Old Photograph Parish Church Kirkpatrick Durham Scotland

Old photograph of the Parish Church and cemetery in Kirkpatrick Durham, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. This Scottish church was built in 1849 by architect Walter Newall. In the church is a simple wooden plaque commemorating the Reverend Gabriel Semple, first of the covenanter field preachers, and his friend John Neilson. Semple was the great great grandson of Lord Semple who fell at Flodden in 1513. He had been chosen as minister by the Kirk session by popular election but in May 1662 an act of parliament was passed depriving all ministers, staunch in their Presbyterian beliefs, of their living that had not been presented by Royal Patronage. This was the end then of Presbyterian dominance and Episcopal Curates were forced on the congregations. Those who refused suffered severely. Semple was therefore Outed from the Kirk and the manse and went to Corsock House or Castle, the home of his friend John Neilson who was soon after spoiled of his goods, driven from his home, tortured with the boot and hanged at the cross of Edinburgh in December 1666 for adherence to his Presbyterian faith.



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Old Photograph Golf Clubhouse Portpatrick Scotland

Old photograph the golf course clubhouse by Portpatrick, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. The Dunskey Golf Club was opened in April 1903.



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Old Photograph Harbour Portpatrick Scotland

Old photograph the harbour in Portpatrick, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. The port, formerly named Portmontgomery, was initially used by small fishing boats and sailing ships to and from the Irish port of Donaghadee, County Down, Northern Ireland. There were regular ferries to Donaghadee by 1616. Between 1770, when the first proper harbour was built by John Smeaton and 1830, the harbour served as the main route for mail, passengers and cattle to Ireland, being at the end of the military road built in 1765 from Dumfries. Portpatrick Harbour is ideally situated for visiting boats to and from Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Clyde and Highlands sailing grounds.



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Old Photograph North West Castle Stranraer Scotland

Old photograph of North West Castle in Stranraer, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. Sir John Ross, a famous Scottish rear admiral and Arctic explorer, built the house and developed its grounds in 1820 after returning from the first in a series of Arctic expeditions aiming to solve the question of the Northwest Passage. In 1860, North West Castle became the home of Reverend Robert Cunningham, an influential figure in Scottish education during the 19th Century. Cunningham lived in the Castle after his retirement as Head Master of George Watson's College in Edinburgh and founder Head Master of the Edinburgh institution for Language and Mathematics, later known as Melville College, and of Blair Lodge School in Polmont. His move to North West Castle also came after his founding of the Free Church of Scotland following the Disruption in May 1843. Cunningham was resident at the Castle until his death in 1883.



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Old Photograph Dunskey House Scotland

Old photograph of Dunskey House one mile North of Portpatrick, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. Built between 1901 and 1904 by James Hunter for Charles Lindsay Orr-Ewing, who died shortly before it was completed, and his wife Lady Augusta Boyle who was daughter of the 7th Earl of Glasgow, replacing an earlier house of 1706. Charles Lindsay Orr-Ewing, born 8 September 1860, died 24 December 1903, was a Scottish Tory politician. The youngest son of Sir Archibald Orr-Ewing and Elizabeth Lindsay Reid; he was educated at Harrow School in England. After travel in the East, he was commissioned as a captain in the 3rd Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. He was Member of Parliament for Ayr Burghs from 1895 until he died of heart failure in 1903 aged 43.



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