THESE sensational aerial photographs taken by Caithness Broch Project’s photographer Chris Sinclair have given historians and archaeologists an amazing insight into the Iron Age past of the far north of Scotland.

The 35-year-old former oil and gas offshore hydrographic surveyor always had a keen interest in archaeology and astronomy but says he never appreciated what was on his own doorstep until he had a night out with local builder Iain Maclean, 32, who is director and co-founder of the project.

The following day, Maclean took him on a tour of some of the 180-odd Caithness brochs and he was hooked. Within days Sinclair went out and bought himself a camera but had to teach himself how to use it.

Then Sinclair decided to try something different, bought a drone and he hasn’t looked back. His images have been used in many presentations given by the broch project to raise awareness of their aim to build a world heritage Iron Age broch site and visitor attraction, which is backed by The National as media partner.

Sinclair has since become one of the five directors who head up the charity. Their main objective is to promote, preserve and ensure a lasting legacy for the archaeology of their area, and his amazing shots featured in the Caithness Archaeology book, published last year.

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Last year Sinclair, who is also the project’s website manager, left the offshore industry and took up a job in the archive centre in Wick, in tandem with the Caithness Archive, helping to feed his passion for local history.

He said: “I left my offshore job in May and I am now operations manager at local archive so it’s a bit of a change of scene. I have always been interested in astronomy and had a telescope. I decided I wanted to try to capture what I was seeing so I bought a camera but didn’t know how to use it. I did that in 2011 and since then, through messing about, I found out I really enjoyed just going out and taking photographs and it progressed from there.

“I am also interested in history and when I was offshore I was always reading up about archaeology but it was always further afield, never anything local, until I met Iain Maclean who waffled to me one night at a party about brochs and local stuff.

The National:

“He took me out the next day to show me the brochs and that was it, I was hooked and realised how much history I had on my doorstep. I have been living up here since 2005 but never appreciated my surroundings until recently. Once I came to realise how much there was, I just had to get out and explore it.

“There was a lot of folk in Caithness taking photos so I started looking for something different. I was following the drone scene and bit the bullet one day and bought one and gave it a blast. I started doing aerial photography is January 2014. It is really handy for the archaeological stuff because sometimes what you are looking at is a pile of grass on the ground but when you get above it you can really see the shape of the broch.

“My aerial photos have been used for presentations and they have been included in the Caithness Archaeology book released last year and one of my images was on the front cover which was great.”

The National:

THE National is offering new and existing members of the Caithness Broch Project an exclusive discounted deal of 10 per cent off our £125 digital subscriptions as part of our commitment as media partner. What’s more, members who sign up for a year’s subscription will get a free 12-month Open Fairways golf card or a bottle of Glenfarclas whisky. To claim your discounted subscription, call us on 0141 302 7733, making sure you quote the Caithness Broch Project. To become a member, go to www.thebrochproject.co.uk