Aerial Photography

The Archaeology Service of Aberdeenshire Council provides coverage for Moray and Angus Council.

With 4500 square miles to cover, we find the use of a plane for aerial photography a useful tool to discover previously unrecorded archaeological sites. Flights take place all the year round. In some cases the sites are only visible from the air, and nothing can be seen on the ground even when standing on top of them.

Upstanding sites, such as harbours, castles, stone circles etc are recorded at any time, but different seasons and weather conditions reveal other site types.

Find out how crop marks are formed

Winter photography

Snow photography is especially good for showing up prehistoric field systems and round houses, as well as medieval rig and furrow

Summer Photography

These cropmarks can appear in a variety of shapes and forms such as circles, ovals, rectangles and linear features