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 Clerkington House by Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland. Clerkington House, now demolished, was requisitioned during World War II for use as the Headquarters of 405 Searchlight Company. Searchlights were installed in Clerkington Gardens. The 4/5th Battalion, The Queen’s Edinburgh Royal Scots, manned these lights, having become a Searchlight Regiment in 1938. Such passive work was not to the liking of the soldiers involved since the Royal Scots had long been riflemen and its members viewed searchlights as distinctly second best. The 405th Searchlight Company manned sites in East Lothian, with the Company Headquarters at Clerkington House, near Haddington. The 405th was commanded by Major JB Allan and spent July 1939 in camp at Crossgates in Fife where it underwent long periods of training. When mobilization was ordered on 1st September, the units deployed to their war stations.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
Old photograph of the Manse, the birthplace of Sir William Robertson Nicoll, in Lumsden, located seven miles from Alford, Scotland. Nicoll was born on 10 October 1851, in Lumsden, Aberdeenshire, the son of a Free Church minister. He was educated at Aberdeen Grammar School and graduated MA at the University of Aberdeen in 1870, and studied for the ministry at the Free Church Divinity Hall there until 1874, when he was ordained minister of the Free Church at Dufftown, Banffshire. Three years later he moved to Kelso, and in 1884 became editor of The Expositor for Hodder and Stoughton, a position which he held until his death on 4 May 1923. In 1885, Nicoll was forced to retire from pastoral ministry after an attack of typhoid had badly damaged his lung. In 1886 he moved south to London, England, which became the base for the rest of his life. With the support of Hodder and Stoughton he founded the British Weekly, a Nonconformist newspaper, which also gained great influence over opinion in the churches in Scotland. Nicoll secured many writers of exceptional talent for his paper, including Marcus Dods, J. M. Barrie, Ian Maclaren, Alexander Whyte, Alexander Maclaren, Carnegie Simpson and James Denney, to which he added his own considerable talents as a contributor. He began a highly popular feature, " Correspondence of Claudius Clear ", which enabled him to share his interests and his reading with his readers. He was also the founding editor of The Bookman from 1891, and acted as chief literary adviser to Hodder and Stoughton.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
Old photograph of the church in Garvald village south of Haddington, Scotland. The church is situated at the eastern end of the village. The north west corner of the church is 12th century; the south wall has a sundial upon it dated 1633, and the north aisle is of 1677. In 1829 John Swinton, from Haddington, completely remodelled the church, which included four Gothic windows and the Western belfry. The Rector of Garvald in 1504 was Master Patrick Coventrie, who held a BA in Theology.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
Old photograph of Mearnskirk Hospital in Newton Mearns, Scotland. In 1913, Glasgow Corporation bought Southfield Estate along with four of its neighbouring farms, Hazelden Head, Westfield, Eastfield and Langrig, with the intention of using it as a country home for children who were not thriving and at risk from tuberculosis. The mansion house was to be kept as an administrative building and there were to be 300 beds for children and 160 sanatorium beds for adults. However, these plans were delayed by World War 1. By 1919, when the plans were revised, the mansion house was in such poor repair that the decision was made to demolish it. On 9 May 1930, the new Mearnskirk Hospital for children opened as a tuberculosis hospital for children under the age of 15. The first patients were a group of children transferred from Robroyston Hospital in Glasgow. Ironically, one of the group, 6 year old George McEwan presented,on behalf of the staff of Robroyston Hospital, a gift of a large box of cigarettes to the new superintendent, Dr. John Wilson. The hospital was officially opened on 12 October 1932 by HRH the Duchess of York, the late Queen Mother, who planted a tree to commemorate the event.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
