the decline of woodland in the Scottish Highlands are chronologically erroneous. It is further
apparent that these explanations may be incorrect in
their allocation of significance to different possible
causal factors, and particularly the attribution of a
major destructive role to commercial exploitation
between the seventeenth and the nineteenth century.
The use of woodland in Argyllshire and Perthshire
between 1650 and 1850 is examined. Study of factors
associated with the non-commercial use of timber and
woodland produce by the rural community, and the use of
woodland for grazing and other purposes, indicates that
the role of these factors was significant but largely
unquantifiable.
Factors relating to commercial activity are then
examined, with particular emphasis on detailed case
studies of the use of native pinewood, the coppicing
of deciduous woodland as a source of tanbark, and
coppicing associated with iron smelting. In none of
these examples is a significant decline in the quality
and extent of woodland attributable to commercial use
in the period examined.
It is suggested that commercial use of woodland,
as it affected the two counties, was in some cases
beneficial in Introducing forms of management which
temporarily arrested or reversed a process of degradation attributable to other factors. It is also suggested
that commercial use in itself had a limited destructive
effect, although it contributed to the decline of woodland by making it more vulnerable to this process of
degradation during or after periods of exploitation or
management.
It is concluded that the decline of woodland in
Argyllshire and Perthshire between 1650 and 1850 cannot
be explained in terms of destruction by commercial
activity; the decline of woodland in this period must
therefore be attributed largely to the action of the
complex of factors associated with the non-commercial
exploitation of the woodland area, in adverse environmental conditions.
