During the last Ice Age, much of the UK was covered with a layer of ice up to kilometre deep, or by enormous glacial lakes. Certainly in northern parts, there was no vegetation as glaciers scraped their way across the landscape.  So much water was locked up in the glaciers that sea levels dropped dramatically; we were connected to Europe by areas such as Doggerland.  Details of the glaciation and its effect can be found on the BRITICE site.  When the ice age came to an end some eleven thousand years ago, plants, animals and humans migrated back to the previously frozen and inhospitable land.  Over time, large forests and woodland areas developed.  In the North, boreal forest grew up - represented today by the remaining Caledonian Forest.  Further south, there was the wildwood (as described by Rackham and others). The wildwood was probably a complex and tangled mixture of different trees, with many of the trees either dead or dying through the effects of wind, fire (lightning strikes) and flooding. It would have offered a vast variety of habitats and niches for plants, insects and mammals. Read more...