The Use of Trees and Woodland in Early Medieval Ireland

IRISH FORESTRY Augustine Henry Memorial Lecture, 1993 The use of trees and woodland in early medieval Ireland Aidan O'Sullivan Introduction from leaf to branch. It has been said rees and woodland are peripheral that wood was the oil of the middle T to the main concerns of early ages. Archaeological excavation has medieval historical studies today. In a abundantly illustrated that wood pro sense, this is an outcome of the con vided fuel for warmth, the underwood temporary image created by medieval and timber for houses, pathways and urban writers who rejected woodlands waterfronts and the raw material for an as dark, wild places, full of beasts and array of domestic and industrial crafts unknown dangers. Ironically, modern (O'Sullivan, 1990). The importance of archaeologists tend to have much the woodland resources as an aspect of a same opinion. In many archaeological complex economy in both rural and studies, woodland is only seen as a urban landscapes needs to be assessed. kind of economic 'black hole', being a place in the landscape that first needed Pollen evidence to be cleared before it could be useful A reconstruction of the role of for agriculture. The use of woodland woodland in early medieval Ireland resources continues then to be seen as (6th-12th century AD) can best be car only of marginal importance for eco ried out through a combination of his nomic history. torical, archaeological, palynological It is not the purpose of this paper to and dendrochronological evidence. In over-emphasise the importance of terms of assessing the actual character woodland, a position that would be at and extent of woodland, of primary variance with well-established evi importance is the analysis of pollen dence. The wealth of early medieval cores taken from raised bogs and lake Dublin, for example, was based on a muds. Pollen evidence from such sites regional and maritime trade of hides, as Garrandrean, Co. Wexford has been leather, wines, fine metalwork, amber taken to indicate large scale clearance jewellery and slaves. It is also clear that in woodland cover between the fifth the early medieval Irish agricultural and eighth centuries AD, due to economy was highly structured with increased tillage and agriculture (Cul roadways, field-systems and settle leton & Mitchell, 1976). Thereafter, ments distributed throughout a land the landscape would have been gener scape hardly more forested than ally open, with only scattered oak today's. There is no room in such woods (Quercus sp. ). Ash (Fraxinus models for vast tracts of dark, primeval excelsior) and hazel (Corylus avellana) woods, populated by mythical Irish would have been common in squirrels wandering large distances hedgerows and secondary woodland. 80 IRISH FORESTRY Willow (Salix sp.) and alder (Alnus sp.) islands and lower mountain slopes would have been present on wetland (Smyth, 1982, viii-ix). In contrast, car margins, while other trees such as yew tographic research by Oliver Rackham (Taxus baccata), holly (!lex aquifolium), on the more reliable Civil Survey maps elder (Sambucus nigra), hawthorn indicates that by 1654 the percentage of (Crataegus spp.), blackthorn (Prunus woodland cover had fallen in some spinosa), birch (Betula sp.) and rowan counties to as low as 2.1 per cent (Rack (Sorbus aucuparia) would also have ham, 1986, 116) . been widespread (Mitchell, 1986, 165- 166). Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) Woodland in the landscape may have survived in isolated pockets Whatever their extent, the exploita throughout the period, while elm tion of these woodlands can still be (Ulmus sp.) seems to have nearly disap traced for the earlier period in the his peared as a timber tree. Such species as torical annals, saints' lives and early beech (Fagus sylvatica), lime (Tilia Irish law-texts that were being com europaea), hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) piled by contemporary monastic schol and sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus) ars in the eighth and ninth-centuries were absent from medieval Ireland. AD. These record, as incidental detail, an immense wealth of social and eco Cartographic and placename nomic history. It is clear from these evidence texts that woodland could be owned, Yet if we turn to placename and lit exchanged and managed in a variety of erary evidence, paradoxically we receive ways and was treated as a distinct, val a picture of more extensive woodland uable zone within a highly structured cover. The Old-Irish word "doire", agricultural landscape (O'Sullivan, denoting oakwood, is a very common 1992). According to one seventh-cen element in Irish placenames. Place tury law-text beginning with the words names with the roots "doire", "eo", and "cis lir fodla tire" the presence of 'legal "beith" are widespread signifying the standard woodland' (defined as being presence at these places in the early enclosed by a ditch or fence) could medieval period of either single trees or increase the value of agricultural land woods of oak, yew and birch. Idiomatic (Mac Niocaill, 1971, 85). A type of historical phrases can also be intrigu fence used in enclosing such woodland ing. We could take for example the was described in the late seventh-cen fourteenth-century "Caithreim Thoird tury "Bretha Comaithchesa" as the healbhaigh" which describes cattle being "dairime" or oak-fence. This may have hidden from raiding armies in Slieve been made by partially felling young Aughty's "dense woods oflofty foliage", trees in a line and bending them over a region in Co. Clare which has a great to create a laid hedge. Such a dense number of townland names derived construction would be more efficient from "doire". Thence some regions may at keeping out browsing animals and well have retained a largely woodland may be indirect evidence for the prac character into the late medieval period. tice of woodland management (O'Cor One Tudor map completed in c.l563 rain, 1983, 250). shows the midland counties of Laois The presence of ash trees, which and Offaly and depicts named wood prefer well-drained, medium quality land in river valleys, on isolated bog soils, was one means of recognising 81 IRISH FORESTRY land as 'upland cultivable land'. Over Pannage and wood-pasture grown land that needed an axe in its It is also likely that animals were clearance formed another category of maintained in selected areas of wood land type (Mac Niocaill, 1971, 85). In land. The medieval Irish annals typi this context, it is interesting that the cally provide a dry, laconic account of "boaire", as described in the eighth various battles, deaths and ecclesiasti century "Crith Gablach ", must own a calor political successions. But refer hatchet, an adze, saw and augur (Mac ences are also included to climatic or Neill, 1923, 291). In common with other natural phenomena. Between other types of land, woodland was typ AD 672 and 1155 there are as many as ically owned by the family kin-group twenty-three separate annalistic refer but all law-abiding members of the ences to prodigious annual harvests of "tuath" had certain rights within the acorns (mast). For example in AD 836 wood. These included rights to the col the crop of mast was so heavy it lection of firewood or nuts and the cut blocked streams, in AD 969 eight bags ting of a certain amount of rods for were collected from beneath each tree. wattling. In AD 985 the crop was so great it An insight into the relative values lasted until the following year, while in of different species can also be seen in AD 1038 the annals record that the the seventh-century tree list preserved crop was so abundant that even the in the "Bretha Comaithchesa". This lists runts of the swine were fattened. It has twenty-eight different native species traditionally been believed by histori and classifies them into four groups ans that these crops of mast were pri (Kelly, 1976). Significantly these clas marily used for fattening pigs, sifications are based on economic although the unpredictability of the rather than botanical properties. The harvests must have occasionally pre first grade, the "airig fedo" or the sented problems (Rackham, 1980, 'nobles of the wood' includes oak 119). Certainly pig-meat in the form of because of its acorns, its size and fresh pork and salted bacon was very appearance, hazel for its nuts and rods, popular amongst the medieval Irish. holly possibly for the use of its leaves Cattle were also occasionally kept in for winter fodder, yew for the produc woodland for winter grazing or for tion of fine or 'noble' wooden artifacts protecting them from cattle-raiding and apple for its fruit and bark. There expeditions. is also evidence of the symbolic impor tance of some individual trees, espe Fruit and nuts cially oak and yew (Lucas, 1963). A reference in the Annals of the These sacred trees or "bile" could be Four Masters for the year 1031 AD associated with tribal groupings at gives a clue to another likely use of the royal inauguration sites. Their yearly harvests of woodland fruit and destruction during the frequent cattle nuts. It reads as follows; "a measure of raids of the time by neighbouring oaten grain, or a third of black-red sloes, or rivals was seen as a gross affront. of the acorns of the brown oak, or of the Named sacred trees could also be asso nuts of the fair hazel hedge, was got with ciated with individual monastic cen out stiff bargaining, at Armagh for one tres or saints. Thus the value of trees penny" (O'Donovan, 1856, 823). It may was not always an economic one. be that such berries and nuts were 82 IRISH FORESTRY being used as a cash crop to be sold at the life-span of these houses (10-15 town markets.

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