About Heather

Heather grows vigorously on peat and acid soils. Three main varieties are found on British moors.

Ling (Calluna vulgaris) a bushy evergreen shrub with many, often tortuous stems, is by far the most common. It can grow to 60cms, twice the height of the other two. Cross-leaved heath (Erica tetralix) and bell heather (Erica Onerea) - Ling is the last of the three to flower. In late August it covers the hilltops with a carpet of purple.

But the moors did not always look as they do today.....

The Origins of the Heather Moor

After the end of the last ice age, some 15,000 years ago woodland spread over most of the landscape of England and Wales. On the hilltops it remained more open with perhaps heathy grasslands on the highest ground.

During the Stone Age people began to occupy the uplands. To begin with they depended on a hunter gatherer lifestyle and learned to manipulate the forest by burning clearings. This brought a greater abundance of animals, which in turn could be more easily caught in the open areas.

By 5000BC, Britain was totally populated. People now depended on more organised farming for their food which led to wider woodland clearance to provide grazing for animals and production of crops. But the soils on the hills were thin and their goodness was soon depleted. With the tree cover removed, soil erosion also set in, much as happens today with the removal of rain forests. Once the quality of the soil had deteriorated, productive farming on the higher ground failed. With sour soils blanket peat and heath began to spread.

The hills would still have been grazed, especially after the Norman conquest when monasteries had extensive sheep flocks. The stock grazing along with the effects of rabbits, which were introduced by the Romans, suppressed the growth of any taller vegetation.

Up until the last 200 years the moorland landscape was probably more varied than we see today with a greater mixture of heather bogs and perhaps grassland.