Old Photographs Port Bannatyne Scotland

Old photograph of Port Bannatyne, Isle of Bute, Scotland. The village started in 1801 with the building of a small harbour on Kames Bay. Lord Bannatyne of Kames Castle, at the head of the bay, planned the village in an attempt to rival Rothesay. Initially known as Kamesburgh, by the mid 19th century, steamers were calling there regularly. In 1860 the Marquess of Bute purchased this part of the island and renamed the village Port Bannatyne in honour of the long historical association of the Bannatyne family with the area. Boat building became an important local industry. In the Second World War midget submarines exercised in the bay and nearby Loch Striven. The luxury Kyles Hydro Hotel, overlooking the Port, was requisitioned by the Admiralty to serve as the HQ for midget submarine, x-craft, operations. In particular, it was from here that the top secret and audacious attack on the Tirpitz was masterminded.





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

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Old Photographs Lagg Jura Scotland

Old photograph of a fisherman by the pier at the harbour in the hamlet of Lagg, Isle of Jura, Scotland. The harbour is situated on the West shore of Rubh' a' Chamais, the promontory that encloses the East side of Lagg Bay, north, north east of Craighouse. In the early 19th century the 4 mile sea crossing from Lagg to Keills in Knapdale was the normal route for cattle, not only from Jura itself, but for those landed from Colonsay at Loch Tarbert and for over 2,500 animals annually from Islay, which were driven over a hill road from Feolin on the Sound of Islay.



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

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Old Photographs Millport Scotland

Old photograph of Millport, Scotland. This is the only town on the island of Great Cumbrae in the Firth of Clyde off the coast of North Ayrshire. During the development of the River Clyde as a main thoroughfare for goods, shipbuilding and smuggling, Millport was a strategic base for Customs and Excise. Several of the streets in Millport are named after crew members of the Revenue cutter Royal George. The Victorian era was a period of rapid growth, both in terms of population, governance, amenities and property. To the west and east of the old harbour, many fine Victorian and Edwardian villas were built, along with new tenements. These still form the backbone of the housing stock. Millport, along with Rothesay on the Isle of Bute, is famous with generations of daytrippers from Glasgow as one of the resorts visited going doon the watter, down the water, meaning taking a trip aboard a River Clyde paddle steamer. Millport has an 18 hole golf course, with views over the Arran hills and the Firth of Clyde. 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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Old Photographs Kinghorn Scotland

Old photograph of the harbour at Kinghorn, Fife, Scotland. The old town was dramatically transformed in 1846 by the construction of the railway viaduct across the valley of the burn and the opening of Kinghorn Station by the Edinburgh and Northern Railway which had its terminus at Burntisland for ferries across the Forth to Granton.


Old photograph of the beach at Kinghorn, Fife, Scotland.



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

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Old Photograph Threave Castle Scotland

Old photograph of Threave Castle, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. Located on an island in the River Dee, west of Castle Douglas, this Scottish castle was the home of 'Black' Douglas Earls of Douglas from the late 14th century until their fall in 1455. Tour Scottish Castles.



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

View the most recent Tour Scotland photographs.