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Reveals how photography has evolved from military reconnaissance to an essential tool for historical preservation, city planning, and uncovering hidden archaeological ...
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00:03Scotland is a breathtakingly beautiful country and no more so from the air it boasts one of
00:14the most photogenic landscapes in the world no wonder it's one of the most photographed
00:26ever since the invention of flight aerial photographers have taken to the skies and
00:32taken thousands of photographs they're a record of our countryside our cities even our way of life
00:39are constantly shifting and changing
00:44these photographs are an extraordinary window into our past
00:49they can take us back in time and show us how our great cities have dramatically changed with the
00:56ebb and flow of history while whole communities have vanished in the name of progress they can
01:07reveal treasures from the past without even lifting a spade and they can uncover secrets buried right
01:17beneath our feet did you realize that where you're standing was once a massive roman military camp
01:25never imagined that from roman camps to lost ornamental gardens to a field where the very
01:34concept of time emerged without that photograph we wouldn't be here today no this is the fascinating
01:42and untold story of those pioneering photographic detectives and the extraordinary mysteries they've
01:49uncovered this is the story of scotland from the sky
02:08the skies are clear and the wind is light perfect conditions for today's task
02:17i've come to cumbernauld airport for a flight with a difference what are you shooting with today bob
02:24bob adam is a photographer with scotland's national collection of aerial photography
02:28and this little cessna is the team's workhorse tight fit in here
02:39it's not the most comfortable flight i've ever taken but it beats most people's commute to work
02:57spring summer autumn or winter the survey team from the national collection take to scotland skies
03:28the national collection has been photographing us from the skies for over 40 years and if
03:45just how far back in time you can see
03:50the annual survey started in the scorching summer of 76 an extraordinary year to begin
04:04britain was baking in a long stifling heat wave and suffering one of the most severe droughts ever recorded
04:14but what was torture for office workers proved perfect for aerial photographers
04:23under the relentless sun the landscape became like a litmus paper for the past
04:30forest as the dry spell took hold crops turned pale and parched but the crops that grew above
04:37ancient earthworks remained healthy and dark as the roots found moisture deep underground
04:46like ghostly outlines crop marks of prehistoric structures began to emerge from fields across the country
05:01on one particularly scorching day an aerial archaeologist was flying above this field
05:07near craft this castle just to the east of bankery and aberdeenshire this is what he was looking for
05:16the crop mark of an ancient great hall built nearly six thousand years ago
05:23but later he noticed this
05:27a series of dark regularly spaced dots running in a straight line
05:33so what were these strange mysterious circles
05:39i've come to craft this castle let's take a look for myself
05:48you can barely spot them in the photograph but here on the ground i've no chance there's nothing to be
05:56seen at all
06:02although photographers came back year after year the crop marks were never seen again
06:08but the archaeologists had their glimpse they knew where to look and when they came to excavate the site
06:14they found something that defied explanation
06:19it would completely overturn our understanding of the past
06:24the chief archaeologist shannon fraser has joined me at the site to tell me what she discovered
06:33the
06:34they were a whole long line of quite big pits really quite deep and quite broad
06:40running along the landscape in a more or less straight line with a kind of a kink at one end
06:45different sizes different shapes but all really quite quite big
06:49and how old were they well they were very very much older than any of us possibly expected
06:55it was a real sits down in your seat moment when we got the radiocarbon dates back
06:59because there were a range of them starting really about 10 000 years ago and running through
07:06the next thousand years or so which put that right in really the beginning of the period when people
07:13are coming back into scotland after the retreat of the ice so that was really surprising and exciting
07:18and what do you think these pits were for
07:21well looking at the dating evidence and the archaeological evidence what we could see was
07:27happening was that people over an incredibly long period of time were coming and digging these big
07:32pits in most of them they were then placing the ashes of fires very carefully in the bottom
07:39and then they were moving around them and the soil starts to just come back in and then nothing then
07:45they go away and the vegetation starts to grow and then they come back and they do similar things and
07:50this process is going on for literally 1500 years so thinking about that we came to the conclusion that
07:57what's probably happening here is a ceremonial site that people are coming to meeting reaffirming bonds
08:05of friendship that sort of thing probably tying the communities into the land and belonging and well-being
08:10um at those specific times of year that's what we think may be happening and you never would have
08:15found if it hadn't been for this photograph but having for that photograph that was the only time
08:18that the site ever showed up yeah and so without that photograph we wouldn't be here today no
08:27but the story doesn't stop there the mystery of the warren field pits has caught the imagination of many
08:35academics and a number of intriguing theories have been proposed one team has come up with a tantalizing
08:42possibility that here in what's now an empty field in aberdeenshire the very concept of time was invented
08:57news of the excavation reached professor vince gaffney who at the time was working at stonehenge
09:03in that time when he discovered that the central pit lined up with sunrise on the midwinter solstice
09:09he put together a team to find out more
09:16we realized that it was pointing towards the slug valley pass and 10 000 years ago this pass would
09:26have had the sun rising through it on the midwinter solstice so it suggested straight away
09:31that we were we were looking at a monument with some sort of astronomic alignment and this is very
09:38very very very rare for hunter gatherers to have that sort of concern with astronomic events
09:47while the central pit lined up with the midwinter sun what did the other 11 do vince had a theory
09:58the pits themselves may be associated with a reflection of the phases of the moon going through
10:06from waxing gibbous full and into the waning and a cycle
10:14vince believes these 12 pits might symbolize the 12 lunar months
10:20while their varying sizes from small to large and back to small represent the waxing and waning of the moon
10:33they were inscribing their notion of the passage of the moon in in the land in order to to have
10:40some form of tracking time there is nothing comparable in northwest europe that i that we can
10:47see at the moment so in some senses the a concept of time emerged here
10:57vince's theory remains open to fierce debate but what we do know is that for 10 000 years this area
11:05has
11:06always been a magnet for people and for the last 700 it's been home to the burnet family
11:16every summer hundreds of burnet descendants from around the world return to scotland
11:22to celebrate the sense of belonging that all of them share
11:32events like these clan gatherings with all their celebration and sentimentality are still just about
11:39a simple communion with place they're about understanding who you are and where you're from
11:45and they're about why perhaps without knowing you always feel compelled to keep coming back
11:56the accidental discovery of the mysterious pits at carathis castle showed us just how much we can
12:02learn about our ancient past from the air thanks to that drought of 1976 and a camera poking out of
12:11an
12:11airplane window we were briefly fleetingly able to see further back in time than we'd ever seen before
12:19so much more of ancient scotland was just waiting to be uncovered
12:37the precious photograph of the carathis castle pits is stored here in the vaults of historic environment
12:43scotland and edinburgh it's where the national collection of aerial photography is held and
12:48it's where i work researching and uncovering its secrets
12:54millions of aerial images can be found here and every one a potential clue to our rich history
13:02it seems extraordinary looking back now but till recently scotland's past was largely neglected
13:10in the late 19th century there were only 21 legally protected ancient sites and monuments in scotland
13:17it was a tiny list made up of a few stone circles some carved stones a handful of ruined towers
13:25and a
13:25couple of prehistoric tombs there wasn't even a castle
13:31that tiny list has grown to nearly 10 000 protected sites today
13:37and that's thanks to the father of aerial archaeology who kick-started the quest to uncover scotland's lost history
13:51osbert guy stanhope crawford was an observer for the royal flying corps during the first world war
13:59as the battles raged in the trenches below he saw through the bloody present to the ancient past
14:07saw how the battlefields beneath had once been shaped by prehistoric farmers and roman settlements
14:18in 1920 crawford became the ordnance survey's first ever archaeologist here he is dressed in a suit and
14:27wearing a clothing waistcoat trousers rolled up sporting his old flying helmet and furry mittens
14:35his only mode of transport his trusty bike it's a strong look
14:45throughout the 1930s he pedaled around scotland bags hanging from the handlebars
14:51maps wrapped around the crossbar
14:53and I suspect he had shorter legs than me.
15:01He worked and lived like this
15:03riding from site to site
15:05sometimes on the road for a month or more at a time.
15:08He brought the same urgency to his job
15:10as he had to his wartime observation work.
15:13He saw it as equally important.
15:16He once boasted he cycled 72 miles
15:18from Stonehaven to Blairgowrie
15:20in a single day.
15:24But Crawford's bike and his short legs
15:27had their limitations.
15:29He wanted to explore more.
15:31To see more.
15:33And Crawford knew
15:34the only way to do this
15:36was from the air.
15:41In the summer of 1939
15:43he requested permission
15:45to conduct an aerial survey.
15:48His bosses refused
15:50and suggested he take a taxi instead.
15:54But Crawford was stubborn
15:56and paid for the airplane himself.
16:03The owner of this beautiful vintage tiger moth
16:06is William McCannis
16:09and he's offered to fly
16:10part of the route
16:11that Crawford flew in 1939.
16:14So overalls will stop you
16:15from snagging anything
16:16and then this is a nice warm
16:17urban jacket
16:18which right now
16:20will make you feel
16:20really hot and warm
16:22but once you're in the air
16:23you'll be really grateful for it.
16:25When does this jacket date from?
16:27World War II.
16:29It's a genuine article.
16:31Now the helmet
16:32or the cloth helmet here
16:33you just sort of
16:34duck your head forward.
16:36That's it.
16:38And it does restrict
16:39your view a bit
16:40so if you want to
16:41you can always then
16:42just put it back
16:42on top of your head.
16:43Perfect.
16:44Yeah.
16:44Should we go?
16:45Yes.
16:49This isn't really
16:50for nervous flyers.
16:53There's not even a door.
16:59At least there's a seatbelt
17:00and I get to sit in the front.
17:06The starting method
17:07looks interesting
17:10but I've got every confidence
17:12in William.
17:13At least I think I do.
17:25And if you're thinking
17:26this looks precarious
17:27it feels it.
17:31Okay.
17:32Here we go.
17:34There's no turning back now.
17:50Well, we're up now.
17:52And do you know what?
17:53I'm actually starting
17:54to enjoy myself.
17:56In fact,
17:57this is amazing.
18:04The original trip
18:05above the Scottish lowlands
18:07cost Crawford 27 pounds.
18:10That's around 1,000 pounds
18:12in today's money.
18:16But it was worth
18:17every penny.
18:21Crawford became
18:22the Sherlock Holmes
18:23of the skies.
18:24It felt like the future.
18:28Technology revealing
18:29how the living
18:30share the land
18:31with the dead.
18:34how ghosts are
18:35in a sense
18:36all around us
18:37all of the time.
18:41But of all the peoples
18:43that haunted
18:44this landscape
18:45it was the Romans
18:46that fascinated
18:47Crawford the most.
18:55Crawford's route
18:55took him over
18:56the faint remains
18:57of one of the great
18:58frontiers of the world.
19:02The Antonine Wall
19:03was built
19:03in the mid-second
19:05century AD.
19:06Named after
19:07the Emperor Antoninus
19:09Pius
19:09it snaked
19:10between the Clyde
19:11and Forth estuaries.
19:13North of the wall
19:14the territories
19:15of the barbarous
19:16Caledonians began.
19:21This section
19:23just west of Falkirk
19:24is a fractured line
19:26of humps
19:26and ditches.
19:28running around
19:29housing estates
19:30through back gardens
19:32and under power lines.
19:40Back in the 1930s
19:42historians thought
19:43that Highland Scotland
19:44had remained
19:45mostly unconquered
19:47that the Romans
19:48hardly set foot
19:49beyond the central belt.
19:52The only discoveries
19:53beyond it
19:54had been a handful
19:55of impressive
19:56outposts
19:57like Ardagh Fort
19:58near Braco
19:59built to secure
20:01the Lowland Conquest.
20:05But during the summer
20:06of 1939
20:07as Crawford flew north
20:09into Perthshire
20:11he discovered
20:12dramatic new evidence
20:13of Roman sites
20:14including roads
20:16forts
20:17and camps.
20:19A discovery
20:21that would rewrite
20:22fight our understanding
20:23of the Romans
20:24in Scotland.
20:26How many more
20:28camps and forts
20:29lay hidden
20:30and how far north
20:32did the Romans
20:32actually go?
20:35These questions
20:36would have to wait.
20:38One month later
20:40Britain
20:40declared war
20:42on Germany.
20:58In 1946
21:00Crawford retired.
21:02Into the driving seat
21:03stepped this man.
21:06John Kenneth
21:08Sinclair
21:08St. Joseph
21:09spent his war
21:10as a spy
21:11in the sky
21:12interpreting
21:13aerial images
21:14from military
21:14intelligence.
21:17St. Joseph
21:18proved to be
21:19a genius
21:20at detecting
21:20enemy movements
21:21from photographs.
21:23Skills he would use
21:24after the war
21:25to study great
21:26military campaigns
21:28not of the present
21:29but of the past.
21:32He was obsessed
21:33by the unanswered
21:34questions
21:34about Roman
21:35Scotland.
21:37St. Joseph
21:38doggedly set out
21:39on the trail
21:40of the Imperial
21:41Army
21:41chasing the crop
21:43marks of military
21:44camps further
21:45and further
21:45northwards.
21:46What he discovered
21:48astounded him.
21:52His aerial photographs
21:54showed up lines
21:55and geometric shapes
21:57in field
21:58after field
22:00like giant
22:01boot prints
22:02of a brutal
22:03ancient war machine
22:04that scarred
22:05the landscape.
22:06Roman
22:07marching camps
22:10St. Joseph
22:11discovered
22:12a staggering
22:12130 of them.
22:15He'd revealed
22:16the scale
22:17of the Roman
22:18invasion
22:18and proved
22:19that the Roman
22:20campaign
22:20went further
22:22north of the
22:23Antonine Wall
22:24than anyone
22:25had previously
22:26thought.
22:28These were
22:29temporary
22:30marching camps
22:31for an army
22:32of thousands
22:33of soldiers
22:34on the move.
22:36running from
22:37Perthshire
22:37through Angus
22:38to Aberdeenshire
22:39and Murray
22:40strung out
22:41in a line
22:42the camps
22:43appeared
22:43like a giant
22:45signpost
22:45in the landscape.
22:51St. Joseph
22:52knew he was
22:52on to something.
22:54There was a
22:55fabled story
22:56of a titanic
22:57Roman victory
22:58over the
22:59Caledonian tribes
23:00the Battle
23:01of Mons
23:02Graupius.
23:04It's one of the
23:05great mysteries
23:06of history
23:06because no one
23:07knew where the
23:08battle had taken
23:09place.
23:10Could this line
23:11of camps
23:12lead St. Joseph
23:13to the biggest
23:14prize of all
23:15the fabled
23:16battlefield
23:17itself?
23:20One camp
23:21in particular
23:22caught St. Joseph's
23:23eye.
23:24It was hard
23:24to miss
23:25the camp
23:26was one of the
23:26biggest ever
23:27found in Britain.
23:30It lies
23:31under the
23:32small
23:32quiet town
23:33of Kintour
23:34on the main road
23:35between Aberdeen
23:36and Inverness.
23:39St. Joseph
23:40believed the camp
23:41might hold the
23:42key to Mons
23:43Graupius
23:43and was the
23:44base of the
23:45Roman legions
23:46that fought
23:47the epic battle.
23:50Sprawling
23:51housing estates
23:52now cover the
23:53site
23:53and standing
23:54on the southern
23:55entrance gate
23:56is Kintour's
23:57school.
24:05It's hard
24:06to believe
24:06that where
24:07I'm standing
24:07was once
24:08a Roman
24:08military camp.
24:10When St. Joseph
24:11photographed
24:11this site
24:12in 1949
24:13his pictures
24:14showed the
24:15sheer
24:15enormous
24:15scale
24:16of it.
24:17It was a
24:17sort of
24:18Caledonian
24:18camp
24:19bastion
24:20temporary
24:20home
24:21to
24:21thousands
24:21of men
24:22and the
24:23front line
24:23in a
24:24war
24:24against
24:25marauding
24:25Picts.
24:28Hi Murray.
24:29Yeah, hi.
24:30How are you doing?
24:31Good to see you.
24:31What a lovely day.
24:32Yeah.
24:32Dr. Murray Cook
24:33led the archaeological
24:35dig of the camp
24:36back in 2002.
24:40So Murray, you've
24:41brought a map with
24:42you that shows how
24:43the enormous scale
24:44of the Roman camp
24:46overlapped onto
24:47the modern town of
24:48Kintour.
24:48Oh yeah, I mean
24:49the camp
24:50which is a fairly
24:51standard one
24:51is 44 hectares
24:53in size
24:53and we are
24:55standing
24:57just here
24:58there's an
24:59entrance here
24:59under the
25:00motorway
25:01there's an
25:01unexcavated
25:02entrance here
25:02the whole camp
25:04is orientated
25:05north
25:05because that's
25:06the attack
25:06I mean
25:07it's massive
25:08it's 44 hectares
25:09I mean
25:10we're in a
25:10football pitch
25:11imagine at least
25:1260 of these
25:13and you begin
25:14to come close
25:14to the scale
25:1560 times
25:17this area
25:17completely taken
25:19over by
25:20marching camps
25:20by soldiers
25:22by equipment
25:23by horses
25:24and don't forget
25:26a big area
25:26in the middle
25:27for slaves
25:31This is invasion
25:32this is
25:33making Kintour
25:35Scotland
25:36part of the
25:37empire
25:37ruled from Rome
25:38they're here
25:39to go as far
25:41probably as Elgin
25:42as far as
25:43the Murray Firth
25:44to basically
25:45conquer
25:45to secure
25:47to form
25:48treaties
25:48with the
25:49local tribes
25:50and to make
25:50sure that they
25:51bow the knee
25:52to Rome
25:57Although large
25:58the layout
25:59of the camp
25:59was fairly
26:00standardised
26:01on the perimeter
26:03under Kintour
26:04school
26:04were dug
26:05the outer
26:06ditches
26:10on top of the
26:11earthen ramparts
26:12a palisade
26:13was constructed
26:14by binding
26:15together wooden
26:16stakes that were
26:17carried by each
26:18legionary
26:21There were three
26:22entrance gates
26:23and just by the
26:24side of what's
26:25now the A96
26:26a large watchtower
26:31The area within
26:32the camp
26:33was subdivided
26:34into streets
26:35along which
26:36soldiers pitched
26:37their tents
26:38and dug latrines
26:40and in the centre
26:41of the camp
26:42an area
26:42where slaves
26:43were held
26:44occupied today
26:46by the houses
26:47on Henderson
26:48Drive
26:52When Murray Cook
26:53excavated Kintour
26:55the team
26:56made some
26:56surprising discoveries
26:59When we dug here
27:01we found more
27:02bread ovens
27:02than had ever
27:03been found
27:03in Roman Britain
27:04So these ovens
27:05they're all
27:06different sizes
27:06they're different
27:07techniques
27:08they reflect
27:08the traditions
27:09the ethnicity
27:10of this army
27:11that's coming
27:12on foot
27:13step by step
27:15by step
27:15day after day
27:16from the south
27:17to conquest
27:18So all these
27:19traditions
27:20all these
27:20international voices
27:21different skin
27:23hues
27:23different religions
27:24all descending
27:25on this location
27:26Different pizza toppings
27:27Yeah
27:29Syrian
27:30Iranian
27:31Italian
27:32you name it
27:33they were here
27:33No Hawaiian
27:34No Hawaiian
27:36Could these ovens
27:37have been
27:38the ones
27:38that fed the men
27:39who marched
27:40to Mons Graupius
27:41Well I would say
27:43the people
27:43that ate that bread
27:44fought at Mons Graupius
27:46but I think
27:47Mons Graupius
27:47is that way
27:50Murray thinks
27:51St Joseph
27:51got it wrong
27:52and that Mons Graupius
27:54lies a hundred miles south
27:57That's because
27:58a Roman source
27:59described a fort
28:00near Dunning
28:01in Perthshire
28:02called Victoria
28:03in honour
28:04of the decisive
28:05Roman victory
28:08We may never know
28:09the actual location
28:10of Mons Graupius
28:12but it's extraordinary
28:13to think
28:13the vast camp
28:14that once stood here
28:16was home
28:17to the Roman legions
28:18who fought
28:19this legendary battle
28:23I'm curious
28:24to find out
28:24if the local people
28:25of Kintor
28:26are aware
28:27of their Roman roots
28:29Do you realise
28:30that the village
28:31of Kintor
28:31sits on the site
28:32of a 2,000 year old
28:33Roman camp?
28:35No
28:35I've never known that
28:37And beneath your feet
28:38were a huge collection
28:40of pizza ovens
28:42Do you realise
28:43that where you've
28:44just been riding
28:44your bike across
28:45was once a massive
28:47Roman military
28:48camp
28:48No
28:52You can't blame them
28:53for not knowing
28:56When the Romans
28:57retreated south
28:58in the second half
28:59of the second century
29:00they took anything
29:02of value with them
29:03leaving only
29:05their bread ovens
29:08The people of Kintor
29:10would have to wait
29:11a long, long time
29:12before pizza
29:13was back on the menu
29:17About 1800 years
29:19to be exact
29:28With his aerial photographs
29:30Kenneth St. Joseph
29:32had revealed
29:33hundreds of lost
29:34ancient structures
29:35buried beneath the landscape
29:37But in the early 1950s
29:40these sites
29:41came very close
29:42to being bulldozed
29:44from history
29:46After the experience
29:48of wartime rationing
29:49the government
29:50became obsessed
29:51with achieving
29:52self-sufficiency
29:54and Scotland
29:56looked like the place
29:57to do it
29:57Huge areas of the country
30:00were to go under the plough
30:02Massive forests
30:03were to be planted
30:05And valleys flooded
30:07for hydroelectric power
30:12The pace and scale
30:13of change
30:14spurred one man
30:15into action
30:16Kenneth Stier
30:18had returned
30:18from the war
30:19to his post
30:20as archaeologist
30:21for Scotland's
30:21national collection
30:22He was convinced
30:24that there were
30:25thousands of monuments
30:26even tens of thousands
30:28that were still unknown
30:29But how was
30:30his poorly funded team
30:32of four men
30:33and one woman
30:33possibly going to save them?
30:38Stier knew
30:39he had to persuade
30:40the government
30:41that these ancient monuments
30:42were worth preserving
30:44and he knew
30:45just where to start looking
30:48The Anson takes off
30:49on a mission
30:50that is part of
30:51a vast programme
30:51of photomapping
30:52In this plane
30:53the aerial surveyor's task
30:54is to help record
30:55the changed face of Britain
30:58Between 1944
30:59and 1950
31:01the RAF
31:02had carried out
31:03an aerial photographic survey
31:04of all of Britain
31:06called Operation Review
31:08it saw some 500 flights
31:10above Scotland
31:11taking nearly 300,000 pictures
31:14The photographs
31:16are now stored here
31:18at Scotland's national collection
31:20of aerial photography
31:25What's remarkable
31:27about these images
31:28is that they're photographed
31:29in 3D
31:30to help map makers
31:32identify contours
31:33in the land
31:36But to see them in 3D
31:38you need a stereoscopic viewer
31:44This is a stereoscope
31:46It's a device
31:48that's used to turn 2D
31:49into 3D
31:50What you need
31:51are two images
31:52of the same thing
31:53but taken from
31:54slightly different angles
31:55I look through
31:57the stereoscope viewer
31:58and I try
31:59to make the features
32:00on the images overlap
32:04It's weird at first
32:06but then all of a sudden
32:082 becomes 1
32:09Your brain is tricked
32:12into seeing 3 dimensions
32:15By viewing the landscape
32:17in 3D from above
32:19Stier's team spotted
32:21hundreds of possible
32:22undiscovered ancient sites
32:25The sheer volume of fines
32:27sparked Stier
32:28into announcing
32:29an emergency survey
32:31A rapid and systematic attempt
32:34to map and measure
32:35Scotland's threatened heritage
32:41Sites only seen in photographs
32:43would now have to be
32:44investigated in person
32:46Driving an ex-army jeep
32:48the team headed out
32:49into the Scottish countryside
32:54By the summer of 1950
32:56the emergency survey
32:57was well underway
33:00Sites were visited
33:01in small teams
33:02and work that would normally
33:04take days
33:05was undertaken
33:06in hours
33:07Think speed dating
33:09for ancient monuments
33:11But sometimes
33:12they were already too late
33:16An ancient fort
33:18at Darkslaw
33:19in Lammermure Hills
33:20photographed in
33:211928
33:22was gone
33:23completely ploughed out
33:25by farming
33:29Elsewhere
33:29archaeology
33:30was quite literally
33:32in the firing line
33:33Chambered cairns
33:35made top targets
33:36for artillery practice
33:38It was a race
33:39against time
33:40But in the remoter places
33:43on lonely hilltops
33:44earmarked by the government
33:46as marginal land
33:47Sites had been spared
33:49the plough
33:50or the bulldozer
33:54This is one of them
33:55A great Iron Age hillfort
33:57near Dunns
33:59built 3000 years ago
34:04I've come here
34:05with archaeologists
34:07George Geddes
34:08and Adam Welfare
34:09to recreate the survey
34:10to recreate the survey
34:11using the very same equipment
34:12from the 1950s
34:15The first part of it
34:16is just a sheet of cartridge paper
34:18which is what they would have used
34:19at the time
34:20Not very weatherproof
34:23And the next crucial thing
34:24we need is a little pin
34:26So everything we measure
34:27on the drawing
34:28will be done
34:30in relation to that pin
34:31So now in order to actually
34:33make our drawing
34:34we use two items of equipment
34:36The first one is this
34:37thing called an alidade
34:39This is from about 1950
34:42And the second thing is our tape
34:52Tape measures
34:53pencils
34:53rulers
34:54rods
34:55were all used to measure
34:57the ancient structure
35:02It might not look much
35:04but sites like this
35:06are often the only physical evidence
35:08of our prehistoric past
35:10Old stones
35:12humps and bumps in the landscape
35:14were the crumbling clues
35:16to who we once were
35:20Kenneth Steer
35:21filled his notebooks
35:23with handwritten
35:24detailed descriptions
35:25of what the team found
35:27and they produced
35:28meticulously measured drawings
35:30like this one
35:32You can see the detail here
35:34the wonderful sense you get
35:36of both accuracy
35:38and artistry
35:39These were fast-paced
35:42functional drawings
35:43but to me anyway
35:44they retain a unique sense
35:46of skill and beauty
35:48They're a tiny bridge
35:50between the present
35:51and the past
35:52a kind of
35:53conversation
35:54with our ancestors
35:57But while the drawings
35:59were incredibly detailed
36:01they're no substitute
36:03for viewing this place
36:04from above
36:07It's only when you look down
36:08at the scale of this earthwork
36:10and imagine the houses
36:12that once stood here
36:13the tendrils of wood smoke
36:16drifting into the air
36:17and the high timber walls
36:19and the earthen ramparts
36:21that you realise
36:23forests like these
36:24were all about demonstrating
36:25power
36:26about holding dominion
36:28over the surrounding
36:29countryside
36:33These hill forts were
36:34in a sense
36:35sowing the seeds
36:36of their own destruction
36:38They were the ones
36:38that first stamped
36:40the land with ownership
36:41overseeing the parceling up
36:43of people
36:44fields
36:45livestock
36:46They began the creation
36:47of the modern world
36:48a world where
36:49everywhere is owned
36:50by someone
36:57Far from the past
36:58being an empty
36:59and mysterious place
37:00the emergency survey
37:02began to reveal
37:03a landscape
37:04bustling with people
37:05living
37:07working
37:07and defending
37:09their way of life
37:11without the work of
37:12Steer and his team
37:13the post-war drive
37:15for self-sufficiency
37:16would have erased
37:18the lives
37:18and homes
37:19of our ancient ancestors
37:21from history
37:45in the past
37:46in the past
37:4660 years on
37:47the national collection
37:49of aerial photography
37:50uses a plane
37:51rather than
37:52an ex-army jeep
37:54the tools and transport
37:56have changed
37:57but the job
37:58remains the same
38:02I'm heading out to sea
38:04with the aerial survey
38:05team
38:05they're on the lookout
38:07for the indelible marks
38:09left on Scotland's coasts
38:10by our ancestors
38:14since the national collection
38:16started flying
38:17thousands of new coastal
38:19archeological sites
38:20have been discovered
38:21the reason there are so many
38:23is because in the Scotland
38:24of old
38:24it wasn't roads
38:26that link communities
38:26it was the wide open
38:28super highway
38:29of the sea
38:38overshadowed by the brooding
38:39and dramatic
38:40Kulin Mountains
38:41the southern tip
38:42of the Isle of Skye
38:44is incredibly beautiful
38:46it's one of my favourite spots
38:51this is the ruined
38:53peninsula with its tiny loch
38:55to most visitors
38:57it looks remote
38:58and lonely
38:59home only to seabirds
39:02and seals
39:08but from above
39:09is revealed
39:11a landscape
39:12with an intriguing past
39:14tumble down walls
39:18ancient dwellings
39:22and up on the outcrop
39:24a hill fort
39:27all clues
39:28to a time
39:29when the peninsula
39:29was a vibrant hub
39:31of human activity
39:34so who were the people
39:35who lived here
39:36and what brought them
39:37to this remote place
39:39around 20 years ago
39:41Ruin Dunin's mysterious past
39:44began to be uncovered
39:45when an extraordinary
39:47piece of evidence
39:47came to light
39:54OK
39:55I know
39:56it doesn't look much
39:57but to people
39:59who build boats
39:59this is a crossbeam
40:01and it connects the hull
40:02to the floor timbers
40:04what makes this one
40:06so special
40:06is that it once belonged
40:08to a nearly 1,000 year old
40:10four oared
40:11seagoing boat
40:13it was discovered
40:14in shallow waters
40:15in a little loch
40:16at the Ruin Dunin Peninsula
40:21what got archaeologists excited
40:23were the intriguing questions
40:25this bit of wood posed
40:29who built it
40:30and why was a seagoing boat
40:32abandoned
40:33in a landlocked
40:34shallow loch
40:37the best way to find out
40:39is to take a trip there myself
40:44my guide
40:45is maritime archaeologist
40:47Dr Colin Martin
40:50following the discovery
40:51of the wooden crossbeam
40:52he brought a team of experts
40:54to carry out a survey
40:56of the peninsula
41:01so Colin
41:01roughly where was the fragment
41:03of the boat discovered?
41:05well it was found
41:05right over on the other side
41:07of the loch there
41:07by a local man
41:09the timber was actually sticking out
41:11and he raised it
41:12how old was it?
41:13well some time later
41:14it was radiocarbon tested
41:16and it came to around 1100 AD
41:19smack in the middle
41:21of the Norse period
41:22so nearly a thousand years old
41:23nearly a thousand years old
41:24nearly a thousand years old
41:25let's go see more
41:25let's do that
41:31for centuries
41:32tales from local folklore
41:34told how the peninsula
41:36was once home to the Vikings
41:38these tales had been dismissed
41:40by historians
41:41but when the team arrived
41:43they were excited
41:44to find some intriguing
41:45man-made features
41:49the most obvious feature
41:51is this structure
41:52which links the approach
41:55to the dune
41:55and the fort on the headland
41:57and the loch
41:58that we see out here
41:59so this obviously
42:00was our first focus
42:01of interest
42:03you later found
42:04that the view from above
42:05was instrumental
42:06to your interpretation
42:07of this site
42:08absolutely it was
42:09we used a drone
42:11to get much more detailed
42:13information
42:14and accurate surveys
42:16of the very complex
42:18rubble of stones
42:20that are lying all over the place
42:22which from ground level
42:23appear really beyond interpretation
42:32while times and technology
42:34have changed
42:35the job of surveying
42:36is the same
42:37the drone took hundreds of pictures
42:40and then a computer
42:42worked out the measurements
42:43right down to the size
42:45of individual stones
42:51the pictures were processed
42:53to create a top-down vertical image
42:56of the entire site
42:57what was revealed
43:00exceeded everyone's expectations
43:03an engineering marvel
43:05that had been lost
43:06for centuries
43:08a Viking dockyard
43:14Colin how did it feel
43:15to work on a site like this?
43:17it was very exciting
43:18because as we gradually
43:20pieced together the information
43:22actually the hard evidence
43:23of what was there
43:24we began to see
43:26how this whole place functioned
43:28and we began to get a feel
43:30for the people
43:30who were part of it
43:34from above
43:35the layout of the dockyard
43:37became clear
43:37the natural stream
43:39that ran from the loch
43:41to the sea
43:41was widened
43:42and stone walls built
43:44to form a canal
43:53at the harbour entrance
43:55two noosts
43:56or dry docks
43:57were built
43:57where boats were pulled up
43:59and repaired
44:01servicing the dry docks
44:03were some small buildings
44:04probably storehouses
44:06or living quarters
44:14half way along the canal
44:16a sluice gate
44:17used to control the water levels
44:19between the loch
44:20and the sea
44:27then at the end of the canal
44:29there are two keys
44:30in a large turf covered building
44:39for centuries
44:40the vikings
44:42who built the dockyard
44:43dominated this region
44:44controlled the local seaways
44:47lords
44:48of all they surveyed
44:51it's the sort of place
44:53that brings the past
44:53really to life isn't it
44:55absolutely
44:55and could you imagine
44:56what it must have been like
44:57for them to live and work here
45:00I think it would have been
45:01a hard life
45:02a life that demanded
45:04a lot of skill
45:05in various ways
45:07and also
45:08the knowledge
45:09that if you didn't
45:10apply your skill properly
45:11you were probably
45:12going to be dead
45:12so it was
45:14much more extreme
45:15and the prices for failure
45:17were much greater
45:18and I think that
45:19probably had an effect
45:20on the character
45:21of the people
45:21Would you have liked
45:22to have worked here?
45:23No
45:24I'm too soft and modern
45:32The Viking dockyard
45:34has long since been abandoned
45:36and nature has reclaimed it
45:41Rather than take
45:43the motor launch
45:43we arrived in
45:45Colin and I
45:45are taking a more authentic
45:47form of transport
45:48home
45:50a wooden rowing boat
45:52similar to the one
45:53recovered from the loch
45:54a thousand years ago
45:58I suspect
46:00the Viking workers
46:01who once laboured here
46:03would approve
46:13Every year since 1976
46:15Scotland's national collection
46:18of aerial photography
46:19has been flying
46:20all over the country
46:21in search of our history
46:23and as the years passed
46:25much more has been discovered
46:27than the activities
46:28of Roman legions
46:29or Viking raiders
46:32Entirely new aspects
46:34of Scotland's history
46:35began to appear
46:36in the most unexpected
46:38of places
46:42Places such as
46:43Castle Kennedy
46:44in Dumfriesen Galloway
46:46a romantic
46:47crumbling ruin today
46:48but once home
46:50to Sir John Dalrymple
46:51the second Earl of Stare
46:53the second Earl of Stare
46:54a military man
46:55with a passion
46:56for gardening
47:06In 1984
47:06a national collection
47:08archaeologist
47:09was flying above
47:10the picturesque ruin
47:12of the former Earl's home
47:15and in the flat empty lawns
47:18in front of the old castle
47:19she photographed
47:20a series of puzzling patterns
47:23and lines
47:23like an old plan
47:25etched into the modern landscape
47:29pathways
47:30steps
47:32and a mysterious circular feature
47:34set at one end
47:37the archaeologist
47:38the archaeologist
47:39was Marilyn Brown
47:40and the discovery
47:41would come to dominate
47:43her work
47:43for the next 30 years
47:47It was a remarkably dry year
47:491984 in Galloway
47:51and I had been carrying out
47:53aerial survey
47:53looking for
47:55the remains of
47:56Neolithic
47:57Bronze Age
47:58Roman
47:59Iron Age
48:00and later settlement
48:01in this area
48:03but
48:04coming across
48:06Castle Kennedy
48:06I saw
48:08to my surprise
48:09lines
48:10terraces
48:11possibly the remains
48:13of staircases
48:14So in effect
48:15this was a
48:16ghost garden
48:17emerging out of the landscape
48:18Yes it was
48:23What Marilyn Brown
48:24had photographed
48:25were the fading
48:27skeletal bones
48:28of a beautiful
48:29ornamental garden
48:30typical
48:31of the Stuart
48:32period
48:35There's very little
48:36evidence
48:37of what it used
48:38to look like
48:39but there are
48:40living clues
48:41if you know
48:42what to look for
48:44It's a herb
48:45called a
48:46greater celadine
48:47and what's so special
48:48about it
48:49is that its seed
48:50is over
48:51300 years old
48:52It was buried
48:53deep
48:53and dug up
48:54by Castle Kennedy's
48:56head gardener
48:56It's related
48:57if plants
48:58can be related
48:59to the old
49:01plants
49:02that grew here
49:02over three centuries
49:04ago
49:04a living ghost
49:10Another clue
49:11was left
49:12by General William Roy
49:13who made maps
49:14of Scotland
49:15in the aftermath
49:16of the Second
49:17Jacobite Rebellion
49:20His drawing
49:21of Castle Kennedy
49:22was so detailed
49:23that it revealed
49:24the layout
49:25of pathways
49:26borders
49:27plants
49:28and the clear
49:29outline
49:30of a fish pond
49:31at the end
49:32of the garden
49:34The ghostly
49:36crop marks
49:37photographed
49:37by Marilyn
49:38had revealed
49:39a moment in time
49:40when gardens
49:41were planned
49:42along formal lines
49:45regimented
49:46regimented
49:46in strict
49:47geometric shapes
49:50gardens
49:50like this
49:51were very
49:51fashionable
49:52in the 17th century
49:54They give us
49:55an insight
49:56into the mindset
49:57of the past
49:58Nature
49:59wasn't there
50:00to be enjoyed
50:01but controlled
50:02and ordered
50:09The garden
50:10was Dalrymple's
50:11pride and joy
50:12but then he did
50:13something
50:14rather unexpected
50:15He destroyed it
50:17The reason
50:18for this rash
50:19decision
50:20is to be found
50:21in the crumbling
50:22ruins
50:23of Castle Kennedy
50:25In 1716
50:27Sir John returned
50:28from Paris
50:29where he'd been working
50:30as Britain's ambassador
50:31to the court
50:31of Louis XV
50:32he found
50:33a smouldering shell
50:35One of his maids
50:36had set the building
50:37alight
50:38trying to dry bedding
50:39too close to an open
50:40hearth
50:41and the fire
50:42had gutted the place
50:46But Dalrymple
50:47didn't see a disaster
50:49rather
50:50an opportunity
50:52In the age of
50:53Georgian Britain
50:54tastes
50:55were changing
50:57Nature
50:58was now a thing
50:59to be celebrated
51:00and formal gardens
51:02were becoming
51:02old-fashioned
51:03Instead
51:05landowners
51:06began to create
51:07gardens
51:08that romanticised
51:09wilderness
51:12So Dalrymple
51:13created a magnificent
51:14new garden
51:15with the ruined castle
51:17as its centrepiece
51:19and the
51:20Right, here we are
51:21So where are we now?
51:22We're in the central
51:23part of the building
51:24where all the main
51:25living areas
51:26would have been
51:27Lady Emily Steyer
51:29has researched
51:29the history
51:30of Dalrymple's garden
51:31and she and her
51:32husband
51:33are the current custodians
51:36He was a very creative
51:38He was a very creative
51:38individual
51:38He had an extraordinary
51:39career as a soldier
51:41as a politician
51:41but had a fallow period
51:43and in those years
51:44he devoted himself
51:46to improving
51:47this place
51:48He was very much
51:49inspired by Versailles
51:50and the other gardens
51:51that he had seen
51:52in France
51:52and he devoted
51:54his time and energy
51:55to creating
51:56the landscape
51:56as it is
51:57He made use of the troops
51:59that were stationed nearby
52:00and they created
52:01the extraordinary
52:02earthworks
52:03created the wool gardens
52:04and all that they
52:06could produce
52:09In the days of picks,
52:11shovels, horses
52:12and carts
52:13the new garden
52:14was a massive undertaking
52:17Two whole regiments
52:18were enlisted
52:19for the back-breaking task
52:21The work took
52:22around 15 years
52:23and involved the movement
52:25of huge amounts of air
52:26to create these banks
52:28and terraces
52:28terraces
52:29that were designed
52:30specifically
52:31to view the new gardens
52:33from above
52:36From up here
52:38visitors could admire
52:39the new
52:40perfectly circular
52:41fish pond
52:42substantially bigger
52:43than the last one
52:47Behind the ruins of the castle
52:49they could stroll
52:50through a walled garden
52:51planted with exotic flowers
52:53herbs
52:54and fruit trees
52:56Either side of the gardens
52:58they could gaze across
52:59two huge bodies
53:01of water
53:01The white loch
53:03and the black loch
53:05The two joined together
53:07by a new canal
53:11The castle Kennedy makeover
53:13was a triumph
53:14but in the process
53:16the old, formal gardens
53:18had been consigned
53:20had been consigned to history
53:22And it's only on hot
53:24summer days
53:24that its bones
53:26could occasionally be
53:27glimpsed
53:28like the ghost
53:29of gardens past
53:41since aerial archaeologists
53:43first took to the skies
53:45while the planes and lenses
53:46have improved
53:47the simple technique
53:48of pointing the camera
53:50out of an open window
53:51hasn't changed
53:55but now
53:56they're armed
53:56with a new device
53:57above the Isle of Arran
53:59state-of-the-art technology
54:02is probing the landscape
54:04in much greater detail
54:05than ever before
54:13By criss-crossing
54:15an area of land
54:16and firing laser beams
54:17down at the earth
54:18echoes are captured
54:20to produce a picture
54:21of the ground
54:22that's accurate
54:23almost to the millimetre
54:27trees
54:28bushes
54:28even forests
54:30are no barrier
54:31to receiving measurements
54:32branches
54:33and undergrowth
54:34are stripped away
54:35to reveal the naked earth
54:45airborne laser scanning
54:46has revolutionised
54:48the job
54:48of aerial archaeologists
54:50like Dave Cowley
54:51of the National Collection
54:55So Dave
54:55can you tell me
54:56what it is
54:57that we're seeing here?
54:58What we're seeing
54:59Jamie is
55:00a digital terrain model
55:02of the whole of Arran
55:03it's captured
55:05the surface topography
55:06goat fell
55:07the craggy north end
55:09the much lower lying
55:11south end
55:11as a digital surface
55:13What does this show us
55:15that perhaps
55:15we've never been able
55:16to see before?
55:18Ah, well
55:19where do I start?
55:21If we have a look
55:22at some of the
55:23existing aerial photography
55:25immediately
55:26we're seeing
55:27a couple of
55:28prehistoric roundhouses
55:30there's a couple of those
55:31fairly clearly
55:32but when we
55:33switch off the photographs
55:34and start to move
55:35towards the
55:36airborne laser scanning
55:38based visualisations
55:39and we can see
55:40the two hut circles
55:41that we've looked at
55:42earlier, the two roundhouses
55:44but what we're seeing
55:45immediately is
55:47that there are
55:48lots and lots
55:49of other examples
55:50and straight away
55:51I can see
55:52you know
55:52ten or twenty new sites
55:54potentially
55:54Oh, absolutely
55:56these little
55:57small agricultural
55:58clearance cans
55:59bits of field boundaries
56:00and so on
56:02this must be
56:03tremendously exciting
56:04to you as an archaeologist
56:05Oh yeah, yeah, no
56:06this is
56:06absolutely the business
56:08this really is
56:09the stuff
56:10of dreams
56:10and it is an absolute
56:11game changer
56:12in terms of being able
56:13to cover
56:15something like
56:15the whole landmass
56:16of Scotland
56:18within my lifetime
56:24stand on Arran
56:25even in its remotest parts
56:27and the chances are
56:29that you can't move
56:30for tripping over
56:31some trace
56:31of human activity
56:34when lasers strip
56:36the landscape bare
56:37you can see
56:38just how much
56:39our interventions
56:40have
56:40from the earliest times
56:43marked
56:43changed
56:44and scarred
56:46our world
56:50at the end of the 19th century
56:52we thought
56:54there were only 21
56:55important ancient sites
56:57across the whole of Scotland
56:59but thanks to the work
57:01of pioneering
57:02aerial archaeologists
57:03that list
57:05has grown into
57:06hundreds of thousands
57:08and we care more
57:09about protecting them
57:10than ever before
57:15and we keep on
57:17building them
57:23here is an aerial photograph
57:25of Edinburgh
57:26and Arthur's seat
57:27taken in 1951
57:30the palace of Holyrood
57:31stands to this day
57:33but the gas works
57:35two breweries
57:37and much of the housing
57:39have all gone
57:40standing in their place
57:42modern apartments
57:44and a new Scottish parliament
57:47a statement
57:48built in steel
57:49glass
57:50and stone
57:52it demonstrates
57:53our ability
57:54to rewrite
57:55our landscape
57:58over the past century
57:59the pace of change
58:01has been incredible
58:02we can see our homes
58:04our cityscapes
58:06our landscapes
58:06change around us
58:08we keep rewriting
58:10our landscapes
58:11we can't stop it
58:12it's
58:13it's in our nature
58:14aerial photography
58:16allows us to follow
58:17the clues
58:18back into the past
58:20to see who we once were
58:21and also
58:23asks the question
58:24what other secrets
58:26are out there
58:26waiting
58:27to be discovered
58:41Fancy a nosy round
58:42some swanky pads
58:43then don't miss Scotland's
58:44Home of the Year
58:45which continues tomorrow
58:46at 8 here on BBC Scotland
58:48then at 10
58:49get the gas and air
58:50at the ready
58:50as we go all
58:51bump birth baby
58:52at 10
58:58the window
58:58where everyone
58:58to easy
58:58to see
58:59do
58:59excellent
58:59see
58:59зд
58:59what are you doing
59:00with the
59:00thing
59:00what
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