Old Photographs Of Westray Orkney Islands Scotland
Tour Scotland wee video of old photographs of Westray, one of the Orkney Islands. Pierowall village is the Westray island's largest settlement and lies near its northern end, around Pierowall Bay. It has a variety of historical remains dating from the Neolithic, the Iron Age, the Middle Ages, and later, including a large pagan Norse cemetery. Supplementing the ferries which come into Pierowall Harbour, some seven miles to the south of the village is the main ferry terminal at Rapness, on the southernmost tip of Westray, which has better ferry links with Papa Westray and Kirkwall. Noup Head Lighthouse lies on the north west headland of the isle of Westray, it was constructed by David A Stevenson in 1898 for the Northern Lighthouse Board. It was converted to solar power in 2001. David Alan Stevenson was a lighthouse engineer who built twenty six lighthouses in and around Scotland. Born into the famous Stevenson family of lighthouse engineers, son of David Stevenson, brother of Charles Stevenson, and nephew of Thomas Stevenson, he was educated at Edinburgh University. Between 1885 and 1886 he built three lighthouses with his uncle, and over the following 50 years, built a further 23 with his brother. His cousin was Robert Louis Stevenson, and grandfather was Robert Stevenson. Gentlemen's Ha' cave is near the top of a cliff on the East coast of Rapness. It was here that several Orkney Jacobites lay concealed for several months in 1745, and while in the cave they depended for food upon a single person's stealthy visits to their hiding place. The cave was the main refuge in 1746 of four Jacobites lairds, William Balfour of Trenaby; Archibald Stewart of Brough; John Traill of Westness and John Traill of Elsness. Noltland Castle is on Westray. In 1560 Adam Bothwell, Bishop of Orkney, granted the lands of Noltland to his brother-in-law Gilbert Balfour, who built the castle. Balfour was Master of the Royal Household to Mary, Queen of Scots, and was involved in the plot to kill her husband, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. After Mary's deposition and exile, he continued to support the queen. Noltland was seized by Robert Stewart, 1st Earl of Orkney, an opponent of Mary's supporters, but he was forced to hand it back to Balfour in the early 1570s. Balfour died in Sweden in 1567, and in 1598 the castle was again seized by the Earl of Orkney (now Patrick Stewart, son of Robert). By 1606 the castle had been restored to the Balfours once more, when it was sold to Sir John Arnot, Lord Provost of Edinburgh, who later became Sheriff of Orkney. During the Wars of the Three Kingdoms in 1650, Royalist officers occupied the castle after their defeat at the Battle of Carbisdale. Local Covenanters captured and burned the castle. By 1881 it was a ruin.