Regimental Pipers, Fort William 1905

[MBrockway]

On 30/11/2017 at 20:39, MBrockway said:

I think traditionally the Games were held on An Aird, which lies adjacent to the distillery.  This is now where the shinty gound is (or was - there's a lot of new sheds going up in the part of Fort William - new M& S etc and I'm not sure exactly what's where at the moment).

 

Here's a 1905 era OS map next to a modern aerial.  Note the Water Of Nevis has been re-routed .

 

Follow this link ...

http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=16&lat=56.8236&lon=-5.1019&layers=168&right=BingHyb

 

 

This has been niggling me as back in 1905, if this was on An Aird proper, there could not be any buildings on the left hand side.

 

An enjoyable lunchtime spent browsing maps etc. proves that the 1905 Games actually took place in what was then Victoria Park, but is now the Lochaber Leisure Centre and its adjacent pitches.  This lies on the right (SE) side of Belford Road (the A82) as you head N from Fort William town centre before you cross the River Nevis into Inverlochy.

 

Here's a side-by-side view of the location on the NLS map website.

 

For interest I've marked up one of the 1905 photos with some of the landmarks ...

and also on an aerial photo from c.1945 ..

© HES. Full details here

 

The River Nevis was re-routed in the 1970's to flow NW-wards directly into the River Lochy in order to connect An Aird to the town directly and allow the area to be developed.

 

Nevis Distillery has gone and the site built over with housing.  The modern shinty ground sits on part of its grounds as well as on the old course of the River Nevis.  The railway separates the distillery from the two hospitals, but is not visible in the 1905 photo.  NB - not to be confused with Ben Nevis Distillery 2km to the NE at the turn-off for the A830 Road to the Isles.

 

The Fever Hospital was demolished in 1953.  Confusingly there was a separate Isolation Hospital on An Aird.

[Update: Pal mbriscoe has very kindly provide me with this design drawing of the Fever Hospital built in 1901.  It's from the book published by Jim and Steve Leslie as part of their excellent History of Highland Hospital project.  The project's website is here.  Definitely worth a good look.  Details of the book here and here.  There is some coverage of temporary wartime facilities, though this is not the main thrust of the volume.]

 

 

The Belford Hospital behind the Fever Hospital ...

                                                                                                                                                       © HES. Full details here

 

... was replaced in the mid 1960's by the modern Belford Hospital about 500m back towards the town centre.  This is itself now soon to be replaced by a brand new hospital in Caol near Lochaber High School and the new police station (on land held for some time in Tesco's 'land bank' but now released at considerable £ loss to Tesco!).

 

The old Victorian Belford Hospital was demolished soon after the current hospital opened and has been replaced by Invernevis House, a home for the elderly.

 

The modern Nevisbank Nursery is a conversion of the Victorian hospital's nursing accommodation.

 

 

Glenlochy Distillery closed in 1983 and has been converted into residential flats and housing.  The chimney has gone, but the tall single pyramidal-roofed kiln visible in our 1905 photos survives.

     © HES. Glenlochy Distillery in 1976.  Reproduced courtesy of J R Hume. Full details here

 

Creag a'Chail on the skyline is a subsidiary 479m summit of Meall an-t'Suidhe, 711m, itself one of the flanking mountains of Ben Nevis.  The steep bank being used as a grandstand by the spectators is the end of the NW ridge of Cow Hill.

 

Here's a cropped version of the 1901 1:2,500 OS map.  most of the landmarks are visible and many are labelled.  Compare with the 1945 aerial higher up.

© Old-maps.co.uk

 

On researching Victoria Park (without much success), I found some corroboration in the Arisaig Police Station logs from the Inverness-shire archives, which mentions that officers from Arisaig were sent to help police the Lochaber Games at Victoria Park in 1929 and 1930.  Arisaig is ~40 miles away on the west coast.

 

Hope this is all of interest!

Mark

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 7 December , 2017 by MBrockway
Aerial photo added. Also drawing of Fever Hosp from mbriscoe

[jimmy4174]

That's Excellent work Mark with the photo's of the Pipers and now the maps and photographs of the buildings in the general area.

 

Brilliant and Well Done

Thank You 

Jimmy 

Edited 9 December , 2017 by jimmy4174

[MBrockway]

10 hours ago, jimmy4174 said:

That's Excellent work Mark with the photo's of the Pipers and now the maps and photographs of the buildings in the general area.

 

Brilliant and Well Done

Thank You 

Jimmy 

 

Thanks for that Jimmy - you'll all have gathered I've been enjoying exploring The Fort at the turn of the century!  Looking forward to having a wander about when I'm next up there.

 

Thanks are also due to Martin Briscoe for help off the board with the hospitals.

 

Mark

Edited 9 December , 2017 by MBrockway

[51st Sikhs]

Mark,

 

EXCELLENT work, many many thanks. Brilliant. Little did I know how much information this little photo could have generated!

 

 

[aboode]

 

On 04/12/2017 at 22:37, jimmy4174 said:

Another Pipe Major I've seen in a similar line up on a march to the games is John MacDonald's brother Andrew who was also Pipe Major of the Scottish Horse, there's a few photo's to be found on the net of him

 

Cheers

Jimmy

jimmy4174 

Andrew MacDonald was P/M of the 2nd Regt Scottish Horse 1908-1918; do you know when John MacDonald was P/M in the Scottish Horse and which Regiment?

Aad

[51st Sikhs]

John MacDonald, Andrew’s elder brother was Pipe Major of the 4th Bn. Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders only, never Scottish Horse. Look at the Cabarfeidh collection of the Queen’s Own Highlanders and the Notices of Piper’s by Mackay-Scobie.