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Scotland is a place of outstanding,
spectacular landscapes.

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A country that seems shaped
to be seen from the sky.

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For me, this is the best angle
on Scotland's magnificent scenery.

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But the view from above is about
so much more than pretty pictures.

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The view from above can offer
a whole new angle

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on the story of Scotland.

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For more than a century,

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aerial photographs have opened
a window into our past.

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For years, I've worked
with thousands of these images.

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They've helped me discover just how
and why Scotland has changed.

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I can't believe I'm about
to say this,

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but I remember when all
of this was just fields.

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The view from above can help us
plan our future.

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And it can unlock the secrets
of the present day,

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exploring our cities
and how they were designed...

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..for better or for worse.

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Could you imagine them putting
a motorway

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through the heart of Edinburgh?

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Our story begins at the dawn
of Scottish aerial photography.

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An era of brave,
barnstorming aviators...

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..risking absolutely everything
for a picture.

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If you were a new pilot,
you might last a week or so.

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We travel on through the
first century of aerial imagery -

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bringing archive photography
to life,

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recreating places that now
exist only as photographs.

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Now, it didn't make us all rich,
but everybody had work.

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From above, Scotland is
beautiful, exhilarating,

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unpredictable
and never less than fascinating.

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This is the story
of Scotland from the sky.

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For almost all of human history,

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this is what it meant to get
the view from above.

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It was all very, very
straightforward.

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You just climb up a hill.

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And in Scotland, there are plenty
to choose from.

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Ben A'an, above Loch Katrine,
is a personal favourite.

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Wow.

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That's just spectacular, isn't it?

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Doesn't really matter how long
or how hard the climb is,

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when there are views like this,
it's worth it.

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Today, a Scottish hill can be
a day out,

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a challenge,

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a selfie opportunity.

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But go back in history
and it was far more than that.

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In the Scotland of old, lookouts
would come to a place like this

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to spy on enemy clans advancing.

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Roman surveyors would climb up here
to plan their roads

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through the glens.

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Farmers would watch over their
flocks.

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All incredibly useful,

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but all entirely dependent
on having, well,

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a conveniently placed hill.

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That all changed in the first years
of the 20th century.

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The magical combination of
powered flight and photography

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sparked a revolution.

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Now the view from above could be
seen without the need for a hill,

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and it could be
preserved and studied.

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This was a technology
that would change how people

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understood their world.

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But it was a technology born in the
most desperate of circumstances -

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in the killing fields
of the Great War.

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These undulations are what remain of
British First World War trenches.

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You can see them snaking away
through the long grass.

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But this isn't the Somme,
it's not Passchendaele -

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this is Belhaven Bay,
30 miles east of Edinburgh.

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From above, the tooth-like outline
of these trenches

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is remarkably clear...

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..more than a century after
they were dug

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out of the East Lothian soil.

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But the big question is, why were
they here in the first place?

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Allan Kilpatrick has studied the
deepest secrets of Belhaven Bay.

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So, Allan, why were the
British military digging trenches

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in East Lothian?

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This is defined by the British as
a site where invasion could happen,

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so it has to be defended.

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And you defend it
by digging trenches.

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If we were standing here,
100 years ago,

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what would all of this have
looked like?

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Well, in many respects,
just what it does now,

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except that along the edge
of the beach here,

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just at the high water mark,

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there would be a set of barbed wire,
with machine-gun posts,

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a communication trench at the rear.

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So there's the defensive depth,
so it's a whole system.

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And how much remains today?

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Well, we're fortunate in that
there is some.

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If I can put it in context,
we have, at Belhaven Bay,

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around about 700 metres
of trench systems surviving.

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If you went to Belgium, you wouldn't
find 700 metres in length

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of trench systems
surviving anywhere in Belgium.

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The defences that lined this coast
were vitally important,

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and because they
were so important,

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they were recorded and photographed,

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which brings me to the second reason
that I've come here.

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Because one of the earliest known
aerial photographs of Scotland

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was taken just up there.

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An image captured 100 years ago.

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A permanent record of how we
prepared for an invasion

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that, thankfully, never came.

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The coastline
has changed dramatically,

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with sea replaced by salt flats.

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And behind the lines, the photograph
shows a network

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of practice trenches,

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used to train new recruits before
they were sent

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to Belgium and France.

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Today, those trenches are buried
under forestry.

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Ten miles west in the town
of Haddington...

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..another aerial photograph
shows an even larger set

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of practice trenches.

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Built on land along the River Tyne,
requisitioned from a country estate.

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Today, it's the 11th hole
at Haddington Golf Club.

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Everyone in Scotland was touched
by the war.

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But these hardly-known photographs
show just how much the landscape

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has changed.

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War wasn't something that happened
somewhere else any more,

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now it was on your own doorstep.

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The aerial pictures of Haddington
and Belhaven Bay

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were taken from airships.

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Patrolling the skies above the
River Forth,

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their role was to protect Royal Navy
warships, which, in turn,

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protected Scottish men and women
from a German assault.

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The view from above would
prove vital in this war.

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And thousands of young recruits from
across the country were trained to

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operate incredibly flimsy,
primitive aircraft.

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Today, I'm volunteering
to experience

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one of those aircraft for myself.

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I'm already regretting it!

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It's a Bristol BS2 fighter,
built exactly 100 years ago.

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The Bristol was operated
by a crew of two -

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the chap in front was the pilot,

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the chap in the back was equipped
with a machine gun and a camera.

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The photographs they took from above
the trenches would highlight

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enemy positions,
which could then be attacked.

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I want to see how I'll shape up

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as a First World War
aerial photographer.

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My pilot is the ever reassuring
Jean-Michel.

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I'm in this man's hands
for the next 20 minutes.

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That's not good news.

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He looks like he knows
what he's doing.

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Look, OK, you're going to be
photographing a bit more down.

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Yeah.

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I'm trying to recreate
First World War aerial photography.

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I'm going to be photographing
four German flags

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that have been positioned,
hidden around this airfield.

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No-one's shooting at us today,
though, are they?

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They're not shooting at us, no, no,
but we could simulate that.

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I'd rather we didn't. No, no!

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Up close, the Bristol bears
a worrying resemblance

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to the balsa wood models
I built as a child.

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There's not really much to it.

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But I'm sure it's going to be fine.

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Apart from its engine,

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the Bristol is built from
wood and stretched canvas.

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She's half the weight
of a modern family car...

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..and she carries no parachutes.

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Look, I'll come clean -

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I'm feeling just a little bit
nervous here.

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But it's too late to turn back now.

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My mission is under way.

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Three, two,

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one, go!

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Come to think of it, I could do
with a drink to steady the nerves.

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In the open cockpit,
the backwash from the propeller

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feels like a punch in the face.

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Speech is pretty much impossible.

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Worryingly, the only way to take
pictures of the ground

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whizzing away 1,000 feet below me...

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is by loosening my seat belt.

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Minutes into the flight
and I'm starting to feel

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a little less terrified.

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In fact, I'm really beginning
to enjoy myself.

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Right, I think it's time
for a few test photographs.

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Which aren't up to much.

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This is very tricky.

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But in comparison to the actual
World War I photographers,

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I've got it easy.

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Their cameras were the size
of a briefcase.

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They used fragile
glass plate negatives.

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And they had people shooting
at them.

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Back then, pilot and photographer
were known to write notes

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to communicate.

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We're getting by with sign language
and shouting,

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like the best British tourists!

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And our coordinated efforts are
now bringing a degree of success.

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Not at all nervous, I adopt my own
personal brace position as we land.

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00:14:34,360 --> 00:14:37,480
I'm not going to lie, it feels great
to be back down again.

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Done.

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Flags photographed.

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Easy.

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Well, easy for me maybe.

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00:15:08,920 --> 00:15:12,160
Much less so for the men
who did it with bullets flying.

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Alan Wakefield is an expert on the
aviators of the First World War.

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People who flew
these two-seater missions

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00:15:24,000 --> 00:15:26,600
and flew in
reconnaissance squadrons,

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00:15:26,600 --> 00:15:28,640
none of them were aces.

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They've largely been forgotten.

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00:15:30,320 --> 00:15:32,200
They didn't win many VCs.

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00:15:32,200 --> 00:15:35,920
And life expectancy for the
observers was very low, wasn't it?

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00:15:35,920 --> 00:15:38,760
If you were a new pilot,
a new observer,

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00:15:38,760 --> 00:15:42,200
you might last a week or so,
a week, two weeks.

200
00:15:42,200 --> 00:15:44,840
The chances are, if you got through
that period,

201
00:15:44,840 --> 00:15:46,600
you were basically learning
on the job,

202
00:15:46,600 --> 00:15:49,320
so the longer you survived,
the more chance you had

203
00:15:49,320 --> 00:15:51,360
of going on and surviving.

204
00:15:51,360 --> 00:15:53,640
The people who were fighter pilots,
they were reported

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00:15:53,640 --> 00:15:56,920
in the newspapers,
people wanted good morale stories.

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00:15:56,920 --> 00:15:59,120
But at the end of the day,
it was these guys that

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00:15:59,120 --> 00:16:01,560
really sort of
won the war in the air.

208
00:16:08,280 --> 00:16:12,200
But taking the pictures
was only the first stage.

209
00:16:12,200 --> 00:16:16,720
The images captured from above had
to be examined closely

210
00:16:16,720 --> 00:16:19,600
to discover just what the enemy
were up to.

211
00:16:21,920 --> 00:16:24,680
This is a vertical neg from 1915.

212
00:16:24,680 --> 00:16:26,920
You've got to remember, these are
the actual negatives

213
00:16:26,920 --> 00:16:29,200
that were exposed over
the Western Front.

214
00:16:29,200 --> 00:16:32,280
These are still in original
envelopes with the map references -

215
00:16:32,280 --> 00:16:33,800
this is a map reference here -

216
00:16:33,800 --> 00:16:36,400
date and the negative number.

217
00:16:36,400 --> 00:16:37,840
And what can we see here?

218
00:16:37,840 --> 00:16:40,720
Here we can see a road with trees,

219
00:16:40,720 --> 00:16:44,560
you can see the shadows of the
poplar trees, typical French.

220
00:16:44,560 --> 00:16:48,640
You know, road, country road,
very straight, lined with trees.

221
00:16:48,640 --> 00:16:51,480
And then we've got German
front-line trench positions,

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00:16:51,480 --> 00:16:54,080
you know, the sort of
dogtooth positions,

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00:16:54,080 --> 00:16:56,200
communication trenches coming back.

224
00:16:56,200 --> 00:17:00,720
And these, what look like
black spots, are actual shell holes.

225
00:17:00,720 --> 00:17:04,240
And these, these were really used
to win the war, weren't they?

226
00:17:04,240 --> 00:17:08,320
They were. In 1918,
2.5 million photographs

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00:17:08,320 --> 00:17:10,720
were taken by the British alone...

228
00:17:10,720 --> 00:17:12,760
In that one year?
..just in that one year.

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00:17:21,040 --> 00:17:23,760
The pilots and photographers
risked everything

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00:17:23,760 --> 00:17:27,160
to bring their services
to the Army's top brass.

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00:17:27,160 --> 00:17:30,680
When the war ended, they saw their
opportunity to bring their talents

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00:17:30,680 --> 00:17:33,360
to a new audience -
the great British public.

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00:17:36,400 --> 00:17:39,000
And they started in London.

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00:17:39,000 --> 00:17:44,200
Here, a band of demob-happy wartime
aviators came together

235
00:17:44,200 --> 00:17:47,960
to create Britain's first
aerial photography company.

236
00:17:47,960 --> 00:17:50,400
They called themselves Aerofilms.

237
00:17:52,840 --> 00:17:54,560
Wow!

238
00:17:57,560 --> 00:18:02,400
Aerofilms flew primitive aircraft at
extremely low altitudes over London.

239
00:18:02,400 --> 00:18:04,600
The results were spectacular.

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00:18:07,800 --> 00:18:12,000
Here, at Tower Bridge, they captured
a 1920s traffic jam.

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00:18:16,280 --> 00:18:19,360
Their cameras peered down
on Buckingham Palace.

242
00:18:22,240 --> 00:18:24,360
CHEERING

243
00:18:24,360 --> 00:18:26,600
They gate-crashed the rugby
at Twickenham.

244
00:18:28,080 --> 00:18:31,040
And, unintentionally, the duck pond
at Southwark Park.

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00:18:31,040 --> 00:18:32,600
DUCKS QUACK

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00:18:35,320 --> 00:18:40,040
Their crews were dashing, thoroughly
modern and unflinchingly brave.

247
00:18:43,520 --> 00:18:46,000
I'm on the west walkway
of Tower Bridge.

248
00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:49,440
And this is a view that
won't appeal to everybody,

249
00:18:49,440 --> 00:18:51,680
but I think it's
pretty sensational.

250
00:18:57,960 --> 00:19:01,040
Aerofilms showed Londoners
an entirely new city,

251
00:19:01,040 --> 00:19:03,120
a city they'd never seen before.

252
00:19:03,120 --> 00:19:05,280
You could say it was
the gods' eye view.

253
00:19:08,600 --> 00:19:12,320
This new technology,
imported from the military,

254
00:19:12,320 --> 00:19:15,080
was little short of a revolution,

255
00:19:15,080 --> 00:19:17,640
and the revolution was
spreading north.

256
00:19:25,680 --> 00:19:29,040
Aerofilms arrived in Scotland
in 1927.

257
00:19:31,440 --> 00:19:33,560
One of their first assignments
was inspired

258
00:19:33,560 --> 00:19:37,240
by a great Glasgow tradition -

259
00:19:37,240 --> 00:19:39,840
a pleasure cruise down
the Clyde coast.

260
00:19:46,040 --> 00:19:49,320
Today, we're making that
same journey,

261
00:19:49,320 --> 00:19:53,480
followed not by a Aerofilms biplane,
but by a modern drone.

262
00:20:00,720 --> 00:20:03,680
Our mission is to recreate
a wonderful photograph

263
00:20:03,680 --> 00:20:06,120
captured by Aerofilms
90 years ago.

264
00:20:10,800 --> 00:20:13,360
It featured a paddle steamer
just like this,

265
00:20:13,360 --> 00:20:14,640
the famous Waverley...

266
00:20:15,800 --> 00:20:17,520
..as she arrived at Largs Pier.

267
00:20:20,680 --> 00:20:24,240
And we're going to try to put
our drone in the same spot today.

268
00:20:29,600 --> 00:20:30,680
Just bring it round.

269
00:20:35,480 --> 00:20:36,960
Slowly.

270
00:20:36,960 --> 00:20:39,360
That's it, that's it.

271
00:20:40,400 --> 00:20:41,800
Perfect.

272
00:20:47,960 --> 00:20:52,080
The Aerofilms picture was taken on
a beautiful sunny day.

273
00:20:52,080 --> 00:20:55,320
90 years on and the grassy promenade
has been lost

274
00:20:55,320 --> 00:20:58,520
to amusement arcades and a car park.

275
00:20:58,520 --> 00:21:01,680
The empty site beside
St Columba's Church

276
00:21:01,680 --> 00:21:03,640
is now a Largs institution -

277
00:21:03,640 --> 00:21:04,920
Nardini's cafe.

278
00:21:05,960 --> 00:21:09,040
You can see a crowd gathered
on the L-shaped pier,

279
00:21:09,040 --> 00:21:11,440
adapted now for the modern ferry.

280
00:21:20,000 --> 00:21:25,200
Aerofilms had captured a magical
moment from 1,000 feet above Largs.

281
00:21:27,960 --> 00:21:29,960
A picture postcard memory,

282
00:21:29,960 --> 00:21:32,360
shared by generations of Scots.

283
00:21:36,560 --> 00:21:39,480
Of course, we don't see this
photograph in the same way

284
00:21:39,480 --> 00:21:43,000
that the people of 1927
would have seen it.

285
00:21:43,000 --> 00:21:47,440
Back then, just a few thousand Scots
had ever been in an aircraft.

286
00:21:47,440 --> 00:21:50,000
Only a tiny fraction
of the population would have

287
00:21:50,000 --> 00:21:52,320
seen this kind of view.

288
00:21:52,320 --> 00:21:55,720
It must have filled them
with wonder, with awe.

289
00:22:04,200 --> 00:22:07,000
Beginning that day in 1927,

290
00:22:07,000 --> 00:22:10,880
Aerofilms would capture
100,000 photographs of Scotland.

291
00:22:15,080 --> 00:22:17,080
Those images now form part of

292
00:22:17,080 --> 00:22:22,000
Scotland's National Collection
of Aerial Photography,

293
00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:24,960
held in the vaults of
Historic Environment Scotland,

294
00:22:24,960 --> 00:22:26,200
where I work.

295
00:22:29,480 --> 00:22:32,680
They are a fascinating window into
the forgotten worlds

296
00:22:32,680 --> 00:22:35,400
of our parents and grandparents

297
00:22:35,400 --> 00:22:37,360
and the places
they would have known.

298
00:22:40,040 --> 00:22:44,240
The old Aerofilms albums are like
a flick book of the past.

299
00:22:46,760 --> 00:22:49,160
This is one of my favourites.

300
00:22:49,160 --> 00:22:51,880
It's Perthshire, where I grew up.

301
00:22:51,880 --> 00:22:54,320
Pilot and photographer
would fly along,

302
00:22:54,320 --> 00:22:57,360
ticking off a list of key targets,
and then afterwards,

303
00:22:57,360 --> 00:23:00,200
they'd paste them in here,
one after the other.

304
00:23:00,200 --> 00:23:03,600
It offers a fascinating insight
into how and where

305
00:23:03,600 --> 00:23:05,600
these pioneer photographers
operated.

306
00:23:11,400 --> 00:23:16,480
I've always wanted to see for myself
just how much, or how little,

307
00:23:16,480 --> 00:23:18,760
Scotland's landscapes have changed

308
00:23:18,760 --> 00:23:21,280
since those early
Aerofilms pictures.

309
00:23:23,960 --> 00:23:27,040
And where better to start
than my old stamping ground?

310
00:23:29,040 --> 00:23:31,800
So, I'm heading into the
Perthshire countryside

311
00:23:31,800 --> 00:23:33,440
for another aerial experiment.

312
00:23:45,040 --> 00:23:48,360
We're not using another
veteran aircraft, thank goodness.

313
00:23:48,360 --> 00:23:51,760
We're using this.
It's a Twin Squirrel helicopter.

314
00:23:51,760 --> 00:23:54,520
It's what used in the
film and television industry.

315
00:23:54,520 --> 00:23:57,120
And this is what makes
all the difference -

316
00:23:57,120 --> 00:24:00,360
a preposterously expensive
gimbal system.

317
00:24:00,360 --> 00:24:03,800
It keeps the image perfectly steady
as the aircraft moves around.

318
00:24:11,200 --> 00:24:14,200
The Aerofilms crews would have
set off with a target list,

319
00:24:14,200 --> 00:24:15,360
and this is mine.

320
00:24:15,360 --> 00:24:18,280
Starting at Auchterarder,
heading to Perth,

321
00:24:18,280 --> 00:24:21,000
onto Blairgowrie
and then on northwards.

322
00:24:29,920 --> 00:24:32,600
There's two vital parts
to today's mission.

323
00:24:35,080 --> 00:24:39,800
First, to get a sense
of how Aerofilms operated,

324
00:24:39,800 --> 00:24:42,240
moving rapidly
from target to target.

325
00:24:45,960 --> 00:24:50,360
But also to use their photographs
of 1930s Perthshire

326
00:24:50,360 --> 00:24:52,680
to see just how things have changed.

327
00:24:58,360 --> 00:25:01,360
I'll be working closely with pilot
David Blane...

328
00:25:03,240 --> 00:25:05,720
..and aerial photographer
Peter Jones,

329
00:25:05,720 --> 00:25:07,880
to match up old and new images.

330
00:25:10,360 --> 00:25:12,600
Our first stop is Auchterarder.

331
00:25:16,320 --> 00:25:19,160
I've never flown over
my hometown before.

332
00:25:19,160 --> 00:25:21,440
It's that wonderful moment
where the familiar

333
00:25:21,440 --> 00:25:23,600
becomes something
completely different.

334
00:25:34,280 --> 00:25:37,200
It takes a few moments
to get ourselves lined up

335
00:25:37,200 --> 00:25:39,160
with the old photograph.

336
00:25:39,160 --> 00:25:41,400
That church there
with the square, with the spire?

337
00:25:41,400 --> 00:25:43,160
Yes, that one.

338
00:25:43,160 --> 00:25:45,640
Over the tower? Yeah.

339
00:25:45,640 --> 00:25:49,360
But when the two images
are perfectly aligned...

340
00:25:49,360 --> 00:25:52,200
I think that's probably
not too far off there.

341
00:25:52,200 --> 00:25:54,760
..you can see just how the town
has changed.

342
00:26:03,880 --> 00:26:09,720
1930s Auchterarder had a population
of just over 2,000,

343
00:26:09,720 --> 00:26:11,440
half the number of today.

344
00:26:13,040 --> 00:26:15,480
It was known as the lang toon...

345
00:26:16,840 --> 00:26:19,920
..with over a mile of main road
as its spine.

346
00:26:28,120 --> 00:26:30,520
Now it's got some
middle-aged spread.

347
00:26:30,520 --> 00:26:32,080
I can't believe
I'm about to say this,

348
00:26:32,080 --> 00:26:34,480
but I remember when all of this
was just fields.

349
00:26:37,840 --> 00:26:39,880
Everyone going north or south
used to have

350
00:26:39,880 --> 00:26:41,800
to drive through Auchterarder.

351
00:26:45,400 --> 00:26:47,800
Now it's bypassed by the A9,

352
00:26:47,800 --> 00:26:51,440
a major road that didn't even exist
when the Aerofilms pioneers

353
00:26:51,440 --> 00:26:53,720
flew onto our next destination,
Perth.

354
00:26:57,800 --> 00:27:01,080
Aeriel photography can show
you remarkable changes,

355
00:27:01,080 --> 00:27:03,240
but it can also show you
what stays the same.

356
00:27:03,240 --> 00:27:07,640
Looking at the picture of central
Perth now, it's very similar.

357
00:27:07,640 --> 00:27:09,360
It's remarkably well preserved.

358
00:27:16,080 --> 00:27:19,040
But across the city,
away from the river,

359
00:27:19,040 --> 00:27:23,400
the Aerofilms photographs point
towards some radical changes,

360
00:27:23,400 --> 00:27:26,200
with entire industries wiped
from the map.

361
00:27:28,440 --> 00:27:31,920
In 1930s Perth,
the Pullar and Sons dye works

362
00:27:31,920 --> 00:27:34,000
was the largest employer in town.

363
00:27:36,480 --> 00:27:39,840
2,000 people laundered
and dyed fabrics,

364
00:27:39,840 --> 00:27:44,760
arriving on trains from
7,000 agents all across the country.

365
00:27:50,240 --> 00:27:52,560
Today, the factories have all gone,

366
00:27:52,560 --> 00:27:54,880
the railways have all gone.

367
00:27:54,880 --> 00:27:57,640
And, like everything else,
it's a retail park.

368
00:28:10,560 --> 00:28:12,840
Again, we're headed north,

369
00:28:12,840 --> 00:28:16,240
through scenery that's attracted
generations of photographers.

370
00:28:18,760 --> 00:28:20,760
Next stop, Blairgowrie.

371
00:28:26,680 --> 00:28:30,120
The railway station and branch line
that once shipped tonnes

372
00:28:30,120 --> 00:28:33,920
of locally grown fruit is now
a supermarket,

373
00:28:33,920 --> 00:28:36,040
and that's not the only change.

374
00:28:37,200 --> 00:28:40,560
Blairgowrie was a town that
was built around its mills.

375
00:28:40,560 --> 00:28:41,720
Now they've all gone.

376
00:28:46,080 --> 00:28:48,920
Industries that once employed
1,500 people...

377
00:28:50,040 --> 00:28:51,200
..disappeared.

378
00:28:58,000 --> 00:29:03,760
Just one short flight, armed with
a handful of old photographs,

379
00:29:03,760 --> 00:29:06,840
really brings home the
relentless pace of change

380
00:29:06,840 --> 00:29:09,480
in how Scotland lives and works.

381
00:29:12,800 --> 00:29:15,920
Our final destination
is Blair Castle.

382
00:29:18,360 --> 00:29:21,640
The official home of the
Duke of Atholl,

383
00:29:21,640 --> 00:29:23,800
the only man in Britain
with a private army.

384
00:29:29,080 --> 00:29:32,760
The castle was photographed
by Aerofilms in 1933.

385
00:29:34,520 --> 00:29:38,760
Just three years later, it became
the first Scottish stately home

386
00:29:38,760 --> 00:29:40,200
to open to the public.

387
00:29:41,880 --> 00:29:47,600
A landmark moment for Scotland's
growing tourist industry.

388
00:29:47,600 --> 00:29:50,240
It's still the sort of grand place
where you dearly

389
00:29:50,240 --> 00:29:51,840
want to make an entrance.

390
00:29:51,840 --> 00:29:53,360
Hopefully, this will do.

391
00:30:10,400 --> 00:30:14,200
I've landed in the grounds of the
castle to meet Leslie Ferguson.

392
00:30:17,200 --> 00:30:21,400
Leslie's spent years studying how
those Aerofilms pioneers operated.

393
00:30:25,080 --> 00:30:28,600
Leslie, there was a huge variety
to the subjects that Aerofilms

394
00:30:28,600 --> 00:30:31,720
were photographing,
from grand castles to market towns,

395
00:30:31,720 --> 00:30:34,560
to big factories.
How did they choose their targets?

396
00:30:34,560 --> 00:30:37,040
Well, you have to remember
that Aerofilms were a business.

397
00:30:37,040 --> 00:30:38,440
They were out to make money.

398
00:30:38,440 --> 00:30:43,080
And photographing places like this,
photographing factories,

399
00:30:43,080 --> 00:30:45,520
they were wanting
to sell their photographs.

400
00:30:45,520 --> 00:30:48,480
And they were looking at houses,
they were looking at hotels.

401
00:30:48,480 --> 00:30:52,040
The tourism industry in the
1930s was booming,

402
00:30:52,040 --> 00:30:55,040
and what more to attract people
to your hotel

403
00:30:55,040 --> 00:30:56,680
than a nice aerial photograph?

404
00:30:56,680 --> 00:30:58,720
And one of their
advertising phrases was,

405
00:30:58,720 --> 00:31:00,640
"Looking down to build business up."

406
00:31:00,640 --> 00:31:05,360
Exactly, and it was that -
this is different.

407
00:31:05,360 --> 00:31:08,240
Few people see the company
from the air.

408
00:31:08,240 --> 00:31:11,080
And in some of the photographs, you
actually see people on the ground

409
00:31:11,080 --> 00:31:13,160
looking up because,
"Oh, there's a plane."

410
00:31:13,160 --> 00:31:14,720
It was that rare.

411
00:31:16,600 --> 00:31:19,760
For us, looking at it now, it's
telling the stories of the past,

412
00:31:19,760 --> 00:31:22,000
the factories
grandfathers worked in.

413
00:31:22,000 --> 00:31:24,560
That's what people
are interested in.

414
00:31:24,560 --> 00:31:26,960
There's so many stories
to tell from the archive.

415
00:31:31,960 --> 00:31:35,680
Back in the 1930s, Aerofilms pilots
and aerial photographers

416
00:31:35,680 --> 00:31:38,360
would have been the astronauts
of their day -

417
00:31:38,360 --> 00:31:40,880
glamorous, dashing risk-takers.

418
00:31:43,600 --> 00:31:45,840
And few were as dashing
or courageous

419
00:31:45,840 --> 00:31:47,800
as Douglas Douglas-Hamilton.

420
00:31:50,240 --> 00:31:53,840
A Scottish aristocrat,
champion boxer

421
00:31:53,840 --> 00:31:55,600
and RAF squadron leader.

422
00:31:58,360 --> 00:32:02,360
In 1932, he was approached
by John Buchan, no less,

423
00:32:02,360 --> 00:32:05,080
the famous author of The 39 Steps,

424
00:32:05,080 --> 00:32:08,080
to lead an audacious expedition -

425
00:32:08,080 --> 00:32:11,640
to photograph the summit
of Mount Everest from above.

426
00:32:15,520 --> 00:32:19,640
I've come to Lennoxlove House
near Haddington to meet his son...

427
00:32:20,800 --> 00:32:22,600
..Lord James Douglas-Hamilton.

428
00:32:25,800 --> 00:32:28,080
This was almost like the space race
of its day.

429
00:32:28,080 --> 00:32:32,200
It was. I think they saw it
as the last great challenge

430
00:32:32,200 --> 00:32:35,560
on the world's surface
before space travel.

431
00:32:35,560 --> 00:32:39,440
And they thought that the
Royal Air Force should have

432
00:32:39,440 --> 00:32:42,520
a major role in this connection.

433
00:32:42,520 --> 00:32:44,440
I mean, your father made light
of the dangers,

434
00:32:44,440 --> 00:32:47,120
but actually this was an
exceptionally dangerous expedition.

435
00:32:47,120 --> 00:32:50,000
Well, they had to be very careful.

436
00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:51,600
If anything went wrong...

437
00:32:51,600 --> 00:32:55,920
For example, the oxygen supply -
of course, they had open cockpits -

438
00:32:55,920 --> 00:33:00,400
they could survive for half a minute
without losing consciousness,

439
00:33:00,400 --> 00:33:02,080
but not much longer.

440
00:33:05,360 --> 00:33:07,720
In February 1933,

441
00:33:07,720 --> 00:33:11,760
Douglas-Hamilton and
fellow Scottish pilot David McIntyre

442
00:33:11,760 --> 00:33:14,440
set out for India and Everest.

443
00:33:18,320 --> 00:33:21,960
Lord James and I sat down to watch
the Oscar-winning documentary

444
00:33:21,960 --> 00:33:23,640
that followed their progress.

445
00:33:25,800 --> 00:33:29,040
And this is them about to head off.
They're about to head off.

446
00:33:29,040 --> 00:33:30,920
They couldn't even have parachutes.

447
00:33:32,160 --> 00:33:34,720
So, they knew that if anything
went wrong...

448
00:33:34,720 --> 00:33:36,120
they wouldn't survive.

449
00:33:41,640 --> 00:33:43,840
Is that the summit of Everest
we can see there?

450
00:33:46,280 --> 00:33:47,440
It looks like it.

451
00:33:48,760 --> 00:33:49,920
I believe it is.

452
00:33:51,440 --> 00:33:54,400
Closing on the summit,
the aircraft were buffeted

453
00:33:54,400 --> 00:33:56,960
by ferocious downdraughts,

454
00:33:56,960 --> 00:34:00,120
and one of the cameramen
fractured his oxygen pipe.

455
00:34:03,840 --> 00:34:06,680
He tries to tie his handkerchief
around it.

456
00:34:06,680 --> 00:34:08,840
All this time, he would be getting
a little oxygen,

457
00:34:08,840 --> 00:34:11,160
but nothing like the amount
he should be getting.

458
00:34:13,800 --> 00:34:16,360
The two pilots pressed on,

459
00:34:16,360 --> 00:34:21,120
and at 10:05am
on the 3rd of April, 1933,

460
00:34:21,120 --> 00:34:24,280
they looked down
on the summit of Everest.

461
00:34:25,720 --> 00:34:27,840
Does it make you feel proud
that he did this?

462
00:34:27,840 --> 00:34:32,360
Well, I think it was a triumph
to have done it successfully...

463
00:34:33,800 --> 00:34:37,160
..and to have lived
to tell the tale.

464
00:34:38,960 --> 00:34:43,600
The two Scottish pilots brought
their crews safely back to base,

465
00:34:43,600 --> 00:34:46,600
their RAF-issue
stiff-upper lips intact.

466
00:34:57,760 --> 00:35:00,240
THEY LAUGH

467
00:35:00,240 --> 00:35:02,280
The understatement of the century,
perhaps.

468
00:35:02,280 --> 00:35:04,560
Well, he was.

469
00:35:04,560 --> 00:35:07,360
But immediately after this,
they went for a swim

470
00:35:07,360 --> 00:35:10,240
in a pool infested with crocodiles.

471
00:35:10,240 --> 00:35:13,640
But the threat of crocodiles seemed
as nothing in comparison

472
00:35:13,640 --> 00:35:16,080
to flying over the highest mountain
in the world.

473
00:35:24,200 --> 00:35:27,880
There's no doubt that
Scottish aviation in the 1930s

474
00:35:27,880 --> 00:35:31,840
was dominated by
moustachioed ex-RAF chaps.

475
00:35:31,840 --> 00:35:35,920
But the photographs they took
captured rich and poor alike.

476
00:35:46,160 --> 00:35:48,320
The men who worked
in the shipyards

477
00:35:48,320 --> 00:35:51,840
that lined the River Clyde
knew poverty all too well.

478
00:35:56,280 --> 00:36:01,440
In the early 1930s,
in John Brown's Clydebank yard,

479
00:36:01,440 --> 00:36:04,480
construction on the
Cunard Line, Queen Mary,

480
00:36:04,480 --> 00:36:07,040
was delayed three years
by the financial collapse

481
00:36:07,040 --> 00:36:08,680
of the Great Depression.

482
00:36:13,480 --> 00:36:15,800
A third of Glaswegians
were unemployed.

483
00:36:19,160 --> 00:36:21,880
Yet, the shipyard workers
and the people of the city

484
00:36:21,880 --> 00:36:24,520
still turned out in their
hundreds of thousands,

485
00:36:24,520 --> 00:36:26,320
in the pouring rain,

486
00:36:26,320 --> 00:36:28,760
to see the launch of the ship
that would become

487
00:36:28,760 --> 00:36:31,040
the world's fastest liner.

488
00:36:31,040 --> 00:36:33,040
NEWSREEL: Now the great day
has arrived.

489
00:36:33,040 --> 00:36:36,160
A quarter of a million spectators
surround the huge vessel.

490
00:36:36,160 --> 00:36:38,120
It's raining,
but that hardly matters.

491
00:36:39,960 --> 00:36:42,080
The rudder at her stern
strikes the water,

492
00:36:42,080 --> 00:36:44,720
and gracefully her long hull
glides down the slipway.

493
00:36:58,320 --> 00:37:01,240
The Mary was launched
in September, 1934.

494
00:37:03,600 --> 00:37:05,640
She slid into the Clyde
just over there,

495
00:37:05,640 --> 00:37:08,040
and she was pulled back
into this basin.

496
00:37:08,040 --> 00:37:11,320
She was so large, 1,020 feet long,

497
00:37:11,320 --> 00:37:14,440
that the builders had to cut
this little V-shaped nick

498
00:37:14,440 --> 00:37:15,800
into the harbour wall

499
00:37:15,800 --> 00:37:18,520
so that her bum wouldn't
stick too far out into the Clyde.

500
00:37:22,280 --> 00:37:24,240
A year after her launch,

501
00:37:24,240 --> 00:37:27,480
the Queen Mary began her
first journey down the Clyde.

502
00:37:28,960 --> 00:37:31,280
Every available plane at
Renfrew Airfield

503
00:37:31,280 --> 00:37:33,360
was hired out to photographers.

504
00:37:35,080 --> 00:37:37,480
There were so many cameras
in the sky,

505
00:37:37,480 --> 00:37:40,480
the Air Ministry imposed
air traffic controls

506
00:37:40,480 --> 00:37:43,120
to avoid mid-flight collisions.

507
00:37:43,120 --> 00:37:47,200
Everyone wanted to watch the
most glamorous ship in the world

508
00:37:47,200 --> 00:37:49,200
heading out to the open sea.

509
00:37:50,560 --> 00:37:53,000
NEWSREEL: The Queen Mary begins
her mercantile career.

510
00:37:53,000 --> 00:37:56,520
May she proudly carry the
Blue Ensign on 1,000 happy voyages.

511
00:38:03,240 --> 00:38:07,600
John Brown's shipyard was just
over here, and directly below me,

512
00:38:07,600 --> 00:38:10,480
2,000 of its men worked on the
Queen Mary.

513
00:38:10,480 --> 00:38:12,160
But there's more. Come with me.

514
00:38:16,000 --> 00:38:19,600
Over here, there was another
massive industrial concern -

515
00:38:19,600 --> 00:38:21,520
the Singer sewing machine factory,

516
00:38:21,520 --> 00:38:24,360
one of the largest factories
of its kind in the world.

517
00:38:27,400 --> 00:38:30,360
At peak, it employed
over 16,000 people.

518
00:38:40,000 --> 00:38:43,080
Singers had its own fire brigade,

519
00:38:43,080 --> 00:38:46,120
police station
and ambulance service,

520
00:38:46,120 --> 00:38:48,120
a pipe band,

521
00:38:48,120 --> 00:38:49,800
football teams

522
00:38:49,800 --> 00:38:51,600
and a host of clubs.

523
00:38:54,040 --> 00:38:57,280
Today, all trace of
the factory is gone.

524
00:38:58,720 --> 00:39:02,160
Replaced by green avenues
and a modern business park.

525
00:39:06,600 --> 00:39:09,360
A world away from the place
Frances Railton

526
00:39:09,360 --> 00:39:12,960
first encountered back in 1956.

527
00:39:15,360 --> 00:39:18,120
Some of the departments
were actually quite scary.

528
00:39:18,120 --> 00:39:20,600
Big machines all going,
so much noise,

529
00:39:20,600 --> 00:39:23,280
and the smell of oil.

530
00:39:23,280 --> 00:39:25,480
It's a funny thing,
but each factory seemed to have

531
00:39:25,480 --> 00:39:27,920
its own individual oil smell.

532
00:39:27,920 --> 00:39:31,880
You could tell a Singer worker
from a John Brown's worker

533
00:39:31,880 --> 00:39:34,960
by the smell of their
overalls, you know?

534
00:39:34,960 --> 00:39:37,160
And was there a strong social life
in the factory?

535
00:39:37,160 --> 00:39:41,840
Yes, there was. People, for a start
off, made friends in here, as I did,

536
00:39:41,840 --> 00:39:44,440
who have stayed friends
for the rest of their lives.

537
00:39:44,440 --> 00:39:46,840
But there were lots of things
went on.

538
00:39:46,840 --> 00:39:50,080
One of the main things, of course,
was having the Singer Gala,

539
00:39:50,080 --> 00:39:52,680
or the games, people racing
and doing all that sort of thing,

540
00:39:52,680 --> 00:39:54,000
and athletic things.

541
00:39:58,920 --> 00:40:01,280
There was also, they would have
a Singer Queen.

542
00:40:03,920 --> 00:40:06,720
Were you one of the Singer Queens?
No.

543
00:40:06,720 --> 00:40:08,640
No, I'm afraid not.

544
00:40:08,640 --> 00:40:11,040
How do you feel when,
you know, driving around it now,

545
00:40:11,040 --> 00:40:15,880
to think of a structure,
a factory of that size,

546
00:40:15,880 --> 00:40:17,720
that's now entirely gone?

547
00:40:17,720 --> 00:40:19,840
It just seems so impossible.

548
00:40:21,040 --> 00:40:23,440
All of these trees
and all these little,

549
00:40:23,440 --> 00:40:26,640
low buildings bear no resemblance
to the big, old brick...

550
00:40:27,920 --> 00:40:29,800
..edifices that they had, you know?

551
00:40:35,880 --> 00:40:40,200
Today, the massive Singer factory
is just a memory.

552
00:40:42,080 --> 00:40:44,560
A million square feet of work space

553
00:40:44,560 --> 00:40:47,800
squeezed between
the Forth and Clyde Canal

554
00:40:47,800 --> 00:40:50,240
and the Glasgow to Dumbarton
railway line.

555
00:40:54,280 --> 00:40:58,200
At its peak, the factory
could produce some 500,000

556
00:40:58,200 --> 00:41:00,120
sewing machines a year.

557
00:41:01,160 --> 00:41:02,840
Rising above it,

558
00:41:02,840 --> 00:41:06,680
the clock tower was once the
largest timekeeper in the world.

559
00:41:09,920 --> 00:41:15,160
For Singers and Clydebank,
the clock stopped in 1963...

560
00:41:16,840 --> 00:41:20,240
..and the factory closed completely
in 1980.

561
00:41:22,160 --> 00:41:24,400
Do you remember it being demolished?

562
00:41:24,400 --> 00:41:26,000
I think we were...
Most of us were...

563
00:41:27,240 --> 00:41:30,200
..a bit too upset to really pay
an awful lot of attention to it.

564
00:41:32,400 --> 00:41:35,280
When I think back to the size
of the clock, I can't...

565
00:41:35,280 --> 00:41:37,120
It seems so hard to believe
that they were able

566
00:41:37,120 --> 00:41:38,560
to pull all that down.

567
00:41:49,840 --> 00:41:53,360
There's no monument or marker to
what was once

568
00:41:53,360 --> 00:41:55,920
the world's biggest factory.

569
00:41:55,920 --> 00:41:59,480
A key part of Scotland's
industrial heritage

570
00:41:59,480 --> 00:42:02,200
is preserved only in photographs.

571
00:42:03,320 --> 00:42:06,600
And as the 1930s drew to a close,

572
00:42:06,600 --> 00:42:09,320
more sinister photographs
would be taken

573
00:42:09,320 --> 00:42:12,560
of Clydebank's factories
and shipyards.

574
00:42:14,520 --> 00:42:18,400
This picture was taken by
a German civilian aircraft.

575
00:42:18,400 --> 00:42:20,360
The writing betrays its purpose.

576
00:42:20,360 --> 00:42:22,400
It was a list of targets.

577
00:42:22,400 --> 00:42:25,840
And target A
was John Brown's shipyard.

578
00:42:25,840 --> 00:42:28,480
15 months after this photograph
was taken,

579
00:42:28,480 --> 00:42:32,200
over 500 died in the
Clydebank Blitz.

580
00:42:32,200 --> 00:42:33,960
In the build-up to
the Second World War,

581
00:42:33,960 --> 00:42:38,040
the Luftwaffe started photographing
key sites all across Scotland.

582
00:42:38,040 --> 00:42:39,600
It ranged from the obvious,

583
00:42:39,600 --> 00:42:42,960
like the Rolls-Royce Spitfire
engine factory at Hillington,

584
00:42:42,960 --> 00:42:45,160
and the oil refinery at Grangemouth,

585
00:42:45,160 --> 00:42:48,440
to other more obscure targets,
like Benbecula.

586
00:42:48,440 --> 00:42:50,680
All of Scotland was in the
crosshairs.

587
00:42:50,680 --> 00:42:53,520
Aerial photography
was going back to war.

588
00:42:58,200 --> 00:43:01,360
As the Germans took photographs
of the British,

589
00:43:01,360 --> 00:43:04,640
the British took photographs
of the Germans.

590
00:43:06,120 --> 00:43:09,840
Now using specially adapted
Spitfires,

591
00:43:09,840 --> 00:43:12,640
then the fastest aircraft
in the world...

592
00:43:14,480 --> 00:43:18,240
..with cameras that could capture
pin-sharp images

593
00:43:18,240 --> 00:43:20,160
from tens of thousands of feet.

594
00:43:29,600 --> 00:43:32,920
Some of the souped-up Spitfires
were based here, at Wick Airfield,

595
00:43:32,920 --> 00:43:35,560
in Scotland's
far north-eastern corner.

596
00:43:35,560 --> 00:43:38,640
And from one of those aircraft
came one photograph

597
00:43:38,640 --> 00:43:40,560
that would change
the course of the war.

598
00:43:46,680 --> 00:43:50,520
Just before 11am
on the 21st of May, 1941,

599
00:43:50,520 --> 00:43:52,400
Flight Officer Michael Suckling

600
00:43:52,400 --> 00:43:55,400
climbed into the cockpit
of his Spitfire.

601
00:43:55,400 --> 00:43:58,800
His mission was to
find and photograph the largest ship

602
00:43:58,800 --> 00:44:01,760
in the German fleet - the Bismarck.

603
00:44:04,240 --> 00:44:07,640
The 20-year-old pilot headed north.

604
00:44:07,640 --> 00:44:09,320
He refuelled at Sumburgh,

605
00:44:09,320 --> 00:44:13,360
then set a course for the
Norwegian town of Bergen.

606
00:44:13,360 --> 00:44:18,720
Two hours after take-off, at 1:15pm,
Suckling found his prey.

607
00:44:19,840 --> 00:44:24,320
At a height of 25,000 feet, he
pressed the trigger on his camera.

608
00:44:32,200 --> 00:44:35,480
At 2:30pm, Suckling landed back
at Wick.

609
00:44:37,480 --> 00:44:40,280
The negative was developed
within minutes,

610
00:44:40,280 --> 00:44:43,160
and Suckling himself
flew it on to London.

611
00:44:45,400 --> 00:44:49,440
His single photograph set in train
a massive naval pursuit.

612
00:44:52,280 --> 00:44:55,640
The Bismarck rushed for the
open waters of the North Atlantic...

613
00:44:57,040 --> 00:44:59,160
..hunted down by the Royal Navy.

614
00:45:00,760 --> 00:45:04,960
And six days after Suckling
took his photograph,

615
00:45:04,960 --> 00:45:07,760
the Bismarck
and 2,000 of her crew...

616
00:45:08,840 --> 00:45:10,600
..lay at the bottom of the sea.

617
00:45:13,080 --> 00:45:17,320
In this war, the RAF's
eyes in the sky were deadly.

618
00:45:22,000 --> 00:45:25,320
Aircraft could operate further
and faster behind enemy lines

619
00:45:25,320 --> 00:45:27,000
than ever before.

620
00:45:27,000 --> 00:45:30,480
What could and what couldn't be seen
was now of vital importance.

621
00:45:36,280 --> 00:45:40,320
Less well known than the photograph
that sunk the Bismarck

622
00:45:40,320 --> 00:45:43,920
are the efforts that were taken
to protect Wick's airfield.

623
00:45:45,800 --> 00:45:48,680
Six miles to the south,
in the fields around

624
00:45:48,680 --> 00:45:50,240
the village of Sarclet...

625
00:45:51,800 --> 00:45:54,920
..an incredible plan
was put into action.

626
00:45:57,520 --> 00:46:00,840
A band of local men brought
horses onto the peat bog.

627
00:46:00,840 --> 00:46:04,040
They were in serious danger
of sinking deep into the mud,

628
00:46:04,040 --> 00:46:07,120
but somehow they ploughed
this field.

629
00:46:07,120 --> 00:46:10,720
Then they rolled it, spread
quarry dust and limestone on top.

630
00:46:10,720 --> 00:46:14,440
What they achieved is almost
impossible to see from the ground,

631
00:46:14,440 --> 00:46:17,000
but entirely possible
to see from the air.

632
00:46:21,120 --> 00:46:26,320
What they had to build was a replica
of Wick Airfield's three runways,

633
00:46:26,320 --> 00:46:29,920
at exactly 70% of the size
of the original.

634
00:46:32,920 --> 00:46:36,400
And at night,
Sarclet's bogus airfield was lit up

635
00:46:36,400 --> 00:46:39,640
by powerful electric lights.

636
00:46:39,640 --> 00:46:44,040
All part of an elaborate ploy
to protect the genuine airfield.

637
00:46:47,480 --> 00:46:49,000
And it was a ploy that worked.

638
00:46:50,800 --> 00:46:54,000
The fake airfield was bombed
on a number of occasions.

639
00:46:55,520 --> 00:47:00,120
Today, from the air,
the craters are still visible.

640
00:47:05,400 --> 00:47:07,240
During the war, there was
an obsession with

641
00:47:07,240 --> 00:47:09,320
staying dark, staying hidden.

642
00:47:09,320 --> 00:47:13,560
But here, in Sarclet, their job
was to light up the night sky,

643
00:47:13,560 --> 00:47:17,200
to distract the German bombers, take
them away from the airfield at Wick

644
00:47:17,200 --> 00:47:19,640
to the dummy airfield
just over there.

645
00:47:19,640 --> 00:47:22,040
They were putting themselves
and their families

646
00:47:22,040 --> 00:47:24,000
right in the firing line.

647
00:47:28,600 --> 00:47:32,440
World War II Caithness
was Britain's forgotten front.

648
00:47:34,040 --> 00:47:39,000
Heavily defended against
the threat of German invasion,

649
00:47:39,000 --> 00:47:41,680
with three huge airfields,

650
00:47:41,680 --> 00:47:43,480
radar stations,

651
00:47:43,480 --> 00:47:45,480
wireless stations,

652
00:47:45,480 --> 00:47:47,720
and dozens of military camps.

653
00:47:50,920 --> 00:47:55,080
I've been amazed at just how much of
World War II remains today.

654
00:47:56,280 --> 00:47:59,920
None more fascinating
than Wick's old bomb store.

655
00:48:01,840 --> 00:48:04,720
From above, its design is revealed,

656
00:48:04,720 --> 00:48:08,960
with each building isolated
from the other by earth banks

657
00:48:08,960 --> 00:48:11,400
topped by concrete.

658
00:48:11,400 --> 00:48:13,800
Protection against explosion.

659
00:48:16,320 --> 00:48:18,160
The bombs would come out
of these doors,

660
00:48:18,160 --> 00:48:20,000
just north of the main runway,

661
00:48:20,000 --> 00:48:22,200
and they'd be slung under
these rails above me,

662
00:48:22,200 --> 00:48:25,880
and they'd be loaded onto aircraft
bound for Nazi-occupied Europe.

663
00:48:27,080 --> 00:48:30,120
This was just one part of a
massive military complex,

664
00:48:30,120 --> 00:48:32,320
spreading for miles
all around Caithness.

665
00:48:40,800 --> 00:48:42,960
In May 1945,

666
00:48:42,960 --> 00:48:45,080
Caithness and the whole of Scotland

667
00:48:45,080 --> 00:48:47,280
celebrated victory in Europe.

668
00:48:48,800 --> 00:48:53,680
In the aftermath, Scotland prepared
for a whole new battle -

669
00:48:53,680 --> 00:48:55,400
to feed a hungry nation...

670
00:48:57,920 --> 00:49:00,920
..to build homes fit
for wartime heroes...

671
00:49:02,800 --> 00:49:06,200
..and to bring light and energy
to the most remote parts

672
00:49:06,200 --> 00:49:07,280
of the country.

673
00:49:09,320 --> 00:49:13,120
To understand how the landscape of
the post-war Scotland changed...

674
00:49:14,360 --> 00:49:17,000
..I've taken the high road
to the west Highlands...

675
00:49:19,200 --> 00:49:23,760
..to a windy mountain pass on
the southern edge of Loch Cluanie.

676
00:49:27,720 --> 00:49:31,960
My normal commute's 20 minutes in
through the south side of Edinburgh.

677
00:49:31,960 --> 00:49:35,000
You might hit a bit of traffic,
maybe some roadworks.

678
00:49:35,000 --> 00:49:36,280
This is a bit different.

679
00:49:39,200 --> 00:49:43,400
Believe it or not,
this potholed, overgrown track

680
00:49:43,400 --> 00:49:45,640
was once a main road.

681
00:49:45,640 --> 00:49:49,760
In the 1950s, if you were driving
from Skye to Edinburgh,

682
00:49:49,760 --> 00:49:52,000
you'd quite possibly
have come along here.

683
00:49:55,880 --> 00:49:57,440
The road's pretty overgrown now,

684
00:49:57,440 --> 00:50:00,120
but actually if you look around,
you can still see the traces

685
00:50:00,120 --> 00:50:01,480
of the old infrastructure,

686
00:50:01,480 --> 00:50:03,120
the walls that were here.

687
00:50:03,120 --> 00:50:04,720
This really was a major road.

688
00:50:07,280 --> 00:50:09,600
Oh, that was a pothole.

689
00:50:09,600 --> 00:50:10,960
Very bumpy.

690
00:50:12,680 --> 00:50:16,160
Today, the road is privately owned.

691
00:50:16,160 --> 00:50:19,640
But if you did travel along it,
hoping to reach Edinburgh...

692
00:50:22,000 --> 00:50:23,360
..then I'm sorry to say...

693
00:50:26,240 --> 00:50:27,840
..you'd be very disappointed.

694
00:50:41,880 --> 00:50:44,360
It's not so much the case
that the road stops here.

695
00:50:44,360 --> 00:50:48,400
It would be more accurate to say
that it continues, just underwater.

696
00:50:56,520 --> 00:50:59,080
To understand what's happened here,

697
00:50:59,080 --> 00:51:01,840
we need to look at some
aerial photographs.

698
00:51:03,360 --> 00:51:07,800
These images were taken by the
RAF in 1947.

699
00:51:07,800 --> 00:51:09,760
They show the road I've just taken,

700
00:51:09,760 --> 00:51:12,280
winding its way south
to this very point

701
00:51:12,280 --> 00:51:14,000
where it crosses Loch Loyne.

702
00:51:16,480 --> 00:51:19,480
Today, as we've seen,
it's all very different.

703
00:51:21,480 --> 00:51:23,920
The level of the loch is higher,

704
00:51:23,920 --> 00:51:26,680
and the road across it is just
a memory.

705
00:51:32,800 --> 00:51:35,160
Taken just a few miles north,

706
00:51:35,160 --> 00:51:38,400
these photographs show
where my journey began,

707
00:51:38,400 --> 00:51:40,240
at Loch Cluanie.

708
00:51:40,240 --> 00:51:42,960
These were taken in 1948.

709
00:51:44,880 --> 00:51:48,320
Again, the landscape has
changed dramatically.

710
00:51:48,320 --> 00:51:52,280
Buildings alongside the loch
have disappeared

711
00:51:52,280 --> 00:51:54,760
and the road that ran
just to the north

712
00:51:54,760 --> 00:51:56,760
has climbed further up the hill.

713
00:52:01,640 --> 00:52:06,080
So what was the magical power that
moved roads and raised the level

714
00:52:06,080 --> 00:52:07,520
of lochs?

715
00:52:07,520 --> 00:52:10,600
The answer, of course,
was electricity.

716
00:52:18,000 --> 00:52:23,080
In the years after the war, only one
croft in every 100 had electricity.

717
00:52:25,960 --> 00:52:29,880
To remedy that,
the nationalised hydroelectric board

718
00:52:29,880 --> 00:52:34,200
built 78 dams and 54 power stations.

719
00:52:35,480 --> 00:52:39,720
Construction took 20 years
and brought huge changes

720
00:52:39,720 --> 00:52:41,760
to Scotland's landscape.

721
00:52:47,240 --> 00:52:52,480
Even today, parts of Loch Cluanie
are fringed with tree stumps.

722
00:52:52,480 --> 00:52:57,000
Their tops all lopped off
before the planned flooding.

723
00:52:57,000 --> 00:52:59,960
The trees were not the only victims.

724
00:52:59,960 --> 00:53:03,360
The men and women who lived along
the shores of Loch Cluanie

725
00:53:03,360 --> 00:53:05,520
were flooded out of their homes.

726
00:53:07,040 --> 00:53:11,240
But on special days,
when the water is very low,

727
00:53:11,240 --> 00:53:14,600
those homes emerge
from the dark waters.

728
00:53:19,800 --> 00:53:23,400
Duncan MacLeod grew up in a croft
alongside Loch Cluanie.

729
00:53:26,240 --> 00:53:28,640
You knew people who lived here?
I knew the family that lived

730
00:53:28,640 --> 00:53:30,560
in that house
where the chimneys are.

731
00:53:30,560 --> 00:53:32,960
They were McCraes
and they were shepherds.

732
00:53:32,960 --> 00:53:35,240
There was two brothers,
their mother,

733
00:53:35,240 --> 00:53:37,560
one of the brother's wives,
and three of a family.

734
00:53:37,560 --> 00:53:40,240
And how did they feel when they
were told they had to move?

735
00:53:40,240 --> 00:53:42,800
I don't think they would
have been very happy because...

736
00:53:44,080 --> 00:53:46,040
..in those days, work wasn't
that easy to get.

737
00:53:47,560 --> 00:53:49,360
With the house being a tied house,

738
00:53:49,360 --> 00:53:51,880
after they moved from here,
they moved from house to house.

739
00:53:51,880 --> 00:53:54,120
I remember because
they had nowhere to go.

740
00:53:54,120 --> 00:53:55,640
Were you ever inside these houses?

741
00:53:55,640 --> 00:53:58,880
I was in this house. I was in this
house quite a number of times.

742
00:54:00,280 --> 00:54:03,120
The road goes here across the bridge
and there was quite steep steps

743
00:54:03,120 --> 00:54:05,840
going down to the front door
of the house.

744
00:54:05,840 --> 00:54:08,080
I remember quite distinctly.

745
00:54:08,080 --> 00:54:10,040
It wasn't a big house,
it was a very small house.

746
00:54:10,040 --> 00:54:11,880
I remember it being
very, very small.

747
00:54:11,880 --> 00:54:14,080
Of course, they had no electricity,
nothing like that.

748
00:54:14,080 --> 00:54:16,240
It was all Tilley lamps.

749
00:54:16,240 --> 00:54:17,760
And you used to play here
as a child?

750
00:54:17,760 --> 00:54:20,920
I used to play here. I used
to play shinty here on the road.

751
00:54:20,920 --> 00:54:23,160
It's only one of the flat areas,
there was no cars then.

752
00:54:23,160 --> 00:54:26,120
You could probably play for an
hour before a car would come.

753
00:54:29,040 --> 00:54:35,520
Sections of that old road can still
be seen, snaking through the glen.

754
00:54:35,520 --> 00:54:39,280
As water levels rose
through the late 1950s,

755
00:54:39,280 --> 00:54:43,360
it too was sacrificed
to the encroaching loch.

756
00:54:43,360 --> 00:54:45,800
A new high road was built
to replace it.

757
00:54:46,960 --> 00:54:50,360
But Duncan can remember
his father's last,

758
00:54:50,360 --> 00:54:53,400
valiant attempt
to drive the low road.

759
00:54:56,120 --> 00:54:58,040
We came along this road,
myself and my father.

760
00:54:58,040 --> 00:55:00,240
We set off from Cluanie
and came along past here,

761
00:55:00,240 --> 00:55:02,760
and all of a sudden, we came on the
loch where it had come over

762
00:55:02,760 --> 00:55:05,920
the road overnight,
and we just turned back.

763
00:55:05,920 --> 00:55:08,120
Was that an emotional journey
with your father?

764
00:55:08,120 --> 00:55:10,160
It was, it was.
It stuck in my memory.

765
00:55:10,160 --> 00:55:11,880
I remember it quite vividly.

766
00:55:11,880 --> 00:55:14,680
And I think,
I remember my father's emotion.

767
00:55:14,680 --> 00:55:17,600
That was the last time he was going
along this road, and that was it.

768
00:55:17,600 --> 00:55:19,600
End of a story for him.

769
00:55:19,600 --> 00:55:20,840
End of a story.

770
00:55:35,080 --> 00:55:39,040
From above, it was clear the
landscape of post-war Scotland

771
00:55:39,040 --> 00:55:41,120
was changing dramatically.

772
00:55:42,440 --> 00:55:45,840
Hydroelectric schemes were one part.

773
00:55:45,840 --> 00:55:49,600
But so too was the massive increase
in forestry...

774
00:55:50,760 --> 00:55:52,720
..and also farmland,

775
00:55:52,720 --> 00:55:56,080
as the country looked to become
increasingly self-sufficient.

776
00:55:58,280 --> 00:56:01,840
This rush to put every acre
of the land to use

777
00:56:01,840 --> 00:56:04,440
would inevitably
become controversial.

778
00:56:06,640 --> 00:56:11,400
Particularly when progress
collided with Scotland's past.

779
00:56:14,960 --> 00:56:18,160
I've come to the hills above
Newburgh in northern Fife.

780
00:56:21,480 --> 00:56:25,920
1,500 years ago, the local people
chose this very spot

781
00:56:25,920 --> 00:56:28,360
to build a well defended hillfort.

782
00:56:30,840 --> 00:56:34,280
An aerial photograph,
taken in the 1930s,

783
00:56:34,280 --> 00:56:38,800
shows the terraced defences that
once protected the top of the hill.

784
00:56:41,360 --> 00:56:44,360
But in the 1950s,
after much controversy,

785
00:56:44,360 --> 00:56:47,760
the government decided that the
archaeology on top of the hill

786
00:56:47,760 --> 00:56:50,880
was much less important
than the stones beneath it.

787
00:56:50,880 --> 00:56:53,640
And the ancient fort
gave way to this.

788
00:57:00,160 --> 00:57:02,200
Clatchard Craig Quarry.

789
00:57:05,280 --> 00:57:06,880
Within ten years,

790
00:57:06,880 --> 00:57:09,080
the digging here would obliterate

791
00:57:09,080 --> 00:57:11,280
all trace of the ancient fort.

792
00:57:16,200 --> 00:57:18,600
For some, this was
cultural vandalism.

793
00:57:20,040 --> 00:57:22,480
History lost to the bulldozers.

794
00:57:25,000 --> 00:57:28,760
But for others,
the present was more important.

795
00:57:28,760 --> 00:57:32,440
These stones would build
and improve roads and railways.

796
00:57:34,320 --> 00:57:38,080
And with over 1,500 recorded
hill forts in Scotland...

797
00:57:39,320 --> 00:57:40,760
..would we really miss one?

798
00:57:46,480 --> 00:57:50,280
The arguments between preserving the
past and building the future

799
00:57:50,280 --> 00:57:54,360
would continue, and the view from
above would remain at the heart

800
00:57:54,360 --> 00:57:56,120
of Scotland's story.

801
00:58:08,000 --> 00:58:11,480
Next time, our towns and cities.

802
00:58:11,480 --> 00:58:13,800
How the view from above
has transformed

803
00:58:13,800 --> 00:58:16,320
the way we understand them

804
00:58:16,320 --> 00:58:18,160
and make them.

805
00:58:18,160 --> 00:58:21,880
From the Georgian elegance
of Edinburgh's New Town,

806
00:58:21,880 --> 00:58:25,280
to the present-day rebirth
of Dundee,

807
00:58:25,280 --> 00:58:28,560
the aerial view
has always been vital.