A LAVISHLY illustrated new book showing the history of military maps of Scotland is expected to make a significant contribution to the work of this country’s historians.

Written and produced by Carolyn Anderson and Christopher Fleet, the book Scotland: Defending The Nation has just been published and shows how Scotland’s military history can be better understood through maps.

The publication is a collaborative work between Edinburgh’s Birlinn publishing house and the National Library of Scotland, with maps drawn principally from the library’s rich map collections.

Anderson completed a PhD on the Board of Ordnance military mapping of Scotland in 2010. Prior to this she was a cartographic editor at Oxford University Press.

Fleet joined the National Library of Scotland in 1994 and is recognised as one of Scotland’s foremost authors on the subject of maps.

Their book explores Scotland’s unique and fascinating military history, using six centuries of military maps of Scotland. The maps begin in the 1450s and come through to the latest digital mapping.

Fleet said the book has “particular themes, such as mapping before and after the Act of Union, the importance of spies and espionage in military mapping, and the censorship of military sites, all of which I hope have a broad general interest.”

The authors explained: “Some of the most detailed and alarming maps of Scotland were made by external aggressors, and their military maps were tools for occupation and control.

“Through these maps, for example, we can see the dramatic changes in the military forces that threatened Scotland over time. From the 15th to the 17th centuries, England was the main external aggressor, with real invasions in the Wars of the Rough Wooing in the 1540s, persistent violence on the debatable Scottish borderlands, and the Cromwellian occupation of Scotland in the mid 17th century.”

The maps of battle sites are plentiful and include a rare French-made map of the Battle of Culloden.

The authors describe it thus: “This manuscript map drawn up around 1748 by a French officer who was present on the day, gives a rare Jacobite view of the battle.

“The plan also gives a good impression of the main movements of the armies during the battle – how Cumberland wheeled his third line around to the right to counter new troops on the Jacobite left near Culloden Park, and how the Hanoverians took over the Culwhiniac enclosure to the south.

“Excellent details of the armies, commanders and the various regiments and clans are also given. The map was handed down through family lines in French military circles, before being taken to the United States and then donated to the National Library of Scotland in 1996.”

The maps come almost up to date with a map of Aberdeen made by the military cartographers of the former USSR.

The authors explain: “Soviet military maps have a distinguished pedigree, and in the 20th century they were the most extensive, detailed military mapping ever produced across the globe. Military concerns were integral to their development.

“It is only following the disintegration of the Soviet Union in the 1990s that many of these formerly secret maps of parts of Britain and Scotland became generally available in Western, non-military circles, allowing something of their history and content to be studied.”

Launching the book, Birlinn stated on their website: “In this book two map experts explore the extraordinarily rich legacy of Scottish military mapping, including fortification plans, reconnaissance mapping, battle plans, plans of military roads and routeways, tactical maps, plans of mines, enemy maps showing targets, as well as plans showing the construction of defences.

“In addition to plans, elevations and views, they also discuss unrealised proposals and projected schemes. Most of the maps – some of them reproduced in book form for the first time – are visually striking and attractive, and all have been selected for the particular stories they tell about both attacking and defending the country.”

The book is on sale now for £30.