In 2011 CFA Archaeology were commissioned by Aberdeenshire Council Archaeology Service (ACAS) to undertake an analysis of the Historic Landuse Assessment (HLA) data for Moray, in order to better understand the data and the implications that it may have regarding future land management.

The HLA Project is a joint project between Historic Scotland and RCAHMS and is a GIS-based mapping project that shows the historic origin of landuse patterns, describing them by period, form and function.

The basic building blocks of the HLA map are Historic Landuse Types, of which there are 59 Types. Each Type has an associated Period and Category. There are 17 different Periods and there are 18 different Categories (14 Historic Landuse Categories, reflecting national patterns, and four Relict Archaeological Categories). Historic Landuse Types are ordered by Category and then, within each Category, by Period.

Key objectives of the project:

• Produce a description of the historic landuse for each parish in Moray.
• Produce data (in table form) detailing the ranked importance of surviving Historic Landuse Types for each parish in Moray, including details of totals of each type in hectares.
• Produce an overall statement on the ranked importance of surviving Historic Landuse Types for each parish in Moray.
• Produce an overall summary of the historic landuse in Moray.