The Medieval Rural Settlement Project

The Medieval Rural Settlement Project commenced in 2002 to consider the nature of the archaeological landscape associated with rural Ireland in the period c. 1100-1650 AD. The Project has four principal modules, each of which will result in a significant monograph publication. The modules were chosen to represent a cross-section of the diverse…

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The main methods of woodland management are A) coppicing and B) pollarding.

Maker: The Discovery Programme

Verwijzing: MRSP_DUB_FIG_11_11

Type: Image

Formaat: jpeg

In the former, the young stems are cut back regularly so that a lot of shoots, rather than one larger trunk, will grow. When they have reached an appropriate height, they are harvested as rods and the cycle begins again. Pollarding is coppicing done higher up on the tree, in order to protect new shoots from grazing animals. It is often carried out in woodlands in which there are deer or other large herbivores. If for some reason the new branches are not harvested, coppiced or pollarded trees will continue to grow normally, and their characteristic form can make them readily identifiable many years later (see Figure 11.12)

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