Climatic variability and ‘marginal’ settlement in upland British landscapes: a re-evaluation

Citation

Tipping R (2002) Climatic variability and ‘marginal’ settlement in upland British landscapes: a re-evaluation. Landscapes, 3 (2), pp. 10-29. https://doi.org/10.1179/lan.2002.3.2.10

Abstract
The recent trend to explain socio-economic change throughout the world by new forms of environmental catastrophism has its counterpart in the history and prehistory of the British Isles. In particular, the paradigm that large parts of upland and northern Britain have been periodically vulnerable to climatic fluctuations has been highly influential. The evidence for climate-driven land abandonment in the past is, however, ambiguous at best. This article initially shows that climate change within the 'little ice age' from 1350 to 1750 is an unsatisfactory explanation for the 'marginalisation' of upland landscapes in parts of southern Scotland. It then ranges more widely across northern Britain in collating palaeo-ecological data with a view to exploring whether climate deterioration drove regional abandonment of upland areas in later prehistory, and concludes that no clear evidence exists. Rather than emphasise vulnerability in human occupation of the uplands, we should recognise the robustness and resilience to stress of past farming communities.

Journal
Landscapes: Volume 3, Issue 2