Holocene vegetation history at Wet Sleddale, Cumbria, UK, including fine-resolution pollen and non-pollen palynomorph analyses at and about the Elm Decline

Abstract The vegetation history of Cumbria, in north-west England, has been intensively studied for many years by pollen analysis, particularly in the upland area of the Lake District but also the lowlands of the river Eden valley to the east and the coastal lowlands to the south and north. However, the Shap Fells, an eastern outlier of the upland massif, has so far not been the subject of palynological research despite it being an archaeologically rich area. This study presents a radiocarbon dated pollen diagram from a valley mire, covering all the Holocene except for the first and last millennia, with modelled ages throughout. Fine resolution pollen and non-pollen palynomorph (NPP) analyses are applied through the mid-Holocene Elm Decline. Results show that the site was heavily wooded in the early and mid-Holocene with tree successions similar to the rest of the Cumbrian upland, but with considerable variation in woodland composition. The site experienced only a gradual reduction in woodland cover until expansion of bog and heathland from Roman times onwards, with little human disturbance except briefly in the Bronze Age. Fine-resolution pollen analysis at the Elm Decline showed very low-scale pastoral activity at the Elm Decline and in a ‘landnam’-type phase soon afterwards, while the NPP data provided a detailed local environmental record of a wide range of wetland environments, as well as a fungal spore record that reflected a pastoral Neolithic economy. This study confirms the value of adding NPP analyses to pollen studies as they greatly improve local environmental interpretations, particularly at the fine-resolution level.