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Pollen diagrams covering the Bronze Age to Roman period from northeast Northumberland are scarce. We present a 14C-dated pollen record from a peat-filled forest hollow in Chillingham Wild Cattle Park, northeast Northumberland, that spans the Iron Age. For the first time for this part of Northumberland, fungal spores are also analysed to investigate whether clearances took place in the context of crop cultivation or pastoralism. The pollen diagram shows significant woodland cover during the Late Bronze Age, with small-scale landscape openness potentially representing crop cultivation and animal grazing under a tree canopy. A local clearance event, with arboreal pollen falling to 13.2%, is radiocarbon dated to the late Early to Middle Iron Age, likely coinciding with the construction and occupancy of the nearby Ros Castle hillfort. A significant rise in dung fungal spores and the presence of Plantagoand other open vegetation taxa indicate animal husbandry played an important role in this clearance phase. A subsequent large decrease in dung fungi and a small rise in arboreal pollen may reflect a degree of abandonment of the area after the climate cooled. Peat formation ceased in the late Middle to Late Iron Age as the hollow filled up. Limited renewed peat growth occurred in the last century or so, after peat shrinkage due to drying and consequent oxidation provided the possibility for renewed peat formation within the hollow.

Spores from coprophilous fungi are some of the most widely used non-pollen palynomorphs. Over the last decades, these spores have become increasingly important as a proxy to study the Pleistocene and Holocene megafauna. Although the number of types used in palaeoecology is relatively small, there is a wide range of coprophilous fungal taxa whose utility in palaeoenvironmental reconstruction remains under-researched. However, environmental and taphonomic factors influencing preservation and recovery of these spores are still poorly understood. Furthermore, our understanding of whether and how spores are transported across the landscape is limited.Dung fungal spore presence appears to correlate well with megaherbivore presence. However, depending on the site, some limitations can remain to quantitative reconstructions of megaherbivore abundance from dung fungal spore records. The presence of dung fungal spores is often more significant than their absence and variation in abundance with time should be interpreted with caution. Correlation with other proxies may provide a promising way forward.The majority of studies using dung fungal spores as an indicator for large herbivore abundance are of records of Late Pleistocene and Holocene age, with a focus on Late Quaternary megafaunal extinction. However, more research could potentially extend records further back in time.