ABSTRACT
Scotland occupies a strategic position between the North Sea and the Atlantic. This put it on the frontline during World War I, prompting the construction of coastal defences and airfields, especially on the North Sea coast. In advance of the centenary commemoration of World War I in Scotland, an audit of all known sites relating to the war was undertaken in 2013. Both the audit and examination of aerial imagery have revealed a more extensive system of land defences around military sites, major naval bases, transport systems and urban areas than was previously known. This chapter reviews aspects of World War I features and structures, drawing on both the audit and the Aerofilms collection of photographs taken during the 1920s and 1930s. Aerofilms was set up by former World War I photo-reconnaissance flyers whose skills were honed during their service above the battlefields of the Western Front. The objective of Aerofilms was to produce aerial photographs for commercial benefit but many images include military features, often recorded by accident, that form now sometimes the only surviving pictorial evidence of many of the sites.
