Old Photograph The Covin Trysting Tree Bemersyde Melrose Scotland

Old photograph of the Covin Trysting tree at Bemersyde near Melrose, Scottish Borders, Scotland. A tryst is a time and a place for a meeting, especially of lovers. This trysting tree here is a Sweet Chestnut tree which has long been a feature of Bemersyde, appearing in many paintings of the house including a sketch by Turner, located in the British Museum, in London, England. The tree is thought to have been planted in the 12th century by Petrus de Haga, making it 800 years old. Although the original trunk has now died, layers were taken by Earl Haig in the 1950s resulting in several new healthy stems rising from the base. One of the layers, planted about 30 meters from the original, is growing into a fine looking individual. The old rings that can be seen in the branches of the original Covin Tree were once attached to concrete weights which aimed to balance the trunk in its younger days the tree was twice as high as it is now. Dating back to 1535 as a peel tower, Bemersyde house was bought by the British Government in 1921 and presented to Field-Marshal The 1st Earl Haig, the British Commander in World War I. The House is the seat of Clan Haig.



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Old Photograph Golf Course Scarista Isle Of Harris Scotland

Old photograph of golfers on the golf course at Scarista on Island Of Harris, Scotland. The Isle of Harris Golf Club is located in Scarista on the West Coast of Harris, one of the world’s finest settings for the game of golf.



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Old Photograph Women Cyclists Cairnwell Pass Road Scotland

Old photograph of women cyclists on the Cairnwell Pass road between Glenshee, Perthshire, and Braemar, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Historically, the pass was a cattle drover's route from the Lowlands to the Highlands. The road is often blocked by snow in the winter. A mile south of the summit is the Devil's Elbow, a notorious double hairpin bend. The often quoted gradient of 33 percent is a myth: in reality it was no more than 1 in 6. The modern road bypasses the hairpin bends, but the old road still exists and its route can be walked, or carefully cycled.



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

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Tour Scotland Video Fiona Ritchie Doug Orr The Wayfaring Stranger Book Launch Perth Perthshire

Tour Scotland video of Fiona Ritchie and Doug Orr at the Scottish book launch of Wayfaring Stranger at the Norrie Miller Studio in Perth Concert Hall on visit to Perth, Perthshire, Scotland. Fiona Karen Ritchie MBE is a Scottish radio broadcaster best known as the producer and host of The Thistle & Shamrock, an hour long Celtic music program that airs weekly throughout the United States on National Public Radio. Doug Orr is president emeritus of Warren Wilson College, where he founded the Swannanoa Gathering music workshops. Wayfaring Strangers; The Musical Voyage from Scotland and Ulster to Appalachia. Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a steady stream of Scots migrated to Ulster and eventually onward across the Atlantic to resettle in the United States. Many of these Scots-Irish immigrants made their way into the mountains of the southern Appalachian region. They brought with them a wealth of traditional ballads and tunes from the British Isles and Ireland, a carrying stream that merged with sounds and songs of English, German, Welsh, African American, French, and Cherokee origin. Their enduring legacy of music flows today from Appalachia back to Ireland and Scotland and around the globe. In Wayfaring Strangers, Fiona Ritchie and Doug Orr guide readers on a musical voyage across oceans, linking people and songs through centuries of adaptation and change.

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

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Tour Scotland Video Eliza Lynn Singing Parting Glass Song Perth Perthshire

Tour Scotland video of Eliza Lynn singing Parting Glass song on visit to Perth, Perthshire, Scotland. Eliza was playing and singing at the Scottish launch of the Fiona Ritchie and Doug Orr book, Wayfaring Stranger at the Norrie Miller Studio in Perth Concert Hall

Of all the money that e'er I had
I've spent it in good company
And all the harm that e'er I've done
Alas it was to none but me
And all I've done for want of wit
To memory now I can't recall
So fill to me the parting glass
Good night and joy be with you all

Of all the comrades that e'er I had
They are sorry for my going away
And all the sweethearts that e'er I had
They would wish me one more day to stay
But since it falls unto my lot
That I should rise and you should not
I'll gently rise and I'll softly call
Good night and joy be with you all

A man may drink and not be drunk
A man may fight and not be slain
A man may court a pretty girl
And perhaps be welcomed back again
But since it has so ought to be
By a time to rise and a time to fall
Come fill to me the parting glass
Good night and joy be with you all
Good night and joy be with you all

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

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