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Abstract
The emphasis in landscape history has been on site investigations rather than upon the development of strong theoretical foundations. The dominance of empirical studies is not necessarily to be regretted and the loosely-structured interdisciplinary nature of landscape history offers protection against distortions which might damage a more coherently organised and controlled discipline. The conceptual content of landscape history is greater than might be imagined and several well-established conceptualisations are explored. Thereafter, attention is focussed upon other conceptualisations which are of a more implicit nature, including the ways in which practitioners have recognised and described landscapes of different types. The complexities encountered in landscape studies and the numerous different forms of expertise that are employed in attempts to elucidate the processes of cultural landscape formation argue that any attempts rigidly to organise the contents and perspectives of landscape history must be doomed to fail. Appreciation should be given to the strengths that derive from the looser, uncentralised nature of this 'interdisciplinary discipline'.