Community

Contour Lines began with historic maps, but maps are never only about roads, railways, rivers and towns. They are also about people: the ones who walked the paths, worked the lines, left the villages, returned to them, remembered them, and imagined them differently.

This community page is a space for writing, walking, memory, art and collaboration.

Alongside the map collections, Contour Lines will develop literary projects connected to place, history and belonging. This will include new writing by Suzane Donaldson, interviews with walkers, artists and local voices, and selected creative work from others whose practice connects with landscape, memory, heritage or the Scottish Borders.

Writing Projects

This section will share updates from ongoing writing projects, including poetry, prose, reflective essays and collaborative pieces. Some work will grow from the maps themselves; some will come from conversations, walks, family histories, fragments of memory, or the feeling of standing somewhere and sensing that the past is still underfoot.

Voices from the Walk

Contour Lines is interested in the stories people carry through places.

Future interviews and features will include walkers, artists, readers, makers and people with a deep connection to the Borders landscape. These pieces may explore favourite routes, remembered places, creative practice, family stories, or the small details that make a landscape feel alive.

Artists and Collaborations

This page will also provide space for selected artists and writers to share work that sits naturally beside the Contour Lines project.

Submissions and collaborations may include:

Short prose or poetry connected to place, walking, memory or landscape

Visual art, photography or mixed media inspired by maps, history or the Scottish Borders

Reflections on local routes, ruins, railways, rivers, towns or communities

Interviews or conversations about creative practice

Contour Lines is not trying to become everything to everyone. The focus will remain clear: place, memory, history, landscape, creativity and the Borders.

Taking Part

If you would like to be interviewed, contribute a short piece of writing, share artwork, or discuss a collaboration, please get in touch through the contact page.

Please include a short description of your idea, any relevant links or images, and a note about how your work connects to the themes of Contour Lines.

All featured work remains the copyright of the original creator. Contour Lines will only publish work with permission and will always credit contributors clearly.