Outside Caerlaverock Close smithy

  Smithy on Caerlaverock Close, High Street, Dumfries. Dr Werner Kissling 1977.   This photograph is of the outside of a disused smithy on Caerlaverock Close, off the High Street in Dumfries. The sign over the door reading 'BLACKSMITH' can still be seen.   The photograph was taken by Dr Kissling in 1977 shortly before the smithy was demolished. The forge was last used by the blacksmiths, the Johnstone brothers, in the early 1950s.   In November 1977, before the smithy was demolished, two sets of bellows and the smithy door were collected by Dumfries Museum.   Dr Werner Kissling (1895-1988) was a German photographer and ethnographer who spent most of his life documenting Scottish crafts, architecture, and agricultural practices. He was associated with Dumfries Museum from the mid-1950s until his death in 1988.