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 photograph of Miners cottages in Leadhills, South Lanarkshire, Scotland. the second highest village in South Lanarkshire and Scotland. Silver and lead have been mined in Leadhills and at nearby Wanlockhead for many centuries, even in Roman days. Gold was discovered in the reign of King James IV and, in those early days, it was so famous for its exceptionally pure gold that the general area was known as God's Treasure House in Scotland. The Leadhills and Wanlockhead Light Railway was a short branch railway built in Scotland to serve mining settlements, high in the Lowther Hills. Allan Ramsay, the poet, and William Symington, one of the earliest adaptors of the steam engine to the purposes of navigation, were born at Leadhills. 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 shops, buildings and people on Langlands Road in Govan, Glasgow, Scotland. Located on the south bank of the River Clyde, opposite the mouth of the River Kelvin and the district of Partick. Historically it was part of the County of Lanark. Govan was at one point; the centre of the world renowned Clydeside shipbuilding industry, but few shipyards remain today. In 1841, Robert Napier began iron shipbuilding in Govan, and in 1843 produced its first ship, the Vanguard. He also procured a contract with the Royal Navy to produce vessels, notably the Jackal, the Lizard, and the Bloodhound. He also allowed naval officers in training to visit the shipyard to familiarise themselves with the new vessels. Napier's Shipyard in Govan was later acquired by William Beardmore and Company in 1900, before being sold on to Harland & Wolff in 1912. It finally closed in 1962 and most of the site was redeveloped into housing. Govan's other major shipbuilding firm was founded in the 1860s as: Randolph, Elder and Company, later becoming John Elder and Company. In 1885, the yard moved further west to its present site and was reorganised as the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Ltd. This company continued until 1965, when it filed for bankruptcy. 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 Lugar in East Ayrshire, Scotland. William Murdoch was born in Lugar near Cumnock 21 August 1754. He was the third of seven children and the first son to survive beyond infancy. A son of John Murdoch, a former Hanoverian artillery gunner and a Millwright and tenant of Bello Mill on the estate of James Boswell in Auchinleck, he was educated until the age of ten at the Old Cumnock Kirk School before attending Auchinleck school under William Halbert, author of a highly regarded arithmetic textbook. Murdoch excelled in mathematics. Murdoch also learned the principles of mechanics, practical experimentation and working in metal and wood by assisting in his father's work. Together with his father, he built a " wooden horse " about 1763. His " Wooden Horse on Wheels " was a tricycle propelled by hand cranks. There are reports that in his youth Murdoch was responsible for the construction of one of the bridges over the River Nith; this possibly derives from his father's work in building the Craikston Bridge over Lugar Water in 1774, which William would have been involved in. He is also said to have carried out experiments in coal gas, using coal heated in a copper kettle in a small cave near his father's mill. Murdoch was eventually employed by the firm of Boulton & Watt and worked for them in Cornwall, as a steam engine erector for ten years, spending most of the rest of his life in Birmingham, England. Murdoch was the inventor of the oscillating cylinder steam engine, and gas lighting is attributed to him in the early 1790s, also the term " gasometer ". However, Archibald Cochrane, ninth Earl of Dundonald, had already in 1789 used gas for lighting his family estate. Murdoch also made innovations to the steam engine, including the sun and planet gear and D slide valve. He invented the steam gun and the pneumatic tube message system, and worked on one of the first British paddle steamers to cross the English Channel. Murdoch built a prototype steam locomotive in 1784 and made a number of discoveries in chemistry. Murdoch died on 15 November 1839, aged 85. He was buried at St. Mary's Church, Handsworth.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
Tour Scotland Winter travel photograph of Glen Dee in the Cairngorms Highlands of Scotland. The Cairngorms represent a major barrier to travel and trade across Scotland and helped to create the remote character of the Highlands that persists today. Passes through the hills such as the Lairig Ghru were extensively used by drovers in the 19th Century herding their cattle to market in the Lowlands, from their smallholdings in the Highlands.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
Tour Scotland Winter travel photograph of Loch Ba on Rannoch Moor in the Highlands of Scotland. Rannoch Moor is a large expanse of around 50 square miles boggy moorland to the west of Loch Rannoch in Scotland, where it extends into Perthshire, Lochaber in Highland, and northern Argyll and Bute. When the West Highland Line was built across Rannoch Moor, its builders had to float the tracks on a mattress of tree roots, brushwood and thousands of tons of earth and ashes. Corrour railway station, the highest in Britain, is one of its most remote being 10 miles from the nearest public road, it is located on this section of the line at 1,339 feet. The line takes gentle curves totalling 23 miles across the moorland. The A82 road crosses western Rannoch Moor on its way to Glencoe and Fort William. In the Highlander novel, The Element of Fire, Duncan and Connor MacLeod track the antagonist Khordas to Rannoch Moor. There Duncan defeats Khordas' female companion, Nerissa. In the 1996 film Trainspotting, Tommy and the gang get off an Intercity train to get some fresh air on a hike at Corrour railway station, which is located on Rannoch Moor.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
