MADE BY LAND

In my ‘Made by Land’ series, I draw inspiration from landscapes that were forcibly cleared of people in the mid-18th century across Scotland to make way for sheep farming.

What remains of these once-thriving communities are the structures left behind—roofless croft houses, their weathered stone walls a fractured patchwork on otherwise empty land. Faint paths lead to fields once divided by family and crop. Runrigs comb the hillsides, a reminder of the hardships endured as the land was worked to feed those now gone. These empty places ignite his curiosity: who lived here, and where did they go?

In my work, I uses old maps to trace ancient drover roads that once connected isolated villages across vast landscapes. By running to these remote spots, I sketch the footprints of buildings and the marks left on the land. I finds the stillness of these forgotten places haunting, yet strangely beautiful.

Below is a short film I made which explores how trail running shapes my art, where movement through landscape becomes memory, and memory becomes mark.