While few people live here, the land remembers them. There were kingdoms here, long ago, and armies watered the soil with their blood. The visitor must clamber over ruined stone walls, or perhaps make camp amid the barely-visible foundations of some old village. The tumbledown remains of ringforts crown every large hill from the Old Ford to the Undeeps and Elven paths run along the border of Mirkwood for many miles.
The Woodmen of Mirkwood live in this region — or at least their herds do. Their villages lie deep in the forest, but they keep herds of cattle and sheep in the open dales. Young men and women tend to the herds with the help of dogs, and run back to the shelter of the forest when threatened.