The Lammermuirs are one of Scotland’s most treasured rural landscapes, known for their wildlife, open moorland, dark skies, hill farming, heritage and tranquillity. This morning, Benjamin Myers wrote to us with news of plans to build an industrial-scale data centre on them.
Dear landscape-loving writers and friends,
For 13 years I’ve been lucky enough to regularly stay at the Gordon Burn Trust’s cottage in the tiny village of Longformacus (pop. 66) in the Lammermuir Hills of Berwickshire.
All my novels have been partially written there. The moors, woods and bird life is exceptional; I have wandered for weeks at time, barely seeing a soul, and enjoying that ‘full immersion’ that I’m sure you have experienced.
Then last week, as I completed my next book, Whiteadder/Wolfspider – partially named for the river nearby – I discovered a huge A.I. date centra is set to destroy the surrounding habitats (I don’t use the word ‘destroy’ lightly). A fightback has begun, but can 66 locals defeat a $2 billion project? We shall see.
I’m calling upon likeminded nature lovers and writers to consider signing/sharing a Change.org petition to oppose this project.
BBC story here.
Many thanks –
Ben
In case you need any more convincing, revisit Ben’s 2014 piece on the sanctity of the Longformacus landscape, in which he presciently writes:
I have a theory that solitude and silence will become the chief currency of the future, as near-necessary as water – and just as nourishing. Modern media might keep us interconnected, but the global conversation is relentless. What we will increasingly crave – and find difficult to achieve – is, I suspect, silence and solitude. And space. Space in which to reflect, observe and remove the masks we wear daily. In the future everybody will be anonymous for fifteen minutes.