Conservation not Reconstruction: Historic Land-Use Assessment (HLA), or Characterising the Historic Landscape in Scotland

Abstract

The Historic Land-use Assessment (HLA) project in Scotland – a partnership between Historic Scotland and the Royal Commission for Ancient and Historic Monuments in Scotland (RCAHMS) – was designed to create a digital map of the origins of the present countryside to enable it to be managed in a comprehensive way for the first time. This was a significant new departure since before the mid-1990s the only historic element in the landscape other than archaeological sites that was considered in the planning process was designed landscapes, whereas the HLA approach has embraced the whole landscape: urban and rural. The genesis of the project was conservation, not reconstruction. In essence the map identifies any land use that has left a mark on the landscape, be it current or relict. The approach is unashamedly archaeological and evidence-based. The features must be evident on present and past maps or air photographs and as far as possible the interpretation is confirmed by fieldwork. There is no attempt to infer things that cannot be verified, but morphological typology is used as a method of interpretation of, for example, the burgage layout of medieval urban cores. The map is already being used by the new National Parks and by some local authorities for planning control or structure plans.