Pollen Analysis and Radiocarbon Dating of a Core from Loch Pityoulish, Eastern Highlands of Scotland

Abstract

Pollen analysis and radiocarbon-dating of cores from Loch Pityoulish, Speyside, record the vegetational history of the area surrounding the loch for the greater part of Flandrian time. Although the earliest Flandrian is not represented, it is possible to conclude that by ca. 9000 years BP, birch-hazel woodland was well established, and soils in the catchment had long been stabilized. Pine then invaded and colonized the area in the period from 8000 to 6650 BP, during which time water levels may have been low or falling at some other Eastern Highland sites. Pine-birch forest became established by 6650 BP, but the main expansion of alder was delayed until ca. 5550 BP, after which a forest dominated by pine, but also containing birch, oak and alder developed. Then, at about 3800 BP, birch replaced pine as the main tree within the catchment. From ca 3000 BP onwards, a complex series of vegetation changes takes place which records the effects of successive human cultures upon the landscape. Forest clearance by peoples who were predominantly pastoralists, and correlated with Secondary NAeolithic and Beaker cultures, is followed by a period offorest regeneration between 1650 and 1000 BP, but then further forest clearance by Dark Age peoples begins a phase of exploitation whose impact increases in the last three centuries up to the present.