Native oak and pine dendrochronology project

Using samples from Scotland’s buildings and ancient woodlands, this project is expanding native tree-ring chronologies to further our understanding of Scottish historic timber exploitation and its use in buildings. The project stems from the experience of AOC researchers, Anne Crone and Coralie Mills, over the last 20 years in developing Scottish dendrochronology.

While tree-ring dating of imported timber in Scottish buildings is now relatively straightforward, by reference to the network of chronologies in source areas such as Scandinavia and the Eastern Baltic region, it is still difficult to date native Scottish timbers because few local chronologies exist. Earlier work by Baillie produced a robust oak chronology which facilitates dating of material from the south of the country, otherwise oak chronology coverage in Scotland is rather limited. Furthermore, after about AD 1600 there is very little oak in Scottish buildings, and pine becomes increasingly common, hence the impetus to develop native pine as well as oak chronologies. The project is developing long, robust chronologies of native oak and pine, especially from Northern Scotland, against which native timber in historic buildings can be identified, dated and provenanced. This work may also benefit dendrochronological research in other countries, given the documentary evidence for export of some Scottish timber in the post-medieval period.

Some long pine chronologies have been recently constructed for Glen Loyne (AD 1459-2001) and Ballochbuie (AD 1589-2003). Further work is underway on other woodlands to create a larger network of local long pine chronologies. Investigations are also ongoing at a number of buildings including Fort George, Inverness and Duff House, Banff. These 18th century buildings contain many original pine timbers, with documentary evidence for native sources being used. We aim to date and provenance these against the growing set of native pine woodland chronologies.

Oak chronologies are also being developed for the north, for example from building timbers at Drum Castle and living trees in the nearby Old Wood of Drum. The developments should assist in dating and provenancing some floating oak chronologies suspected to be native material from sources north of the central belt, such as an undated chronology from an historic townhouse in Brechin. 

Reconnaissance of more buildings and woodlands over the next few years will continue to provide candidates for filling gaps emerging from our review of data gathered so far. We would be happy to hear from anyone who knows of potentially suitable historic oak or pine timbers in Northern Scotland.

AOC Project Directors: Anne Crone & Coralie Mills
Research Grants & support: Historic Scotland, Colin Edwards (Forest Research) & Rob Wilson (University of St Andrews)