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Located at no. 1062 Queen Street East.
"Built after 1946 from sandstone. The building still has the original windows, copper cupola above front window and aluminum fascia and soffits. It is one of the large historic structures constructed from sandstone in Sault Ste. Marie. First owner was James McMaster, general manager of McMaster Fuels (1947-1959)." - info from SooToday.
"Sault Ste. Marie (/ˈsuː seɪnt məˈriː/ SOO-seint-ma-REE) is a city on the St. Marys River in Ontario, Canada, close to the Canada–US border. It is the seat of the Algoma District and the third largest city in Northern Ontario, after Sudbury and Thunder Bay.
The Ojibwe, the indigenous Anishinaabe inhabitants of the area, call this area Baawitigong, meaning "place of the rapids." They used this as a regional meeting place during whitefish season in the St. Mary's Rapids. (The anglicized form of this name, Bawating, is used in institutional and geographic names in the area.)
To the south, across the river, is the United States and the Michigan city of the same name. These two communities were one city until a new treaty after the War of 1812 established the border between Canada and the United States in this area at the St. Mary's River. In the 21st century, the two cities are joined by the International Bridge, which connects Interstate 75 on the Michigan side, and Huron Street (and former Ontario Secondary Highway 550B) on the Ontario side. Shipping traffic in the Great Lakes system bypasses the Saint Mary's Rapids via the American Soo Locks, the world's busiest canal in terms of tonnage that passes through it, while smaller recreational and tour boats use the Canadian Sault Ste. Marie Canal.
French colonists referred to the rapids on the river as Les Saults de Ste. Marie and the village name was derived from that. The rapids and cascades of the St. Mary's River descend more than 6 m (20 ft) from the level of Lake Superior to the level of the lower lakes. Hundreds of years ago, this slowed shipping traffic, requiring an overland portage of boats and cargo from one lake to the other. The entire name translates to "Saint Mary's Rapids" or "Saint Mary's Falls". The word sault is pronounced [so] in French, and /suː/ in the English pronunciation of the city name. Residents of the city are called Saultites.
Sault Ste. Marie is bordered to the east by the Rankin and Garden River First Nation reserves, and to the west by Prince Township. To the north, the city is bordered by an unincorporated portion of Algoma District, which includes the local services boards of Aweres, Batchawana Bay, Goulais and District, Peace Tree and Searchmont. The city's census agglomeration, including the townships of Laird, Prince and Macdonald, Meredith and Aberdeen Additional and the First Nations reserves of Garden River and Rankin, had a total population of 79,800 in 2011.
Native American settlements, mostly of Ojibwe-speaking peoples, existed here for more than 500 years. In the late 17th century, French Jesuit missionaries established a mission at the First Nations village. This was followed by development of a fur trading post and larger settlement, as traders, trappers and Native Americans were attracted to the community. It was considered one community and part of Canada until after the War of 1812 and settlement of the border between Canada and the US at the Ste. Mary's River. At that time, the US prohibited British traders from any longer operating in its territory, and the areas separated by the river began to develop as two communities, both named Sault Ste. Marie." - info from Wikipedia.
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[This is a series of 10 photos] This is a creative commons image, which you may freely use by linking to this page. Please respect the photographer and his work.
H.T. Klugel Architectural Sheet Metal Works was established in Emporia,, Virginia in 1914 at the junction of two rail lines—the Atlantic Coast Line and the Southern Railroad. This location was to figure in the expansion of his business. Klugel, a tinsmith, was from Danville, Illinois, learning the trade from his father. His shop produced a variety of goods for local needs such as cornices, gutters, drain pipes, stove flues, marquees, decorative details, and others. A customer, who might need prefabricated pressed metal ceilings, he would have them select from catalogs. They would arrive by rail, facilitating his installation of items for his customers. His business supplied contractors all over southeastern Virginia. The sheet metal façade of his own shop became an advertisement for his goods and skills, displaying a variety of metal ornaments such as swags, circles, geometric patterns and lions’ heads. The structure is a unique example of a decorative sheet metal façade for a store, and it was all produced in Emporia. Ads were painted on the brick sides of the building. The building is styled as Edwardian Classicism in the nomination form for the National Register of Historic Places. As an architectural viewing amateur, I’m not certain what this is, even after reading about it. The building was added to the Register April 2, 1973 with identification #73002208. The nomination form is available at the Virginia Department of Historic Resources
www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Cities/Emporia/109-0005_Kl...
As a factory for tin goods, the building was intended to be utilitarian. Originally ell-shaped, a cinderblock addition has made the structure rectangular. The flat-roofed building with parapets on the sides is made of American bond brick, which is not visible viewing only the front façade. A color combination of silver and black is used throughout the façade ornamentation. At the top of the front façade is a pediment mounted on two short pedestals, each flanked by volutes. Inside the pediment is floral ornamentation. Beneath the pediment a panel shows what I call a sun-burst motif (the nomination form refers to this a part of a patera—( www.decorartsnow.com/2013/05/28/design-dictionary-patera-... ). Another pedestal is above the pediment and is topped by a finial in the shape of an onion dome. Below the pediment is an inscription within panels of various sizes—1902 H. T. Klugel 1914”. To each side of this inscription is a balustrade with two pedestals topped by small onion dome finials. The cornice just below has dentils and modillions or brackets. The horizontal second level with a geometric sheet metal design has three distinct areas: the middle with the inscription “Architectural Sheet Metal Work” on the patterned background and flanked with roundels that show keystone motifs; the right section shows a raised panel with the words “Skylights” and the left shows a raised panel with the writing “Cornices”. Below each of these latter two sections are swags of flowers and drapery. The first level contains two arched entrances both with soffit and with double doors; the central entrance is recessed. Just above the arch of the center door is a keystone. On either side of the main entrance are figures of lion’s heads with floral decoration; a pattern of circles is below each of the lion’s heads. The windows are arched as well and contain fan tracery.
For a fascinating read on ornamental architectural materials, check out the following:
Wandering around the house looking at soffits and the ceiling. This is a corner in my back hallway where two walls meet the ceiling. What I like about this shot is that the 3D structure of it is completely destroyed, but some of the texture in the walls is preserved. So it kind of looks like a minimalist oil painting. I oversaturated the colors, which made it even more painting-like to me.
"The building at the southeast corner of Pim and Wellington dates from 1901 or earlier. It was built with plain bricks and a sandstone foundation. The building has a large porch that is original along with its windows. Fascia and soffits at the roof are aluminum and the building has vinyl on third-floor windows. The building was home to A. C. Boyce the first M.P. of Algoma West (Sault Ste. Marie’s federal riding prior to 1966) from 1905-1917. In the 1891 census the residents may have been Robert Stark, a shoemaker, his wife Annie and six children, aged between one and 17. In the 1901 city directory (the first), this family is listed at this address. The building was divided into multiple units in 1939-40, and was named Marshall Apartments in the 1944 city directory. Sheriff George Lee was one of the first tenants." - info from SooToday.
"Sault Ste. Marie (/ˈsuː seɪnt məˈriː/ SOO-seint-ma-REE) is a city on the St. Marys River in Ontario, Canada, close to the Canada–US border. It is the seat of the Algoma District and the third largest city in Northern Ontario, after Sudbury and Thunder Bay.
The Ojibwe, the indigenous Anishinaabe inhabitants of the area, call this area Baawitigong, meaning "place of the rapids." They used this as a regional meeting place during whitefish season in the St. Mary's Rapids. (The anglicized form of this name, Bawating, is used in institutional and geographic names in the area.)
To the south, across the river, is the United States and the Michigan city of the same name. These two communities were one city until a new treaty after the War of 1812 established the border between Canada and the United States in this area at the St. Mary's River. In the 21st century, the two cities are joined by the International Bridge, which connects Interstate 75 on the Michigan side, and Huron Street (and former Ontario Secondary Highway 550B) on the Ontario side. Shipping traffic in the Great Lakes system bypasses the Saint Mary's Rapids via the American Soo Locks, the world's busiest canal in terms of tonnage that passes through it, while smaller recreational and tour boats use the Canadian Sault Ste. Marie Canal.
French colonists referred to the rapids on the river as Les Saults de Ste. Marie and the village name was derived from that. The rapids and cascades of the St. Mary's River descend more than 6 m (20 ft) from the level of Lake Superior to the level of the lower lakes. Hundreds of years ago, this slowed shipping traffic, requiring an overland portage of boats and cargo from one lake to the other. The entire name translates to "Saint Mary's Rapids" or "Saint Mary's Falls". The word sault is pronounced [so] in French, and /suː/ in the English pronunciation of the city name. Residents of the city are called Saultites.
Sault Ste. Marie is bordered to the east by the Rankin and Garden River First Nation reserves, and to the west by Prince Township. To the north, the city is bordered by an unincorporated portion of Algoma District, which includes the local services boards of Aweres, Batchawana Bay, Goulais and District, Peace Tree and Searchmont. The city's census agglomeration, including the townships of Laird, Prince and Macdonald, Meredith and Aberdeen Additional and the First Nations reserves of Garden River and Rankin, had a total population of 79,800 in 2011.
Native American settlements, mostly of Ojibwe-speaking peoples, existed here for more than 500 years. In the late 17th century, French Jesuit missionaries established a mission at the First Nations village. This was followed by development of a fur trading post and larger settlement, as traders, trappers and Native Americans were attracted to the community. It was considered one community and part of Canada until after the War of 1812 and settlement of the border between Canada and the US at the Ste. Mary's River. At that time, the US prohibited British traders from any longer operating in its territory, and the areas separated by the river began to develop as two communities, both named Sault Ste. Marie." - info from Wikipedia.
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~1500 ; rebuilt in the new church bldg. in 1877 by architect David Walker.
The statues all date from this period, as do many other expertly reconstructed details.
An excellent article about this screen can be read @
www.buildingconservation.com/articles/llananno-rood/llana...
Anyone know what this bad girl is?
View Large: farm7.static.flickr.com/6115/6226291917_af3ed1f243_b.jpg
From www.westminster-abbey.org/about-the-abbey/history/chapter...
The Chapter House in the East Cloister was a meeting place where the monks gathered with the abbot to ‘hold chapter’: to pray, read from the rule of St Benedict, discuss the day’s business and when the abbot decided on punishments.
It was probably begun in 1246 and completed around 1255 as part of Henry III's re-building of the Abbey and is one of the largest of its kind (internally 18 metres or 60 feet). It is octagonal in shape with tiered seating for up to eighty monks and an imposing central pillar, fanning out to a vaulted ceiling. Henry of Reyns was the supervising master mason, probably with Master Aubrey.
Wall paintings still remain in many of the arches and depict scenes from the Apocalypse in the Book of Revelation. The Last Judgement, dating from about 1390, is shown on the east wall. Large figures of the Annunciation (the Virgin Mary and Archangel Gabriel) stand inside above the doorway. Around this doorway are small seated figures representing a 'Tree of Jesse'. The floor has one of the finest medieval tile pavements in England. it includes a Latin inscription translated as "As the rose is the flower of flowers, so is this the house of houses".
The Chapter House was also the place where the King's Great Council assembled in 1257. This was effectively the beginning of the English Parliament. Later on the House of Commons met here for a few years in the 14th century before using the Abbey Refectory for meetings. After the monks left in 1540 it was used until 1863 as a repository for State records.
The room was rescued and restored by the Abbey's Surveyor Sir George Gilbert Scott Between 1866-1872 he reconstructed the stone vault and roof and re-instated and re-glazed the windows. Much of this stained glass was damaged during air raids in the Second World War but some was salvaged and re-used in the post war glazing scheme. An inscription underneath the windows recalls the work of the original masons "In the handiwork of their craft is their prayer".
Osterley was created in the late 18th century by architect and designer Robert Adam for the Child family to entertain and impress their friends and clients.
The portico was inspired by Robert Wood's engravings of The Temple of the Sun at Palmyra which also provided the inspiration for the plasterwork of the soffit with it's octagon compartment and marigold rosettes.
Marigolds are seen throughout the house as they were the emblem of Child's bank.
The temperature was 24(F) when I got up this morning and it never made it up to 32. When I went outside I noticed these icicles had formed on the corner of my porch.
rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/discoverandlearn/birdg...
Smaller than blackbirds, with a short tail, pointed head, triangular wings, starlings look black at a distance but when seen closer they are very glossy with a sheen of purples and greens. Their flight is fast and direct and they walk and run confidently on the ground. Noisy and gregarious, starlings spend a lot of the year in flocks. Still one of the commonest of garden birds, its decline elsewhere makes it a Red List species.
Overview
Latin name
Sturnus vulgaris
Family
Starlings (Sturnidae)
Where to see them
Conspicuous and widespread in the UK, occurring everywhere except for the highest parts of the Scottish Highlands. They are most abundant in southern England and are more thinly distributed in upland areas with moorland. Still one of the UK's commonest garden birds. Huge roosts are found in plantations, reed beds and city centres.
When to see them
All year round. Large numbers arrive in autumn to spend the winter here.
What they eat
Insects and fruit.
Population
UK Breeding:- 804,000 territories
Breeding
Starlings nest in holes and cavities, especially in trees, but often use holes in buildings, including occupied houses, and nestboxes.
They nest in loose colonies and do not establish and defend a proper territory - only the immediate area around the nesting cavity is defended. The whole colony feeds communally in what is termed a home range.
To attract a mate, the male builds the base of the nest from dry grass and leaves in a hole and sings from perches close to the nest entrance. The female completes the nest by making a nest cup and lining it with fine grasses, moss and feathers.
Starlings usually lay 4-6 eggs in mid-April. All birds within a colony start to lay eggs within a few days. The female does the majority of the incubation; the chicks hatch 12 days later.
Only the female broods the chicks, although both parents feed them. They are fed entirely on insects and their larvae, spiders and earthworms for 12 days, after which the diet is more varied.
The young fledge when about three weeks old and are fed for a week or two until they are independent. Because the nests are in holes, they are protected from predators and many other dangers. As a result, over 70% of eggs laid produce fledged young.
Most failures are caused by infertility, and at the chick stage by starvation. Normally, only one brood is raised in a year, but if the first clutch is laid early and is successful, a second clutch may follow.
Feathers and moulting
All birds change their feathers every so often.
They get dull and worn out, so to look good, keep warm and stay airborne, they need to be replaced.
This is called 'the moult' or 'moulting'.
Because of the different coloured feathers they grow, it's really easy to spot in starlings.
Starling flocks: a wild spectacle
A murmuration of starlings is an amazing sight - a swooping mass of thousands of birds whirling in the sky above your head.
What's going on?
It's basically a mass aerial stunt - thousands of birds all swooping and diving in unison. It's completely breathtaking to witness.
We think that starlings do it for many reasons. Grouping together offers safety in numbers – predators such as peregrine falcons find it hard to target one bird in the middle of a hypnotising flock of thousands.
They also gather to keep warm at night and to exchange information, such as good feeding areas.
They gather over their roosting site, and perform their wheeling stunts before they roost for the night.
When and where?
Autumn roosts usually begin to form in November, though this varies from site to site and some can begin as early as September.
More and more birds will flock together as the weeks go on, and the number of starlings in a roost can swell to around 100,000 in some places.
Early evening, just before dusk, is the best time to see them across the UK. You don't need any special equipment as it's all visible by just looking to the skies.
They roost in places that are sheltered from harsh weather and predators, such as woodlands, but reedbeds, cliffs, buildings and industrial structures are also used. During the day, however, they form daytime roosts at exposed places such as treetops, where the birds have good all-round visibility.
Several of our reserves make great viewing spots for murmurations. Other popular sites to see starlings include Gretna Green in Dumfries and Galloway, and Brighton Pier, Sussex.
Watch them swoop the loop
Don't just take our word for it, check out this amazing video of a starling murmuration.
Don't be fooled by big flocks
Despite the incredible size of the flocks, starling numbers are just a fraction of what they used to be. Huge starling flocks used to gather over Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Belfast, but today you have a much better chance of seeing the birds in rural areas.
The starling population has fallen by over 80% in recent years, meaning they are now on the critical list of UK birds most at risk.
The decline is believed to be due to the loss of permanent pasture, increased use of farm chemicals and a shortage of food and nesting sites in many parts of the UK.
Legal status
Starlings are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, which makes it illegal to intentionally kill, injure or take a starling, or to take, damage or destroy an active nest or its contents.
Preventing the birds from gaining access to their nests may also be viewed as illegal by the courts. It is therefore important to check for active nests before any repairs to roofs and soffits are carried out during the breeding season.
The provision to control starlings under a general licence was removed from the Act in England and Wales, making the species fully protected in England and Wales.
Starlings are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981
However, general licences issued under the Act are still in place in Scotland, and under the Wildlife Order in Northern Ireland. These allow an authorised person to control starlings to prevent serious damage to agriculture or preserve public health and safety. The RSPB believes that this should only be done if there is no alternative solution.
An 'authorised person' is usually the landowner or occupier or his/her agent. Do note that nuisance or damage to property are not legitimate reasons for control, and as such a roof nest cannot legally be removed in the RSPB's opinion, unless it can be demonstrated that removal was undertaken under the terms of one of the government licences.
Population trends and conservation
Starlings are taken by a wide variety of predators.
In the past, one third of juveniles survived their first year of life, but this has reduced to only 15 per cent. Birds that survive to breeding age can expect to live a further two or three years. The oldest known wild individual was 21 years old.
Starlings are very tenacious and adaptable birds. Over the centuries they have expanded their numbers and range in the wake of farmers, wherever suitable conditions became available. They used to be uncommon birds in the UK.
Starling numbers have declined markedly across much of northern Europe and the UK. The decline in the UK started during the early 1980s and has continued ever since. Recent data from the Breeding Bird Survey suggest continuing population declines affecting starlings in England and Wales since 1995. The cause of the starling decline in the UK is unknown.
Starlings are heavily dependent on soil invertebrates like earthworms and leatherjackets, and it is possible this food supply has either declined or perhaps become less available during dry summers.
Long-term monitoring by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) shows that starling numbers have fallen by 66 per cent in Britain since the mid-1970s. Because of this decline in numbers, the starling is red listed as a bird of high conservation concern.
Relations with man
The fortunes of starlings are closely linked to human activities.
By converting other habitats such as woodland into open farmland, and erecting buildings, people have provided them with food and nest sites. People have, therefore, been instrumental in creating the present high population in Europe and Asia.
Starlings eat large numbers of invertebrates, many of which are crop pests. Therefore, in many countries starlings are considered to be beneficial and encouraged with nest boxes. The preference for crops during the autumn and winter months brings the starling into conflict with people.
Within their winter range there have been many failed efforts to reduce starling numbers to protect crops. The main conflict areas are cherry orchards (and on the continent also vineyards), autumn sown cereal, and cattle feeding troughs. The droppings produced at the roost can make a large roost unwelcome, whether it is in a woodland or in a town centre.
One last major project for the year involved adding new maintenance free fascia and soffits to the house. Having some handsome young construction workers doing the job was a side bonus!
One last major project for the year involved adding new maintenance free fascia and soffits to the house. Having some handsome young construction workers doing the job was a side bonus!
"The building at the southeast corner of Pim and Wellington dates from 1901 or earlier. It was built with plain bricks and a sandstone foundation. The building has a large porch that is original along with its windows. Fascia and soffits at the roof are aluminum and the building has vinyl on third-floor windows. The building was home to A. C. Boyce the first M.P. of Algoma West (Sault Ste. Marie’s federal riding prior to 1966) from 1905-1917. In the 1891 census the residents may have been Robert Stark, a shoemaker, his wife Annie and six children, aged between one and 17. In the 1901 city directory (the first), this family is listed at this address. The building was divided into multiple units in 1939-40, and was named Marshall Apartments in the 1944 city directory. Sheriff George Lee was one of the first tenants." - info from SooToday.
"Sault Ste. Marie (/ˈsuː seɪnt məˈriː/ SOO-seint-ma-REE) is a city on the St. Marys River in Ontario, Canada, close to the Canada–US border. It is the seat of the Algoma District and the third largest city in Northern Ontario, after Sudbury and Thunder Bay.
The Ojibwe, the indigenous Anishinaabe inhabitants of the area, call this area Baawitigong, meaning "place of the rapids." They used this as a regional meeting place during whitefish season in the St. Mary's Rapids. (The anglicized form of this name, Bawating, is used in institutional and geographic names in the area.)
To the south, across the river, is the United States and the Michigan city of the same name. These two communities were one city until a new treaty after the War of 1812 established the border between Canada and the United States in this area at the St. Mary's River. In the 21st century, the two cities are joined by the International Bridge, which connects Interstate 75 on the Michigan side, and Huron Street (and former Ontario Secondary Highway 550B) on the Ontario side. Shipping traffic in the Great Lakes system bypasses the Saint Mary's Rapids via the American Soo Locks, the world's busiest canal in terms of tonnage that passes through it, while smaller recreational and tour boats use the Canadian Sault Ste. Marie Canal.
French colonists referred to the rapids on the river as Les Saults de Ste. Marie and the village name was derived from that. The rapids and cascades of the St. Mary's River descend more than 6 m (20 ft) from the level of Lake Superior to the level of the lower lakes. Hundreds of years ago, this slowed shipping traffic, requiring an overland portage of boats and cargo from one lake to the other. The entire name translates to "Saint Mary's Rapids" or "Saint Mary's Falls". The word sault is pronounced [so] in French, and /suː/ in the English pronunciation of the city name. Residents of the city are called Saultites.
Sault Ste. Marie is bordered to the east by the Rankin and Garden River First Nation reserves, and to the west by Prince Township. To the north, the city is bordered by an unincorporated portion of Algoma District, which includes the local services boards of Aweres, Batchawana Bay, Goulais and District, Peace Tree and Searchmont. The city's census agglomeration, including the townships of Laird, Prince and Macdonald, Meredith and Aberdeen Additional and the First Nations reserves of Garden River and Rankin, had a total population of 79,800 in 2011.
Native American settlements, mostly of Ojibwe-speaking peoples, existed here for more than 500 years. In the late 17th century, French Jesuit missionaries established a mission at the First Nations village. This was followed by development of a fur trading post and larger settlement, as traders, trappers and Native Americans were attracted to the community. It was considered one community and part of Canada until after the War of 1812 and settlement of the border between Canada and the US at the Ste. Mary's River. At that time, the US prohibited British traders from any longer operating in its territory, and the areas separated by the river began to develop as two communities, both named Sault Ste. Marie." - info from Wikipedia.
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The interior hall is octagonal in shape and measures 58' in diameter and 80' in height from the pavement to the soffit (first ceiling) and has an arrangement of four rooms on the sides and is rectangular and four octagonal rooms at the corners and all are interconnected through passages. There is a double storeyed arrangement of the roofs and passages- the upper set exactly corresponds to the lower one i.e. four rectangular rooms on the sides and four octagonal small rooms at the corners, all interconnected by passages.
The radiating corridors on the ground floor connect the main hall with the corner rooms. Barring the southern side all the other sides have been closed with screens divided into small compartments filled with glass pieces. This glass work is seen on all the external sides of the tomb as well as on the upper storey. The glass pieces show amazing uniformity and have been very skillfully manufactured. They appear slightly milky in color to give a translucent look rather than transparent. The mortuary hall is an example of wonderful architecture and a great finish. The panels on its dados have beautiful floral designs in high relief or carvo-relievo with the borders in inlaid conventionalized motifs. An exquisitely developed marble jali screen (called Jhajjhari) encloses the monument. The inlay work on its borders and the graceful jalies are one the highs of medieval architecture.
One last major project for the year involved adding new maintenance free fascia and soffits to the house. Having some handsome young construction workers doing the job was a side bonus!
One last major project for the year involved adding new maintenance free fascia and soffits to the house. Having some handsome young construction workers doing the job was a side bonus!
Built in 1841, the Ouse Valley Viaduct (also called Balcombe Viaduct) over the River Ouse on the London-Brighton Railway Line in England north of Haywards Heath and south of Balcombe is 1,475 feet (450 m) long.
Description[edit]
The viaduct is 96 feet (29 m) high and is carried on 37 semi-circular arches, each of 30 feet (9.1 m), surmounted by balustrades. Each pier contains a Jack arch with a semi-circular soffit to reduce the number of bricks required.[1] At each end of the abutment is an ornamental square open tower, the brickwork of which is faced with stone from Heddon Quarries near Newcastle-upon-Tyne.[2] The viaduct was designed by engineer for the line John Urpeth Rastrick in association with the architect of the London to Brighton railway, David Mocatta. It has been described as "probably the most elegant viaduct in Britain."[3]
History[edit]
The viaduct was opened in July 1841. The 11 million bricks needed for its construction were shipped up the Ouse River (via Newhaven and Lewes) from the Netherlands. It cost £38,500 to build[4] (equivalent to about £3½ million in 2014[5]).
The structure is a Grade II* listed building [6] and was restored in 1996 with grants from the Railway Heritage Trust and English Heritage. Matching stone was imported from France, to ensure a close match with the existing balustrades and pavilions.[7]
The viaduct is still used, with around 110 trains per day passing over it on the Brighton Main Line
The Main Garden
At the heart of the garden, Borde Hill House, an Elizabethan Tudor mansion from 1598, provides a superb backdrop to the formal 17-acre Garden which flows into a series of linked ‘garden rooms’, each boasting its own distinctive character & style.
For over 100 years the plantings have evolved with the vision of seasonal colour and interest to compliment the plantings of Rhododendrons, Azaleas, Camellias and Magnolias. The Rose Garden and herbaceous borders add a blaze of colour and the sub-tropical Dells have an air of tropical mystery, whilst sheltered areas within a mature landscape bring unexpected delights
History
The Garden was created in the early 1900’s with plants gathered by the great plant collectors from their travels to the Himalayas, China, Burma, Tasmania and the Andes – a legacy which today’s visitors continue to experience and enjoy. Listed as Grade II* importance by English Heritage on its register of Parks and Gardens, Borde Hill contains the best private collection of champion trees in Britain and one of the most comprehensive collections of trees and shrubs in the world. In 1999 it won the South East Tourism Board’s prestigious ‘Attraction of the Year’ award, and in 2004 it won the HHA / Christies Garden of the Year.
1598Borde Hill built by Sir Stephen Borde whose family lived in Cuckfield for generations. “SB 1598″ above West porch.
1703Purchased by Walter Gatland with 200 acres for £2,382.
1803Purchased by Mr Randle for £4,700.
1825Purchased by Preston family who added the central portion of the house. Their family crest can be seen in the house and the gate to the Rose garden.
1853House passed to a Major MacAdam via his wife, Miss Preston.
1864Purchased by the Cunliffe Lister family.
1892Purchased by Col. Stephenson Robert Clarke who built the East Wing, altered and restored the central Southern bay windows & added the present porch to the North front door.
1898South Lawn and Ha-Ha created.
1900-
1930The Clarke family were patrons of some of the great plant collectors who went to the Himalayas, China, Tasmania, the Andes and North America.
1902Azalea Ring planted with Knapp Hill varieties.
1905Warren Wood planted.
1906Roadside plantings.
1910Stephanie’s Glade planted.
1925Garden of Allah extended with plants from the collector Kingdon Ward.
1937Expansion of the collection to the outlying woods (e.g. Gores Wood).
1949Sir Ralph &Lady Clarke take up residence as Stephenson R. Clarke died in 1948 aged 86.
1965Garden opens to the public as a registered charity.
1972Sir Ralph Clarke died and was succeeded by his son Robert Nunn Stephenson Clarke.
1987The storm of October 1987 caused extensive damage to the gardens and woods. Robert N. Stephenson Clarke died and was succeeded by his son Andrewjohn Patrick Stephenson Clarke.
1990Victorian Stable Block converted into Restaurant & Tea Rooms and creation of the lakes in the South Park.
1992Borde Hill Garden Restoration Study – Lear Associates / Land Use Consultants.
1994Adventure playground created.
1995Rose garden recreated based on the 1902 designs shown in Country Life magazine.
1997Heritage Lottery Fund donation for restoring the Victorian Greenhouses and access improvements.
2001Harvey Stephens is appointed head gardener.
2002The Potting Sheds are refurbished and given a ‘Southern Hemisphere’ theme.
2003New plantings in The Italian Garden to redefine its Mediterranean inspiration.
200540th Anniversary of the opening to the public of Borde Hill Garden and centenary of Warren Wood.
Qazvin - Iran
It Was first time which i have seen a soffit like this in Iran ! Like a motion Soffit !
توی معماری های به کار رفته توی سقف هایی که تا الان دیدم، اولین طاقی بود که به این سبک و به حالت دَورانی کار شده بود و من از نزدیک می دیدم. ترکیب رنگ جالب و حالت خاصی داشت.
A detail shot of the lobby of a hotel in Knoxville, TN. It is composed of a parapet wall, molding, a wall, a soffit and a roll-down gate.
Wandering around the house looking at soffits and the ceiling. This is a soffit in my bathroom. I had the camera on full auto mode for all of these, and the ISO setting ended up at 400, which created a huge amount of grain in these shots. I created a duplicate layer filtered with a really wide gaussian noise filter (100 pixel radius) and then erased everything in the top layer except where the surfaces meet. This gives the walls almost a metallic finish, but you can still see where I did a bad paint job. The bathroom's actually more brown than this.
Waterloo Bridge Undercroft
Architect: Sir Giles Gilbert Scott.
Engineers: Ernest Buckton and John Cueral of Rendel Palmer & Tritton.
1942-45
~1500 ; rebuilt in the new church bldg. in 1877 by architect David Walker.
The statues all date from this period, as do many other expertly reconstructed details.
An excellent article about this screen can be read @
www.buildingconservation.com/articles/llananno-rood/llana...
~1500 ; rebuilt in the new church bldg. in 1877 by architect David Walker.
The "flat" panels of the soffit are not original.
An excellent article about this screen can be read @
www.buildingconservation.com/articles/llananno-rood/llana...
The soffit (underside) of one of the entablature blocks (the architrave) from the Temple of Venus Genetrix in the Forum Iulium (Forum of Julius Caesar) in Rome as it was discovered during the excavation program of 1931-32 by the Italian archaeologist C. Ricci. An eros emerges from a background of acanthus leaves. This block was set back up on the temple during the restoration project sponsored by Mussonlini’s government. Posted today, Sept. 26, 2020, in honor of the 2,066 anniversary of the dedication of the temple (26 September 46 BCE).
One last major project for the year involved adding new maintenance free fascia and soffits to the house. Having some handsome young construction workers doing the job was a side bonus!
Patron: Abdulaziz ibn Abdullah Khan, ruler of the Janid dynasty (descendants of the Astrakhan Khanate from around the modern city of Astrakhan, who ruled the Khanate between 1599-1747) and the fifth Khan of the Bukhara Khanate (r.1651-1681).
Architect: Ismail ibn Takhir ibn Mahmad Isfahani.
One last major project for the year involved adding new maintenance free fascia and soffits to the house. Having some handsome young construction workers doing the job was a side bonus!
A black and white study of the soffit, fascia and multicoloured cladding of a beach hut on the promenade at Clacton - 01.07.15
Supermarket EUROSPAR in Altheim, Austria.
Nighttime.
Reopening November 2015. Client SPAR, Architects Dworschak + Mühlbachler, General Contractor Resch, Steel Work Eder, Cladding Material for Soffit EXYD-M.
Supermarkt EUROSPAR in Altheim, Oberösterreich.
Nächtlich.
Wiedereröffnung November 2015. Bauherr SPAR, Architekten Dworschak + Mühlbachler, Generalunternehmer Resch, Metallarbeiten Eder, Verkleidungsmaterial für Vordach EXYD-M.
Taken from rather an unusual angle as I was on a high scaffolding tower here as we assessed possible repairs to the fabric of this wonderful 1932 station designed by Charles Holden for the Underground Group. The very European 'modern' style of architecture was, for both Holden and the Underground, the first in a break away from the earlier style of 'classically' inspired stations, such as Ealing Common, that were finished in Portland stone. The vast semi-circular ticket hall was modified in the 1980s, by insertion of the secure ticketing suite than can be seen on bottom left, but otherwise retains its sense of stark grandeur - a re-inforced concrete frame clad in brick and with the vast Crittall windows allowing light to flood in and, at night, illumination to flood out. As well as looking at the rendered and concrete ceiling structure here we were looking at those Crittall steel frames and I still think now, as I did then, they need replacing as their condition is not good. One of the problems of conservation - you can see the various types of reeded glass in place here and trying to identify an 'original' pattern (given the replacement of individual sheets over time) so as to be able to replace all panes in a single, unified style as it would originally have been presented is the devil's own task. The painting of the frames has also been the subject of much consideration over time. Latterly they were often painted white and this is, to my mind, wrong. Holden aimed for the interior to be powder or sky blue, so that the frames would be 'read' against the external sky, and externally they woudl usually have been in a brick red so that, again, the steel frame would be visually recessive against the bulk of the building - the idea of the steel window frames being 'dominant' was not the intention. I have seen evidence of some frames being grey but white or green, hmm, not right.
The ceiling soffit here is composed of fiberous plaster or render in a sculpted form - later stations had deeper indentations formed fromt he beam pattern. Again we had a debate about several of those stations as, as constructed, there is evidence that these were colour washed (as at Alperton) and that plain white was a later, maintenance simplification.
Aluminium footbridge, built from 1948 to 1950, on the River Tummel at Loch Faskally by the North of Scotland Hydro Electric Board. The consulting engineers were Sir Alexander Gibb & Partners. The contractors were P. & W. McLennan Ltd, Glasgow. The aluminium alloys were supplied by James Booth & Co. Ltd. The concrete piers were constructed by William Tawse, Aberdeen.
The bridge is of a cantilevered design with a shallow-arched deck. It is 95 metres long with a centre span of around 53 metres and two side spans of 21 metres. The width of the walkway is 2 metres. The trusses, handrail, arched soffits, walkway and rivets are aluminium alloy. The trusses are braced in a mirrored 'N' formation between the soffits and the handrail. The bridge is supported by two concrete piers that taper slightly above the water level. Tapering concrete block abutments flank the entrance at either end of the bridge.
The Clunie Footbridge is the first major example of an aluminium bridge in Scotland, and is one of the earliest surviving aluminium bridges of notable design quality in the world. Its lightweight, cantilevered design is elegant and forward-thinking and effectively exploits the properties of the modern material. The footbridge is also of interest as an integral part of the Tummel Garry Hydro Electric scheme, a hugely significant feat of post-war engineering in Scotland, and takes into account the picturesque context of the nearby Pitlochry power station. The bridge also illustrates Scotland's historical associations with the early mass production of aluminium on a global scale.
This footbridge was built in 1948-50 by the North of Scotland Hydro Board as an integral part of the Tummel Garry Hydro Electric scheme (1947-51), one of the most ambitious civil engineering projects of its time in Scotland. The creation of the Pitlochry Dam and Power Station, around 1km downstream from the bridge, saw the water level at this part of the River Tummel rise by 40 feet to form Loch Faskally.
The bridge was the first aluminium bridge of notable scale in Scotland. A 1948 sketch of the proposed footbridge shows that an aluminium suspension bridge was being considered for the site at that time (Dundee Courier 1948). The slender, cantilevered design that was settled on used significantly less raw material than a suspension bridge, lowering the cost of production. The new bridge was more forward-thinking in its design and appearance, reflecting the relative modernity of its building material. The design may also have changed in line with new understanding of the structural properties of aluminium. Photographs taken in 1950 show the completed footbridge before the water level was raised. They also show the old stone bridge of 1832 being taken down as part of the Loch Faskally works (Canmore; Dundee Courier).
Until the end of the 19th century, aluminium was regarded as a precious metal due to the difficulty in extracting alumina from bauxite ore. The separation process was aided significantly by electrolysis, which required large amounts of electricity. In the UK, this was provided by hydroelectric power generated in the Scottish Highlands. The first hydroelectric powered aluminium smelter in Scotland opened at Foyers in 1896, followed by smelters at Kinlochleven in 1909 and Lochaber in 1929, all for the British Aluminium Company. Among the attributes of aluminium alloys are its lightness and strength-to-weight ratio, and its high resistance to corrosion and staining. Advances in fabrication led to its extensive use in the emerging aviation industry, and for military purposes during the world wars.
The first known use of aluminium alloy in bridge construction was in 1933 in Pittsburgh, home of the American Aluminum Company. In 1946 the first bridge with an all-aluminium span (as well as six steel spans) was constructed in Massena, New York. As production costs are around 25% to 30% higher than reinforced steel, aluminium has rarely been used for large-scale bridges. The Arvida Bridge (1948-50) in Quebec, Canada was the first all-aluminium road bridge in the world and remains the largest by some margin (2018). In more recent years, aluminium has been used for small scale bridges where a longer life-cycle is considered to justify the initial cost (Kaufman 2007).
The three earliest aluminium bridges of notable scale in Europe were built in Britain between 1948 and 1953 (Alison, 1984). The raw material for all three was produced in Scotland. Of these, the 1948 Port Hendon bascule bridge in Sunderland and the 1953 Victoria Dock bascule bridge in Aberdeen were dismantled during the 1970s, making this bridge, the Clunie Footbridge (1948-50) the only survivor. It should be noted that in 1948 a 7 metre flat-deck aluminium footbridge was constructed over the Luibeg Burn in the Cairngorms by the Cairngorm Club. Its aluminium frame was salvaged after it was thrown some distance downstream by a heavy spate in 1956 and rebuilt on higher ground. Between 1950 and 1960, at least six more aluminium bridges were erected in Europe, four of which were footbridges (Alison 1984).
Footbridges are not a rare building type in Scotland and there are many 19th and 20th century examples across rivers and streams in remote and scenic areas throughout the country. Examples near the Clunie Footbridge include the 1913 Port-Na-Craig suspension bridge (LB39858) around 2km downstream in Pitlochry, and the 1911 Coronation suspension bridge (LB47622) located at the Linn of Tummel around 2km upstream. Designed to bespoke specifications, the Clunie Footbridge is the only example of its kind. It is understood to be the earliest surviving aluminium bridge of notable scale in Europe, and is among the first in the world. The innovative and experimental use of this material makes a significant contribution to Scotland's bridge engineering legacy, and this interest is increased by the bridge's elegant architectural design and close contextual association with a nationally significant hydroelectric scheme.
The Clunie Footbridge uses a standard linear plan form and there is no particular interest under this heading in listing terms.
In global terms, Scotland has a long and notable history of innovation in bridge building, pioneering the early use of cast iron, wrought iron and then steel as construction materials. The Clunie footbridge is significant for its early use of aluminium as its principal building material. 'Little information on aluminium alloy riveting practice was available at the time of erection and this aspect required careful investigation' (Paxton and Shipway 2007).
While modest in scale, the cantilevered and lattice design of the footbridge is elegant. Applied to a modern material to great aesthetic effect, the design responds the picturesque context of nearby Pitlochry power station. It therefore reflects the wider design ethos of the North of Scotland Hydro Electric Board and their team of consultant architects, who favoured Modernist architectural treatments.
It is also significant, in terms of the selection of building material, that aluminium extraction in the United Kingdom largely took place in Scotland, using Highland hydropower. This factor may have contributed to the decision to construct the Clunie footbridge using aluminium. Within this context, the aluminium footbridge illustrates leading-edge technological innovation in Scotland as part of a nationally significant civil engineering project.
While aluminium has a low flexibility compared to steel and has been associated with difficulties in joining parts, the Clunie Footbridge has 'proven not to be vulnerable to deflection effects or vibration' (Paxton and Shipway 2007). The stable condition and little-altered appearance (2018) of the bridge is evidence of its technological and design quality in terms of a largely untested material within the context of bridge construction.
Sir Alexander Gibb & Partners were the engineering consultants for the Clunie Footbridge. Founded in 1922 by noted Scottish Civil Engineer Sir Alexander Gibb (1872-1958), the firm brought together architecture and mechanical services to offer clients a complete service. Earlier works in Scotland include the 1932-6 Kincardine Bridge (LB50078, listed category A) across the Firth of Forth, which was Europe's largest swing-span road bridge at the time. Their contribution here further reinforces Scotland's innovative approach to bridge building.
As noted, the Clunie Footbridge was built as an integral part of the Tummel Garry Hydro Electric power scheme. Pitlochry Dam and Power Station, at the other end of Loch Faskally, is listed at category A (LB47534). While the dam is not inter-visible with the footbridge due to a natural bend in the river, it contributes to the wider context and setting of this important post-war infrastructural project.
The footbridge is located on a tree-lined section of the river at the head of Loch Faskally, and is adjacent to a later A9 road bridge, known as the Coronation Bridge, which passes over the river at a higher level to the east. Remains of the north abutment of the older Clunie Bridge are situated on the bank to the northwest of the current footbridge, with salvaged stone used to create a small viewing platform nearby.
The setting has changed little since the road bridge was built in 1981. It is understood that an addition to the east side of the road bridge will be constructed as part of the ongoing A9 dual-carriageway project (2018) in order to 'minimise impact on the aluminium Clunie Footbridge to the west'. (A9 Dualling Programme, Pitlochry to Killiecrankie, Cultural Heritage, Chapter 15, p11).
The Highlands is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots language replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands. The term is also used for the area north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault, although the exact boundaries are not clearly defined, particularly to the east. The Great Glen divides the Grampian Mountains to the southeast from the Northwest Highlands. The Scottish Gaelic name of A' Ghàidhealtachd literally means "the place of the Gaels" and traditionally, from a Gaelic-speaking point of view, includes both the Western Isles and the Highlands.
The area is very sparsely populated, with many mountain ranges dominating the region, and includes the highest mountain in the British Isles, Ben Nevis. During the 18th and early 19th centuries the population of the Highlands rose to around 300,000, but from c. 1841 and for the next 160 years, the natural increase in population was exceeded by emigration (mostly to Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand, and migration to the industrial cities of Scotland and England.) and passim The area is now one of the most sparsely populated in Europe. At 9.1/km2 (24/sq mi) in 2012, the population density in the Highlands and Islands is less than one seventh of Scotland's as a whole.
The Highland Council is the administrative body for much of the Highlands, with its administrative centre at Inverness. However, the Highlands also includes parts of the council areas of Aberdeenshire, Angus, Argyll and Bute, Moray, North Ayrshire, Perth and Kinross, Stirling and West Dunbartonshire.
The Scottish Highlands is the only area in the British Isles to have the taiga biome as it features concentrated populations of Scots pine forest: see Caledonian Forest. It is the most mountainous part of the United Kingdom.
Between the 15th century and the mid-20th century, the area differed from most of the Lowlands in terms of language. In Scottish Gaelic, the region is known as the Gàidhealtachd, because it was traditionally the Gaelic-speaking part of Scotland, although the language is now largely confined to The Hebrides. The terms are sometimes used interchangeably but have different meanings in their respective languages. Scottish English (in its Highland form) is the predominant language of the area today, though Highland English has been influenced by Gaelic speech to a significant extent. Historically, the "Highland line" distinguished the two Scottish cultures. While the Highland line broadly followed the geography of the Grampians in the south, it continued in the north, cutting off the north-eastern areas, that is Eastern Caithness, Orkney and Shetland, from the more Gaelic Highlands and Hebrides.
Historically, the major social unit of the Highlands was the clan. Scottish kings, particularly James VI, saw clans as a challenge to their authority; the Highlands was seen by many as a lawless region. The Scots of the Lowlands viewed the Highlanders as backward and more "Irish". The Highlands were seen as the overspill of Gaelic Ireland. They made this distinction by separating Germanic "Scots" English and the Gaelic by renaming it "Erse" a play on Eire. Following the Union of the Crowns, James VI had the military strength to back up any attempts to impose some control. The result was, in 1609, the Statutes of Iona which started the process of integrating clan leaders into Scottish society. The gradual changes continued into the 19th century, as clan chiefs thought of themselves less as patriarchal leaders of their people and more as commercial landlords. The first effect on the clansmen who were their tenants was the change to rents being payable in money rather than in kind. Later, rents were increased as Highland landowners sought to increase their income. This was followed, mostly in the period 1760–1850, by agricultural improvement that often (particularly in the Western Highlands) involved clearance of the population to make way for large scale sheep farms. Displaced tenants were set up in crofting communities in the process. The crofts were intended not to provide all the needs of their occupiers; they were expected to work in other industries such as kelping and fishing. Crofters came to rely substantially on seasonal migrant work, particularly in the Lowlands. This gave impetus to the learning of English, which was seen by many rural Gaelic speakers to be the essential "language of work".
Older historiography attributes the collapse of the clan system to the aftermath of the Jacobite risings. This is now thought less influential by historians. Following the Jacobite rising of 1745 the British government enacted a series of laws to try to suppress the clan system, including bans on the bearing of arms and the wearing of tartan, and limitations on the activities of the Scottish Episcopal Church. Most of this legislation was repealed by the end of the 18th century as the Jacobite threat subsided. There was soon a rehabilitation of Highland culture. Tartan was adopted for Highland regiments in the British Army, which poor Highlanders joined in large numbers in the era of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1790–1815). Tartan had largely been abandoned by the ordinary people of the region, but in the 1820s, tartan and the kilt were adopted by members of the social elite, not just in Scotland, but across Europe. The international craze for tartan, and for idealising a romanticised Highlands, was set off by the Ossian cycle, and further popularised by the works of Walter Scott. His "staging" of the visit of King George IV to Scotland in 1822 and the king's wearing of tartan resulted in a massive upsurge in demand for kilts and tartans that could not be met by the Scottish woollen industry. Individual clan tartans were largely designated in this period and they became a major symbol of Scottish identity. This "Highlandism", by which all of Scotland was identified with the culture of the Highlands, was cemented by Queen Victoria's interest in the country, her adoption of Balmoral as a major royal retreat, and her interest in "tartenry".
Recurrent famine affected the Highlands for much of its history, with significant instances as late as 1817 in the Eastern Highlands and the early 1850s in the West. Over the 18th century, the region had developed a trade of black cattle into Lowland markets, and this was balanced by imports of meal into the area. There was a critical reliance on this trade to provide sufficient food, and it is seen as an essential prerequisite for the population growth that started in the 18th century. Most of the Highlands, particularly in the North and West was short of the arable land that was essential for the mixed, run rig based, communal farming that existed before agricultural improvement was introduced into the region.[a] Between the 1760s and the 1830s there was a substantial trade in unlicensed whisky that had been distilled in the Highlands. Lowland distillers (who were not able to avoid the heavy taxation of this product) complained that Highland whisky made up more than half the market. The development of the cattle trade is taken as evidence that the pre-improvement Highlands was not an immutable system, but did exploit the economic opportunities that came its way. The illicit whisky trade demonstrates the entrepreneurial ability of the peasant classes.
Agricultural improvement reached the Highlands mostly over the period 1760 to 1850. Agricultural advisors, factors, land surveyors and others educated in the thinking of Adam Smith were keen to put into practice the new ideas taught in Scottish universities. Highland landowners, many of whom were burdened with chronic debts, were generally receptive to the advice they offered and keen to increase the income from their land. In the East and South the resulting change was similar to that in the Lowlands, with the creation of larger farms with single tenants, enclosure of the old run rig fields, introduction of new crops (such as turnips), land drainage and, as a consequence of all this, eviction, as part of the Highland clearances, of many tenants and cottars. Some of those cleared found employment on the new, larger farms, others moved to the accessible towns of the Lowlands.
In the West and North, evicted tenants were usually given tenancies in newly created crofting communities, while their former holdings were converted into large sheep farms. Sheep farmers could pay substantially higher rents than the run rig farmers and were much less prone to falling into arrears. Each croft was limited in size so that the tenants would have to find work elsewhere. The major alternatives were fishing and the kelp industry. Landlords took control of the kelp shores, deducting the wages earned by their tenants from the rent due and retaining the large profits that could be earned at the high prices paid for the processed product during the Napoleonic wars.
When the Napoleonic wars finished in 1815, the Highland industries were affected by the return to a peacetime economy. The price of black cattle fell, nearly halving between 1810 and the 1830s. Kelp prices had peaked in 1810, but reduced from £9 a ton in 1823 to £3 13s 4d a ton in 1828. Wool prices were also badly affected. This worsened the financial problems of debt-encumbered landlords. Then, in 1846, potato blight arrived in the Highlands, wiping out the essential subsistence crop for the overcrowded crofting communities. As the famine struck, the government made clear to landlords that it was their responsibility to provide famine relief for their tenants. The result of the economic downturn had been that a large proportion of Highland estates were sold in the first half of the 19th century. T M Devine points out that in the region most affected by the potato famine, by 1846, 70 per cent of the landowners were new purchasers who had not owned Highland property before 1800. More landlords were obliged to sell due to the cost of famine relief. Those who were protected from the worst of the crisis were those with extensive rental income from sheep farms. Government loans were made available for drainage works, road building and other improvements and many crofters became temporary migrants – taking work in the Lowlands. When the potato famine ceased in 1856, this established a pattern of more extensive working away from the Highlands.
The unequal concentration of land ownership remained an emotional and controversial subject, of enormous importance to the Highland economy, and eventually became a cornerstone of liberal radicalism. The poor crofters were politically powerless, and many of them turned to religion. They embraced the popularly oriented, fervently evangelical Presbyterian revival after 1800. Most joined the breakaway "Free Church" after 1843. This evangelical movement was led by lay preachers who themselves came from the lower strata, and whose preaching was implicitly critical of the established order. The religious change energised the crofters and separated them from the landlords; it helped prepare them for their successful and violent challenge to the landlords in the 1880s through the Highland Land League. Violence erupted, starting on the Isle of Skye, when Highland landlords cleared their lands for sheep and deer parks. It was quietened when the government stepped in, passing the Crofters' Holdings (Scotland) Act, 1886 to reduce rents, guarantee fixity of tenure, and break up large estates to provide crofts for the homeless. This contrasted with the Irish Land War underway at the same time, where the Irish were intensely politicised through roots in Irish nationalism, while political dimensions were limited. In 1885 three Independent Crofter candidates were elected to Parliament, which listened to their pleas. The results included explicit security for the Scottish smallholders in the "crofting counties"; the legal right to bequeath tenancies to descendants; and the creation of a Crofting Commission. The Crofters as a political movement faded away by 1892, and the Liberal Party gained their votes.
Today, the Highlands are the largest of Scotland's whisky producing regions; the relevant area runs from Orkney to the Isle of Arran in the south and includes the northern isles and much of Inner and Outer Hebrides, Argyll, Stirlingshire, Arran, as well as sections of Perthshire and Aberdeenshire. (Other sources treat The Islands, except Islay, as a separate whisky producing region.) This massive area has over 30 distilleries, or 47 when the Islands sub-region is included in the count. According to one source, the top five are The Macallan, Glenfiddich, Aberlour, Glenfarclas and Balvenie. While Speyside is geographically within the Highlands, that region is specified as distinct in terms of whisky productions. Speyside single malt whiskies are produced by about 50 distilleries.
According to Visit Scotland, Highlands whisky is "fruity, sweet, spicy, malty". Another review states that Northern Highlands single malt is "sweet and full-bodied", the Eastern Highlands and Southern Highlands whiskies tend to be "lighter in texture" while the distilleries in the Western Highlands produce single malts with a "much peatier influence".
The Scottish Reformation achieved partial success in the Highlands. Roman Catholicism remained strong in some areas, owing to remote locations and the efforts of Franciscan missionaries from Ireland, who regularly came to celebrate Mass. There remain significant Catholic strongholds within the Highlands and Islands such as Moidart and Morar on the mainland and South Uist and Barra in the southern Outer Hebrides. The remoteness of the region and the lack of a Gaelic-speaking clergy undermined the missionary efforts of the established church. The later 18th century saw somewhat greater success, owing to the efforts of the SSPCK missionaries and to the disruption of traditional society after the Battle of Culloden in 1746. In the 19th century, the evangelical Free Churches, which were more accepting of Gaelic language and culture, grew rapidly, appealing much more strongly than did the established church.
For the most part, however, the Highlands are considered predominantly Protestant, belonging to the Church of Scotland. In contrast to the Catholic southern islands, the northern Outer Hebrides islands (Lewis, Harris and North Uist) have an exceptionally high proportion of their population belonging to the Protestant Free Church of Scotland or the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. The Outer Hebrides have been described as the last bastion of Calvinism in Britain and the Sabbath remains widely observed. Inverness and the surrounding area has a majority Protestant population, with most locals belonging to either The Kirk or the Free Church of Scotland. The church maintains a noticeable presence within the area, with church attendance notably higher than in other parts of Scotland. Religion continues to play an important role in Highland culture, with Sabbath observance still widely practised, particularly in the Hebrides.
In traditional Scottish geography, the Highlands refers to that part of Scotland north-west of the Highland Boundary Fault, which crosses mainland Scotland in a near-straight line from Helensburgh to Stonehaven. However the flat coastal lands that occupy parts of the counties of Nairnshire, Morayshire, Banffshire and Aberdeenshire are often excluded as they do not share the distinctive geographical and cultural features of the rest of the Highlands. The north-east of Caithness, as well as Orkney and Shetland, are also often excluded from the Highlands, although the Hebrides are usually included. The Highland area, as so defined, differed from the Lowlands in language and tradition, having preserved Gaelic speech and customs centuries after the anglicisation of the latter; this led to a growing perception of a divide, with the cultural distinction between Highlander and Lowlander first noted towards the end of the 14th century. In Aberdeenshire, the boundary between the Highlands and the Lowlands is not well defined. There is a stone beside the A93 road near the village of Dinnet on Royal Deeside which states 'You are now in the Highlands', although there are areas of Highland character to the east of this point.
A much wider definition of the Highlands is that used by the Scotch whisky industry. Highland single malts are produced at distilleries north of an imaginary line between Dundee and Greenock, thus including all of Aberdeenshire and Angus.
Inverness is regarded as the Capital of the Highlands, although less so in the Highland parts of Aberdeenshire, Angus, Perthshire and Stirlingshire which look more to Aberdeen, Dundee, Perth, and Stirling as their commercial centres.
The Highland Council area, created as one of the local government regions of Scotland, has been a unitary council area since 1996. The council area excludes a large area of the southern and eastern Highlands, and the Western Isles, but includes Caithness. Highlands is sometimes used, however, as a name for the council area, as in the former Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue Service. Northern is also used to refer to the area, as in the former Northern Constabulary. These former bodies both covered the Highland council area and the island council areas of Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles.
Much of the Highlands area overlaps the Highlands and Islands area. An electoral region called Highlands and Islands is used in elections to the Scottish Parliament: this area includes Orkney and Shetland, as well as the Highland Council local government area, the Western Isles and most of the Argyll and Bute and Moray local government areas. Highlands and Islands has, however, different meanings in different contexts. It means Highland (the local government area), Orkney, Shetland, and the Western Isles in Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue Service. Northern, as in Northern Constabulary, refers to the same area as that covered by the fire and rescue service.
There have been trackways from the Lowlands to the Highlands since prehistoric times. Many traverse the Mounth, a spur of mountainous land that extends from the higher inland range to the North Sea slightly north of Stonehaven. The most well-known and historically important trackways are the Causey Mounth, Elsick Mounth, Cryne Corse Mounth and Cairnamounth.
Although most of the Highlands is geographically on the British mainland, it is somewhat less accessible than the rest of Britain; thus most UK couriers categorise it separately, alongside Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, and other offshore islands. They thus charge additional fees for delivery to the Highlands, or exclude the area entirely. While the physical remoteness from the largest population centres inevitably leads to higher transit cost, there is confusion and consternation over the scale of the fees charged and the effectiveness of their communication, and the use of the word Mainland in their justification. Since the charges are often based on postcode areas, many far less remote areas, including some which are traditionally considered part of the lowlands, are also subject to these charges. Royal Mail is the only delivery network bound by a Universal Service Obligation to charge a uniform tariff across the UK. This, however, applies only to mail items and not larger packages which are dealt with by its Parcelforce division.
The Highlands lie to the north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault, which runs from Arran to Stonehaven. This part of Scotland is largely composed of ancient rocks from the Cambrian and Precambrian periods which were uplifted during the later Caledonian Orogeny. Smaller formations of Lewisian gneiss in the northwest are up to 3 billion years old. The overlying rocks of the Torridon Sandstone form mountains in the Torridon Hills such as Liathach and Beinn Eighe in Wester Ross.
These foundations are interspersed with many igneous intrusions of a more recent age, the remnants of which have formed mountain massifs such as the Cairngorms and the Cuillin of Skye. A significant exception to the above are the fossil-bearing beds of Old Red Sandstone found principally along the Moray Firth coast and partially down the Highland Boundary Fault. The Jurassic beds found in isolated locations on Skye and Applecross reflect the complex underlying geology. They are the original source of much North Sea oil. The Great Glen is formed along a transform fault which divides the Grampian Mountains to the southeast from the Northwest Highlands.
The entire region was covered by ice sheets during the Pleistocene ice ages, save perhaps for a few nunataks. The complex geomorphology includes incised valleys and lochs carved by the action of mountain streams and ice, and a topography of irregularly distributed mountains whose summits have similar heights above sea-level, but whose bases depend upon the amount of denudation to which the plateau has been subjected in various places.
Climate
The region is much warmer than other areas at similar latitudes (such as Kamchatka in Russia, or Labrador in Canada) because of the Gulf Stream making it cool, damp and temperate. The Köppen climate classification is "Cfb" at low altitudes, then becoming "Cfc", "Dfc" and "ET" at higher altitudes.
Places of interest
An Teallach
Aonach Mòr (Nevis Range ski centre)
Arrochar Alps
Balmoral Castle
Balquhidder
Battlefield of Culloden
Beinn Alligin
Beinn Eighe
Ben Cruachan hydro-electric power station
Ben Lomond
Ben Macdui (second highest mountain in Scotland and UK)
Ben Nevis (highest mountain in Scotland and UK)
Cairngorms National Park
Cairngorm Ski centre near Aviemore
Cairngorm Mountains
Caledonian Canal
Cape Wrath
Carrick Castle
Castle Stalker
Castle Tioram
Chanonry Point
Conic Hill
Culloden Moor
Dunadd
Duart Castle
Durness
Eilean Donan
Fingal's Cave (Staffa)
Fort George
Glen Coe
Glen Etive
Glen Kinglas
Glen Lyon
Glen Orchy
Glenshee Ski Centre
Glen Shiel
Glen Spean
Glenfinnan (and its railway station and viaduct)
Grampian Mountains
Hebrides
Highland Folk Museum – The first open-air museum in the UK.
Highland Wildlife Park
Inveraray Castle
Inveraray Jail
Inverness Castle
Inverewe Garden
Iona Abbey
Isle of Staffa
Kilchurn Castle
Kilmartin Glen
Liathach
Lecht Ski Centre
Loch Alsh
Loch Ard
Loch Awe
Loch Assynt
Loch Earn
Loch Etive
Loch Fyne
Loch Goil
Loch Katrine
Loch Leven
Loch Linnhe
Loch Lochy
Loch Lomond
Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park
Loch Lubnaig
Loch Maree
Loch Morar
Loch Morlich
Loch Ness
Loch Nevis
Loch Rannoch
Loch Tay
Lochranza
Luss
Meall a' Bhuiridh (Glencoe Ski Centre)
Scottish Sea Life Sanctuary at Loch Creran
Rannoch Moor
Red Cuillin
Rest and Be Thankful stretch of A83
River Carron, Wester Ross
River Spey
River Tay
Ross and Cromarty
Smoo Cave
Stob Coire a' Chàirn
Stac Polly
Strathspey Railway
Sutherland
Tor Castle
Torridon Hills
Urquhart Castle
West Highland Line (scenic railway)
West Highland Way (Long-distance footpath)
Wester Ross