Old Photograph Fishing Colonsay Scotland

Old photograph of fishermen fishing on the East Loch on the Island of Colonsay, Inner Hebrides, Scotland. Gaelic: Colbhasa, an island in the Inner Hebrides, located north of Islay and south of Mull. During the 18th century the lairds of the island were Macneils, and included Archibald Macneil
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

View the most recent Tour Scotland photographs.

Old Photograph Winter Glencoe Scotland

Old photograph of climbers in Winter in Glencoe, Scotland.



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

View the most recent Tour Scotland photographs.

Old Photograph Salvaging German Battleship Scapa Flow Scotland

Old photograph of salvaging a German Battleship at Scapa Flow, Orkney Islands, Scotland. Historically, the main British naval bases were located near the English Channel to better face England's old enemies, France, Spain, and the Netherlands. In 1904, in response to the build up of the German Kaiserliche Marine's High Seas Fleet, it was decided that a northern base was needed to control the entrances to the North Sea. First Rosyth in Fife was considered for the base, then Invergordon at Cromarty Firth, but construction in both places was delayed, leaving them largely unfortified by the outbreak of WWI. Scapa Flow had been used many times for exercises in the years before the War, and when the time came for the fleet to move to a northern station, Scapa Flow was chosen for the main base of the British Grand Fleet. Following the German defeat in World War I, 74 ships of the Kaiserliche Marine's High Seas Fleet were interned in Gutter Sound at Scapa Flow pending a decision on their future in the peace Treaty of Versailles.

On 21 June 1919, after nine months of waiting, Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter, the German officer in command at Scapa Flow, made the decision to scuttle the fleet because the negotiation period for the treaty had lapsed with no word of a settlement, he was not kept informed that there had been a last minute extension to finalise the details.

After waiting for the bulk of the British fleet to leave on exercises, he gave the order to scuttle the ships to prevent their falling into British hands. The Royal Navy made desperate efforts to board the ships to prevent the sinking, but the German crews had spent the idle months preparing for the order, welding bulkhead doors open, laying charges in vulnerable parts of the ships, and quietly dropping important keys and tools overboard so valves could not be shut.

The British did eventually manage to beach the battleship Baden, the light cruisers Nürnberg, and Frankfurt together with 18 destroyers, but the remaining 52 ships, the vast bulk of the High Seas Fleet, were sunk without loss of life. Nine German sailors died when British forces opened fire as they attempted to scuttle their ship, reputedly the last casualties of WWI.



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

View the most recent Tour Scotland photographs.

Old Photograph War Memorial Eday Orkney Islands Scotland

Old photograph of the War Memorial on the island Eday one of the Orkney Islands, Scotland.

World War I Roll of Honour

Pte. ROBERT HARCUS 2nd Dragoons (Royal Scots Greys), 17th January 1916, age 22.
Pte. WILLIAM MILLER 7th Seaforths, 12th October 1916, age 22.
Pte. GEORGE SEATTER 1/4th Seaforths, between 19th and 21st September 1917, age 23.
Pte. GEORGE P. PEACE, M.M. 8th Seaforths, 24th December 1917, age 24.
Pte. JAMES REID Depot Royal Scots, 18th March 1918, age 21.
Pte. JAMES S. TULLOCH 5th H.L.I., 24th August 1918, age 24.
Rfmn. RICHARD J. ROUSAY 7th London 18th Rifle Brigade, 10th November 1919, age 52.
Pte. JAMES STOUT 2nd Seaforths, 14th October 1916, age 22.
Pte. DAVID DREVER 8th Seaforths, 25th April 1917, age 36.
Pte. JOHN A. WALLACE 8th Seaforths, 17th March 1918, age 21.
Pte. STEWART GROAT 4th Battalion Canadian Machine Gun Corps, 22nd July 1918, age 26.
D/H. DAVID SCOTT Marine R.N.R., H.M. Trawler “Sarah Alice”, 26th September 1916, age 34.
Engnr. CHARLES PEACE Mercantile Marine, S.S. “Express”, 9th February 1918, age 32.
Smn. JAMES W. GROAT Mercantile Marine, S.S. “Coronilla”, 25th December 1918, age 25.

World War I Roll of Honour

A.B. GILLIES HARCUS R.N., H.M.S. “Afridi”, 3rd May 1940, age 19. .
Bosun HUGH HUGHSON, B.E.M. M.N., S.S. “Cape Corso”, 2nd May 1942, age 23.
Shipwrt. GEORGE SHEARER R.N., H.M.L.S.T. 420, 7th November 1944, age 23.
Pte. JAMES D. TULLOCH General Service Corps, 26th February 1943, age 18.
Tpr. JAMES TWATT 18th Regiment Royal Armoured Recce.Corps, 11th July 1943, age 24.


Born in Eday, listed on Kirkwall War Memorial
Saddler HUGH MARWICK 159th Company, 20th Division Train, R.A.S.C., 15th August 1918, age 38.

Born in Eday, not listed on any Orkney war memorial
Pte. JOHN SWANSON 8th Seaforths, 22nd July 1918, age 21

Edward Sinclair was granted the feu of Eday by Adam Bothwell, Bishop of Orkney. These were turbulent times, Sinclair's duties included to defend the reforming Bishop " against all invaders ", and later that year he was one of the ringleaders of an anti Catholic riot in Kirkwall. His son William took over the running of the Eday estate in due course, but it became burdened with debt. In 1601 when Edward was very old, William attempted to sell the family interest to George Sinclair who was the Earl of Caithness. The new proprietor sent half a dozen boatloads of Highland men from Caithness to Eday, much to the alarm of the notorious Earl Patrick of Orkney. Earl Patrick was able to use the poor relationship between the elderly father Edward and his son, the former claiming William fired muskets at him and grabbed him by the neck like a dog, to take action. Acting, so he alleged, on behalf of Edward, Earl Patrick evicted William, took the Eday the rents for himself and profited from the extraction of building stone from Towback quarry. John Stewart, Earl of Carrick, the brother of Earl Patrick, was granted Eday in 1632.

The approx distance between Eday and Glasgow is 240 miles.



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

View the most recent Tour Scotland photographs.

Old Photograph St Magnus Bay Shetland Islands Scotland

Old photograph of St Magnus Bay, Shetland Islands, Scotland. There are numerous prehistoric sites scattered about the margins of the bay which is open to the North Atlantic Ocean to the West. Swarbacks Minn here was home to substantial naval operations during the First World War, and was the base for the 10th Cruiser Squadron of armed liners and destroyers that patrolled the northern seas. The RMS Oceanic, once the world's largest ship, sailed from here prior to being wrecked off Foula in 1914. Brei Holm in the area was a leper colony until the 18th century, although it has been suggested that many of the "lepers" there were suffering from a vitamin deficiency rather than leprosy. 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.

View the most recent Tour Scotland photographs.