Forestry and the cultural landscape: Understanding the past in the present.

Abstract

Afforestation will be the single most important agent of rural landscape change in Ireland in the 1990s. At the same time the value of another resource - the cultural heritage - is seen as the core of the drive to improve our tourist industry. This paper outlines the impact of afforestation policies on the cultural landscape , especially the archaeological heritage. It analyses the key issue of the nature and management of that heritage which is not as widely understood as it might be. Finally it suggests that a more sensitive approach would not only protect the archaeological heritage but lead to a better understanding of the role of woodland as an integral part of the historic rural environment.