SAW011584 SCOTLAND (1947). Coilsholm Wood and River Ayr, Tarbolton. An oblique aerial photograph taken facing east.

The field systems we see today are the result of what is called 'improvement'. This started in the eighteenth century, and replaced the much smaller divisions of land that preceded it (often referred to as 'subsistence farming')with larger, planned fields separated by natural boundaries or man-made markers such as planted hedges of dry-stone walls. The improvement movement also aimed to maximise the yields which land could provide by improving drainage, by rotating crops and by leaving fields 'fallow' or unused for a period, to allow them to recover after planting and harvesting.