"Anglo Scottish Border" Topic

The pictures that I see of the border area today shows virtually no trees. Would this be applicable to the 16th century?

I think there would have been more woods, certainly in comparison to today, but large areas of moorland are recorded in the tales of the Border Reivers. Enclosure affected Northumberland and Cumbria as well as the rest of the country, but large areas were not suitable for farming so are pretty much as they would have been back then, I am sure.
The difficulty of travelling with armies meant most went down the eastern or western coast routes, but small forces were able to roam pretty well where they wanted, following ancient tracks.
I think the many rivers would have had wooded banks like today.

Perhaps a telling thing is that the Border Reivers used small wiry horses, little different to ponies to traverse the border counties, and these were sometimes called 'Bog Trotters'.

Surprisingly, most of the deforestation of the UK occurred during the Bronze Age. Some of the forests we see today, we only have because of Royal protection for hunting, wood for naval use, and the like. The charcoal industry was voracious, and many managed woods would have been pollarded.

But, yes. What Herkybird said.

Cheers,
JohnG

you could have a look here link

@whirlwind

That's a fine resource. Thanks for posting

you are very welcome