Agricultural History Review, Volume 54 Part 2 (2006), pp. 213–228

For much of the historical period in Europe, upland pasture has been apportioned into relatively small units. Scotland was no exception to this norm and here such units were called soums. Both soums and stocking figures have been widely used to construct theories relating to the environmental history of the Highlands, particularly in relation to changing grazing pressures during the last 300 years. Using a particularly stark case study from Breadalbane, this article will argue that in fact soums are largely unreliable and confusing pieces of historical evidence that should never be used without good corroborating evidence. In the absence of reliable historical souming information, it will be suggested that historians should instead integrate site-specific palaeoecological data into their arguments to create a more accurate picture of changing grazing pressure over time. 

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