This image is of the Forsinard Flows National Nature Reserve observation tower at Forsinard in the Scottish Highlands. The Flow Country of Caithness and Sutherland, a UNESCO World Heritage site and an RSPB reserve, probably isn’t how people who are unfamiliar with Scotland imagine the Highlands to be, as it is flat, open country without the romantic, craggy, majestic mountains of the Northwest Highlands. However, this part of the country is no less breathtaking.
It is wild, remote, and thinly populated (it wasn’t always that way though—Scottish history tells terrible stories of how communities were cleared from the land to make way for more profitable, four-legged occupants). This place is evocative and emotive, and it moves me. On this photographic trip, I sought to make images that show how the land is now and as it faces the future, and not fall into a misty-eyed and romantic view of the past. The observation tower is modern but seems to complement the astounding wildness of the area.
