Old Photograph Steam Locomotive The Mound Railway Station Scotland

Old photograph of a steam locomotive at The Mound Railway Station near the head of Loch Fleet, a sea loch on the east coast of Scotland, located between Golspie and Dornoch, Scotland. For more than half of its life it was the junction for Dornoch. The Sutherland Railway opened between Bonar Bridge and Golspie on 13 April 1868. Among the intermediate stations was one at The Mound, which opened with the line. The station took its name from the nearby road embankment engineered in 1817 by Thomas Telford across the head of Loch Fleet, which is now on the route of the A9 road. On 2 June 1902, the Dornoch Light Railway was opened,] which connected to the main line at a junction situated just to the West of The Mound station. The Dornoch branch line closed on 13 June 1960, and The Mound station closed the same day. The line remains open, and the nearest station is now Golspie.



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Old Photograph Georgemas Junction Scotland

Old photograph of a steam locomotive and a diesel passenger train meeting at the Georgemas Junction by Halkirk, Caithness, Scotland. Georgemas Junction is the junction of the Thurso branch from the Inverness to Wick line, the most northerly railway junction in the United Kingdom. The station was built by the Sutherland and Caithness Railway and opened on 28 July 1874.



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Old Photograph Steam Locomotive Helmsdale Scotland

Old photograph of a steam locomotive in the railway station in Helmsdale, Sutherland, Scotland. The station on the Far North Line opened on 28 July 1874. The station buildings were designed by the architect William Fowler. The station's passing loop is often used to allow trains in opposite directions to cross, though the points work automatically under the remote supervision of the signalling centre at Inverness in the Highlands. On 29 April 1891 there was a collision between a down mixed train from Inverness which ran into an engine which had arrived earlier. Major Marindin of the Board of Trade investigated and found that the driver Robert Lindsay deliberately ignored the signals as he would have had difficulty in re-starting the train on the rising gradient of 1 in 59.



Tour Scotland video of old photographs of Helmsdale, Sutherland, Scotland. The modern village was planned in 1814 to resettle communities that had been removed from the surrounding straths as part of the Highland Clearances. It is a fishing port at the estuary of the River Helmsdale, and was once the home of one of the largest herring fleets in Europe. The village is on the A9 road, at a junction with the A897, and has a railway station on the Far North Line. Andrew Rutherford, born 23 July 1929, died 13 January 1998, was born in Helmsdale. He was a British scholar and university administrator. He was Vice Chancellor of the University of London from 1994 to 1997. In 1953 he married Nancy Browning and they had two sons and a daughter. He died in Edinburgh. 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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Tour Scotland Video Walking Tour Misty Glencoe Highlands

Tour Scotland wee video of photographs of a small group mainly misty walking tour to Glencoe in the Scottish Highlands of Scotland. The Glen is named after the River Coe which runs through it. Glen Coe was once part of the lands of Clan Donald, though since the ending of the clan structure they have progressively sold off their estates. Early in the morning of 13 February 1692, in the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution and the Jacobite uprising of 1689 led by John Graham of Claverhouse, a massacre took place in Glen Coe, in the Highlands of Scotland. This incident is referred to as the massacre of Glencoe, or in Scottish Gaelic Mort Ghlinne Comhann, or murder of Glen Coe. The massacre began simultaneously in three settlements along the glen, Invercoe, Inverrigan, and Achnacon, although the killing took place all over the glen as fleeing MacDonalds were pursued. Thirty eight MacDonalds from the Clan MacDonald of Glencoe were killed by the guests who had accepted their hospitality, on the grounds that the MacDonalds had not been prompt in pledging allegiance to the new monarchs, William and Mary. Another forty women and children died of exposure after their homes were burned.

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

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Tour Scotland Video Dun Telve Iron Age Broch Highlands

Tour Scotland wee travel video of photography of Dun Telve Iron Age Broch on ancestry, genealogy, history visit and trip South of Glenelg in the Highlands of Scotland. Dun Telve stands on the north bank of the Abhainn a’Ghlaine Bhig, in the lower reaches of Gleann Beag. It lies next to the minor road which leads south from Glenelg. It is thought that the broch was robbed for stone in 1722, probably for the building of Bernera Barracks in Glenelg. A broch is an Iron Age drystone hollow walled structure of a type found only in Scotland.

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

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