Technicolour Sunset in Brechin, Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

A sky on fire.

These shots from Brechin, Scotland, capture a rare moment of intense saturation and dramatic light. The texture of the clouds against that shifting palette of gold and azure is exactly why I keep my camera ready.

December 5th 1973 saw the death of Sir Robert Watson-Watt, the inventor of Radar.

Sir Robert Watson-Watt was widely known as the ‘father of radar’. In the 1930s he led a team of researchers to develop the aircraft detection technology that would later prove crucial to the Allied victory in the Battle of Britain. 

Born in Brechin, Watson-Watt developed his interest in radio waves while at University College, Dundee. In 1915, he started work as a meteorologist at the Royal Aircraft Factory at Farnborough, where he used short-wave radio to detect the location of thunderstorms. Twenty years later he was invited by the Air Ministry to investigate the possibility of developing a ‘death ray’, whereby radio waves could heat up enemy aircraft and trigger their explosives. Watson-Watt and his assistant, AF Wilkins, quickly established the idea wouldn’t work. Instead, they successfully bounced a radio wave off a Heyford bomber at Daventry, demonstrating the potential for radar detection technology.

In 1936 Watson-Watt set up a new research station under the Air Ministry at Bawdsey Manor in Suffolk. Britain wasn’t the only country developing radio technology in these pre-war years, but Watson-Watt’s team were pioneers of the early systems, initially known as Radio Detection Finding before the introduction of the American term, RADAR (Radio Detection And Ranging). By the autumn of 1938, radar systems capable of detecting enemy aircraft at any time of day and in any weather conditions were in place along the south and east coasts of England.

The system was considered the ‘secret weapon’ of the Allied Forces during the Battle of Britain in 1940. Giving advance warning of Luftwaffe formations over France, the RAF were able to quickly scramble aircraft and intercept the surprised pilots over the channel. Without Watson-Watt’s influential leadership, such a system may never have been set up in time.

I then carried on along the Aberlemno road to Brechin for a quick look at the cathedral there and its distinctive round tower. This is one of only three Irish-style round towers outside Ireland and only two in Scotland - the other Scottish one is in Abernethy while the third is on the Isle of Man, and neither of them have the classic pointy roof.

Brechin Castle is for sale?!?