ABSTRACT
Introduction The Scottish rural landscape is invariably a source of stimulation and an author needs little further encouragement. There are compelling physical features such as the richly wooded trough of the Dee, with its majestic backcloth in the smooth lofty Cairngorms, or sweeping vistas across the heather moorland and lonely lochans at Dava; each reflecting geology, climate, glaciation, river drainage or vegetation. They also generate distinct patterns of land use and questions about the reconciliation of the present system of exploitation with the need for conservation over the longer term. Such an awareness of time can then extend backwards into history for the geographer interested in settlement patterns, who may be fascinated by the various ways in which the land has been settled and managed through the centuries. How have perceptions changed with alterations in culture, technology and market conditions? Such issues have to be approached through documents but there are sufficient numbers of relict features surviving as fragmentary legacies of former lifestyles to show that the cultural landscape was significantly different in the past.
