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 of photograph of the Forest Lodge at Abernethy near Nethy Bridge, Scotland. Abernethy Forest, in the Cairngorms National Park, is a remnant of the Caledonian Forest. The forest is home to a variety of birds and mammals, including Scottish crossbill, red squirrel, wildcat, red deer, black grouse, crested tit and osprey. There is also a capercaillie lek. Abernethy Forest is the largest remaining remnant of the Ancient Caledonian Forest in Scotland.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
Old travel Blog photograph of the Spouting Cave, Uamh an t-Seididh in Scottish Gaelic, situated on the south west coast of the Isle of Iona in the Inner Hebrides off the West coast of Scotland. It is a natural phenomenon. At low to medium tide, with a decent swell and a north westerly breeze, a plume of spray regularly bursts into the air. Iona Abbey, now an ecumenical church, is of particular historical and religious interest to pilgrims and visitors alike to Iona. It is the most elaborate and best preserved ecclesiastical building surviving from the Middle Ages in the Western Isles. In front of the Abbey stands the 9th century St Martin's Cross, one of the best preserved Celtic crosses in the British Isles, and a replica of the 8th century St John's Cross.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
Old travel Blog photograph of the pier at Scapa Flow, meaning bay of the long isthmus, a body of water in the Orkney Islands, Scotland. In 1880 Scapa Pier, 2 miles from Kirkwall on the Southern side, was opened and became the main terminal for Orkney. In more recent years Kirkwall has become the more important port. Scapa Flow is sheltered by the islands of Mainland, Graemsay, Burray, South Ronaldsay and Hoy. Scapa Flow had been used many times for exercises in the years before World War I , and when the time came for the British fleet to move to a northern station, Scapa Flow was chosen for the main base of the British Grand Fleet, even though it was also unfortified. Following the German defeat in World War I, 74 ships of the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet were interned in Gutter Sound at Scapa Flow pending a decision on their future in the peace Treaty of Versailles. On 21 June 1919, after nine months of waiting, Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter, the German officer in command at Scapa Flow, made the decision to scuttle the fleet because the negotiation period for the treaty had lapsed with no word of a settlement. After waiting for the bulk of the British fleet to leave on exercises, he gave the order to scuttle the ships to prevent their falling into British hands. The Royal Navy made desperate efforts to board the ships to prevent the sinkings, but the German crews had spent the idle months preparing for the order. The British did eventually manage to beach the battleship Baden, the light cruisers Nürnberg, and Frankfurt together with 18 destroyers, but the remaining 52 ships, the vast bulk of the High Seas Fleet, were sunk without loss of life. Nine German sailors died when British forces opened fire as they attempted to scuttle their ship, reputedly the last casualties of World War I. At least seven of the scuttled German ships, and a number of sunken British ships, can be visited by scuba divers. 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 Gill Pier at Pierowall on Westray, Orkney Islands, Scotland. Pierowall village is the Westray island's largest settlement and lies near its northern end, around Pierowall Bay. It has a variety of historical remains dating from the Neolithic, the Iron Age, the Middle Ages, and later, including a large pagan Norse cemetery. Supplementing the ferries which come into Pierowall Harbour, some seven miles to the south of the village is the main ferry terminal at Rapness, on the southernmost tip of Westray, which has better ferry links with Papa Westray and Kirkwall.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
Old travel Blog photograph of Bothican Bay, Papa Westray, one of the Orkney Islands, Scotland. According to tradition, in the 8th century AD, the Pictish King Nechtan attempted to seduce a young woman from the island named Triduana, who in response gouged her own eyes out. She later became abbess of a nunnery at Restalrig, now part of Edinburgh, and was in due course canonised as St Tredwell. A chapel was consecrated to her on Papa Westray and became a place of pilgrimage for people with eye complaints. John D. Mackay, born 1909, in Maeback, Papa Westray, died December 1970, was a Scottish schoolteacher. He taught on Stronsay and North Ronaldsay before working as headmaster of Sanday School between 1946 and 1970. He is remembered locally for writing to The Times in 1967 suggesting that Orkney and Shetland be returned to Norway after five centuries as part of Scotland. His letter brought publicity to Orkney and boosted some residents' morale, at a time when absorption into the administrative structure of the Scottish Highlands seemed destined to cause a reduction in the powers of the local authorities.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
