Coralie Mills has previously contributed content on heritage dendrochronology to some of the other evolving Scottish regional research frameworks, including for the Highlands and Perth & Kinross. Coralie is delighted to be one of the small team of dendrochronologists now working with ScARF in developing a Dendrochronology Research Framework for Scotland  – which will reflect the holistic nature of the discipline across inter-connected applications in archaeology, historic buildings, wooded landscapes, climate and ecology. Look out for more news from ScARF on this soon.

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What follows is the interim summary of our findings, prepared by my colleague Peter Quelch who is a forester and native woodlands advisor. A fuller report will become available through the GGLP website later this year. Most of the map resources mentioned can be found on the National Library of Scotland maps website.

Old map analysis shows that Barhill ridge was wooded at the time of Timothy Pont’s survey c 1590, as depicted in Blaeu’s Atlas of 1654. One assumes these must have been natural origin woods, but not necessarily –they could be late medieval/early modern period plantings, being so close to an important town with port and castle.

Either way Barr Hill seems to be bare at the time of Roy’s survey in c1750, though we know that woods in poor condition or unenclosed may be missed off his maps. We do have a very useful survey plan by Robt Heron of 1790 which does indeed show a new star shaped plantation on Barr Hill, and this is confirmed by maps by Ainslie 1797 and Thomson 1821.

The first edition OS map of 1847 shows these now mature woodlands in great detail, as does the second edition OS map of 1895 which is also available at the 25inch to the mile scale. The woodland’s complex outline changes little over this time, and this is verified by a fascinating early aerial view of the town and wooded hill in 1930.

Then the FC acquired Barhill wood in 1952 and successfully replanted the entire woodland and the bare fields included within it, along with Janet’s Plantation to the north, probably after clearing most of any remaining early planting and seminatural woodland. So most parts of the woodland today have tall, heavily stocked and only lightly thinned crops of the common conifers, mainly Norway Spruce and Japanese Larch mixed with tall and slender beech, sycamore and ash.

However the archaeology of the old strip fields and alternating woodland mosaic is fascinating and yet easy to picture. The neighbouring fields often have that type of mosaic landscape, while the old maps and the early aerial photo back that up. This landscape is particularly interesting to the author who sees a very similar arrangement in the landscape of Mid Argyll. We heard that even today the remaining strip field between the FC and council owned woods is still used for outdoor lambing and prized for that reason by the local farmer.

The woodland in both ownerships is heavily used by local residents and is easily accessed by foot, car and bicycle, and sports both a visitor centre classroom and a squirrel observation hide. Janet’s plantation, at the north end, however has no trails and has more difficult access at present.

The resident red squirrels may present a challenge for future management of the woodland as the pines, larch and spruce trees probably represent a significant food source and shelter for these animals. So any kind of simplistic conversion to predominantly native species woodland would almost certainly worsen the squirrel habitat value of the woodlands. The way forward will probably involve selective thinning and felling, probably being hard on the beech and favouring birch and pine. However with all the various interests and issues of this wood, which is an important asset for Kirkcudbright town, both the drawing up of woodland management plans, and the carrying out of any work sensitively, will be quite a challenge for the community and the woodland owners.

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Fortunately, dendrochronological work on deadwood from the Old Oaks of Dalkeith Park (see photo) is available to provide the anchor in time, ie the recent end of the new oak reference chronology to be produced by SESOD, with Dalkeith data spanning AD1592-2010. However, only a few trees are older than 1700, and more data from 1700 and earlier is sought.

The project director, Coralie Mills is requesting the help of those who know of any buildings or structures in SE Scotland with old timber which may potentially meet the objectives of SESOD. Coralie can be contacted at coralie.mills@dendrochronicle.co.uk

Assessment visits will be undertaken to the most likely candidates in 2018-19, the first year of the 3-year project. SESOD will concentrate on locating, sampling and analysing oak timbers from selected historic buildings and structures in the Scottish Borders, the Lothians and Edinburgh, in sites where the timber stands a good chance of pre-dating 1700 and being native rather than imported. This will be easiest to predict in medieval buildings built before the great surge in imported timber to the eastern central belt from around 1450. However, away from the coast and where transport was more difficult, we would expect native timber to continue to be used in the late- and post-medieval periods. This was found to be the case at a townhouse on the High Street in Jedburgh which contained native oak felled in AD1667 (see photo). It was only possible to date it by comparison with oak chronologies from the north of England, where local oak was used well into the post-medieval period. Creation of an oak reference chronology for South East Scotland aims to enhance the ‘date-ability’ of historic oak timbers in this region.

SESOD will run over three years, from 2018/19, with archaeology grant support from HES, and partnership working with a range of bodies, including Archaeology Scotland and the Forestry Commission Scotland on outreach and educational aspects. It also has the valuable support of the council archaeologists in the region.

This article first appeared in the Archaeology Scotland magazine, Issue 32, Summer 2018.

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http://mingarycastle.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/the-dendrochronolgist.html

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We have a long tradition in Britain of bringing in native tree greenery at Christmas, most surely connected to ancient mid-winter celebrations.  The photo shows the fresh wreath I made at a workshop this week, and uses native yew, ivy and birch bark hearts. It is posted here by way of a Christmas Greeting to all of Dendrochronicle’s friends. Its been an exciting year, with the chance to meet many new people and to get to know some more historic woodlands through new projects. Wishing you all a happy and fulfilling New Year. Coralie.

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It was really good to meet staff and participants in the Heritage Skills Initiative when I gave a lecture on Dendrochronology for them in Newcastle last night (7th Dec). A really diverse range of people are involved in this excellent programme. HSI seeks to address the shortage of heritage skills required to restore and maintain the historic environment by identifying gaps and providing training opportunities. HSI is hosted by the North East Civic Trust, with programmes in both the NE and the NW of England, and has been funded by HLF and English Heritage. Many events are free. More info at their web page  www.nect.org.uk/heritage-skills-initiative

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The dendrochronology workshop I ran for the National Trust for Scotland this week was held at Drum Castle; with its intact early 17th C roofs of local oak and the beautiful 18thC oak trees in the Old Wood of Drum, both of which have been subject to tree-ring analysis, it was the perfect place to show how dendrochronology may contribute to our understanding of built and natural heritage, and reveal the connections between them.

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