Mark Time | Epynt 85 Mylnedd

Mark Time is a photographic series developed through embedded access to military training landscapes, examining how land is shaped by systems of control, use, and time amongst what remains of a displaced rural community.

Mark Time | Epynt 85 Mylnedd is a photographic project by Aisling Edwards documenting the layered landscape of the Ministry of Defence Training Area on the Epynt plateau at Sennybridge in mid-Wales.

For fifteen months (DEC 2024 TO MARCH 2026) Edwards was granted special access to photograph on this training estate, allowing her to work independently within a sometimes active military environment while observing the interaction between defence activity, environmental management and what remains of a displaced rural community.

In 1940, the Epynt plateau was requisitioned by the War Office to make way for wartime training, resulting in the evacuation of some 54 farming families whose homes, agricultural buildings and chapels remain embedded across the landscape. Today, these structures sit alongside contemporary military infrastructure, training targets and fragments of military debris; terrain shaped by an overlapping land-use of family, agriculture and defence.

Edwards’ work focuses on the dramatic open landscapes and particularly, on hedgerows, boundaries and marginal zones that structure this training estate. Many of the hedgerows were planted by the Ministry of Defence and Landmarc to serve both a practical and environmental function within the training landscape, as well as supporting biodiversity and stabilising the terrain. They form part of the physical infrastructure used during military exercises. Regularly cut, harvested and maintained, they represent a carefully managed system that balances operational training requirements with ecological stewardship.

Working within an active training area there is a constant awareness of risk, regulation and movement. Operating within strict protocols and in cooperation with military personnel and estate staff, Edwards documented a landscape rarely accessible to the public.

Through sustained observation Mark Time | Epynt 85 Mylnedd explores military training land operating simultaneously as defence infrastructure, a managed ecosystem and a site of rural memory.