Antique Scottish Distance Running Photos Pilrig Harriers

This is a pair of interesting antique Scottish distance running photos featuring the “Pilrig Harriers”.  Pilrig is a suburb of Edinburgh and, I believe that “Harriers” was a common name given to cross country distance running clubs in Scotland, derived from the term “Hare and Hounds”.  I haven’t been able to find anything out about this team, but these antique Scottish distance running photos are quite wonderful.  One of the members is wearing a ribbon that reads “Whip” and another is wearing “Pace” - the Whip would manage and discipline the  running pack while the Pace was most likely the pacemaker, who would run at a steady tempo to set the pace for the other runners.  Each of these antique Scottish distance running photos is mounted on a card, one of the team in athletic apparel, and the other captioned “Pilrig Harriers At Home Musselburgh, 11th March 1905” shows the team in suits and caps posed with family members.  Both of these antique Scottish distance running photos were taken by “J.R. Coltart, Medallist”, who was a photographer based in Leith, a suburb of Edinburgh, and also a member of the club.  The names of the members are printed below the photo that is captioned “Pilrig Harriers, 1904-5”.  In the team photo, you can see that they tried to obliterate the faces in the window behind the team.  Each card measures 7 3/4” by 9 3/4” while the photos measure 4” by 5 3/4”.  The cards, unfortunately, have moisture damage and soiling, but these antique Scottish distance running photos themselves are untouched and look great- some professional cleaning and matting and these will display wonderfully.

This is a wonderful pair of antique Scottish distance running photos - nice pieces of history!