Old Photographs Stornoway Isle Of Lewis Outer Hebrides Scotland

Tour Scotland wee video of old photographs of Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, Outer Hebrides. This Scottish town was founded by Vikings in the early 9th century, under the name Stjórnavágr. This town, and what eventually became its present day version, grew up around a sheltered natural harbour well placed at a central point on the island, for the convenience of people from all over the island, to arrive at the port of Stornoway, either by family boat or horse drawn coach for ongoing travel and trade with the mainland of Scotland and to all points south. In the mid 19th century, the ownership of Stornoway, and by extension the Isle of Lewis, passed from the MacKenzies of Seaforth to Sir James Matheson. In 1918, Matheson sold the island to William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme. Notable people born in Stornoway include; Colonel Colin Mackenzie, born 1754, died 8 May 1821, who was a Scottish army officer in the British East India Company who later became the first Surveyor General of India. He was a collector of antiquities and an orientalist. He surveyed southern India, making use of local interpreters and scholars to study religion, oral histories, inscriptions and other evidence initially out of personal interest and later as a surveyor. He was ordered to survey the Mysore region shortly after the British victory over Tipu Sultan in 1799 and produced the first maps of the region along with illustrations of the landscape and notes on archaeological landmarks. His collections consisting of thousands of manuscripts, inscriptions, translations, coins and paintings were acquired after his death by the India Office Library and are an important source for the study of Indian history. Sir Alexander Mackenzie, or MacKenzie, born 1764, died 12 March 1820, who was a Scottish explorer. He is known for his overland crossing of what is now Canada to reach the Pacific Ocean in 1793. This was the first east to west crossing of North America north of Mexico and preceded the Lewis and Clark expedition by 10 years.