ABSTRACT
The hallmark of the reshaped landscape was enclosure, but it must be stressed that there were some early enclosures or 'Parks' around the lairds' houses long before the improvers began to reshape the landscape. Internal enclosure abolishing the distinction between infield and outfield was undertaken throughout the barony and plantations and shelter belts were added, both ornamenting and diversifying the fieldscape. In the higher land of north Ayrshire and adjoining Renfrewshire, Lebon has demonstrated the different forms of enclosure which he terms 'evolved' as opposed to replanned, with infield being enclosed in small fields and the outfield in larger units giving a spider's web pattern to the new farms. Parry has quantified this withdrawal in the Lammermuir and Stow Uplands, showing that it began to occur as early as the second half of the seventeenth century with 12 abandonments.
