Interesting Fact About Corstorphine Hill (22/08/2019)

I went up to the library to have a look at some books about the history of Corstorphine Hill. There was quite a lot of interesting facts but the one that I found really interesting was that around Roman times the hill had been almost completely cleared of trees. There are maps and paintings from around the 17th and 18th century showing the hill as almost treeless and even as late as 1925 there's evidence of it being quite barren such as a Valentine's Day postcard showing bare slopes with only a few pines.
When I went on the Friends Of Corstorphine Hill walk 'The Birds And The Trees' earlier in the year I found out that there are now 40 species of trees and over 240 species of flowering plants.I find it amazing to think about how much it's changed. There's also many insect species and over 40 breeding species of birds plus lots of visiting birds which just wouldn't happen without the trees.