Culloden Battlefield + Loch Ness
Today was a surprisingly busy day, we took two several hour trips to Loch Ness and Culloden respectively.
On the way to Culloden, we stopped at the Clava Cairns for a few moments. The Cairns are a set of Pictish-era burial chambers (three large and one small) made from stone. Apparently they were built from a large variety of stones, so that if the roof is closed (currently all the roofs are absent), then the sunlight causes an impressive array of colors to appear in the central chamber of the cairn. Culloden is the site where the last major battle on UK soil was fought in 1745 - it was the final battle in Prince Bonnie Charlie’s attempt to retake the English throne for his father, the heir of the Stewart dynasty that was expelled from power some 60+ years previously because the Protestant people of the UK were not fans of James II (Bonnie Charlie’s grandfather’s) Catholic faith. Bonnie Charlie raised an army of Scottish Jacobites (supporters of the Stewart’s claim to the throne) and marched southward until a lack of support from English Jacobites forced him to retreat northward. His last battle was on the muddy field of Culloden where his largely Scottish force armed with swords and shields was ill-matched for a Red Coat army with significant artillery support and equipped primarily with muskets. The poor terrain hindered Bonnie Charlie’s ability to use the infamous Highland charge against his enemies and his already outnumbered force was beaten within an hour. Bonnie Charlie escaped and ultimately snuck away to France. So yah…I guess I’ve soaked up a little Scottish history today? ;-)
After a brief lunch, we hopped on another tour bus to go to Castle Urquhart and Loch Ness. We enjoyed a 30 minute cruise along the Loch before arriving at the Castle to wander around for about an hour. There was an interesting video on the castle’s history, but I was the only one of us four who managed to catch it and I barely made it to the bus “on time” as a result. Interesting fact of the day (though I think it must be full of baloney) is that Loch Ness is large enough to fit the world’s population within it (I want to say I heard “three times”) and still have leftover space. It is much much bigger than I was expecting, the Loch is 23 miles long and an average of a mile wide (widest = 1.5 miles); in an amusing contrast, the Ness river is only 7 miles long…It is the largest body of free water
The Loch Ness tour also included a trip through a small Scottish town on the shores of Loch Ness that built its tourism industry out of the infamous Loch Ness Monster. We stopped at Nessie’s museum and went though a multi-staged multimedia tour of the history of the myth and many subsequent debunkings of portions of it…it was actually pretty interesting even though it was a little sad how much they stretched the ends of each little mini segment to claim…“but there’s still room for a few mysteries in Loch Ness’ depths”…
Mom and I went to a brief choral vesper performance at the Inverness Cathedral. The Cathedral is interesting because it doesn’t actually have steeples (the tall pointy towers) because they ran out of money when it was being built - instead they just have the towers begin and then be capped by a flat top - it looks pretty interesting. The performance was attended by about 4 parishioners and a few tourists, which is a pity because it was quite good.
For dinner, we went to a nice little restaurant on the river Ness that we’d been to for lunch before. For dinner, I had an interesting variation on haggis. It was a “haggis-filled supreme of chicken with Whiskey and Arran Mustard gravy” - I was quite impressed, it was very good and the heavy pepper flavoring of the haggis went really well with the gravy. For dessert, I had a really good vanilla cheesecake with raspberries and raspberry sauce - I need to make one of those cheesecakes that Randy taught me over the summer at some point…
On the way to Culloden, we stopped at the Clava Cairns for a few moments. The Cairns are a set of Pictish-era burial chambers (three large and one small) made from stone. Apparently they were built from a large variety of stones, so that if the roof is closed (currently all the roofs are absent), then the sunlight causes an impressive array of colors to appear in the central chamber of the cairn. Culloden is the site where the last major battle on UK soil was fought in 1745 - it was the final battle in Prince Bonnie Charlie’s attempt to retake the English throne for his father, the heir of the Stewart dynasty that was expelled from power some 60+ years previously because the Protestant people of the UK were not fans of James II (Bonnie Charlie’s grandfather’s) Catholic faith. Bonnie Charlie raised an army of Scottish Jacobites (supporters of the Stewart’s claim to the throne) and marched southward until a lack of support from English Jacobites forced him to retreat northward. His last battle was on the muddy field of Culloden where his largely Scottish force armed with swords and shields was ill-matched for a Red Coat army with significant artillery support and equipped primarily with muskets. The poor terrain hindered Bonnie Charlie’s ability to use the infamous Highland charge against his enemies and his already outnumbered force was beaten within an hour. Bonnie Charlie escaped and ultimately snuck away to France. So yah…I guess I’ve soaked up a little Scottish history today? ;-)
After a brief lunch, we hopped on another tour bus to go to Castle Urquhart and Loch Ness. We enjoyed a 30 minute cruise along the Loch before arriving at the Castle to wander around for about an hour. There was an interesting video on the castle’s history, but I was the only one of us four who managed to catch it and I barely made it to the bus “on time” as a result. Interesting fact of the day (though I think it must be full of baloney) is that Loch Ness is large enough to fit the world’s population within it (I want to say I heard “three times”) and still have leftover space. It is much much bigger than I was expecting, the Loch is 23 miles long and an average of a mile wide (widest = 1.5 miles); in an amusing contrast, the Ness river is only 7 miles long…It is the largest body of free water
The Loch Ness tour also included a trip through a small Scottish town on the shores of Loch Ness that built its tourism industry out of the infamous Loch Ness Monster. We stopped at Nessie’s museum and went though a multi-staged multimedia tour of the history of the myth and many subsequent debunkings of portions of it…it was actually pretty interesting even though it was a little sad how much they stretched the ends of each little mini segment to claim…“but there’s still room for a few mysteries in Loch Ness’ depths”…
Mom and I went to a brief choral vesper performance at the Inverness Cathedral. The Cathedral is interesting because it doesn’t actually have steeples (the tall pointy towers) because they ran out of money when it was being built - instead they just have the towers begin and then be capped by a flat top - it looks pretty interesting. The performance was attended by about 4 parishioners and a few tourists, which is a pity because it was quite good.
For dinner, we went to a nice little restaurant on the river Ness that we’d been to for lunch before. For dinner, I had an interesting variation on haggis. It was a “haggis-filled supreme of chicken with Whiskey and Arran Mustard gravy” - I was quite impressed, it was very good and the heavy pepper flavoring of the haggis went really well with the gravy. For dessert, I had a really good vanilla cheesecake with raspberries and raspberry sauce - I need to make one of those cheesecakes that Randy taught me over the summer at some point…
posted by Will at 11:30 AM
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