Old Photograph Ardmillan Castle Scotland

Old photograph of Ardmillan Castle in South Ayrshire, Scotland. Originally a 16th Century tower house with a Georgian mansion house added to one side. The whole castle was gutted by fire in 1972, and in 1990 the ruins were completely demolished. Mary Queen of Scots, on 7 August, 1563, spent that night at Ardmillan Castle just south of Girvan. Her host John Kennedy of Ardmillan was the cousin of Thomas Kennedy of Bargany. Thomas’s own castle of Ardstinchar at Ballantrae was the queen’s lodging on the night of 8 August, and the following day she passed out of Ayrshire, never to return, and continued on through Wigtownshire.



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Old Photograph St Duthac's Collegiate Church Tain Scotland

Old photograph of St Duthac's Collegiate Church in Tain in Ross and Cromarty, Scotland. This Scottish church is said to have been built by William, Earl of Ross, who died 1371. In 1487, King James III had it converted into a Collegiate Church. James IV and V made pilgrimages to it. William died without male issue. The earldom of Ross and the chiefship of Clan Ross were then separated. The chiefship of the Clan Ross passed to Earl William's brother Hugh Ross of Rariches, 1st of Balnagown, who was granted a charter, in 1374, for the lands of Balnagowan. The earldom of Ross passed through a female line, and that later led to dispute between two rival claimants, the Lord of the Isles and the Duke of Albany. This resulted in the Battle of Harlaw in 1411 where the Clan Ross fought as Highlanders in support of the Lord of the Isles against an army of Scottish Lowlanders who supported the Duke of Albany,



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Old Photograph Tor Castle Scotland

Old photograph of Tor Castle near Fort William, Scotland. An Iron Age fort previously occupied the site of this now ruined Scottish castle. According to local tradition, the fort once belonged to Banquo who features in MacBeth.There has been a castle at the site since at least the eleventh century. The castle was subsequently held by the Clan Mackintosh until it was seized by the Clan Cameron, who built a massive tower house and courtyard. Ewen Cameron of Lochiel, 13th chief of Clan Cameron rebuilt the castle in 1530. The Camerons used the castle as a refuge from attacks by the Clan MacDonald of Keppoch.



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Old Photograph The Dwarfie Stane Scotland

Old photograph of The Dwarfie Stane on Hoy an island of the Orkney Islands, Scotland. This a is a megalithic chambered tomb carved out of a titanic block of Devonian Old Red Sandstone located in a steep-sided glaciated valley between the settlements of Quoys and Rackwick. It is the only chambered tomb in Orkney that is cut from stone rather than built from stones and might be the only example of a Neolithic rock-cut tomb in Britain. The name is derived from local legend that a dwarf named Trollid lived there, although, ironically, the tomb has also been claimed as the work of giants. Its existence was popularised in Walter Scott's novel The Pirate published in 1821.



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Old Photograph Holy Pool Strathfillan Scotland

Old photograph of the Holy Pool in Strathfillan, Perthshire, Scotland. The Holy Pool, opposite Stathfillan Manse, was famous for its connection with St Fillan. Until the middle of the last century insane persons were bathed in the pool. The tradition of bathing insane persons in the pool is still known locally but the pool is said to have lost its power when a wild bull was thrown into it.

St. Fillan was the abbot of a monastery in Fife before retiring to Glen Dochart and Strathfillan near Tyndrum in Perthshire. At an Augustinian priory at Kirkton Farm along to the West Highland Way, the priory's lay abbot, who was its superior in the reign of William the Lion, held high rank in the Scottish kingdom. This monastery was restored in the reign of King Robert the Bruce, and became a cell of the abbey of canons regular at Inchaffray Abbey. The new foundation received a grant from King Robert, in gratitude for the aid which he was supposed to have obtained from a relic of the saint on the eve of the great victory over King Edward II's English soldiers at the Battle of Bannockburn. The saint's original chapel was up river, slightly north west of the abbey and adjacent to a deep body of water which became known as St. Fillan's Pool.



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Old Photographs Woodside Scotland

Old photograph of cottages and houses in Woodside located twelve miles from Perth, Perthshire, Scotland. This Scottish village is joined onto another village, Burrelton. It is two miles from Coupar Angus, the nearest town. Woodside used to have a train station, part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway. The now closed station was known as the Woodside and Burrelton railway station.




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Old Photograph Oldhamstocks Scotland

Old photograph of Oldhamstocks, East Lothian, Scotland. Oldhamstocks or Aldhamstocks, meaning old dwelling place, is located adjacent to the Scottish Borders. The parish church was consecrated in 1292. Oldhamstocks is the birthplace of John Broadwood, born 1732, died 1812, piano maker and founder of Broadwood and Sons. John, a Scottish joiner and cabinetmaker, went to London, England, in 1761 and began to work for the Swiss harpsichord manufacturer Burkat Shudi. He married Shudi's daughter eight years later and became a partner in the firm in 1770. As the popularity of the harpsichord declined, the firm concentrated increasingly on the manufacture of pianos, abandoning the harpsichord altogether in 1793. He produced his first square piano in 1771, after the model of Johannes Zumpe, and worked assiduously to develop and refine the instrument, moving the wrest plank of the earlier pianoforte, which had sat to the side of the case as in the clavichord, to the back of the case in 1781, straightening the keys, and replacing the hand stops with pedals. In 1785 Thomas Jefferson, later to be third President of the United States, visited Broadwood in Great Pulteney Street, Soho, to discuss musical instruments.



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Old Photographs Burnbank Scotland

Old photograph of a Bus, shops, people and houses in Burnbank, South Lanarkshire, Scotland. Since the 19th century immigrants from many parts of the world have settled in Burnbank. Immigration from other parts of Scotland during the period of the Highland Clearances occurred. The most significant to date numerically were undoubtedly the Irish immigrants who arrived between the mid 19th century and the mid 20th century mainly to work in the coal-fields and heavy industry. Immigration to Burnbank from Italy was mainly from the Lucca and Frosinone in the Abruzzi. Some of the Italian Scots in Burnbank owned ice-cream parlours (which later became fish and chip shops) and operated ice cream carts, later vans, to such an extent that the local term for an ice cream seller became " tally " , derived from Italian, as in " tally van ".




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Old Photograph Glencarse Scotland

Old photograph of cottages in Glencarse located four miles to the East of Perth, Perthshire, Scotland. This Scottish village lies alongside the A90 road. It was formerly served by a railway station on the Caledonian Railway. John Gabriel Murray, a former Provost of St Mary's Cathedral, Glasgow, was the incumbent of the Scottish Episcopal Church’s All Saints Church in the village from 1959 to 1970.



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Old Photograph Seggieden House Scotland

Old photograph of Seggieden House located near Perth, Perthshire, Scotland. This Scottish mansion house was bought from Sir Thomas Blair of Balthayock in 1652 by John Nairn. He was succeeded by his third daughter, Barbara Hay, wife of Patrick Hay, second son of James Hay of Pitfour. Their son, John Hay inherited the estate and he married Lilias Hay, daughter of John Hay of Pitfour. James Hay of Seggieden, born 1739, died 781, succeeded his father in 1754 and married Jean Donaldson in 1770. He built Seggieden House, which was finished in 1789, in the Adam style. His son, James Hay born 1771, died 1838, inherited the estate in 1781. James Hay pursued a military career and had many commissions including the Eastern Battalion of the Royal Perthshire Local Militia, he was also a deputy lieutenant of Perthshire. He married Margaret Richardson, daughter of John Richardson of Pitfour, in 1801 and their son Captain James Richardson Hay, born 1802, died 1854, inherited the estate in 1838. He married in 1833 Margaret Lothian Douglas and succeeded his mother in the estate of Aberargie assuming the name of Richardson-Hay. On his death his daughter, Charlotte Elizabeth Richardson-Hay, born 1834, died 1914, inherited the estate. She married Captain Henry Maurice Drummond, born 1814, died 1896, son of Admiral Sir Adam Drummond of Megginch, in 1859. The couple assumed the name of Drummond-Hay on their marriage. Captain Henry Drummond-Hay was a captain in the 42nd Royal Highlanders and a keen naturalist. His grandson, James Drummond-Hay born 1905, died 1981, inherited the estate in 1928 and married Lady Margaret Douglas Hamilton in 1930. He was a major in the Scots Guards during the Second World War and served in Germany in the post-war government, returning to live at Seggieden in 1948.



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Old Photograph Butterstone House Scotland

Old photograph of Butterstone House, Perthshire, Scotland. This Scottish mansion house was a Preparatory School founded in 1947 by The Hon Elizabeth Lyle, the younger daughter of Sir Archibald Sinclair of Ulbster, MP for Caithness and Sutherland, leader of the Liberal Party, Winston Churchill's wartime Secretary of State for Air and in 1952 created Viscount Thurso. Between 1947 and 1991 the school was located at Butterstone House, near Dunkeld before merging with Kilgraston School in Bridge of Earn.



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Old Photograph Arthurstone House Scotland

Old photograph of Arthurstone House located fifteen miles from Perth, Perthshire, Scotland. This Scottish mansion house dates from around 1789. It was owned by the Carmichael family from 1869 until 1990. The house has a romantic history, with legend claiming that the estate obtained its name from an ancient stone of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere which was found within the ground.



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Tour Scotland Video Westie Listening To Pipe Band In Kinross Perthshire



Tour Scotland video of a West Highland White Terrier, commonly known as the Westie or Westy, listening to a Pipe Band at the Loch Leven Pipe Band Competition on ancestry visit to Kinross by Loch Leven on ancestry visit to Perthshire, Scotland. Kinross was the home of Flight Sergeant George Thompson whose posthumous Victoria Cross in 1945 is often cited as the best merited of the entire air war. He was the wireless operator in a Lancaster of No. 9 Squadron on a dawn raid against the Dortmund-Ems Canal when the plane was struck by a salvo of two 88mm shells.

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Tour Scotland Video Marching Pipe Bands Kinross Perthshire



Tour Scotland video of Pipe Bands marching at the Loch Leven Pipe Band Competition on ancestry visit to Kinross by Loch Leven on ancestry visit to Perthshire, Scotland.

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Tour Scotland Video Marching Pipe Band Parade Kinross Perthshire



Tour Scotland video of Pipe Bands marching through town after the start of the Loch Leven Half Marathon on ancestry visit to Kinross by Loch Leven on ancestry visit to Perthshire, Scotland.

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Tour Scotland Video Boys Brigade Parade Perth Perthshire



Tour Scotland video of the Boys Brigade Parade on visit to Perth, Perthshire, Scotland. The Boys' Brigade was founded in Glasgow by Sir William Alexander Smith on 4 October 1883 to develop Christian manliness by the use of a semi-military discipline and order, gymnastics, summer camps and religious services and classes. By 1910, there were about 2200 companies connected with different churches throughout the British Empire and the United States, with 10,000 officers and 100,000 boys.

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Old Photograph Maiden Stone Scotland

Old photograph The Maiden Stone, also known as Drumdurno Stone after the nearby farm near Inverurie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Local legend states that the daughter of the Laird of Balquhain made a bet with a stranger that she could bake a bannock faster than he could build a road to the top of Bennachie. The prize would be the maiden's hand. However, the stranger was the Devil and finished the road and claimed the forfeit. The maiden ran from the Devil and prayed to be saved. The legend finishes by saying that God turned her to stone, and the notch is where the Devil grasped her shoulder as she ran.



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