Mapping the Historic Landscape: Historic Land-Use Assessment in Scotland

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses the recent completion of Scotland’s Historic Land-use Assessment (HLA) project, a long-term partnership between Historic Scotland and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) (now merged as Historic Environment Scotland) to map time-depth within the present-day landscape was completed in 2015. This paper places HLA within the wider context of historic landscape characterisation (HLC) in Europe and outlines some of the new insights and perspectives that this resource provides for Scotland’s landscapes. In particular, the historical complexity and time-depth inherent within the Scottish landscape is emphasised, along with the importance of HLA’s landscape-scale data and nationwide coverage. The paper finishes with a discussion of some of the possibilities and challenges for the future of HLA and HLC projects in general, concluding that HLA/HLC data have a significant part to play in understanding and communicating the role of the past in the formation of current landscapes and, in partnership with multidisciplinary data, helping to shape future landscapes.

KEYWORDS:

• Historic Land-use Assessment
• landscape archaeology
• cultural landscapes
• characterisation
• Scotland

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Kirsty Millican works within the Designations Team at Historic Environment Scotland. She previously held a temporary lectureship at Aberdeen University and worked on the Historic Land-use Assessment Project. She maintains research interests in Neolithic and Early Bronze Scotland, cropmark and landscape archaeology, is a research affiliate with Glasgow University’s archaeology department and co-director of the Lochbrow Landscape Project. [email protected]

Piers Dixon developed an interest in the development of the landscape during his doctoral work on ‘The Deserted Medieval Villages of North Northumberland’. He spent 11 years working freelance on archaeological field projects before joining RCAHMS in 1989 as an Investigator. Among other projects, he co-managed the Historic Land-use Assessment in Scotland, and is now a Deputy Head of Survey and Recording. [email protected]

Lesley Macinnes originally a prehistorian, worked in heritage management for over 30 years, retiring from Historic Environment Scotland in 2016. Responsibilities included co-managing the Historic Land-use Assessment Project, introducing the Inventory of Historic Battlefields, and overseeing the management of Scotland’s World Heritage Sites. Current research focus is the sustainable management of historic landscape. [email protected]

Mike Middleton works as an archaeologist within Historic Environment Scotland’s (HES) Data team. Mike manages two major mapping projects: the Historic Land-use Assessment and a project looking to map the known extent of the records in the National Record of the Historic Environment (Canmore). Mike’s current focus is to look at semi-automation and how technology can be used in the update and management of HES’ national mapping projects. [email protected]