Cold War Scotland

Description

Cold War Scotland is an exhibition that explores the stories of Scots at the centre of the Cold War, a 40-year nuclear stand-off between the USA and the Soviet Union after the Second World War. Scotland’s unique landscape provided a useful base for Allied military preparations and research.

The exhibition draws on Scotland’s rich history of Cold War-era protest and activism. The impact of the war still lingers in Scottish politics, culture and memory. Scots played an active role in the global conflict as soldiers within intelligence services and as part of voluntary civil defences.

Photographs from Cold War Projects produced in collaboration with Susan Timmins are presented in the exhibition.

“Shetland based artists Roxane Permar and Susan Timmins create collaborative work based on perceptions of the Cold War on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Their work explores Cold War sites using sculpture, sound, film and photography to interpret these spaces. The physical legacy of the Cold War is combined with people’s memories from across poitical and cultural borders in Scotland and its Northern and Arctic Neighbours. Abandoned ROC posts, radar and listsening stations appear as engigmatic structures in the landscape. These images were taken between 2012 and 2022 at locations including Unst, Garth’s Ness and Walls in Shetland, and Inverbervie in Scotland.”

The Photographs:
1 RAF Saxa Vord, Unst, Shetland
2 Fences, RAF Saxa Vord, Unst, Shetland
3 ROC Post, Sumburgh, Shetland
4 ROC Post, Walls, Shetland
5 Mossy Hill, Shetland
6 Inverbervie, Aberdeenshire
7 RAF Saxa Vord, Unst, Shetland
8 Loran Station, Garths Ness, Shetland
9 Recount ROC Post, Sumburgh, Shetland
10 Recount ROC Post, Walls, Shetland
11 Circular Array, Unst

The exhibition Cold War Scotland is an output of Materialising the Cold War, a collaborative research project between National Museums Scotland and the University of Stirling which explores how the Cold War heritage is represented and how museums can adapt to tell this story in future.

Materialising the Cold War is funded by a major grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Period	11 Jul 2024 → 31 Jan 2026
Event title	Cold War Scotland
Event type	Exhibition
Location	Edinburgh, United KingdomShow on map
Degree of Recognition	National