By going in search of half-forgotten traces of human intervention still present in the landscape, James Crawford provides a fascinating account of Scotland’s hidden history

Crawford has chosen such a wide variety of sites, all of which have such colourful and distinctive stories to tell, that what could have turned into a dull trudge becomes an absolutely riveting journey through time and space.

Among the book's many highlights are his visits to the remains of a Roman signal station on Rubers Law in the Borders; to the site of a Viking boat burial at Swordle Bay on the Ardnamurchan peninsula; and to the surreal array of tall wooden poles driven into the sand at Culbin Sands in Moray, designed to deter Nazi gliders from landing there during World War Two.

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this turns out to be my book of the year.

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