IT IS a bird’s eye view of the past by the pioneers of flight and the veteran aerial combatants of the First World War. An image of Edinburgh Castle, peering out of the mists of time as well as the low clouds of Auld Reekie, is just one of thousands of rare aerial photographs of Scotland launched today.

The snap of the shutter has captured the loneliness of the Old Man of Hoy in Orkney, the majesty of the Waverley steamer and the national stadium, Hampden, in those distant days before seated stands when 149,000 could attend a game. Giving an insight into the country during the first half of the 20th century, many of the pictures were taken by war veterans, who experts say had “specialist skills” for capturing images from the air.