Old Travel Blog Photograph Drinking Well Carluke Scotland

Old travel Blog photograph of the drinking well in the market square in Carluke located four miles South East of Wishaw in South Lanarkshire, Scotand. This town was chartered as a Royal Burgh in 1662. Carluke expanded during through the industrial age, with work involving corn milling, cotton weaving, coal mining and the manufacture of bricks, glass, confectionery and jam. Major Thomas Weir was born in Carluke in 1599. He was the son of Thomas Weir, Laird of Kirkton, and his wife Lady Jean Somerville who was reputed to possess clairvoyant powers. He was a signatory to the Solemn League and Covenant and an officer in the Scottish anti Royalist army. As a Lieutenant, he served in Ulster during the Irish Rebellion of 1641. In 1650, he obtained the post of commander of the Edinburgh Town Guard, thus acquiring the rank of major. When the defeated royalist general Montrose, branded a traitor for changing sides, was brought to Edinburgh for execution, Weir notoriously mocked and abused him during his custody. Following retirement, Weir fell ill in 1670, and from his sick bed began to confess to a secret life of crime and vice. The Lord Provost initially found the confession implausible and took no action, but eventually Weir and his spinster sister, Jean Weir, known to her friends as Grizel, were taken to the Edinburgh Tolbooth for interrogation. Major Weir, now in his seventies, continued to expand on his confession and Grizel, having seemingly entirely lost her wits, gave an even more exaggerated history of witchcraft, sorcery and vice. Whilst as a high ranking public figure Weir was not believed at first, his own confession together with that of his sister sealed his fate. Both were quickly found guilty at their trial and sentenced to death in 1670.



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Old Travel Blog Photograph University College Dundee Scotland

Old travel Blog photograph of University College in Dundee, Scotland. University College was founded by a deed of endowment of Miss Mary Anne Baxter on 31 December 1881 and was officially opened in 1883. It was to be a comprehensive university college to teach both men and women in a wide variety of subjects except divinity and medicine. Students were allowed to matriculate at St Andrews in Fife from 1885, but it was not until 1897 that more formal links were resolved into incorporation of University College Dundee within the University of St Andrews. The Conjoint School of Medicine opened in 1898. In 1954, Queen's College Dundee was formed from University College, the Medical School, the Dental School and Dundee School of Economics. In 1967 Queen's College Dundee became independent of St Andrews as the University of Dundee by Royal Charter.



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Old Travel Blog Photograph Chance Inn Inverkeilor Angus Scotland

Old travel Blog photograph of the Chance Inn in Inverkeilor near Arbroath, Scotland. This was once a coaching inn and you can still see the low archway where the horses and carriages would have gone through. This is not the first Chance Inn. The first hostelry of that name was located approximately 1 mile to the south on what is now a country back road. This had originally been the main road between Dundee and Aberdeen, but when a new road was constructed, on the same line as the main road today, then the inn was also moved, so as not to lose its trade.



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

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Old Travel Blog Photograph Passenger Bus New Lanark Scotland

Old travel Blog photograph of a Wilsons passenger bus on the road to New Lanark, Scotland. New Lanark is a village on the River Clyde, approximately 1.4 miles from Lanark, in Lanarkshire, and some 25 miles south east of Glasgow. It was founded in 1786 by David Dale, who built cotton mills and housing for the mill workers. Dale built the mills there in a brief partnership with the English inventor and entrepreneur Richard Arkwright to take advantage of the water power provided by the only waterfalls on the River Clyde. Under the ownership of a partnership that included Dale's son-in-law, Robert Owen, a Welsh philanthropist and social reformer, New Lanark became a successful business and an early example of a planned settlement and so an important milestone in the historical development of urban planning.



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Old Travel Blog Photograph East High Street Airdrie Scotland

Old travel Blog photograph shops, vintage cars and people on East High Street in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. This Scottish town really came to prominence through its weaving industry. Airdrie Weavers Society was founded in 1781 and flax was being grown in sixteen farms in and around the burgh. In the last decade of the eighteenth century, coal mining was in progress and around thirty colliers were employed. Weaving continued to flourish making up a substantial part of the population of over 2,500 around the turn of the 19th century. 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.

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