Like much of Britain, Orkney used to have far more trees. It is thought that the islands were covered in woodlands but, around 5000 years ago, they began to disappear. Two things happened at around the same time; climate change leading to stronger winds and human Neolithic inhabitants.
Whether the trees and shrubs of Orkney were too battered by the strong, sea winds, or chopped down for fuel or gnawed by domesticated, grazing animals, the woodlands disappeared.
So how do we know they were there in the first place? Because they are still here. Orcadian naturalists discovered this awhile ago:
'...it is observable in many places, even under the flat sea-beech, where the storms or other accidents wash off the gravel or sand, that black peat-moss, stuck through with trees, seems to have been the original soil. Sometimes a whole tree has been found, and the smallest fibre so strong as to bear lifting. And in a peat-moss in Deerness, at the depth of four feet, roots of trees and hazelnuts have been dug up, the nuts quite entire. This would seem to indicate, that the country was not formerly as it is now.'
(St Andrews and Deerness parish entry in the Statistical Account of Scotland 1791-1799)
'There are a number of sunken sea beaches in Orkney where roots of trees are found in situ below the water mark'
'They had been laid bare by a Westerly gale but were still embedded in hard, black peaty substance below the sea'
(letters written to Old-Lore Miscellany IV, 1912)
'On the west coast of the Mainland of Orkney, about midway between Hoy mouth and the Westray Frith lies the Bay of Skaill... Mr Watt of Skaill, discovered, during the ebb, what was apparently a peat-moss, about an acre in extent. Partly embedded, and lying on the surface of this moss, in a horizontal position, were the stems of several small trees about 10 feet in length, and from 5 to 6 inches in diameter. They were in a very decayed state; but a piece of one of them was so fresh, that Mr Watt was able to ascertain it to be some kind of fir.'
(Notice Regarding the Submarine Remains of a Grove of Fir Trees in Orkney, Edinburgh Philiosophical Journal 1820.)
'We first dig through a layer of sand, from one to two feet in depth, and then reach a bed of moss, in which the decaying skeletons of trees lie in every conceivable position. It is a melancholy sight to look into the open grave of what had at one time been an umbrageous forest, blooming in all the sylvan beauty of stately trunk, spreading bough, and green leaves, where beasts roamed and fair birds sang.'
(The Encroachment of the Sea - paper read to the Orkney Natural History Society in 1893. by Walter Traill Dennison)
'I stood six feet down and heaved out the buried past of the earth. It was cold, as if the last of the ice-age lingered; and here were leaves in a perfect state of preservation, autumn-tinted, veined and with stems attached; tiny red seeds, and one lovely green glinting thing that could have been an insect wing-case or a scrap of alien flora. The peat broke across at the leaf-layer, and right at the bottom, bedded in the blue boulder-clay, were tree branches and twigs.'
Bessie Skea in A Countrywoman's Calendar, 1962
When organic matter is squished down into soggy, anaerobic conditions, peat is formed. Much of Orkney is covered by thick layers of peat and, in the absence of timber to burn, this was often used as a fuel.
 |
Cutting peats.
|
 |
Carrying peats
|
Peat is a kind of natural archive, preserving layers of pollen, organic matter and evidence of climatic conditions. The pollen found in Orkney peat suggests the presence of wide areas of woodland scrub after the Ice Age. Trees like aspen, downy birch, rowan, hazel, juniper and willow thrived alongside roses and honeysuckle shrubs.
So if you are ever stepping across a springy peat bank just think, you could be walking over ancient, submerged forests.
Information taken from:
Growth in Britain's Most Northerly Wood by Chapman and Crawford, 1981
The Encroachment of the Sea by Walter Traill Dennison
Old-Lore Miscellany Volume IV
The Statistical Account of Scotland 1791-1799
