Old Travel Blog Photograph Lady Bute`s Hospital Cumnock Scotland


Old travel Blog photograph of Lady Bute`s in Cumnock in East Ayrshire, Scotland. Bute Hospital or Lady Bute`s Hospital in Barrhill Road was the gift of Lady Bute in 1882. It was staffed by nurses from the Sisters of the Sacred Heart and had 10 beds and 3 cots. It was used for all types of medical work and was often used for the treatment of victims of mining accidents. It was closed in 1950 at the formation of the National Health Service. It later became a convent but was eventually demolished and replaced by the houses of Murray Court.



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Old Travel Blog Photograph School Torphins Scotland


Old travel Blog photograph of the school in Torphins, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Torphins, Scottish Gaelic: Tòrr Fionn, is a village in Royal Deeside, which lies about 23 miles west of Aberdeen. It is situated on the A980, about 7 miles north west of Banchory, and was once served by the Great North of Scotland Railway.



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

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Old Travel Blog Photograph The Hotel Abington Scotland


Old travel Blog photograph of a vintage bus, cars and people outside the Hotel in Abington, South Lanarkshire, Scotland. This village is close to the M74 motorway, marking the point where it changes name to the A74 Motorway, following the upgrade of the former A74 road. The West Coast Main Line between Glasgow and London, England, also emerges from the Clyde Valley at this point and begins its ascent up Beattock Summit, alongside the motorway. Abington was at one time served by a station on the railway, but this was closed as a result of the Beeching cuts of the 1960s.





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

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Old Travel Blog Photograph Durine Durness Scotland


Old travel Blog photograph of the Durine, Durness, Northern Sutherland, Scotland. Emigration from this parish began in 1772 when 200 people left for South Carolina. This was before the notorious clearances when people were forcibly evicted to make way for sheep farming. Despite having been on the government side during the Jacobite Uprising of 1745, the Clan Mackay were hit by the economic downturn which crippled the Highlands in the aftermath of the Battle of Culloden. Poor management of the Mackay estates did not help and in keeping with elsewhere in the Highlands, sheep farming was seen as the salvation. The first enforced clearance was in 1820 in the West Moine district of the parish, followed by the Keoldale Estate clearances and in 1841, the Rispond Estate Clearance. The latter was, however, a clearance too many and it sparked off a series of events known as the Durness Riots, the first real resistance to clearances in the Highlands. The population, however, peaked in 1881 with 1109 people and then gradually declined. The biggest drop came in the aftermath of the First World War when emigration to the Scottish Lowlands, England and Canada was particularly popular.



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

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Old Travel Blog Photograph Caledonian Road Wishaw Scotland


Old travel Blog photograph of the Station Hotel and houses on Caledonian Road in Wishaw, Scotland. It is located on the edge of the Clyde Valley, 15 miles south east of Glasgow City Centre. The main areas of Wishaw are: Cambusnethan, Coltness, Craigneuk, Gowkthrapple, Dimsdale, Greenhead, Wishawhill, Netherton, Pather and Waterloo. Thomas Canfield Pomphrey was born on 29 November 1881, in Wishaw. He was a pupil at Hamilton Academy, and later a student of architecture at The Glasgow School of Art in 1903 and 1904, after which he trained under Alexander Cullen, the Glaswegian architect. He left Scotland in 1906, emigrating to Toronto, Canada. He moved to New York in 1909, returning to Toronto in 1912. Pomphrey fought in the First World War as a member of the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Forces, retiring in July 1947, after which he returned to Scotland. In June 1916, he suffered an extensive injury to his right shoulder from a shell fragment, which also broke his right hand. As a result, he spent a year in various hospitals in France, England and Scotland. In 1931, Pomphrey became a member of the Ontario Association of Architects. He died on 8 March 1966. 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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