For information about the 8th European Heathland Workshop, the detailed programme and the book of abstracts, please click on the following link, www.nna.de/heath

Introduction and Summary of the Workshop by Nigel Webb

The 7th European Heathland Workshop was held at Stromness, Orkney from 30th August until 5th September 2001 and was organised by Lynne Farrell and Nadine Perkins of Scottish Natural Heritage. Almost 50 delegates attended representing eight countries (United Kingdom 21, Norway 14, Denmark 2, France 2, Spain 1, Germany 2, Netherlands 3, and Belgium 2).

The first day (Friday 31st August) formed part of the 11th Orkney Science Festival and was held in the St. Magnus Centre in Kirkwall. The session consisted of a series of papers under the collective title The Heathlands of Europe with an Introduction by Prof Nigel Webb (Dorset, UK) and contributions from Prof Peter Emil Kaland (Bergen) on the heathlands of western Norway, Dr Hilary Kirkpatrick (Stirling) on the heaths of Northern Ireland, Dr Johannes Prueter (Niedersachen) on the heaths of Germany, Dr Jacques de Smidt (Utrecht) on the heaths of the Netherlands, Dr Geert de Blust (Brussels) on the heaths of Belgium, and Prof Bernard Clement (Rennes) on the heaths of Brittany, France. This was an open session which was attended by members of the general public as part of the Festival.

On Saturday 1st September there was an all day field visit to heathlands on the island of Hoy. We first visited heathland on the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds reserve at North Hoy before journeying to the south of the island to see coastal heathland on the Scottish Wildlife Trust's reserve at the Keen of White Hamars. The management of this heathland by grazing was described to us by Roy Harris. Unfortunately heavy rain cut short this visit. A further day was spent in the field on Sunday 2nd September when delegates visited heathland on Rousay.

Monday 3rd September was devoted to a session of papers and posters. During the day 16 of the delegates presented papers in three sessions. The day concluded with a business session at which delegates decided that the next (8th) Workshop would be held in 2003 on the Luneburger Heide in Germany and organised by Johannes Prueter. A 9th Workshop would be held in Belgium in 2004 or 2005 and organised by Geert De Blust. During the Workshop Herbert Diemont (Netherlands) lead an evening discussion on rural development and heathlands in Europe.

The Workshop concluded on Tuesday 4th September with a post-conference tour to archaeological and other sites in Orkney including a visit to the Highland Park Distillery at Kirkwall.

Nigel Webb
Convenor of the European Heathland Network
nrw@ceh.ac.uk