Early in the 20th century, a wooden-framed biplane rises up through a stack of storm clouds, and a heavy glass-plate camera held out of an open cockpit is steadied against a roaring wind. On a spring day in 2009, a small Cessna aircraft banks above the blue waters of the Loch of Stenness and gazes into the ancient heart of an Orcadian stone circle.

The grounds of Drummond Castle near Crieff showcase the best example of a formal terraced garden in Scotland. Begun in 1630, this spectacular piece of decorative landscaping was a forerunner of Enlightenment ideas and remains the focal point for the wide expanse of surrounding parkland.

In May 1941, a lone reconnaissance pilot powers a Spitfire away from Wick’s camouflaged airbase, his mission to hunt the fjords of Norway for the most fearsome battleship in Germany history. At the start of the new millennium, a photographer opens an aeroplane window to a furious rush of air, telescopic lens pointing down at four tall cranes poised over the skeleton of Edinburgh’s emerging parliament building. Separated by time and space, all of these incidents share a common factor, with a camera taken above Scotland, and, as a shutter opens and closes, a moment of time, an event, a people, a landscape frozen for ever.

‘Separated by time and space, all of these incidents share a common factor, with a camera taken above Scotland, and, as a shutter opens and closes, a moment of time, an event, a people, a landscape is frozen forever.’

The National Collection of Aerial Photography is made up of millions of these images, and thanks to a recent publication, ‘Above Scotland’, a selection of these wonderful photographs are brought to us all. With views of Drummond Castle with its formal terraced gardens in the snow to the small bridge with the big reputation – the bridge over the Atlantic at Clachan Seil – this book is filled with amazing images from across the country.

The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCHAMS) holds the national collection of aerial photography and for the first time in one volume the RCHAMS has brought together the finest images from its collection in a wonderful illustration of Scotland’s past, present and future.

The model of a planned landscape, Glencoe village’s property strips establish a small, heavily modified patchwork within the tight confines of the lochs and mountains of the rugged north west Highlands.

Field Facts

Above Scotland: The National Collection of Aerial Photography by David Cowley and James Crawford, RRP £25.

RCAHMS, John Sinclair House, 16 Bernard Terrace, Edinburgh EH8 9NX

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