21/10/2026
I am fascinated by Bervie Brow before the Cold War, when the hill was viewed and understood in such a different way. This illustrated map from 1949, Wonders of the Scottish Counties: Kincardineshire, celebrates the places, histories, and associations that gave the county its distinctive character. Among its subjects is Bervie Brow, included just two years before the Air Ministry’s contractors arrived in 1951.
Until its military occupation, the hill enjoyed an active public life. It was a place people visited, explored, gathered, lit commemorative beacons and bonfires, wrote about, and remembered. It was a landmark with a real presence, a place to take in the far-reaching views, and an important point of connection with the area’s rich maritime past.
The development of the military station placed the hilltop out of bounds for two generations, bringing with it an entirely different way of seeing and understanding the landscape. An older relationship between Bervie Brow and the people of this part of Kincardineshire was interrupted, as the hill became defined almost exclusively by its military presence.
As that world of the 1950s–90s recedes, Bervie Brow’s older histories begin to bleed through. I find myself wondering more and more what traces of its earlier life remain, and how these might be understood alongside the history of the military station itself.
