As temperatures rose quickly at the start of the Holocene 10,000 years ago, major changes in vegetation occurred. Arctic-alpine species were displaced to higher altitudes and pioneer trees species, especially juniper and birch, invaded the lower ground. The birch woodlands may have resembled those today at the SSSI at Morrone, above Braemar. Pollen of first elm and then oak appears after 8500 BP but trees must have been confined to favoured sites. Scots Pine spread rapidly after 7500 BP, it appearance confirmed by radiocarbon dates on pine stumps on the northern flanks of the Cairngorms (Dubois and Ferguson, 1985). Pine became dominant, a reflection of its adaptation to the acid well-drained soils developed on the granite and schist.

Between 6000 and 5000 BP, the climate became cooler and moister and blanket peat, heath and grasslands extended their range. Peat grows slowly in the Cairngorms at rates of 1.4-3.4 cm per century (Pears, 1975) but it is an indicator of the increased water-logging that killed off pines and left the many stumps seen today  in peat scars. Human impact accentuated this change, although woodland clearance was initially confined to lightly wooded areas rather than the dense Caledonian Pine Forest.

A recent study of the raised bog at Tore Hill Moss in Abernethy Forest has revealed important details of the relative wetness of the bog surface over the past 2800 years (Blundell and Barber, 2005). Periods of wetness, reflecting increased precipitation and/or reduced evaporation are recorded around 560 BC, 60 BC, AD 430; AD 570, AD 700, AD 1090 and AD 1640. Some but not all of these shifts relate to recognised regional climate trends, including the deterioration of climate in the Dark Ages and the earlier warm period during the Roman occupation (Langdon and Barber, 2005).