medieval-atlas/introductory/13

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The sitilng ofsettlements Similar factors also seem involved in the siting of major centres of power, evolving to dominate routes in strategic nodal zones, but, within these, seeking sites offering local security. Stirling on its crag and tail is one example of this. Perched on its strongpoint at the head of tidal navigation, Stirling had access to the North Sea, but also controlled internal routes. Until the major peat clearance in the late eighteenth century the importance of its siting as a strategic bridgepoint at the head of the Forth estuary was enhanced by the difficulty of crossing the deep bog which had overlain the carse clay to the west since perhistoric times. In pre-industrial Scotland, most people were in need of fairly direct access to the basic components of subsistence: reliable water supply; food from land or sea or both; fuel, often peat. This pattern is still apparent in areas not subjected to later industrialisation and urbanisation. For example, in parts of the Northern and Western Isles, continuity ofViking steading names right through to present day crofts illustrates the persistence of these basic criteria in siting, for at least a millennium. StJidJing: strategi.c POSJiti.Olfl Inshore & Offshore Fishing lPllnysncaB features, naillld[ use and settlements lAM

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