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From my house, in North Wales, I can see a vast landscape shaped hugely by ancient hands - Snowdonia. The hills were once heavily forested, and held springs and

From my house, in North Wales, I can see a vast landscape shaped hugely by ancient hands - Snowdonia. The hills were once heavily forested, and held springs and glades in which Mesolithic, Celtic and Roman peoples lived and farmed - but they are now all moorland, as the trees were felled thousands of years ago, for construction and grazing. Much of what we think of as natural landscape was made by man. Even that which is patently unnatural passes without much consideration- the neighbouring farm sits smack atop a Roman fort (situated on an inconvenient hilltop between a known fort on the conwy river and a known fort atop a mountain, which has a view to the sea on one side and our hill, but not the river, on the other) - and my garden atop a Roman road - and nobody knows. The dead giveaway was when we took the mouldering plaster (gypsum atop lime) off the internal walls of the house, to find dressed masonry, and one slab with part of a funerary inscription upon it - the cottage was built from spoilage from the road and tombs that lined it - 400 years ago they would have just been some handily squared off chunks of stone, ideal to build with.

lawlessone 8y ago
>Much of what we think of as natural landscape was made by man. We have similar in Ireland, blanket bogs here were essentially man made.
corin_ 8y ago
I’m not a local or an expert in this area, but do spend a week or two at least once a year in the mountains, either the Lake District or Wales, so have had a few conversations about this in the past. > ”as the trees were felled thousands of years ago” Might you have a source on this you could share? I was under the impression that at least the majority of the deforestation happened in recent centuries or even decades, rather than thousands of years. I did a quick google and didn’t immediately find much detail, although this [0] article from the Independant claims “half of its ancient woodland lost since the 1930s” talking about Britain as a whole. Maybe it happened much earlier in North Wales? Anyway, wherever the line is between natural and man-made, I still really love Snowdonia - was there most recently two months ago (staying quite near you as it happens, a few miles inland from Conwy), it’s such a nice place to get away from city life for a little. There’s a guy who has been campaigning / writing a lot about this subject (I think specifically about the Lake District but might be wrong) pushing for more tree planting, but I can’t think of the name right now... Edit: George Monbiot. I don’t have time right now to revisit his writing but just remember he’s interesting on the topic. [0] https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/worrying-slump-in-tree-planting-prompts-fears-of-deforestation-1997344.html https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/worrying-sl...
- vincebowdren 8y ago
  It's true about the trees being felled thousands of yours ago; it's believed to be the same in my local countryside, the Peak. That claim about half of ancient woodland lost since the 1930s : that's true, but it's referring to what ancient woodland still remained in the 1930s compared to what remains now. Both are very small areas, compared to the amount of land which became forested after the last ice age. A quick reference I've found; wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blanket_bog https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blanket_bog) has "In some areas of Europe, the spread of blanket bogs is traced to deforestation by prehistoric cultures.", cited to an article in Nature: Moore, P. D. (1973). The influence of prehistoric cultures upon the initiation and spread of blanket bog in upland Wales. Nature, 241, 350–353.

lawlessone 8y ago

>Much of what we think of as natural landscape was made by man. We have similar in Ireland, blanket bogs here were essentially man made.

corin_ 8y ago

I’m not a local or an expert in this area, but do spend a week or two at least once a year in the mountains, either the Lake District or Wales, so have had a few conversations about this in the past. > ”as the trees were felled thousands of years ago” Might you have a source on this you could share? I was under the impression that at least the majority of the deforestation happened in recent centuries or even decades, rather than thousands of years. I did a quick google and didn’t immediately find much detail, although this [0] article from the Independant claims “half of its ancient woodland lost since the 1930s” talking about Britain as a whole. Maybe it happened much earlier in North Wales? Anyway, wherever the line is between natural and man-made, I still really love Snowdonia - was there most recently two months ago (staying quite near you as it happens, a few miles inland from Conwy), it’s such a nice place to get away from city life for a little. There’s a guy who has been campaigning / writing a lot about this subject (I think specifically about the Lake District but might be wrong) pushing for more tree planting, but I can’t think of the name right now... Edit: George Monbiot. I don’t have time right now to revisit his writing but just remember he’s interesting on the topic. [0] https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/worrying-slump-in-tree-planting-prompts-fears-of-deforestation-1997344.html https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/worrying-sl...

vincebowdren 8y ago
It's true about the trees being felled thousands of yours ago; it's believed to be the same in my local countryside, the Peak. That claim about half of ancient woodland lost since the 1930s : that's true, but it's referring to what ancient woodland still remained in the 1930s compared to what remains now. Both are very small areas, compared to the amount of land which became forested after the last ice age. A quick reference I've found; wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blanket_bog https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blanket_bog) has "In some areas of Europe, the spread of blanket bogs is traced to deforestation by prehistoric cultures.", cited to an article in Nature: Moore, P. D. (1973). The influence of prehistoric cultures upon the initiation and spread of blanket bog in upland Wales. Nature, 241, 350–353.