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 the Caledonian MacBrayne Ferry at Colintraive village on the Cowal peninsula in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. Colintraive lies on the A886 road, which crosses to the Isle of Bute here. A ferry crosses the 400 yard gap to Rhubodach on Bute, giving access to the tourist town of Rothesay. The name Colintraive derives from Gaelic and means " swimming strait " or " swimming narrows ". In the past, cattle were swum over from the Isle of Bute to Colintraive on their way to the markets of lowland Scotland.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
Old photograph of Duisdale Hotel and gardens Isleornsay on the Isle Of Skye, Scotland. Emigration from the Highlands and Islands was endemic in the 19th century and the company that ran the Isleornsay store, MacDonald and Elder, acted as emigration agents from the early 1800s. In 1822 they advertised that they were able to " to fit out transports for the conveyance of passengers from Inverness and the West Coast of Scotland to the east coast of Canada. " In the 1830s a programme of assisted passages to Australia from the Sleat peninsula was organised. The William Nicol sailed to Sydney from Isleornsay in July 1837 with 322 passengers including 70 families from Sleat. At the time it was reported that so many local people wished to emigrate that the ship could not accommodate all those who wanted to embark.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
Old photograph of the Witches Rock overlooking the River Tilt in Glen Tilt by Blair Castle in Highland Perthshire, Scotland. Scottish women who were deemed to be witches were thrown off the rock. Those who were supposed to be witches could save themselves from drowning; those who weren’t drowned !
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
Old photograph of the Panmure Hotel in Edzell, Angus, Scotland. The existing village of Slateford was expanded in the early 19th century by the Earl of Panmure. The new parish church, replacing the one in the old village, was built in 1818 on the village's north boundary, and led to the official renaming of the village as Edzell. In 1861, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert visited Edzell, as part of a Royal progress through Angus and Kincardineshire, just weeks before Albert's sudden death. Edzell was not connected to the railway until 1896, and only had a passenger service until 1931, although it reopened experimentally in the summer of 1938. The line closed to freight traffic in 1964.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
Old photograph of the Parish Church in Hurlford, East Ayrshire, Scotland. Robert Dunsmuir was a Scottish Canadian coal mine developer, owner and operator, railway developer, industrialist and politician in British Columbia, Canada. Dunsmuir was born on August 31, 1825, in Hurlford, Scotland to 20 year old James Dunsmuir and his wife Elizabeth in 1825. At the time of his birth, his family was engaged in the coal business in his native Ayrshire. On September 11, 1847, at the age of 22, Dunsmuir married 19year old Joan White. At the end of 1850, Dunsmuir's mentor, and his aunt's husband, Boyd Gilmour, had signed on with the Hudson's Bay Company to exploit a coal finding on the northeast coast of Vancouver Island at Fort Rupert. Because some of those who were to travel with him decided not to go upon hearing news of the conditions and prospects there, Gilmour sought replacements for his party at the last moment. On 24 hours' notice of this opportunity, Dunsmuir signed on. They sailed on the Pekin, for Fort Vancouver, via Cape Horn, on December 19, 1850. It took 191 days for them to arrive. Eight days later, on July 8, 1851, Joan Dunsmuir gave birth to their third child, James Dunsmuir. He eventually becamne one of the founders of the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway Company which built the rail line from Esquimalt to Nanaimo, later extended to Wellington, Victoria and Courtenay. His company received a grant of land comprising 20% of Vancouver Island as an incentive to build and equip the railway line to be owned and operated by the company. The Dunsmuir railway station was named after him. Dunsmuir was elected to the BC Legislature representing Nanaimo in the 1882 election while away on a European holiday, and was re-elected in 1886. Shortly after election to the legislature, he entered the cabinet. Dunsmuir died on April 12, 1889, at Victoria, British Columbia while still in office.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
