Old Photograph Carlow Memorial Miners Home Culross Fife Scotland

Old photograph of Carlow Memorial Miners Home by Culross, Fife, Scotland. This Scottish building provides convalescent breaks for coal miners, retired miners and their carers. The house was built on the site of Old Blair Castle which was built around 1632. During the First World War, the house and estate were bought by the Fife Coal Company who were intent only on acquiring the mineral rights. In 1927, the house, grounds and a substantial sum of money to support costs were gifted to the Fife, Kinross and Clackmannan Welfare Committee for use as a convalescent home. The home was named the Carlow Miners' Convalescent Home in memory of Charles Carlow, the long serving Managing Director of the Fife Coal Company. As the mining industry declined and equivalent facilities began to close, so Blair Castle became available to miners and their families from across Scotland.



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Old Photograph Paddling Pool Leven Fife Scotland

Old photograph of children in the paddling pool in Leven, Fife, Scotland.



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Old Photograph Vintage Cars Tay Street Perth Perthshire Scotland

Old photograph of vintage cars on Tay Street in Perth, Perthshire, Scotland.



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Old Photograph Beinn Tarsuinn Island Of Arran Scotland

Old photograph of Beinn Tarsuinn, Island of Arran, Scotland. Beinn Tarsuinn is a mountain located between Glen Rosa to the east and Glen Iorsa to the west. It is often climbed in conjunction with the adjacent peak of Cìr Mhòr, to which it is linked by a rocky ridge forming the subsidiary top of A' Chìr. The crossing of A' Chìr involves scrambling, however the two peaks can be linked without crossing A' Chìr by means of a path that traverse the ridge's western side. The simplest and shortest route up Beinn Tarsuinn is via one of the two ridges on either side of the Coire a' Bhradain; both ridges drop down into Glen Rosa, the usual access for most walkers to this group of hills.



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Old Photograph Flowerdale House Scotland

Old photograph of Flowerdale house, below Creag a Chait, the Cat's Rock in Gairloch, Scotland. Flowerdale House is situated in a beautiful glen of the same name, just inland from Gairloch's harbour at Charlestown. It is the family seat of the Mackenzies of Gairloch. The original house at Gairloch was called Tigh Dige or Moat House. It was in a hollow below the mansion seen here and had a moat and drawbridge. The present house was built in 1738 for Sir Alexander Mackenzie and his wife, Janet. Their initials and the date are carved on the skewputts. It was the first house in the district to have a slated roof and was then named Tigh Digh nam gorm Leac, Moat House of the blue slates. In 1904 an extension by Andrew Maitland and Son included the stepped gable and the large bow addition at the front. Conflict continued between Clan Macleod and Mackenzies. There is a story that, on seeing a Macleod boat coming in to the bay, a Mackenzie archer shot the look-out, who was up the mast, from the roof of the house, a distance of half a mile. In 1745 the captain of a man-of-war, searching for Prince Charlie, invited the laird on board. The laird declined as he has was dining with guests on top of the high rock, Creag a Chait, behind Tigh Dige but asked the captain to join them. The reply was a broadside to the house, the canon ball lodging in the gable end. Fraser of Foyers, fleeing after Culloden, was hidden for some time in a secret recess in the house. In September 1921 the Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, was staying at Flowerdale House when he heard that Ireland had rejected the King and Empire. He called the cabinet at Inverness, the one and only time it met outside London, England. Osgood Mackenzie, born 1842, died 1922, Hector's descendant, writing in 1922, states that tourists seeing the profusion of wild flowers in the lovely Glen suggested it should be named Flowerdale but that during his life the house was only ever called Tigh Dige and the place Am Baile Mor.



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