There is another Scotland.
Beyond the rolling hills, the mountains and the lochs lies the land of the military - hidden in plain sight.
Tìr an Airm was a four year project that examined the vast stretches of the Scottish landscape used for the training of our armed forces, the testing of new weapons and the development of new battlefield techniques.
A place of contradictions, The Defence Estate is rich in biodiversity, and contains rare plant specimens, with some of the largest tracts of wild land left in the British Isles. It also carries the scars and legacies of many conflicts, rich in archaeology from First World War trenches to the burned out hulks of Cold War era tanks.
Focusing on three sites, Cape Wrath and Tain Air Weapons Range in the North, to Kirkcudbright in the South West, it tells the story of places that many of us have chosen to forget.
The Exhibition
“In documenting the unseen weapon ranges of Scotland, photographer Alex Boyd described these as ‘lunar landscapes’ littered with wreckage and debris, supporting biodiversity but also contaminated and contorted. His project Tìr An Airm, is a startling evocation of the rusting, bewitching relics from the bombing ranges of Cape Wrath to infantry training areas of Kirkcudbright. Pocked crater-covered slopes, abandoned training dummies lying as if dead and thistle-choked tanks are monuments to military endeavours over the last century, staged on moors, grassland and cliff tops.”
- Kat Hill, excerpt from Bothy - Simple Shelter, Harper Reach. 2024.
In 2021 Tir an Airm was exhibited at Stills - Scotland’s Centre for Photography in Edinburgh. Featuring a selection of works from the series, the work of Mhairi Killin RSA was also included in the gallery, placing the remains of a crashed drone in the centre of the gallery. Tir an Airm was selected as The Times exhibition of the week, and received positive reviews in publications such as The Scotsman and Scottish Art News. Following the exhibition at Stills, Tir an Airm was exhibited at Gairloch Museum, a former Cold War era bunker close to Cape Wrath in the North West in Scotland.
