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Inverness and surroundings, Culloden Battlefield, Clava cairns


Home -> Europe -> Scotland -> Travelogue Scotland -> 08 & 09 April 2002

Monday 08 April, Inverness and surroundings, Culloden Battlefield, Clava cairns

And again, we wake up quite late. It has been late, last night. Our last day in the Highlands, but we are not in a hurry. We will be back, for sure. So first we drive to Inverness and after some searching, we finally find the soup spoons we have been looking for. Although we have walked through Inveress before, it seems as if we notice all the nice buildings for the first time.
Inverness Castle Cathedral of InvernessSo we take some pictures. To the left Inverness Castle and to the right the cathedral. But Teije has been altering some settings of his camera, and most of the pictures are not really good. But it doesn't matter: we will be back next year.
Walkbridge at InvernessInverness is the largest town in the Highlands, but the historic center isn't very big. Several bridges, like this walking bridge, connect the sides of the town.
It is a drizzly day and we are glad we have been to Strathconnon and Glen Affric yesterday. Today, we have planned to visit a few sights in the neighbourhood, like Culloden Battlefield. There is a nice exposition and an excellent video presentation about the tragedy which happened here in 1746 and which would change the Highlands forever.
Just when we want to go outside to walk around the battle field, it starts to rain, so we save that walk for another time.
Cawdor CastleIn Inverness, we have also bought some very detailed maps of the environment. Next time we will be able to see more of the environment, thanks to these maps. We are quite surprised to see how many more stone circles, castles and forts are in this neighbourhood than according to our normal map. Enough to do and see, the next time.
To the right a picture of Cawdor Castle, famous because this is supposedly the castle where the play MacBeth of Shakespeare was situated.
And we still have to visit a lot of castles. On the website we have a list of more than 300 castles at the moment, with references to other websites with more information and pictures about these castles. But Elisabeth likes to surprise Teije with a special map on which more than 1300 castles are listed (just in Scotland). What does she think, that I don't know what to do with my time..?
Clava Cairns Clava CairnsNot far away from Culloden lies the prehistoric field Clava Cairns, with several tombs. The cairns are surrounded by stone circles. They were build around 2.000 BC. There are three cairns at this place, but archeologists have found many more along this part of the river. More pictures on the antiquities-page.
Just outside InvernessAfter that, Teije wants to try these detailed maps and we go looking for a waterfall near by Inverness. But instead of desolate side roads we find entire residential and industrial areas. We have a better look at the maps and it turns out they were printed in 1986... But we come close to the waterfall, at most 200 meters away from it. At least, that is what Teije says. A fence prevents us to go closer and Elisabeth still has her doubts...
Moniack CastleNear Beauly, we drive past Moniack Castle, because we don't have a picture of it yet. It is more a kind of country house and a winery now, where they make wines out of everything, except grapes.
Iain, Cathy and we Shy Cathy and ElisabethWe are back at the hotel quite early, because we want to have some time with Iain and Cathy. They have been very busy the last few days, otherwise we would have gone out with the four of us to have a walk or something like that. Well, they are working, we are having a holiday.
Iain and Teije Elisabeth in de pubTime to take a few personal pictures, but the ladies in our company aren't very charmed with the idea. It isn't very busy in the pub, so we have enough time to chat for a few hours.
But we don't go to bed too late, tonight, since we have to be on our way at 8 in the morning, tomorrow, to get our plane. Still, we have a very pleasant stay in the pub, we always have and we are always sorry to have to leave here.

Tuesday 09 April 2002, from Edinburgh we fly home

Breakfast at half past seven; that's no time to get up when you are on holiday! But we have to make the long trip to Edinburgh and most of the road is just a two-lane road, so you never know how fast you can drive. But we have reckoned with some extra time, because we know how hard it can be to leave this hotel and its owners, Iain and Cathy. Cathy is already awake and sitting at the breakfast table, although she normally wakes up late, because she works till late in the pub. Elisabeth gets a heavy box with chocolates and Teije gets some big pieces of smoked salmon from their own smokery, presents we are very happy with.
Sadly, we say good-bye and we hope to see them again soon. But we really have to be on our way now.
The Highlands The HighlandsThere is only little traffic on the road, maybe because today the Queen-mother is buried. And the weather is fantastic: it starts to drizzle just after we had arrived at the airport.
Elisabeth with Scottish cap Forth Road Bridge from the planeWithin 3 hours we have driven from Beauly to Edinburgh (280 kilometers) and we are generously on time. We only have to wait now for the aeroplane which will deport us from Scotland. Alas...

Before we know, we have our last glance at Forth Road Bridge from the plane and within an hour we are at Schiphol, where it is cold and chilly. After an hour by train and two hours by car we are 'home' again. This (too) short holiday is over.
But the time to our next trip is counting down and next year we will have our own castle in Scotland!

 


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