Tentsmuir in History

Wed, Aug 22nd 2018 at 12:50 pm - 2:00 pm

Robert Crawford has just finished a book about Tentsmuir Forest

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Tentsmuir in History

Tentsmuir has been a scene of human activity for over 10,000 years. It witnessed one of the earliest known occurrences in Scotland of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers and has supported human activities throughout the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages. In medieval times it was in turn, a home for the Norman nobility, a royal hunting forest with highly valued fishing rights for Scottish Kings.

In more modern times it was valued by the early agricultural improvers of the 18^th century for the manner in which the land warmed in summer.

Tentsmuir is prone to flooding in winter due to the front line of dunes blocking drainage to the sea. Consequently, agriculture, and forestry are limited in the extent to which they can be profitably pursued. Nevertheless, Tentsmuir provides a natural refuge for a wide range of plants, as well as resident and migrating birds and other animals including outsanding populations of butterflies and moths. Consequently this led to the creation in 1954 of a National Nature Reserve at the north-eastern end of the Tentsmuir Peninsula. Initially, an active period of coastal accretion more than trebled the size of the Reserve.. Now however, Tentsmuir is eroding in places. For the future, the probability of rising sea levels and increasing exposure to storms, may cause a level of destruction such that the physical existence and biological future of Tentsmuir cannot be guaranteed.

R. Crawdord

20-Auguest 2018

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