Photography

This book is an exploration of both Scotland’s western
seaboard and the Hebridean Islands, following
on from Iain McGowans’s highly successful Portrait
of the Hebrides published by Halsgrove in 2008 and
reprinted in 2011.

Scotland is justly famed for its magnificent scenery – mountains, lochs, islands, wild rocky places and sandy beaches. All this is evidence of an exciting geological history which began 3,500 billion years ago and is still continuing. The sheer diversity of Scotland’s rocks and landforms are the physical reminders of a fascinating journey through time. They reveal that the land that makes up Scotland today has travelled the world and has not always even belonged to one single continental landmass. At different times, too, continents formed and split apart, ancient volcanoes erupted vast quantities of lava and Ice Age glaciers shaped the landscape. Containing a huge amount of detailed information presented in clear, comprehensible language and enhanced throughtout with specially commissioned illustrations, diagrams and photographs, this is an essential book for anyone interested in the world around them.

The Hebrides of Scotland – around 500 diverse islands – form the north-western Atlantic fringe of Europe. This book surveys the cultural landscape of this dramatically beautiful, complex and conflicted area, with emphasis on what may be interpreted through aerial photography. Its main themes are the mutual influences of people and environment, and the recent history and current issues in the area. Mobile maritime cultures flourished throughout the Hebrides from prehistoric times, including Mesolithic builders of wheelhouses, coracle-borne monastic travellers, Norse in longships and Lords of the Isles in birlinns. A prominent feature of the recent history of the Hebrides has been depopulation. The history and heartbreak of this phenomenon, experienced in differing degrees in rural areas throughout Europe from the mid-18th century, is clearly shown in aerial photographs and discussed in the accompanying text. Today’s Hebridean landscapes have been heavily modified by various forms of human land use; current land-management options and controversies are also discussed in the context of photographs that draw attention to the various issues involved.

In this book, you will travel in both space and time, starting in the years around the First World War and moving all the way up to the present day. As you go, you will see just what our pioneering aviators saw as they stared out from their cockpits. And, more than that, you will explore what they were trying to find. Because, from above, Scotland can be many different things, depending on what you choose to look at – and who is doing the looking.’ Accompanying the BBC documentary series Scotland from the Sky, this lavishly illustrated book draws on the vast collection of aerial photography held in the archives of Historic Environment Scotland. Historian and series presenter James Crawford opens an extraordinary window into our past to tell the remarkable story of a nation from above – taking readers back in time to show how our great cities have dramatically altered with the ebb and flow of history, while whole communities have vanished in the name of progress. The book shows how aerial imagery can reveal treasures from the ancient past, uncovering secrets buried right beneath our feet. And it demonstrates how the view from above has been at the heart of the postwar transformation of both our countryside and our urban landscapes. This is a fascinating – and little known – story of war, innovation, adventure, cities, landscapes and people. This is the story of Scotland, from the sky.

Enter the magical world of Scottish folklore with this knitting design book from the mother-daughter duo of Alice and Jade Starmore, creators of the bestselling Tudor Roses. This unique book, named for the Scots term for magic, is rooted in ancient Gaelic folklore. Retellings of traditional tales are accompanied by full-color photographs — including nine panoramic gatefolds — taken in remote and romantic Hebridean locations, of gorgeous knitted costumes inspired by the stories. The fanciful and intricate outfits serve as illustrations for the storytelling; simpler versions of the original designs offer complete patterns. Years in the making, this combination of fable, highly conceptual design, and practical instruction will enchant not only knitters but also those in the fashion and costume world and readers fascinated by Scottish and Gaelic legends.

In Scotland’s Outer Hebrides on the rugged Isle of Lewis, five powerful award-winning monuments commemorate the island’s Land Heroes. Their courageous struggle for Land Law Reform resulted in the thriving Gaelic speaking community that Lewis encompasses today.

Through the photography of Robin Gillanders, the design, setting and materials of these ‘sentinels in stone’ are brought together for all to enjoy, while essays by distinguished Scottish art historians, and Gaelic speaking island historian Dr Joni Buchannan, tell a vivid story of the events commemorated by each monument, examining their iconography, and exploring each work within the context of a wider cultural rebellion against the hegemony of imposed values.

Scotland boasts a huge and diverse range of wildlife. This informative and beautifully illustrated book is the most complete companion to Scottish animals and birds available. Themed around various habitats (mountain; bog and moor; woods; lochs and rivers; croft and farm; sea and seashore; urban), and including material on mythical beasts, it features a wealth of information on hundreds of species. As well as descriptions and biological information, the text is interspersed with much detail – historical, folklore, anecdotal and even culinary – which offers fascinating insights into the role of animals in our cultural life and the way man has interacted with them over a period of thousands of years.

In the very north of Britain, far from the bustling cities and picturesque countryside to the south, lies Western Europe’s most magnificent wilderness: the Scottish Highlands.
This is a land shaped by the flow of ancient ice, where snow-capped mountains tower over ink-black lochs, Golden Eagles soar over heather-clad moors, and Red Deer stags engage in mortal combat for the right to win a mate. Along the coast, sea cliffs and offshore islands teem with millions of seabirds, while the seas themselves are home to Basking Sharks, Orcas and Bottlenose Dolphins.
The Highlands may, at first sight, seem bleak and desolate, but they are also filled with hidden wonders, from the ancient Caledonian pine forests to the vast Flow Country, and from the sheer granite cliffs of Handa to the mysterious depths of Loch Ness.
In this lavish book, Stephen Moss’s thoughtful, authoritative text, accompanied throughout by spectacular photography from Laurie Campbell, follows a year in the lives of a stellar cast of wild animals as they live, feed, breed and die in this beautiful, yet unforgiving landscape – a land where only the toughest survive.

The landscape of the Outer Hebrides, with its stark cliffs, ghostly mists and lonely beaches, has become a definitive character of Peter May’s Lewis trilogy. In Hebrides, readers will accompany him on an odyssey in prose and images, through a history of the Vikings’ ‘Long Island’ and his own deep personal connection with the islands that influenced his bestselling work.

Travelling as if alongside his protagonist Fin Macleod, he describes the island life – as bewitching as it is treacherous – his encounter with the bird-hunters of Sula Sgeir, the savage seas of Ness and the churches of Eriskay. With extracts from the trilogy and specially commissioned photographs, this book places his writing and characters within the land that gave them form.

Paul Murton has spent half a lifetime exploring some of the most beautiful islands in the world – the Hebrides. He has travelled the length and breadth of Scotland’s rugged west coast and sailed to over eighty islands.

From the lush shores of Gigha to the towering cliffs of St Kilda, he explores the islands’ breathtaking scenery and and introduces their colourful history, culture, myths and legends. He also meets some of the people who live there and make the Hebrides tick, from crofters, fisherman, tweed waulkers and clan chiefs to peat cutters, gin distillers, black pudding makers and even a parrot rescuer.