The first stilts appeared long before the forest. At that time, the Landes were a huge muddy country, very flat, where vegetation was only made of weeds and brushwood. The only inhabitants of that land were the sheppards.
They used the stilts in order to find their way through the vegetation, to avoid to get their feet wet in the marshland, and above all to be able to keep an eye on their sheep from far away.
The first evidence of the existence of stilts date back in the early 18th century. But when were they invented ? Were they invented by the sheppards from the Landes ? Or brought back from the Flemish who used to use it from the Middle Age ? These are questions we can’t aswer with certainty.