Summary This paper describes the route, speed and mode of colonisation of oaks by integrating a number of independent analyses using molecular ecology, palaeoecology and simulation modelling approaches. Using a synthetic map of the contemporary distribution of chloroplast DNA (integrating several published and unpublished data sets and describing variation in 1468 trees from 313 autochthonous stands of Q. robur and Q. petraea from Britain and Ireland), and considering the postglacial topographic landscape, the most likely routes of postglacial colonisation across the British Isles are suggested. The overall pattern of these directions agrees with previous interpretations, but several routes, particularly those into Ireland, differ from previous interpretations and benefit here from using a single synthesised data set. Interestingly, the Atlantic oakwoods appear to have been colonised by individuals bearing a single haplotype (type 12). Two palaeoecology data sets, published separately for Britain and Irel...
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