Old Photograph Watten Scotland

Old photograph of Watten located eight miles West of Wick, in Caithness, Scotland. The village is on The Far North railway line but trains stopped calling at the village in 1960. The railway station is now a private house. A military camp was built in Watten during World War II, in early 1943, and at the end of the war this became POW Camp 165. This had been described as the most secretive prisoner of war camp in Britain because many prominent Nazis were moved there from POW Camp 21 at Comrie in Perthshire. These prisoners included Gunter d'Alquen, Himmler's chief propagandist, leading U-boat captain Otto Kretschmer, dubbed the Wolf of the Atlantic, and SS-Sturmbannführer Max Wünsche, one of Hitler's top aides. The camp closed in 1948.



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Old Photograph Rubislaw Quarry Scotland

Old photograph of Rubislaw Quarry by Aberdeen, Scotland. John Smith and Archibald Simpson were architects who constructed some of Aberdeen's best known buildings from granite in the early 19th century. Waterloo Bridge in London, the terrace of the Houses of Parliament and the Forth Rail Bridge were also constructed with granite from Aberdeen. Matthew Forster Heddle found the quarry a good source for the minerals tourmaline and beryl. The fine grey granite from the quarry is visible in the majority of Aberdeen's buildings, but Rubislaw Quarry has been closed since 1971.



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Old Photograph Sligachan Scotland

Old photograph of a crofters cottage at Sligachan, Isle Of Skye, Scotland. Sligachan is close to the Cuillin mountains with a good viewpoint for seeing the Black Cuillin mountains. Tradition has it that the Lord of the Isles attacked Skye in 1395, but William MacLeod met the MacDonalds at Sligachan and drove them back to Loch Ainort. There they found that their galleys had been moved offshore by the MacAskills, and every invader was killed. The spoils were divided at Creag an Fheannaidh, Rock of the Flaying or Creggan ni feavigh, Rock of the Spoil, sometimes identified with the Bloody Stone in Harta Corrie below the heights of Sgurr nan Gillean.



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Old Photograph Longnewton Scotland

Old photograph of cottages and houses in Longnewton village located on the Ale Water three miles South of St Boswells in the Scottish Borders, Scotland. John Younger, born 1785, died 1860, was a Scottish writer on angling, a shoemaker, and poet. He was born at Longnewton in the parish of Ancrum, Roxburghshire. As a young man he surpassed any poacher of the day in his knowledge of fur and feather, but, above all, he became an unrivalled angler. In 1811 he married Agnes Riddle, and settled at St. Boswells, some three miles from Longnewton, as the village shoemaker. About 1849 he was appointed the village postmaster, but the routine work proved beyond his patience, and in January 1856 he threw up the post and returned to cobbling. He died very poor, but was honest and industrious to the last and was buried in St. Boswells kirkyard beside his beloved wife who had died in 1856. A biography of John Younger was published at Kelso in 1881.



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Old Photograph Lower Fearnan Scotland

Old photograph of a cottage in Lower Fearnan village by Loch Tay, Perthshire, Scotland.



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Old Photograph Valleyfield Scotland

Old photograph of cottage and house in Low Valleyfield, Fife, Scotland. Preston Island by Low Valleyfield, now a peninsula as the result of the landfill of ash from nearby Longannet power station, was the site of coal mining and major salt works from the 17th century onwards.



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Old Photographs Auchnagatt Scotland

Old photograph of Auchnagatt, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The railway station closed in 1979, and now offers an access point to the Formartine and Buchan Way, the long distance path allows walkers to follow the route of the former railway line. There is evidence of prehistoric settlement in the area. The remains of two earth houses were found at Windy Hill, south east of the village.




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Old Photograph Auchterless Scotland

Old photograph of Auchterless, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Tolly Castle, once a Barclay stronghold is located two miles north east of this Scottish village. It was built in the 14th century, but the bulk of the remains are from the 16th century. This Scottish railway station now closed served the area known as Kirkton of Auchterless.



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Old Photographs Auldgirth Scotland

Old photograph of cottages and people in Auldgirth, a village on the A76 road in the Civil Parish of Closeburn in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. At one time it had a manned railway station, situated one mile south of the village, just before the hamlet of Dalswinton.




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Old Photographs Swinton Scotland

Old photograph of cottage and houses in Swinton village located five miles South East of Duns in the Scottish Borders, Scotland. Swinton dates to the 11th century or earlier, and is associated with the Swinton family, who took their name from the settlement. In 1769, the village was re-designed and a market was created, now marked by the market cross. A parish church was built and still stands today. In the churchyard, the Swintons have their own burial enclosure. In 1843, the Free Church of Swinton was built, but in the 1900s the spire was removed and it became the local village hall.




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Old Photographs Port of Ness Scotland

Old photograph of cottages and houses in Port of Ness on the Island of Lewis, Outer Hebrides, Scotland. Each year men from Ness district sail from the port to Sula Sgeir in the Atlantic Ocean in order to collect young gannets for food. The event, which was first recorded in the 16th century, is now licensed by the Scottish government.




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Old Photograph Garrabost Scotland

Old photograph of crofters outside their cottage in Garrabost on the Island of Lewis, Outer Hebrides, Scotland. A hamlet in the Point, An Rubha, peninsula isthmus on the east coast. The village is now one of the largest in Point, comprising Upper and Lower Garrabost, and Claypark.

Angus Mòr MacAskill, born 1825, was a Scottish born Canadian giant. The 1981 Guinness Book of World Records posits Angus as the tallest non pathological giant in recorded history 7 feet 9 inches tall, as well as being the man with the largest chest measurements of any non obese man of 80 inches.



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Old Photograph Crofter Isle Of Skye Scotland

Old photograph of a crofter grinding corn outside her cottage on the Isle Of Skye, Inner Hebrides, Scotland.



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Old Photographs Erbusaig Scotland

Old photograph of crofters cottages in Erbusaig located on Erbusaig Bay near to Kyle of Lochalsh and Isle of Skye, Scotland. In Gaelic, the village is named after Erb, a Viking who landed in the Bay. The fishing villages of Drumbuie and Duirinish, are situated less than 1 mile northeast.





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Old Photographs Strathaven Scotland

Old photograph of Strathaven, South Lanarkshire, Scotland. Strathaven has a long history as a market town. A Roman road passes close by, on the south side of the Avon Water, which led to the Roman fort at Loudoun Hill near Darvel. The origins of Strathaven Castle are obscure, but it is believed to have been built around 1350 by the Bairds, on a bend of the Powmillon Burn. Today it is a ruin, with a single tower and sections of wall remaining beside the A71.



Old photograph of Strathaven, South Lanarkshire, Scotland.

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Old Photograph Flying Boat Scotland

Old photograph of a flying boat on Loch Lomond, Scotland.



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