The Story of Scotland’s Places Told Through Aerial Imagery

26 October 2012

A new exhibition at The Lighthouse, Glasgow, created by Architecture and Design Scotland and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), gives visitors a unique bird’s-eye view of Scotland through stunning aerial photography from the National Collection of Aerial Photography.

From our islands to our cities, landscapes are a product of human invention and intervention. Almost no part of Scotland has been left untouched and unaltered by its people. Through these large-scale images we can read the long and complex histories of how Scotland’s places came to be.

Speaking ahead of the launch of the exhibition, James Crawford, author of RCAHMS new book Scotland’s Landscapes published this month, said: "Over the past 10,000 years, every inch of Scotland has been shaped, changed and moulded by its people. No part of the land is without its human story. From Orkney’s immaculately preserved Neolithic villages to Highland glens stripped of nineteenth century settlements, Scotland’s history is written into the land in vivid detail. Sometimes, in just one modern photograph, you can peel back the layers of history to show how hundreds of generations of our ancestors have created the landscape we look at today."