Tour Scotland photographs and videos from my tours of Scotland. Photography and videography, both old and new, from beautiful Scotland, Scottish castles, seascapes, rivers, islands, landscapes, standing stones, lochs and glens.
Old photograph of workers painting the Forth Railway Bridge which spans the Firth of Forth from North Queensferry in the Kingdom of Fife to South Queensferry, Scotland. The Forth Bridge is a cantilever railway bridge over the Firth of Forth in the east of Scotland, nine miles West of Edinburgh City Centre. It was opened on 4 March 1890.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
Old photograph of Castle Urquhart, Loch Ness, Scotland. Though extensively ruined, it was in its day one of the largest strongholds of medieval Scotland, and remains an impressive structure, splendidly situated on a headland overlooking Loch Ness. It is also near the castle where the majority of Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster, sightings occur.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
Old photograph of Reverend Norman Macleod from Campbeltown, Argyll, Scotland. This Scottish clergyman and author was born on 3 June 1812, and died on 16 June 1872. He was born in Kirk Street, Campbeltown, to the Rev. Dr. Norman Macleod and Agnes Maxwell; his paternal grandfather, a minister of the parish of Morvern in Argyllshire, bore the same name. His father, at that time minister of Campbeltown, was himself an exceptional man. His entire life was closely bound to the Highlanders of Scotland, catering to their spiritual and intellectual needs. In 1827, young Macleod became a student at the University of Glasgow; in 1831, he went to Edinburgh to study divinity under Dr Thomas Chalmers. On 18 March 1838, he became parish minister at Loudoun, Ayrshire. In August 1851, he married, Catherine Ann, daughter of William Mackintosh of Geddes, and sister of John Mackintosh. In 1860 Macleod was appointed editor of the new monthly magazine Good Words, illustrated by Arthur Hughes, Francis Arthur Fraser, born 1846, died 1924, John Leighton, James Mahoney, born 1810, died 1879, Francis S. Walker, Townley Green and others. In 1865, Macleod risked an encounter with Scottish Sabbatarian ideas. The presbytery of Glasgow issued a pastoral letter on the subject of Sunday trains and other infringements of the Christian Sabbath. Macleod protested against the grounds on which its strictures were based. For a time, owing partly to a misleading report of his statement, he became the man in all Scotland most profoundly distrusted. But four years later the Church accorded him the highest honor in her power by choosing him as moderator of her general assembly. In 1867, along with Dr Archibald Watson, Macleod was sent to India, to inquire into the state of the missions. He undertook the journey in spite of failing health, and seems never to have recovered from its effects. He returned resolved to devote the rest of his days to rousing the Church to her duty in the sphere of foreign missions, but his health was now broken, and his old energy flagged. On 16 June 1872, he died in Glasgow. He was buried at Campsie. His grandson, George MacLeod was to also become Moderator of the Church of Scotland, having founded the Iona Community.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
Old photograph of Gala Day in Biggar, South Lanarkshire, Scotland. Biggar was the birthplace of Thomas Gladstones, the grandfather of William Ewart Gladstone. Hugh MacDiarmid spent his later years at Brownsbank, near the town. Ian Hamilton Finlay's home and garden at Little Sparta is nearby in the Pentland Hills. The fictional Midculter, which features in Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles novels, is set here. The town hosts an annual arts festival, the Biggar Little Festival. The town has traditionally held a huge bonfire at Hogmanay.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
Old photograph of the cattle market in Brechin in Angus, Scotland. The Taranty or Trinity market was an annual tryst held in Brechin, mainly for the purpose of selling and buying of cattle and horses. Old cattle trails, or drove roads, radiate out from Trinity Muir Market Place, which is where Brechin's markets were once held.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
