Old Photograph Royal Navy Marines Invergordon Scotland

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.



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Old Photograph Patrick Carnegie Simpson Scotland

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.



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Old Photograph The Pans Port Elgin Scotland

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.



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Old Photograph Wishing Well Elgin Scotland

Old photograph of the Wishing Well by The Oakwood Motel two miles West of Elgin, a former cathedral city and Royal Burgh in Moray, Scotland. The Motel was built in 1932. The 14 cabins added in 1939 made the Oakwood the first motel in Scotland, perhaps in Britain. The 100 metres deep Artesian well provides a never failing water supply.



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Old Photograph Breachacha Castle Isle Of Coll Scotland

Old photograph of Breachacha Castle on the shore of Loch Breachacha on the Isle of Coll which is West of Isle Of Mull, Scotland. This is a 15th century tower house that was a stronghold of the Clan Macleas of Coll, the island having been granted to John Maclean in 1431. This castle was superseded by a new dwelling in 1750 but continued to be occupied for a time, falling into a ruinous state only in the middle of the 19th century. The castle was restored to habitable condition only in the 1960s, by Major Neil V. MacLean Bristol and his wife Lavinia.





All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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