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 buildings and people on Langton Gate Street in Duns in the Scottish Borders, Scotland. This Scottish town was created a Burgh of Barony in 1490 by King James IV for John and George Hume of Ayton, and the townsfolk were given the right to hold a market every Wednesday, and to hold a week long annual fair between Pentecost and Trinity Sunday. Duns suffered badly in cross border raiding and feuding, and was burned to the ground three times within 14 years, in 1544, 1545 and 1558 during the war of the Rough Wooing.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
Old photograph of a blacksmith shoeing a horse in Midlem, a small village located four miles South of Selkirk, Scottish Borders, Scotland. A blacksmith was also a farrier, a specialist in equine hoof care, including the trimming and balancing of horses' hooves and the placing of shoes on their hooves, if necessary. A farrier combined some blacksmith's skills, fabricating, adapting, and adjusting metal shoes, with some veterinarian's skills, knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of the lower limb, to care for horses feet.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
Old photograph of Royal Navy Marines rowing to the beach at Invergordon, Ross and Cromarty, Scotland. Invergordon has been a port since the early 18th Century. The Royal Navy visited the port during the Jacobite uprisings of 1715 and 1745. The town of Invergordon was named after Sir William Gordon who was a prominent landowner. In 1907, Invergordon and Cromarty Firth welcomed 14.5 thousand men and 20 torpedo boats, 12 battleships, six cruisers, and two scout ships. In 1912, the UK Ministry of Defense established a permanent naval base there which was in use until 1993. During World War I, Cromarty Firth was a fully equipped navy base and dockyard. The Invergordon Mutiny was an industrial action by around 1,000 sailors in the British Atlantic Fleet that took place on 15 and 16 September 1931. For two days, ships of the Royal Navy at Invergordon were in open mutiny, in one of the few military strikes in British history.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
Old photograph of Patrick Carnegie Simpson who was raised at his aunt's house in Morningside, Edinburgh, Scotland. Patrick, born 1865, died 1947, was a leading Presbyterian churchman during the opening years of the 20th Century. After being ordained in 1895, he served in a number of towns in Scotland and England, notably Renfield Church, Glasgow, and Egremont, Wallasey, before being appointed, in 1914, to the Chair of Church History at Westminster College, Cambridge. During the period leading up to the Scottish Church Crisis between 1900 and 1905, he worked closely with Principal Rainy, his former professor at New College, Edinburgh, in his efforts to secure the union of the Free and the United Presbyterian Churches. In the post World War I period, he played a significant role in the area of inter Church relations, particularly during the Lambeth Conversations and the Revised Prayer Book controversy. As an author, two of his books, The Fact of Christ and The Life of Principle Rainy earned widespread acclaim. In 1928, Carnegie Simpson was elected Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of England. He retired from Westminster College in 1937. It was during a trip to Norway that Carnegie Simpson met his future wife, the daughter of a Danish Lutheran pastor, whom he married in 1894. Agnes Schmalz came from a very different background to the austere Presbyterian environment in which Carnegie Simpson had been brought up. She was a highly accomplished pianist and " Lieder " singer and accustomed to moving in cosmopolitan and artistic circles. One of Carnegie Simpson's earliest publications, a joint publication in collaboration with his wife, is a translation from the German dedicated to the life of Richard Wagner. They had one child, a daughter, Agnes Margaret Carnegie Simpson, who was among the pioneering generation of women doctors, qualifying from Edinburgh University in 1924. Carnegie Simpson died in Cambridge in 1947.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
Old photograph of The Pans Port in Elgin, a former cathedral city and Royal Burgh in Moray, Scotland. The arch to the South East of the Cathedral is known as the Panns Port or Water Yett and represents the eastern gateway to the Cathedral and College precinct. The cathedral, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, was established in 1224 on land granted by King Alexander II outside the burgh of Elgin and close to the River Lossie. It was unaffected by the Wars of Scottish Independence but suffered extensive fire damage in 1390 following an attack by Robert III's brother Alexander Stewart, Earl of Buchan, also known as the Wolf of Badenoch. In 1402 the cathedral precinct again suffered an incendiary attack by the followers of the Lord of the Isles. The number of clerics required to staff the cathedral continued to grow, as did the number of craftsmen needed to maintain the buildings and surrounds. The number of canons had increased to 25 by the time of the Scottish Reformation in 1560, when the cathedral was abandoned and its services transferred to Elgin's parish church of St Giles. After the removal of the lead that waterproofed the roof in 1567, the cathedral steadily fell into decay. Its deterioration was arrested in the 19th century, by which time the building was in a substantially ruinous condition.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
