Old Travel Blog Photograph Coppice Hotel Callander Scotland

Old travel Blog photograph of the Coppice Hotel in Callander, Trossachs, Scotland. The town serves as the eastern gateway to the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park, the first National Park in Scotland, and is often referred to as the Gateway to the Highlands. The second to last person to be tried and imprisoned for the crime of Witchcraft in the UK was Helen Duncan, from Callander, during World War Two. As late as 1845 Scottish Gaelic was still spoken in Callander with two schools still teaching it. 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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Old Travel Blog Photograph Marine Hotel Mallaig Scotland

Old travel Blog photograph of a vintage car and passenger bus outside the Marine Hotel in Mallaig, Lochaber, Scotland. Mallaig is a port in Lochaber, on the west coast of the Highlands. The local railway station, Mallaig, is the terminus of the West Highland railway line, Fort William and Mallaig branch, completed in 1901, and the town is linked to Fort William by the A830 road, the Road to the Isles. The village of Mallaig was founded in the 1840s, when Lord Lovat, owner of North Morar Estate, divided up the farm of Mallaigvaig into seventeen parcels of land and encouraged his tenants to move to the western part of the peninsula and turn to fishing as a way of life. The population and local economy expanded rapidly in the 20th century with the arrival of the railway. Ferries operated by Caledonian MacBrayne and Bruce Watt Sea Cruises sail from the port to Armadale on the Isle of Skye, Inverie in Knoydart, and the isles of Rùm, Eigg, Muck, and Canna. Mallaig is the main commercial fishing port on the West Coast of Scotland, and during the 1960s was the busiest herring port in Europe.



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

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Old Travel Blog Photograph South Bishopbriggs Scotland

Old travel Blog photograph of vintage cars in South Bishopbriggs, Glasgow, Scotland. This part of Scotland was once in the historic parish of Cadder, originally lands granted by King William the Lion to the Bishop of Glasgow, Jocelin, in 1180. With the completion of the Forth and Clyde Canal in 1790, the area began to attract ironstone and coal mining industry. The area also continued to be a major centre for freestone quarrying during the 19th Century, supplying many major municipal building projects in Glasgow. The Glasgow tramway network was extended north from Springburn to Bishopbriggs in 1903. During the Second World War, the town was bombed by the Luftwaffe at around midnight on 7 April 1941. After the war, an unprecedented boost to the town's population came about as a result of the large scale house building programme. Bishopbriggs close geographic proximity to Glasgow now effectively makes it a suburb and commuter town of the city.



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

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Old Travel Blog Photograph Salt Water Bathing Pool Saltcoats Scotland

Old travel Blog photograph of children by the salt water bathing pool in Saltcoats, a small town on the west coast of North Ayrshire, Scotland. In the late 1880s, a bathing pool was built on the site of the former saltpans. This was in a rocky cove, which is at one end of what is now Winton Circus. This bathing pool had changing facilities and some seated accommodation for spectators although seating was often just the surrounding rocks in the bay. This proved to be a very popular venue. This pool was replaced in the 1930s. 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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Old Travel Blog Photograph West Common Arbroath Scotland

Old travel Blog photograph of the tennis courts, putting green and people on the West Common in Arbroath, Angus, Scotland. Tennis in its earlier forms was introduced into Scotland from France in the Middle Ages. It was traditionally known as " caitch " or " cache " in Scotland, and is an ancestor of the better known form of tennis. In the nineteenth century, tennis was a fairly exclusive sport, with high level participation being mainly by the upper classes. Scotland produced two Wimbledon men's champions in this period, Herbert Lawford and Harold Mahony. However, to complicate matters, Lawford was born in England but died in Scotland, and Mahony was Scottish born, but died in County Kerry, Ireland, where his family were from.



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

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