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Iona is renowned for its early monastery, founded following the arrival of Columba in AD 563. This paper uses palaeoecological data to provide insight into the social and environmental transformations that influenced the landscape of Iona during the later prehistoric and historic periods. The identification of cereal pollen suggests that arable farming occurred during the Bronze Age and possibly continued through the Iron Age. Pastoral farming was also practiced. It remains unclear as to whether there were people living on the island at the time of the monastic community's arrival. Between AD 630 and 1100, woodland clearance and farming occurred. There were also two phases of woodland regeneration and agricultural decline. The first phase coincides with the period of Viking raids and may have witnessed a decline in population. The second phase occurred in conjunction with increased Scandinavian influence and political restructuring across the wider region; however, small-scale farming continued. After c. AD 1000 there was renewed intensification of landscape management prior to the arrival of Benedictine monks and Augustinian nuns (c. AD 1200). This may be linked to climatic amelioration during the Medieval Warm Period and economic growth in the Hebrides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pollen percentage and pollen concentration data are described from an infilled basin within a Loch Lomond Stadial end moraine at Gribun on the west coast of the Isle of Mull, Inner Hebrides, Scotland. The pollen profile, which is over 13 m deep, spans most of the Flandrian stage and constitutes one of the most detailed records of post-glacial vegetational change for any area in northern Britain. Nine local pollen assemblage zones and five pollen concentration zones are identified in the pollen diagrams, and these can be correlated with biozones recognized in other profiles on Mull, In general, the data from Gribun confirm the spatial and temporal patterns of Flandrian vegetational developments that have been suggested by these earlier studies. However, the high level of biostratigraphic resolution within the Gribun profile places these palaeobotanical and associated reconstructions on a more secure footing, and it is therefore proposed that Gribun be considered as the type site for the Flandrian stage in this area of western Scotland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flandrian percentage pollen diagrams are presented from three sites in Western and northern Mull, Inner Hebrides, Scotland, and these data are augmented by Pollen concentration evidence from one of the sites. In general terms, the pattern of vegetational development is broadly similar to that found in a previous study in the uplands of south-central Mull. However, differences in detail are apparent in the vegetational history of the northern and western parts of the island, particularly in the representation of Empetrum, Juniperus and Betula pollen in the early Flandrian deposits, and in the frequencies of Alnus and Quercus in the mid- and late-Flandrian pollen records. These pollen-stratigraphic contrasts between the three sites, and between these profiles and those from the more sheltered south-central parts of the island can be attributed partly to differences in pollen recruitment processes and partly to variations in degree of exposure to prevailing winds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]