Scotland- Day 7: Culloden, Clava Cairns, Brodie Castle, Urquhart Castle,Loch Ness, and Inverness- June 20, 2019

Since breakfast started at 7:30, we got up at 6:45. It was a little frightening to open the Weather Channel app and find out that it was 52 degrees, feels like 48! Not fun, especially knowing how much we'd be outside today.
My husband K went down to breakfast at 7:35 and was sitting with Tom from North Carolina,when I got down there ten minutes later. Since K went to UNC - Chapel Hill, they had something to talk about. K had his usual yogurt and fruit, while I went with fortifying porridge with honey, pieces of honeydew, and my usual pain au chocolate.
We were on the bus at 8:25 and it departed at 8:52. Roseanne used the trip to remind us of some Scottish history and to tell us about the battle that took place at the location that was our first stop. So, I suppose I should use this time to catch you up on the history and battle.
You've no doubt heard of the English queen, Elizabeth I, and I've mentioned Mary Queen of Scots. They were contemporaries. Mary had been sent off to France as a child to marry the Dauphin. When he died two years after their marriage, she went back to Scotland to reclaim her throne. The story of how she was deposed is complicated and depressing, so I won't go into it. However, she had had a son, James VI of Scotland. She was given refuge in England. As the granddaughter of Henry VIII's older sister Margaret, Mary had a stronger claim to the English throne than Elizabeth, thought the Catholics, because Henry had declared Elizabeth illegitimate at one point and then imprisoned for a long time. Elizabeth thought that Mary was plotting against her and it is debatable whether Mary was innocent or not. In any case, she was declared guilty and sentenced to death. James was 21 by then and did nothing to try to stop his mother's execution. After all, with her dead, he became Elizabeth's heir, as she had no children.
Thus, after Elizabeth I's death, James VI of Scotland, becomes James I of England and Ireland in 1603, when he united the crowns of England and Scotland.
Charles I succeeded his father, James I, but was executed in 1649. After a coup, Oliver Cromwell and then his son ruled. That whole mess is not relevant to our story, so we'll press on. Charles' son Charles II was restored to the British throne in 1660. He was followed by his brother, James II, who was Catholic. This caused problems in Protestant England. He was overthrown in 1688 and replaced by his Protestant daughter, Mary, from his first marriage, who was herself married to his nephew William of Orange, giving us William and Mary. When William died, James' other Protestant daughter, Anne ascended the throne. When Anne died childless, the throne was given to George I of Hanover, son of a Protestant German cousin. Thus began the Hanover dynasty in England.
Ah, but what of the Stuarts? Remember that I said Mary and Anne were Protestant? Well, James II had a son by his Catholic second wife, whom his supporters recognized as James III and the English called "The Old Pretender". In fact, Anne had enacted the Act of Settlement in 1707 barring all Catholics from the throne. James III's followers would eventually be called Jacobites, from the Latin form of James.
The Jacobites were particularly strong in the Scottish Highlands, even among Protestants, since James was a Stuart, after all. They did not take all of this well and battled several times to restore him. When his son, Charles, known to us as "Bonnie Prince Charlie", because he was so good looking, and "The Young Pretender" to his enemies, came back to Great Britain in 1745 to reclaim the throne, the Jacobites rallied around him. They had successes and failures, which I won't go into. It does bring us to today's first destination, Culloden Battlefield.
The Battle of Culloden (kuh-Law-dehn) occurred in 1746 and was an absolute massacre of the Jacobites in one short hour. The Redcoats were under the command of the Duke of Cumberland, whose sobriquet of "Butcher", makes me rethink the name of the city in Maryland. It is believed that he gave orders to kill even the wounded. Bonnie Prince Charlie had to escape and it was the last pitched battle on British soil. Afterwards, Cumberland was absolutely ruthless in repressing the Jacobites. England and the Lowlanders went after the clans. Since kilts were worn by the Highland clans in battle, the kilt and tartans were banned shortly after the battle, as was the teaching of Gaelic, the playing of bagpipes and more. So, you can see why this battle means so much in the Highlands.
We arrived at 8:52 and were led into the museum. You can't take photos in there, which is just as well, because there is a lot to read. There is a 360 degree movie reenactment that we were warned is quite intense. K and I decided to see it. What struck me most was that the Highlanders are standing there in an open field in a line and the Redcoats are in another line firing at them, and the Highlanders just stand there waiting for the order to charge. What the heck is that?? This is why the American Revolution succeeded- we learned to use guerilla warfare and not just march out there in a line like the Europeans. Maybe the Scots would have been successful, if they'd had the chance to learn from us...
K and I went out to see the battlefield and it was seriously cold and windy. He soon gave up and went back indoors. I was determined to get a feel for this place that Rick Steves described as desolate and solemn. Red flags marked the Redcoats' line, blue the Scottish.

There were cows grazing just outside the fence around the battlefield. The battlefield itself was quiet, as a sign had requested. There was a rivulet that reminded me that the field had been marshy that day. And then there were the stones with the clan names that had been put up in the late 1800s. They marked where those clans fell. What is truly amazing is that people still bring flowers and trinkets to lay in tribute in front of some of them.

This memorial cairn was also erected in 1881 to commemorate the roughly 1500 Jacobites buried in this field. The place really is rather depressing to me. Maybe, it's because of my Irish heritage and my feelings about what the English did to the Irish. It just feels like more of the same in Scotland.

There is a marker showing were the few English casualties were buried, too.

At the edge of the field is an old thatched roof house, Leanach Cottage, that is now open to the public. I ducked going in, but, sadly, forgot to do so going out. That hurt so much!

 On the way back to the building, I got a close look at the Highland cattle, which the Scots call "Heilan coo", that Roseanne had said seemed to have been crossbred with other cattle, because their hair wasn't quite as long and the color was a little off. Nonetheless, who knows when we'll see them again?

On the way back into the museum, I passed the long wall with protruding bricks. Each represents a soldier who died. On the left, were the ones for the 50 or so Hanoverian deaths. The many, many others represented the Jacobites. I just could not get it to photograph well, unfortunately.
Inside, I rushed around the gift shop to get postcards and such. It was difficult to find a checkout line that moved fast. Then, it was a dash to the restroom and then out to the bus with four minutes to spare.
The ride was short, but pretty. We passed grazing sheep and crossed over a narrow, rickety bridge with a great view.

We'd left Culloden at 10:28, and arrived at Clava Cairns at 10:42. So, you can see how close they are to each other. It was cold here, too-55, feels like 51.
Strictly speaking, this fenced off area near fields and forest is called Balnauran of Clava. A cairn is a mound of stones, so maybe Clava Cairns is just easier to say. These are Bronze Age burial chambers dating back 3-4000 years. There is a ring cairn with an open space in the center that is inaccessible. Flanking it are two passage cairns, which were once under turf-covered mounds. The entrance in each of these two lines up with the setting sun on the winter solstice. A stone circle surrounds each cairn. Thee are also random stone circles. Archaeologists aren't sure what the circles did or meant. They don't know why some have holes carved into the side facing the chambers. A sign said that those particular stones used to have color. They were red and pink toward the setting sun and paler on the other side. They have all weathered to grey. Really interesting to roam around here!

Roseanne took us to see a spot of interest to Outlander fans. Evidently the entire story is set in motion, when the heroine falls into the crevice between two rocks. She showed us where that was filmed.

We were glad to get back on the warm bus after our brief stop. We traveled for over a half hour, arriving at Brodie Castle near Forres in Moray at 11:46. The original was built in 1567, but burned by a rival clan in 1645. The current building was remodeled in the 1800's. The Brodie clan has been associated with this land since 1160. The family lived here until its last resident member, Ninian Brodie of Brodie (The Brodie of Brodies) died in 2003.
We walked through a bit of forest from the car park and saw signs about its national daffodil collection. It's too bad that it is past the season for them. The castle is in really good shape. It really looks attractive, when you come out of the woods. When we got closer, I noted the crests embedded in the wall and the boot scraper.

Unfortunately, we could not take pictures. Also unfortunately, there were stairs. Back in the day, as at the church yesterday, the floor above the ground floor was considered safer. The stairs were even built to be counterclockwise to make sword fighting on the part of the attackers more difficult. My knees did not appreciate this.
I took advantage of a deal in the small shop to buy 15 postcards for Ł2. This was to be our lunch stop and a brief rain at 1:10 killed off any idea of eating outside. There was a small counter selling sandwiches and such. K got in line for that, while I got in line for the small rest room accommodations. Unlike a member of our group, we saw 20 minutes to eat and get to the bus as too short for soup. So we got a coronation chicken sandwich for Ł4.25 and a ham and mustard sandwich for the same price. We split a Diet Coke for Ł2.20. There were some tables, chairs and counters in another part of the café. So, we ate there. The sandwiches weren't bad. The trashcans were overflowing, making it difficult to clean up after ourselves.

After lunch, we found the sun was out and I could photograph flowers and this side of the castle. It was a little confusing as to whether or not we could get out this way, as there was a fence. By now, other group members had joined us and one noticed a useful gate to get back out to the drive and thence to the woods. We were on the bus at 1:28 with two minutes to spare.

We couldn't have been far from Inverness, as we left at 1:35 and were let off the bus at the hotel at 2:15. Since we had a little time, K and I struck out for the quilt shop. Along the way we found the oldest house in town, Abertarff House, which we'd totally missed yesterday. I have no idea why there were bronze oak leaves in the sidewalk in front of it.

When we reached Quilt Creations, there was sign saying they'd be right back. We had no idea, when that would be. However, it turned out to not be long. K came in with me, but headed back to the hotel at 2:25. The store was packed full with fabric bolts, squares, etc. The woman was terribly nice, but I struggled to understand her incredibly thick Scottish accent. I did find out that she had asked her supplier for fabric with more of a Scottish theme. When he asked what she wanted, she told him thistles. So, he had made thistles on black fabric and on cream. I didn't know what I'd do with them, but I got a quarter yard of each. I also got some tartan plaid and a wonderful hard plastic thimble, which should help with the plastic canvas cross stitch I brought on the trip. She told me that quilting is not as strong in Scotland as it used to be. When I told the her about my travel quilt with the counted cross stitch squares that I am making, she hurried off to her storage room. She came back with a counted cross stitch kit of a Celtic cross that she'd designed. She made sure that all the directions and materials were included and then gave it to me as a gift! How amazingly generous! I walked out with it and my Ł33.40 purchase and went back to the hotel to show K my treasures, arriving at 2:45.

We were back on the bus at 3:26 for our next optional excursion- Urquhart Castle and Loch Ness. Rick Steves had written in his book that Loch Ness itself was uninteresting and not worth a cruise. However, the castle was interesting he said. So, we opted for it. Plus, how can you turn down the chance to take a short cruise on a Scottish loch, especially if it's Loch Ness?

We arrived at 4:05 at the Urquhart (UR-kurt) visitor center. It was windy and cold. As recommended, we all went in to see the movie about the castle and looked at some exhibits. St. Columba once visited here and the castle was destroyed in 1689 by the crown-supporting owners to keep it out of Jacobite hands. Even though it was the largest medieval castle in Scotland and the most important in the Highlands, it was not rebuilt.

Before we headed down to the castle, we got the usual items in the shop-the girl at the counter complimented me on my Slàinte hat- and made use of the restrooms. Outside, we posed for our selfie before proceeding down the path. The castle just screamed Romantic and the scenery was lovely.

At the bottom of the ramp was a replica trebuchet, even though they don't think one was ever used here. But, why not build one here?

 As we crossed the bridge to the castle, we could see the remains of the former moat. We could also see the large parts of the castle that wound up here, when the castle was blown up. Really massive chunks!

K walked around with me for a while, but we knew we did not have time for every sign. So, he went up the stairs to the higher parts of the castle for photos. I was going to stay on the ground level, until, that is, I saw the Water Gate. This would be my chance to actually touch Loch Ness. The steps were wide and I decided to just make my knees put up with it. It was rather painful, but I got there. Then, I'd have to be able to touch the water. Stooping in out of the question now. So, I just bent over as carefully as possible, until I could touch it. It wasn't as cold as I expected. I took photos- and a rock- and then made the painful, cold climb back up, glad that I had done it.

My slow progress meant that I was the last one to reach the dock at the appointed time of 5:25. We watched the ducks, while Roseanne was furious that the cruise was supposed to be just us, but some people had missed their boat and the company decided to put them on ours. She felt that this was not fair, as the sailing wouldn't even be happening, if she hadn't booked it. Our boat was actually a catamaran, and we were sailing by 5:30.

In spite of Rick Steves, I thoroughly enjoyed this mini cruise. I took some photos outside, but mainly sat inside, where Roseanne and I chatted. I found the scenery incredible, particularly the rain up the glen.

When we docked at Clansman Harbour at 5:55, there those among us, who wanted to go in the shop that was there. They had not taken advantage of the one back at Urquhart. They were unhappy to find that it was closed. We all climbed on the bus and headed off at 6:04 with a bit of rain.
When we arrived at 6:25, we drove past a restaurant that looked interesting. We looked on line and found out they had a special, cheaper menu before 7. K and I hurried down there only to find they had no openings tonight. So, we went back to the hotel to get rid of our stuff and try to find a place.
We left at 7 and had a tough time finding someplace. It was raining a bit, as we got 4 noes, including at a pub. I was willing to just give up and go to McDonald's, when we stopped at Bella Italia near city hall at 7:15. They had plenty of tables.  We were led to one on the street level towards the back overlooking a lower section and the kitchen.
I ordered a Stella Cidre Apple for Ł5.19 and K got the 250 ml Vino Rosso della Casa for Ł5.99. We decided to order two entrees that would appeal to both of us and split them. I liked the Caio E Pepe (Ł12.49) so much, that I almost didn't want to switch. K liked it as well as the Carne Festa (Ł11.99) that he ordered. Both had a nice presentation, too. He added a Ł3.34 tip to our bill of Ł35.66, before we left at 8:25 to do a little shopping.

Roseanne had told someone that stores wouldn't be open, but we found the tourist ones were. It made for a good stroll. We were back to our room by 8:43 to pack for tomorrow's change of hotels.
My app says that I walked 10,616 steps for 3.5 miles, and insanely, says that I climbed ten floors!