Walking in memory of memory: landscape heritage, loss and rural gentrification on Gotland

In 2018, regional authorities on the island of Gotland, Sweden, identified rural gentrification as a growing concern in several remote areas. Drawing on Holtorf’s concept of heritage loss aversion, this article looks at how landscape values are articulated, negotiated, and experienced under conditions shaped by in-migration and seasonality. Based on walking workshops in which participants engaged with landscape through movement and the collection of materials, it explores how rural gentrification shapes perceptions of landscape change and the recognition of landscape as heritage. The findings show how feelings of loss intensify emotional attachments to specific landscape features and places, complicating how participants imagine rural landscape futures and negotiate the possibility of ‘letting go well’.