Tour Scotland Travel Blog Photograph Of The Italian Chapel Orkney Islands

Tour Scotland travel Blog photograph of the Italian Chapel, Orkney Islands, Scotland. 550 Italian prisoners of war, captured in North Africa during World War II, were brought to Orkney in 1942. They constructed the Churchill Barriers, four causeways created to block access to Scapa Flow. 200 of those prisoners were based at Camp 60 on Lamb Holm. In 1943, Major T P Buckland, Camp 60's new commandant, and Father Giacobazzi, the Camp's priest, agreed that a place of worship was required. The chapel was constructed from limited materials by the prisoners. Two Nissen huts were joined end-to-end. The corrugated interior was then covered with plasterboard and the altar and altar rail were constructed from concrete left over from work on the barriers. Most of the interior decoration was done by Domenico Chiocchetti, a POW from Moena. He painted the sanctuary end of the chapel and fellow-prisoners decorated the entire interior. They created a front facade out of concrete, concealing the shape of the hut and making the building look like a church. Chiocchetti remained on the island to finish the chapel, even when his fellow prisoners were released shortly before the end of the war.



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Old Travel Blog Photograph Road To Scotlandwell Scotland

Old travel Blog photograph of the road to Scotlandwell, Perthshire, Scotland. This Scottish village is one of the great historic sites of old Kinross-shire. Named Fons Scotiae by the Romans who passed this way nearly 2,000 years ago, the curative waters that bubble up through the sandy ground were used by Red Friars who maintained a hospital in the village between 1250 and 1587. Thousands of pilgrims came to Scotlandwell to take the water, the most famous perhaps being King Robert the Bruce who is alleged to have found a cure for leprosy here.




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Old Travel Blog Photograph Earl Of Selkirk Memorial Cross Kirkcudbright Scotland

Old travel Blog photograph of the Earl Of Selkirk Memorial Cross in Kirkcudbright in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. The plaque on the front says " Erected by Cecely Louisa, Countess of Selkirk, in loving memory of her husband Dunbar James, Earl of Selkirk, born 22 April 1809; died 11 April 1885 ". Another plaque at the side remembers Cecely Louisa, Countess of Selkirk, born 1836, died 1920. In 1453 Kirkcudbright became a Royal burgh, and about a century later the magistrates of the town obtained permission from Mary Queen of Scots, to use part of the convent and nunnery as a parish church. One of its most famous prisoners in the Tolbooth prison was John Paul Jones, hero of the American navy, who was born in nearby Kirkbean.Kirkcudbright has had a long association with the Glasgow art movement, which started when several artists, including the Glasgow Boys and the famed Scottish Colourists, such as Samuel Peploe and Francis Cadell, based themselves in the area over a 30 year period from 1880 to 1910, establishing the Kirkcudbright Artists' Colony. Many of them moved to the town from Glasgow, including Edward Hornel, George Henry and Jessie M. King. 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 Creagan Bridge Loch Creran Scotland

Old Photograph of Creagan Bridge which crosses Loch Creran, Scotland. This railway bridge once carried the Ballachulish branch of the Callander and Oban Railway, a line which closed in 1966. Loch Creran is a Scottish a sea loch in Argyll, on the west coast of Scotland. It is about six miles long from its head at Invercreran to its mouth on the Lynn of Lorne, part of Loch Linnhe. The loch separates the areas of Benderloch to the south and Appin to the north. The island of Eriska lies at the mouth of the loch.



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

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Old Travel Blog Photograph Kirkconnel Hall Ecclefechan Scotland

Old travel Blog photograph of Kirkconnel Hall in Ecclefechan, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. This building was inherited by Archibald Arnott in the early 1800s. Archibald was a surgeon with the 11th dragoon regiment, and was posted to Saint Helena, where in 1821 he was called upon to attend Napoleon Bonaparte in his last illness, and he was there until his death on 5th May 1821. Before Dr Arnott left Saint Helena, he took a cutting of a Willow Tree which was growing next to Napoleons grave, and when he returned to Kirkconnel Hall, he planted it in the gardens, where it remains today.



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

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