Cara - Then and Now

When I first started visiting the Hebrides I'd take along old photos of places I wanted to visit and then take a photo of how they currently look. For instance this photo of Inchkenneth house in the 1920s, and how I saw I in 2002.

Another example is this photo of the Macleod Gunnery on Berneray from the 1920s, and how I saw it in 1999.

Of course, all my 'THEN' photos were from other photographers. But in looking through my photos from a recent trip around the Southern Hebrides I realized that, as I've been visiting these isles for 30 years now, I have quite a few of my own 'THEN & NOW' photos; photos of sites I visited long ago, and how they've changed after several decades.

So here are my first two 'Now & Then' set of photos, where I've taken both the 'Now' and the 'Then'. They are from the island of Cara, and the first is of Cella Sanctissimae Trinitas, the Cell of the Holy Trinity; more commonly called the chapel of St Fionnlugh.

Cara Chapel - 2018 (top), 1992 (bottom)

As you can see, someone has been busy rebuilding the wall in the foreground (the south wall). That's probably a good thing, for as you can see in the older photo the whole structure was disintegrating.  

The second Cara "Now & Then" shows Cara House and the north side of the chapel. Over the past 26 years the house has not changed much. When I saw it in '92 they were in the process of cutting out openings in the front wall to add four additional windows. (In the 'THEN' photo`there is still no glass in the windows.)

Cara House - 2018 (top), 1992 (bottom)

In comparing my 'Now & Then' photos one thing really stands out. The vibrancy of the colors in the older photos far surpasses those in the 'Now' photos. Of course the 'Then' photos were taken with a film camera, and the 'Now' photos a digital camera. Even with the color adjustment capabilities of Photoshop I can rarely get as good colors from digital cameras.

I will be posting more of my own 'Now & Thens' as I come across them. I will leave you with another photo of Cara House from 1992; and you can see how it looked in 1966 (before they cut in the new windows) at this link.

Cara House under remodel in 1992