WHAT’S THE STORY?

IN medieval times, when map-makers thought the world was flat, the term Ultima Thule was used to refer to places beyond the borders of the known world.

This idea of other worlds has stirred the imagination of storytellers since time began, so it’s fitting that one of Scotland’s most north westerly book festivals is taking this theme to its heart.

Those who seek to go beyond the borders of what we know are guest speakers at Faclan in Stornoway this month and they include Angus and Patricia Macdonald who have collaborated for 30 years on the record and interpretation of the history and current state of the environment and of cultural landscapes, using aerial photography as the main tool.

Their stunning aerial images reveal aspects of the land that are perhaps unknown to many, with their acclaimed book on the Hebrides illustrating that the islands have often been wrongly described as remote and insignificant by the metropolitan elite.

Other aerial photographs taken by the Macdonalds show many of Scotland’s “wild places” are not as wild as is often thought and many are under extreme environmental pressure.

“Most of the significant issues in these contexts have become more pressing over the 30 years that we have been working with them, although a few are beginning to be addressed, and the results rightly celebrated,” said Patricia.

WHAT HAVE THEY FOUND?

AN honorary fellow at the University of Edinburgh, Patricia is an artist-photographer with a background in biological science and the visual arts, specialising in environmental aerial photography, used both editorially and as an artform.

Together with her partner Angus Macdonald, an emeritus professor at the University of Edinburgh, she set up the Aerographica Partnership in order to use aerial imagery to explore the history of so-called “wild land” and cultural landscapes in Scotland and other parts of Europe as well as what is going on today.

“We refer to places which may look ‘wild’ to many people, but which are in fact, ecologically, not very wild at all,” she says.

“In this context, we have been looking at several different types of environmental change which are now taking place quite widely in areas of ‘the Unwild’, including new hydro schemes, intensively burned moorland used for driven grouse-shooting, and examples of ‘rewilding’, focusing in particular on the effects of new management to control long-term, damaging, heavy grazing/browsing by deer, and how this can enable important Caledonian pinewood remnants to regenerate naturally.

She adds: “Appropriate changes in land management can quite rapidly bring about considerable environmental improvement, as in the case of Glen Feshie in the Cairngorms, where the veteran ‘granny’ pines of the ancient forest, which was until recently dying on its feet, are now regenerating naturally and surrounded by young trees of the next generation.

“This important woodland is coming back to life in an extremely heartwarming way.”

WHAT DOES THE LAND TELL US?

THE Macdonalds’s breath-taking images show how communities have responded to the landscape and helped shape it over the centuries.

In a foreword to The Hebrides: An Aerial View of a Cultural Landscape, James Hunter points out that their images demonstrate the “enduring” impact people have made on the physical fabric of each and every island between Islay and North Rona.

“The sheer extent of that impact gives the lie to the all-too-commonplace notion that to go to the Hebrides is instantly to encounter on every side the ‘wilderness’ and ‘wild land’ which loom large in a great deal of writing about the islands,” Hunter says.

“In fact, there is little that is truly ‘natural’ – if natural is understood to signify an absence of human influence – about most Hebridean landscapes.”

Some of the Macdonalds’ newer “discoveries” and their interpretative work on the Highland mainland will also be explored in their Stornoway talk.

Patricia says: “Our work in aerial photography, and our long-term environmental projects (both editorial and artwork-based), come out of our joint interest and active involvement in increasing awareness and understanding of land in its many aspects: its ecology and processes; its human history; its past and current ownership; and the ongoing debate concerning how it may be managed for the public good.”

IS THERE MORE?

ALSO speaking at the festival is Chris Fleet, joint author of Scotland: Mapping the Islands, which reproduces some of the most beautiful and historically significant maps from the National Library of Scotland’s magnificent collection in order to explore the many dimensions of island life and how this has changed over time.

Arranged thematically and covering topics such as population, place names, defence, civic improvement, natural resources, navigation, and leisure and tourism, the book presents the rich and diverse story of Scottish islands from the earliest maps to the most up-to date techniques of digital mapping in a unique and imaginative way.

“Maps are really windows into what is going on at a particular place or time,” Fleet says.

“They are a way of understanding economics and changing cultures because you can see things like the rise and fall of the kelp industry or the big expansion of sporting estates over time or the growth of tourism in the 20th century.

“They are useful for giving us insight into what was important about the place at a certain time and the way people were living and the opportunities they had.”

WHAT ELSE DO MAPS SHOW?

THE book is not just a focus on recent history but a look at the islands’ more remote past.

“Many show depopulation over time,” says Fleet. “There are striking contrasts between maps in the later 18th century showing quite populated islands and then you see the sparsely populated areas today.

“They also show boom and bust times. For example you can see that the Balta Sound in Shetland in the early years of the 20th century had a huge herring industry. A chart dating from 1914 shows a mass of jetties and factories. During the summer months the resident population of 5,000 rose to 12,000.

“There were hundreds of fishing boats operating from the herring stations and a great mass of activity but this was followed by a herring bust by the time of the Second World War.”

Going further back to the 18th century it is clear that the response to the Jacobite uprisings was to make parts of the islands very heavily fortified.

Fleet says: “Certain islands were very much the first places in the line of fire at that time. The history of maps of Scotland reveals the wider history of the islands themselves.”

For more information on the Faclan book festival which runs in Stornoway from October 25 to 28 go to bit.ly/Faclan2017