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 young Scots at school in Whithorn in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. Located about ten miles south of Wigtown, the town was the location of the first recorded Christian church in Scotland, Candida Casa: the White, or Shining House, built by Saint Ninian about 397.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
Old photograph of school children in Stranraer, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. Around 1600, Stranraer had become the market town for western Wigtownshire. At about this time, Stranraer was reached by a military road built from Dumfries to allow easier access to Portpatrick for transportation of people to Ireland for the Plantation of Ulster. Stranraer became a royal burgh in 1617. The first harbour in Stranraer was built in the middle of the 18th century, with further port development in the 1820s. The arrival of the railway from Dumfries in 1861, which closed in 1965), which gave the shortest journey to/from London, England, established Stranraer as the area's main port. In 1862, the line was extended to serve the harbour directly, and a link to Portpatrick was also opened. In 1877, a rail connection north to Girvan and Glasgow was also established. Stranraer remained the main Scottish port for the Irish ferries for the next 150 years or so.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
Old photograph of of school children in Wigtown, Scotland. Wigtown gives its name to the county of Wigtownshire. Wigtown was made a royal burgh in 1469 although a settlement here existed long before this. The burgh is mentioned in an indenture of 1292, and the fact that the sheriffdom was in existence at the time of the Largs campaign of 1263 suggests that the burgh may also have been recognized as such during the reign of King Alexander III.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
Old photograph of Midhope Castle, also known as Lallybroch, a 16th century tower house, in Abercorn in West Lothian, Scotland. During the latter 16th century, the castle belonged to Alexander Drummond of Midhope, brother to Robert Drummond of Carnock, Master of Work to the Crown of Scotland. A stone inscribed " AD 1582 MB " commemorates Alexander and his wife Marjory Bruce. Midhope Castle is featured as a location in the Outlander TV series on Starz as the main character, Jamie Fraser's family home. Midhope Castle is the real castle that is portrayed as Lallybroch, and is not in Inverness-shire in the Highlands, as detailed in the book, but actually located between South Queensferry and Linlithgow on the edges of the private Hopetoun Estate, which includes the well known Hopetoun House.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
Old photograph of the Lady Ailsa cargo boat at the pier on Ailsa Craig an island in the outer Firth of Clyde, in South Ayrshire, Scotland. The only surviving buildings on the island are the lighthouse on its east coast facing the Scottish mainland, a ruined tower house, that was built by Clan Hamilton to protect the area from King Felipe II of Spain in the 16th century and the old quarry manager's cottage. Lady Ailsa was a British Cargo Steamer of 1,219 tons built in 1888 by Ailsa of Troon for J. & A. Wyllie, London. In 1899 she was renamed Belgian Prince and in 1897 she was renamed Hopefuly by her new owners F. H. Powell & Company. On the 13th February 1903 she was in collision off the Longships and sank. Longships is a group of rocky islets situated approximately 1 1⁄4 miles west of Land's End, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
