Travelling through East Lothian today, the landscape feels timeless: a fertile rolling coastal plain of largely arable fields rising southwards to the foothills and the higher moorland of the Lammermuirs and Moorfoots. Yet this landscape has undergone great change. In deeper time it was shaped by tectonic forces and climatic fluctuations including multiple periods where glaciers remoulded the terrain. More recently, in the last six thousand years its flora and fauna have been transformed, first by climate, then increasingly by people. Like much of Scotland, what we might consider to be a “natural landscape” is, at least in terms of its land use, a product of human intervention.
Early East Lothian
Around 6000–4000 years ago, during the mid-Holocene period, East Lothian looked very different. The climate was slightly warmer and wetter than today. Evidence from paleoecology in the form of pollen, diatoms and charcoal remains indicates much of lowland eastern Scotland was covered by woodland. Tree species like oak, hazel, birch and elm predominated within which apex predators such as lynx, wolf and bear would have roamed. Rivers would have supported Atlantic salmon, trout, eels and freshwater pearl mussels together with mammals like otters, water voles and beavers. Different species of eagles would have been present in the skies with the now extinct, flightless Great Auk a dominant predator in coastal areas.
Areas that are now high moorland characterised by heather, acid grassland and peat bog were not treeless in the Holocene. Trees and tall shrubs were present – woodland was probably open and patchy rather than dense forest, but it was sufficiently extensive to stabilise soils and keep water tables relatively low. As such peat formation in the upland areas was limited.
The arrival of farming
From around 4000–3000 years ago, the first major transformation began. Neolithic and Bronze Age communities introduced farming to East Lothian, clearing woodland for crops and grazing. In the fertile lowland plains this process accelerated rapidly, creating the origins of one of Scotland’s most productive agricultural regions.
In the uplands, human vegetation clearance was slower but no less significant. Woodland removal allowed water tables to rise. Combined with a gradually cooler and wetter climate, this shift created the conditions for peat to begin forming on the hilltops and more gradual slopes. By the late Bronze Age and Iron Age, pollen records suggest much of the Lammermuirs had transitioned from wooded upland to open heath and grassland with expanding accumulations of peat.
A managed countryside: medieval to early modern East Lothian
By medieval times, East Lothian had become a largely human-shaped landscape with larger animal predators hunted to extinction. The lowlands were organised into fields, farms and estates, while the higher land was used for rough grazing. Woodland survived mainly in sheltered, steeper valleys (cleughs and deans) and managed copses.
Higher peatland and heather moors were used for summer grazing of livestock, turf cutting, and seasonal activities. Burning and grazing maintained open vegetation, maintaining the treeless character of the hills and preventing woodland regeneration.
The agricultural revolution
The 18th and early 19th centuries brought dramatic changes. East Lothian became a key location at the forefront of Scotland’s agricultural revolution, with enclosure, crop rotation, drainage and mechanisation transforming the lowlands into the intensively farmed, largely arable landscape we recognise today. New transport links created a wave of new visitors to the countryside particularly in coastal areas where new golf courses were developed.
While these innovations reshaped the arable plains, the uplands followed a different trajectory. Some land, particularly on less exposed slopes, was utilised for sheep farming. Larger estates increasingly turned marginal land over to sporting use, particularly pheasant and grouse shooting. Heather moorland was no longer just accepted — it was actively engineered through systematic Victorian draining programmes most of which occurred 1850 – 1900. Estate workers cut long, straight ditches — known as grips — across the peat, designed to dry the surface and improve heather habitats for grouse. This drainage dramatically altered upland hydrology. Water tables dropped, peat oxidised, and Sphagnum moss declined. Heather expanded at the expense of wetter bog vegetation, creating the classic purple moorland still associated with the hills today.
Our current landscape
By the early 20th century, the major changes were largely complete. The Lammermuirs had become open, drained heather moorland primarily for grouse shooting; foothills included a mix of livestock grazing, particularly sheep, pheasant shooting and, on better soils, cereal and vegetable crops; and. the lowlands a patchwork of enlarged, productive fields for largely arable crops. Woodland, once widespread, had been reduced to fragments. Many rivers had been artificially straightened to support new field drainage systems. Many hedgerows had been removed to improve efficiencies from mechanisation.
Today, these landscapes face new pressures: climate change, biodiversity loss, flooding, and debates over the most appropriate land uses. Their proximity to growing urban centres for housing and leisure activities and suitability for renewable energy development can also generate landuse conflicts.
We should appreciate East Lothian’s ‘natural landscape’ is actually a product of its evolving history which, in recent times, is moulded heavily by man-made activities. We must recognise its natural and cultural value including within a wider national context when we consider its future. Heather moors, long managed for game, are being re-evaluated for their ecological value alongside their historical cultural value. Farming systems applied to lowland plains are also under scrutiny as to their resilience in the face of a changing climate and their long term sustainability. In many ways, East Lothian is entering another phase of landscape change that could reshape its landuse and reverse its declining biodiversity.