ABSTRACT
Make your way to the northwestern fringe of Europe or to the northwestern edge of the North Atlantic and you will find two landscapes that are today substantially emptier of people than in the not too distant past. The dominating impression in the first, the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, is of a largely empty landscape, one apparently too harsh for many people to make a living. The land is wet and boggy, raked by gales and frequent rain, and trees seem to survive only in hollows and valleys. Such an impression holds some truths, but look more closely at the land, dig down a little, and you will see it was not always this empty.
