Old Photograph Tor Castle Scotland

Old photograph of Tor Castle near Fort William, Scotland. An Iron Age fort previously occupied the site of this now ruined Scottish castle. According to local tradition, the fort once belonged to Banquo who features in MacBeth.There has been a castle at the site since at least the eleventh century. The castle was subsequently held by the Clan Mackintosh until it was seized by the Clan Cameron, who built a massive tower house and courtyard. Ewen Cameron of Lochiel, 13th chief of Clan Cameron rebuilt the castle in 1530. The Camerons used the castle as a refuge from attacks by the Clan MacDonald of Keppoch.



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Old Photograph The Dwarfie Stane Scotland

Old photograph of The Dwarfie Stane on Hoy an island of the Orkney Islands, Scotland. This a is a megalithic chambered tomb carved out of a titanic block of Devonian Old Red Sandstone located in a steep-sided glaciated valley between the settlements of Quoys and Rackwick. It is the only chambered tomb in Orkney that is cut from stone rather than built from stones and might be the only example of a Neolithic rock-cut tomb in Britain. The name is derived from local legend that a dwarf named Trollid lived there, although, ironically, the tomb has also been claimed as the work of giants. Its existence was popularised in Walter Scott's novel The Pirate published in 1821.



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Old Photograph Holy Pool Strathfillan Scotland

Old photograph of the Holy Pool in Strathfillan, Perthshire, Scotland. The Holy Pool, opposite Stathfillan Manse, was famous for its connection with St Fillan. Until the middle of the last century insane persons were bathed in the pool. The tradition of bathing insane persons in the pool is still known locally but the pool is said to have lost its power when a wild bull was thrown into it.

St. Fillan was the abbot of a monastery in Fife before retiring to Glen Dochart and Strathfillan near Tyndrum in Perthshire. At an Augustinian priory at Kirkton Farm along to the West Highland Way, the priory's lay abbot, who was its superior in the reign of William the Lion, held high rank in the Scottish kingdom. This monastery was restored in the reign of King Robert the Bruce, and became a cell of the abbey of canons regular at Inchaffray Abbey. The new foundation received a grant from King Robert, in gratitude for the aid which he was supposed to have obtained from a relic of the saint on the eve of the great victory over King Edward II's English soldiers at the Battle of Bannockburn. The saint's original chapel was up river, slightly north west of the abbey and adjacent to a deep body of water which became known as St. Fillan's Pool.



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Old Photographs Woodside Scotland

Old photograph of cottages and houses in Woodside located twelve miles from Perth, Perthshire, Scotland. This Scottish village is joined onto another village, Burrelton. It is two miles from Coupar Angus, the nearest town. Woodside used to have a train station, part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway. The now closed station was known as the Woodside and Burrelton railway station.

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Old Photograph Oldhamstocks Scotland

Old photograph of Oldhamstocks, East Lothian. Scotland. Oldhamstocks or Aldhamstocks, meaning old dwelling place, is located adjacent to the Scottish Borders. The parish church was consecrated in 1292. Oldhamstocks is the birthplace of John Broadwood, born 1732, died 1812, piano maker and founder of Broadwood and Sons. John, a Scottish joiner and cabinetmaker, went to London, England, in 1761 and began to work for the Swiss harpsichord manufacturer Burkat Shudi. He married Shudi's daughter eight years later and became a partner in the firm in 1770. As the popularity of the harpsichord declined, the firm concentrated increasingly on the manufacture of pianos, abandoning the harpsichord altogether in 1793. He produced his first square piano in 1771, after the model of Johannes Zumpe, and worked assiduously to develop and refine the instrument, moving the wrest plank of the earlier pianoforte, which had sat to the side of the case as in the clavichord, to the back of the case in 1781, straightening the keys, and replacing the hand stops with pedals. In 1785 Thomas Jefferson, later to be third President of the United States, visited Broadwood in Great Pulteney Street, Soho, to discuss musical instruments.



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