Old Travel Blog Photograph Birkmyre Park Kilmacolm Scotland

Old travel Blog photograph of Birkmyre Park in Kilmacolm located fifteen miles West of Glasgow, Scotland. In 1889 Adam Birkmyre bought the land to the front of Shalott with the intention of providing public recreation ground for the people of Kilmacolm in particular the youth and the young children. The park was formally opened on 7th June 1890 and a celebration was held. 400 school children took part in a parade and the head of this was the 1st Renfrew Voulenteer Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders pipe band. This was a gift to the people of Kilmacolm and he stipulated that nothing was to be built close by to either hinder or reduce the openness and the view or the place.



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

View the most recent Tour Scotland photographs.

Old Travel Blog Photograph Bank West Linton Scotland

Old photograph of the Bank, shops, buildings and people on the High Street in West Linton in the Scottish Borders, Scotland. This is a village and civil parish in the Tweeddale area of the Scottish Borders previously the in the historic county of Peeblesshire. At the end of the eighteenth century there were between twenty and thirty looms in the village, rising to about eighty in the early nineteenth century, some weaving household goods but most weaving cotton cloth for Edinburgh and Glasgow merchants. It is estimated that in 1834 about fifty hands worked in the mines and quarries of the area. In 1834 there were five tailors in the village, four dressmakers, two butchers, five carriers, nine retailers of meal, groceries and spirits, two surgeons and four innkeepers. 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.

View the most recent Tour Scotland photographs.

Old Travel Blog Photograph Fordyce Terrace New Deer Scotland

Old travel Blog photograph of a vintage car, houses and church on Fordyce Terrace in New Deer, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. This Scottish village was founded after monks from Deer Abbey, Old Deer built a chapel at Auchreddie, which translates as " field of the bog myrtle ". Around 1507 the register of Deer Abbey lists its lands in the " new paroche of Deir ". The name Auchreddie has dropped in significance over the years, however the southern end of the village is still known by this name. In 1805 New Deer was extended to the north by the third James Ferguson of Pitfour, born 1735, died 1820, the elder brother of Patrick Ferguson who was a Scottish officer in the British Army, an early advocate of light infantry and the designer of the Ferguson rifle. He is best known for his service in the 1780 military campaign of Charles Cornwallis during the American Revolutionary War in the Carolinas.



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

View the most recent Tour Scotland photographs.

Old Travel Blog Photograph Manse Straiton Scotland

Old travel Blog photograph of the Manse in Straiton, Ayrshire, Scotland. A manse is a clergy house inhabited by, or formerly inhabited by, a minister, usually used in the context of Presbyterian, Methodist, United church, Baptist and other traditions. Ultimately derived from the Latin mansus, " dwelling ", from manere, " to remain ", by the 16th century the term meant both a dwelling and, in ecclesiastical contexts, the amount of land needed to support a single family. Many notable Scots have been called " sons, or daughters, of the manse", and the term is a recurring point of reference within Scottish media and culture. When selling a former manse, the Church of Scotland always requires that the property should not be called " The Manse " by the new owners, but " The Old Manse " or some other acceptable variation. Straiton is a Scottish a village on the River Girvan in South Ayrshire in Scotland, mainly built in the 18th century. It was the main location for the film The Match, where two rival pubs played an annual football match as a challenge. However, since the village has only one pub, a house was used as a pub for filming. Straiton is located in the hills between Kirkmichael, Dalmellington, Crosshill, and Maybole. 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.

View the most recent Tour Scotland photographs.

Tour Scotland Video John Deere Tractors Vintage Agricultural Machinery Club Rally Strathmiglo Fife

Tour Scotland video of John Deere tractors on visit to the Vintage Agricultural Machinery Club Rally at Corston Mill, by Strathmiglo, Fife, Scotland. One of the events at the Fife Vintage Agricultural Machinery Club Rally. Deere & Company began when John Deere, born in Rutland, Vermont, USA on February 7, 1804, moved to Grand Detour, Illinois in 1836 to escape bankruptcy in Vermont. Already an established blacksmith, Deere opened a 1,378 square foot shop in Grand Detour in 1837, which allowed him to serve as a general repairman in the village, as well as a manufacturer of small tools such as pitchforks and shovels. Small tools production was just a start; the item that set him apart was the self-scouring steel plow, which was pioneered in 1837 when John Deere fashioned a Scottish steel saw blade into a plow. Prior to Deere's steel plow, most farmers used iron or wooden plows to which the rich Midwestern soil stuck, so had to be cleaned frequently. The smooth sided steel plow solved this problem, and greatly aided migration into the American Great Plains in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

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

View the most recent Tour Scotland photographs.