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 a vintage car in The Sma Glen near Crieff in Perthshire, Scotland. This was one of the traditional drove roads along which Highland cattle could be moved on the hoof. It linked Highland and Lowland Scotland. Its present name is a modern one for originally it was known as An Caol Ghleann, The Narrow Glen. Bonnie Prince Charlie marched through the glen on his way to the infamous massacre at Culloden in 1746. In the 18th century General Wade built a military road through the glen. Malcolm III of Scotland also marched through the glen to recover his kingdom from the usurper Macbeth. The Romans even built a fort and watchtower at Fendoch.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
Old travel Blog photograph of a vintage car by the road through Glenshee, Perthshire, Scotland. The A93 road, part of General Wade's military road from Perth to Fort George, runs north through the glen and on into Glen Beag, where it crosses the Cairnwell Pass, at 2200 feet above sea level the highest public road in the UK. The road climbing to the summit is now wide and straight but until the late 1960s included two notorious hair-pin bends with a 1 in 3 (33%) gradient known as the Devil's Elbow.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
Old travel Blog photograph of a vintage car in Glen Etive, Highlands, Scotland. At the north end of Glen Etive lie the two mountains known as the Herdsmen of Etive: Buachaille Etive Mòr and Buachaille Etive Beag. Other peaks accessible from the Glen include Ben Starav, located near the head of Loch Etive, and Beinn Fhionnlaidh on the northern side of the glen. Glen Etive has been used as the backdrop to many movies, among them Braveheart and Skyfall. In the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology, Deirdre and her love Naoise founded Glen Etive after fleeing Ulster. The Fachen is also known as the Dwarf of Glen Etive.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
Old travel Blog photograph of a vintage car and folding caravan in Glen Trool in the Southern Uplands of Galloway, Scotland. This was the location, in 1307, of the Battle of Glen Trool. Loch Trool is aligned on an east to west axis and is flanked on both sides by steep rising hills, making it ideal for an ambush. Robert Bruce had been involved in the murder of John " the Red " Comyn, a leading rival, and one of the most powerful men in Scotland, the previous year 1306. This led to a bitter civil war between the Bruce's faction and the Comyns and their allies, notably King Edward I. After his defeat at the Battle of Methven in Perthshire and subsequently at the Battle of Dalry in the summer of 1306 the recently crowned King Robert was little better than a fugitive, disappearing altogether from the historical record for a number of months. It wasn't until the spring of 1307 that he made a reappearance, landing in the south-west of Scotland with soldiers recruited, for the most part, from the Western Isles. It was an understandable move; for he came ashore in his own earldom of Carrick, where he could expect to command a large degree of local support. Perhaps even more important the countryside itself was well known to Bruce, and there were plenty of remote and difficult areas to allow cover and protection for his band of guerillas. But it was also a move bold to the point of foolhardiness. The English border was not far distant; many of the local castles were strongly held by Edward's forces; and, perhaps most important of all, the Lordship of Galloway, the old Balliol patrimony, was adjacent to Carrick, and many of the local families were hostile to Bruce and his cause. When his brothers Thomas and Alexander attempted a landing on the shores of Loch Ryan, they met with disaster at the hands of Dungal MacDougall, the leading Balliol supporter in the area. Bruce managed to establish a firm base in the area; but it was vital that he made progress against the enemy if his cause was to attract the additional support that was so clearly needed. An early success came with a raid on an English camp on the eastern shores of the Clatteringshaws Loch. It also alerted the enemy to his presence. Aymer de Valence, Bruce's old opponent at Methven, received intelligence that his enemy was encamped at the head of Glen Trool. This was a difficult position to approach, for the Loch takes up much of the glen, with only a narrow track bordered by a steep slope. At about the middle, the hill pushes forward in a precipitous abutment. Valence sent a small raiding party ahead, perhaps hoping to catch the enemy offguard, in much the same fashion as Methven. This time, however, Bruce made effective use of the terrain. During the night Bruce sent some of his men up the slope with orders to loosen with levers and crowbars as many of the detached blocks of granite as they could. As the English approached up the defile, called by the locals, the " Steps of Trool ", they were forced to proceed single file. Bruce observed their progress from across the loch, and at a given signal, pushed the wall of boulders down the slope. This was followed by arrows and hand to hand combat, as Bruce's men charged down the slope. The narrowness of the path prevented support from either the front or the rear. Without room to manoeuvre, many of the English below were killed, and the rest withdrew. Bruce not only survived but went on the following month to win his first important engagement at the Battle of Loudon Hill. The English soldiers killed in the skirmish were buried at flat ground at the head of the loch, known as Soldier's Holm.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
Old travel Blog photograph of a vintage car towing a folding caravan in Glen Affric in the Scottish Highlands in the almost uninhabited valley of Glen Affric, Scotland. Glen Affric, also written Glenaffric, was part of the lands of the Clan Chisholm and the Clan Fraser of Lovat from the 15th to the mid 19th centuries. By the early 15th century, Lord Lovat had passed the lands to his son Thomas who in turn passed it on to his son, William, who was recorded in Burke's Landed Gentry Scotland as William Fraser, first Laird of Guisachan. The lands included regions that would become the Glen Affric deer park and the Guisachan Estate, including the village of Tomich. Thomas Chisholm, Laird of Strathglass, was imprisoned for being a Catholic. The Battle of Glen Affric took place in 1721.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
