After speaking to Greg using WhatsApp over a dodgy Wi-Fi connection, I went for walk with Jane to see some of the sights of Inverness. We photographed churches, a castle and some buildings before heading home for breakfast. We had a filling breakfast with a most delicious parfait of fresh fruit (strawberries, grapes and raspberries) plain yoghurt and granola.
James collected us just before 9am and we made our way to the Culloden Battlefield and museum. Unfortunately, photography was not allowed in the museum but was allowed on the battlefield. On 16 April 1746, the final Jacobite Rising came to a brutal head in one of the most harrowing battles in British history. Jacobite supporters (blue flags), seeking to restore the Stuart monarchy to the British thrones, gathered to fight the Duke of Cumberland’s government troops (red flags). It was the last pitched battle on British soil and, in less than an hour, around 1600 men were slain – 1500 of them Jacobites. At the end of the battle, approximately 2500 Jacobites were killed or wounded in contrast to 300 government troops killed or wounded. This happened for a number of reasons: tiredness, ill-discipline, confusion, disorder and a skew in the line of advance. The skew probably happened due to the very horrible terrain the Jacobites had to traverse to get to the opposing forces. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Culloden
We had mornos at the museum before moving onto the impressive Neolithic Standing stones and Cairns at Clava. These were very similar, but a lot smaller, that the ones Sylvain and I visited in Ireland in 2013. https://www.truehighlands.com/clava-cairns-the-real-craigh-na-dun/
We then got to view the amazing architecture of the Culloden Viaduct. The Culloden Viaduct, aka the Nairn Viaduct or the Clava Viaduct is a railway viaduct on the Highland Main Line, near the city of Inverness. It was opened in 1898, is 549m long and has 29 arches crossing the wide valley of the River Nairn. It is the longest masonry viaduct in Scotland.
From
there our route took us south through the Cairngorm National Park, to
Dalwhinnie Distillery for an in-depth tour and a couple of tastes of highland
single malt scotch whiskies. We started with the 15-year-old Winter Gold which
came complete with a tiny taste of chocolate which when eaten with a sip of
whisky allegedly enhances the taste of both; I thought the whisky ruined the
taste of the chocolate, and did nothing for the whisky. The second taste was of
the 16-year-old Distillers Edition which I thought was a bit rough, although it
did have a Christmas cake smell.
We continued our journey into the stunning Perthshire highlands where we got a
very short glimpse of Blair Castle and gardens at Blair Atholl. I am sure we
could have spared the time to visit the Castle even if we did have to pay.
However, James told us it was not worth it. I think he just wanted to get us to
our hotel so he could go find his mates. It was then time to head into the
picturesque highland town of Pitlochry where we set up camp for the night at
the Pine Trees Hotel, a lovely old-world charm hotel in a lovely garden
setting. I shared a room with Jane again, and when we entered the room the two
single beds were pushed together. So, we had a bit of a chuckle and after the
man left we split the beds, because as much as we enjoy each other’s company,
we were not going to sleep right beside one another!
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