The Risk of Losing Deserted Medieval Rural Settlements: Opportunities for Agroturism and Rural Development

Abstract

A significant number of deserted medieval rural settlements have been identified in Europe. These sites are at risk of disappearance as a consequence of current urban development and cropping intensification implying that relevant features of the cultural landscape informing about past rural traditions in the European countryside may be lost. The objective of this article is to illustrate this fact by means of a case study consisting of a deserted medieval rural upland settlement in Wales. A field walk carried out in this site revealed that old rural traditions and past ways of living can be identified from its own bodily engagement with the surrounding landscape. This evidence is used to argue that strategies that involve personal experience of deserted medieval rural settlements such as agroturism may be implemented to protect these sites and the cultural information contained in them.

Keywords

• deserted medieval rural settlements
• field walk
• rural traditions in the european countryside
• agroturism