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 travel Blog photograph of the town hall in Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, Scotland. The first town hall on this site was completed in 1905 but was burnt down in 1918. The current building was completed in 1929. The clock tower in the centre building gained some fame from the Calum Kennedy song Lovely Stornoway. This Scottish town was founded by Vikings in the early 9th century, under the name Stjórnavágr. This town, and what eventually became its present day version, grew up around a sheltered natural harbour well placed at a central point on the island, for the convenience of people from all over the island, to arrive at the port of Stornoway, either by family boat or horse drawn coach for ongoing travel and trade with the mainland of Scotland and to all points south.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
Old travel Blog photograph of fishing boats in the harbour in Helmsdale, Sutherland, Scotland. The modern village was planned in 1814 to resettle communities that had been removed from the surrounding straths as part of the Highland Clearances. It is a fishing port at the estuary of the River Helmsdale, and was once the home of one of the largest herring fleets in Europe. The village is on the A9 road, at a junction with the A897, and has a railway station on the Far North Line. Andrew Rutherford, born 23 July 1929, died 13 January 1998, was born in Helmsdale. He was a British scholar and university administrator. He was Vice Chancellor of the University of London from 1994 to 1997. In 1953 he married Nancy Browning and they had two sons and a daughter. He died in Edinburgh. Of interest to folks with ancestry, genealogy or Scottish Family Roots in Scotland who may wish to visit one day.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
Old travel Blog photograph of people walking by the Union Canal at Polmont near Falkirk, Scotland. The name Polmont derives from the Scottish Gaelic term Poll-Mhonadh, which translates into English as Pool of the Moor. Old Polmont, situated on a raised beach overlooking the Firth of Forth and the Ochils, which was an important fort on the Roman Antonine Wall. This fort, embankment and water source has been marked out and can be visited in Polmont Woods, close to the M9 motorway. The Union Canal runs adjacent to the village. The Union Canal is a canal running from Falkirk to Edinburgh, constructed to bring minerals, especially coal, to the capital. It was opened in 1822 and was initially successful, but the construction of railways, particularly the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, opened in 1842, diminished its value as a transport medium. It fell into slow commercial decline and was closed to commercial traffic in 1933. It was officially closed in 1965. The canal is now used for recreation by canoeists at the Forth Canoe Club and rowers from schools and universities, e.g. St Andrew Boat Club, George Heriots School Rowing Club and George Watsons College Rowing Club. The Edinburgh Canal Society, the Bridge 1940 Canal Society and Linlithgow Union Canal Society promote general use of the canal.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
Old travel Blog photograph of houses, cottage and the hotel in Logierait, Perthshire, Scotland. Logierait is a village in Atholl, Scotland. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Tay and Tummel, half a mile west of the A9 road. It was the birthplace of the sociologist Adam Ferguson and the Canadian politician John McIntosh and Alexander Mackenzie, Canada's second Prime Minister. Nearby is an ancient Ash tree, the Dule Tree of the district from which thieves and murderers were hanged.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
Old travel Blog photograph of a cyclist on the road to Spinningdale, Sutherland, Scotland. Spinningdale is possibly named from the Norse for round valley, and is a hamlet on the north shore of Dornoch Firth in eastern Sutherland, Scottish Highlands. James Robertson Justice, British actor, lived in a cottage in Spinningdale for 16 years from 1954 until 1970. Born on 15 June 1907, he was the son of an Aberdeen born geologist and named after his father, James Robertson Justice who was born James Norval Harald Justice in Lee, a suburb of Lewisham in South London, England, in 1907. Educated at Marlborough College in Wiltshire, Justice studied science at University College London, but left after a year and became a geology student at the University of Bonn, where he again left after just a year. He spoke many languages, including Spanish, French, Greek, Danish, Russian, German, Italian, Dutch and Gaelic. Feeling strongly about his Scottish ancestry, he once claimed to have been born in 1905 under a whisky distillery on the Isle of Skye; many sources listed his birthplace as Wigtown, Wigtownshire, now in Dumfries and Galloway. Justice took up acting after joining the Players' Theatre in London. He was the demanding surgeon Sir Lancelot Spratt in the Doctor series of films of the 1950s and 1960s, beginning with Doctor in the House in 1954, playing a role for which he is possibly best remembered. In his films he was sometimes credited as Seumas Mòr na Feusag, Scottish Gaelic, translation: Big James with the Beard. Not long after completing his work for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in 1968, Justice suffered a severe stroke, which signalled the beginning of the end for his career. He suffered a further series of strokes, which left him unable to work, and he died penniless in 1975. His ashes were buried in a north Scotland moor near his former residence in the Highland village of Spinningdale.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
