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Moorlands Past & Present
Moorlands Past...
From the earliest times, moorland has been so much the scene of human modification that it is really an artifact. Once covered by dense forests of pine birch and alder, Mesolithic hunter-gatherers opened it up for wild grazing animals and easy stalking. Iron Age and Medieval farmers kept it open or cleared more of the wood, and their fields encroached on the moorland edge, retreating again when climate, markets, and populations changed.
The management of heather by rotational burning has been practised for a very long time. An Act of the Scottish Parliament in 1400 has references to “muirburn”, and more precise restrictions were introduced in the 17th century when a closed season between March and the end of the harvest was introduced.
In recent centuries, sheep grazing and then grouse shooting became the main uses of moorlands, which perpetuated the open heather hill still seen today. Sporting visitors had started arriving in the early 19th century at a time when sheep revenues were in decline, but it was in the 1840’s that the coming of the railways really opened up the highlands to tourists. The purchase of Balmoral by Queen Victoria in 1852 helped to stimulate further the demand for grouse shooting and deer stalking as in the Highlands. On the more productive moors, walked up grouse shooting gradually developed into driving the birds over a line of permanent butts, and the mosaic pattern of heather burning was refined to improve their habitat. This management system has remained essentially unchanged, particularly on the drier moors of eastern Scotland, and has helped a unique assemblage of wildlife to develop.
The years since the Second World War have seen some big changes. During the war, grouse shooting was largely abandoned as keepers were called up for service and some moors were taken over for military training. Financial pressures and the loss of skilled keepers meant that many owners struggled to revive their moors when the war ended, followed by an era when the Government determined to rebuild the domestic agricultural and forest resources which had proved inadequate during the war. Subsidies and tax breaks were given to encourage conversion of heather to more productive grasses, drainage and conifer afforestation, and this resulted in loss of moorland, especially on the wetter western side of Scotland.
'Almost a quarter of Scotland’s heather has been lost since the 1940s,with most of this loss attributed to forestry and agricultural intensification. Losses of heather in areas managed for red grouse have been smaller, as the income provided by shooting has tended to justify the continuation of expensive and intensive management practices.' (Scotland’s Moorland Forum: Principles of Moorland Management)
...& Present
There is little official data on the precise extent of managed moorland in Scotland following half a century of decline, but the best estimate is contained in Scotland’s Moorland Forum booklet “Principles of Moorland Management” :
'Open semi-natural habitats with dwarf shrub heaths* are moorland. These areas typically occur above enclosed farmland and reach up to around the climatic treeline. Moorland includes dry and wet heaths, blanket bogs, rough grasslands and the many habitats associated with these. Some bird and animal groups occur in Scotland’s moors at higher density or diversity than anywhere else.'
As a whole, the area of moorland covers some 38% of Scotland (3 million hectares)
* ‘Dwarf Shrub Heath’ comprises vegetation with a greater than 25% cover of plants from the heath family (mainly heather) or dwarf gorse species.
Click here for Map of heather moorland (Macaulay Institute – Land Cover of Scotland)
The area of heather and the wildlife on it is likely to be still slowly declining in Scotland, although some developments in the last decade are encouraging. Market pressures on sheep farming and the switch of EU subsidies from production to “agri-environment” schemes have reduced grazing to more sustainable levels. There has also been significant new outside investment in grouse management which has rescued many moors from long term decline. Coupled with new techniques of heather restoration and the reversion of some marginal forestry back to moorland, the decline is now slowing. (See Practical Conservation: Stopping The Rot)