ALEX BOYD & CAL FLYN

ABOUT THE TALK

The second round of talks began with an event featuring the photographer Alex Boyd and the acclaimed nature writer Cal Flyn. Both have worked extensively on abandoned places in Scotland and beyond. From the MoD’s bombing ranges in the Hebrides to the Ardeer in Ayrshire, these sites have often been used — and sometimes still are — by industry or by the military. They may hold potential for regenerating biodiversity, yet they are also vulnerable to development and greenwashing. At the same time, these sites challenge our expectations of nature which we still value most when it fulfils Victorian criteria of beauty and the picturesque –an ideal derived from the active shaping and forming of landscapes to suit human needs. Often still containing obvious signs and remnants of their past, those places are also sites where different time scales collide. In that context, our speakers will explore questions of energy and energy ethics, as well as how we can frame and engage with those post-industrial sites without aestheticising or romanticising them. 

The opening of this talk also featured ecological activist and conservationist Iain Hamlin, who represents the Ardeer Action Group, which was formed in 2017 to coordinate the conservation efforts of environmental NGOs and naturalists in respect of the Ardeer Peninsula. To further the cause of conservation at the site, members of the group have lobbied the landowners, local Council and Scottish Government, appeared on several TV programmes, worked with journalists to get the plight of Ardeer covered in national newspapers and magazines, and collected extensive ecological data from the site, which has formed the basis of a request to the Scottish government to give the site statutory protection.