More or Ness
The morning went smoothly. Most of the crew was thrilled to have French Toast as a breakfast option. I was happy to have my Scottish full breakfast (minus the haggis and baked beans). As we were finishing up our breakfast, Carrie was able to feed the cows again. Her giggly smile lit up the pasture. I overloaded her phone with pictures, to make sure we got “the right one”.
We left to go to Culloden, the place of a deadly battle between the Jacobites with Bonnie Prince Charlie, and the government forces trying to retain the throne. It is often mischaracterized as a battle between England and Scotland, but there were Scots and English on both sides. It was the last-ditch effort to restore the Stuart dynasty to the English throne. If you are a fan of Outlander, you are somewhat familiar with the battle.
We toured the visitor’s center and museum, and met up for our guided tour. The last time Carrie and I were there, we just took the audio tour and walked around on our own. We much prefer an actual human tour guide, and ours today was great. We had a nice walk-about in the battlefield, and headed to our next stop.
Nearby, there is a very old historic site - Clava Cairns. There are 4,000 year old passage tombs here, and probably another that has been lost to time. It is very easy to think of this area having old ruins, but these are OLD. Due to the small number of remains found, these were likely only used for very important people, like Chiefs, or whatever they were called back then. Nearby, there is a really cool viaduct that brings the train into Inverness. We got some nice pics there before moving on.
Our next stop led us back to Loch Ness for our cruise. We didn’t see any monsters, but we did stop at Urquhart Castle. This is the remains of a very important castle that protected royal interests on Loch Ness from the often hostile locals, who didn’t appreciate the interlopers. As we got off the boat, there was a piper allowing tourists to take photos with him, as well as playing a few tunes. We walked up the hill, and the others in our crew toured the castle. I wanted some pictures of the piper, so I stayed put, and eventually walked down to our queuing spot for the return cruise. The piper came down to my area to play off a group of tourists, and I got to chat a bit with him as he was leaving the area.
He had joined the British Military at 17, and went right into Pipes and Drum school. He’d never played them before. After a 6 month intensive course, he joined the corps and has piped around the world. He recently left the military, and now pipes around Great Britain for tourists, weddings, and the like. His military background might have accounted for a gruff encounter we witnessed when getting photos with him.
We got back on the boat, and this time claimed an indoor table, as it was getting cold and windy. We enjoyed a hot beverage and some snacks on our return cruise. After disembarking we drove a few miles down the road to the Loch Ness Center, for their adventure tour. This was a multimedia exploration of the Loch Ness history, myths, and exploration. It was very well done, and we all enjoyed it.
After that, we were all ready for dinner, and we went down to the village of Drumnadrochit to the fish and chips vendor outside the restaurant we ate at last night. I think we all enjoyed ourselves, and they even gave us glasses of ice(meager amount that it was) with our cans of soda. We were excited to see tea cakes (our new favorite) at the counter when paying, so we all got one as well.
After dinner, we drove back to our Coo Farm, to rest and peruse the day’s photos. Today was very warm for Scotland, in the high 70’s, so our room was warm. We opened the windows (if you can call it “open”), to get a bit of air inside. Since our internet coverage was pretty sparse there, I decided to just go to bed, and work on the blog in the morning, waiting for the ferry. That is still the middle of the night in Cali, so I felt justified.
…another great day.
