The forest of Skule has always been a topographic barrier. For example, it would have perhaps have been the northern frontier of the kingdom of Svealand before the year 1000, and thus the border between adjacent municipalities and parishes. The villages it separated had very limited contact with each other and, because of the poor agricultural potential of the forest, there was never a permanent settlement in the forest. The forest was, however, traversed by a trail, which later took the name of "Kustlandsvägen" and which corresponded roughly to the path of today's European route E4. For a long time, this path constituted the only road to the north of the country. The zone was thus the property of the Swedish crown, which could decide who could use the forest as pasture or engage in logging there. In the 17th century, unlike many of the northern Swedish forests belonging to the crown, Skuleskogen did not see any colonization by the Forest Finns (), and thus did not undergo slash-and-burn cultivation techniques. The forest was instead used as a summer pasture (transhumance), and the hay of the marshes was used as well, although in a very localized fashion. As a result, in today's national park there were four summer pasture cottages, three having existed up until the turn of the 20th century, while the last (Näskebodarna) remained active up until the end of World War II. This last is now used, maintained in its old state, for tourism. The forest would seem to be more open in those days than now.