Old Photograph Isla Bank Mills Keith Scotland

Old photograph of Isla Bank Mills on Station Road in Keith, a small town in Moray, Scotland. The Mills were established in 1805 for the production of tweed. When George Kynoch purchased the Isla Bank Mills similar mills in Scotland were closing down. As better breeds of sheep were introduced into the area, finer unprocessed wool became available. The Cheviot, with bright illustrious fleece, and the Black face ewe were crossed with Border Leicester. Tweeds were the first powerful export from the Mills. The better quality of wool from local sheep enabled Kynoch to concentrate on labour. Expertise in sorting, willeying, blending, fettling, scouring and drying, carding, combing, spinning, doubling, warping, headling, sleying and warp twisting, weaving, and overlooking emerged. In the latter 19th century the Mill added the finishing techniques of scouring and milling, drying burling, raising the nap and shearing, boiling and brushing, mending or darning, and pressing and packing.



Tour Scotland wee video of old photographs of Keith, a small town in Moray, Scotland. The oldest part of Keith dates to around 1180. The main part of the town was laid out around 1750 by the Earl of Findlater. During the Jacobite rising of 1745, the Jacobite army won a skirmish at Keith on 21 March 1746. A Jacobite party under Major Nicholas Glasgow and Captain Robert Stewart surprised and defeated a Government force, killing over 20 of them. This victory at Keith is an interesting reminder that the Jacobites were continuing to take the initiative in many parts of northern Scotland right up until the disaster at Culloden. The language spoken indigenously round Keith is Doric, which superseded Scottish Gaelic. James Gordon Bennett Senior was born on September 1, 1795 by Keith. He was the founder, editor and publisher of the New York Herald and a major figure in the history of American newspapers. He died on June 1, 1872. The town is at the start of Scotland's Malt Whisky Trail, and has three distilleries: Strathmill, Glenkeith and Strathisla distillery. Of interest to folks with ancestry, genealogy or Scottish Family Roots in Scotland who may wish to visit one day.

All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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