Old Photograph Crofter Building Peat Stacks North Uist Outer Hebrides Scotland

Old photograph of a crofter building Peat stacks on North Uist, Scotland. North Uist in the Outer Hebrides was hit hard during the Highland Clearances, and there was large scale emigration from the island to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada. As the residents of North Uist who were emigrating left Scotland not directly from North Uist but from one of the mainland ports, usually Glasgow, there are no passenger lists for North Uist. The first ship to bring Scots immigrants from the Western Isles to Nova Scotia was the “ Hector ”, which sailed from South Uist on 1 July 1772 and arrived at Pictou, Nova Scotia on 15th September 1772. The “ Waterhen ” and “ Cashmere ”, two ships chartered by Lord MacDonald of Sleat, the “ owner ” of North Uist, both sailed from Greenock, Glasgow, for Quebec City on 21 August 1849 with destitute families from his Estates in the Outer Hebrides. Many of those aboard were from North Uist and many of those went to Middlesex County, near London, in Western Ontario on arrival in Canada. There were also 250 passengers from North Uist aboard the “ Hercules ” which sailed from Greenock for Australia on 26 December 1852, 21 of the North Uist passengers died en route.



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Old Photograph Crofter Carrying Peat North Uist Outer Hebrides Scotland

Old photograph of a crofter carrying Peat and knitting on North Uist, Scotland. North Uist in the Outer Hebrides was hit hard during the Highland Clearances, and there was large scale emigration from the island to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada.



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

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Old Photograph Crofter Easdale Scotland

Old photograph of a crofter filling a kettle with water outside a cottage in Easdale near Ellenabeich, Scotland. Once a centre of the British slate industry, Easdale had a community of more than 500 working as many as seven quarries, some of which extended to 300 feet below sea level. Easdale slate helped to build major cities of the British Empire and can still be seen on rooftops as far afield as Melbourne, Nova Scotia, Dunedin and Dublin. The great storm of 1850 flooded most of the quarries. Lacking any means of pumping the water away, the slate industry on the island more or less came to an abrupt end. History Blog post of interest to folks with ancestry, genealogy or Scottish Family Roots in Scotland who may wish to travel and visit one day.



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

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Old Photograph Elderly Fisherman Cottage Crail East Neuk Of Fife Scotland

Old photograph of an elderly fisherman in his cottage in Crail, East Neuk of Fife, Scotland. Crail became a Royal Burgh in 1178 in the reign of King William the Lion. Robert the Bruce granted permission to hold markets on a Sunday, in the Marketgait, where the Mercat Cross now stands in Crail. This practice was still continuing in the 16th century, causing concern in the freshly puritanical circles of Edinburgh such that John Knox, visiting Crail on his way to St Andrews in 1559, was moved to deliver a sermon in Crail Parish Church, damning the fishermen of the East Neuk for working on a Sunday. Despite the protests, the markets continued and were amongst the largest in Europe for their time. King James V, the father of Mary Queen of Scots, sent for his wife, Mary of Guise, whom he had recently married by proxy in Paris, and she landed in Crail in June 1538. Built around a harbour, Crail has a particular wealth of vernacular buildings from the 17th to early 19th centuries. The harbour is known to have been substantially complete by 1583. The extension of 1828 to the west pier of Crail Harbour is the work of Robert Stevenson. Crial railway station on the Thornton Junction to St Andrews to Leuchars Junction was opened on 1 September 1883 by the Anstruther and St Andrews Railway. It closed to regular passenger traffic, with the St Andrews to Leven portion of the line, on 6 September 1965. History Blog post of interest to folks with ancestry, genealogy or Scottish Family Roots in Scotland who may wish to travel and visit one day.



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

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Old Photograph Crofters Scything Isle Of Lewis Scotland

Old photograph of Crofters scything on the Isle of Lewis, Outer Hebrides, SScotland. As a form of land use, crofting has been extremely successful in maintaining rural populations in areas where they would otherwise certainly have disappeared. History Blog post of interest to folks with ancestry, genealogy or Scottish Family Roots in Scotland who may wish to travel and 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.