Jim Naughten

Contributing photographer for Vital project highlighting irrecoverable carbon in Scotland

Artist Statement

‘Caledonia', the romanticised name for ancient Scotland, evokes wild mountain landscapes steeped in legend and antiquity. My ancestors came from the Highlands, so I’ve always felt a connection, despite never having acquired a taste for Whisky or Haggis. They had always seemed to me to be dramatically beautiful, bleak wild and untamed, one of the last wilderness areas in the British Isles. And then I read ‘Feral’, by George Monbiot, and my rose tinted spectacles fell off in an instant.

The Scottish Highlands were, in fact, once a rich wilderness of dense forests, teeming wildlife, and vast peatlands, all of which have witnessed profound ecological transformations due to deforestation, agriculture, wildlife hunting and persecution. Centuries of human activity, including land clearance for farming, timber extraction, and the Highland Clearances, have decimated ancient woodlands and altered entire ecosystems. This was not the untamed wilderness I had long thought of.

The extinction of apex predators like wolves, bears and lynx have disrupted natural balances, leading to overpopulation of herbivores such as deer, which exacerbates deforestation through overgrazing. Furthermore, the destruction of peat bogs, vital carbon sinks and habitats for unique flora and fauna, compounds the ecological crisis. Drainage for agriculture, forestry, and peat extraction disrupts these sensitive ecosystems, releasing stored carbon and diminishing their capacity to mitigate climate change. The Highlands has suffered from a severe loss of biodiversity, with native species facing habitat fragmentation, degradation and extinction.

When I am up in the mountains now, I see them through a very different lens. They are still exquisitely beautiful, but the treeless vistas are now tinged with great sadness. What would it have been like to witness the original inhabitants roaming across the valleys or ancient woodlands? As an artist working with digital imaging and museum specimens, I wanted to explore the idea of reintroducing some of the extinct species to the Highland landscapes. It’s surprising for most people to think that the mountains were once densely forested and teeming with bear, wolves, lynx, reindeer and countless other extinct species. Thankfully this knowledge is beginning to spread and efforts are under way to rewild and improve our impoverished ecosystems. We may never see the larger apex predators again but there is hope for the reintroduction of the lynx and beaver, and a more nature focused landscape. The animals added to my Scottish landscapes appear a little lost and lonely without their verdant woodlands and vegetation, but help to shine a light on what may once have been.