Sunday 14th July
Surprise! It was drizzling when I woke up and was still doing so after breakfast as we made our way to Culloden Moor. Maybe somewhat suitable for the nature of the place, The battle of Culloden fought in on 16 April 1746. The Jacobites wanting to restore Bonnie Prince Charlie, a Stuart to the throne. They gathered to fight the Duke of Cumberland’s government troops . The last pitched battle on British soil and in less than an hour 1600 men were slain - 1500 of them Jacobites. Pretty hideous when you stop the think about it, but so was the retribution afterwards
The red flag denotes the government’s position, there are blue flags signifying the Jacobites over by the bushes showing their frontline. A very good visitors centre, describes the events leading up to this final battle, as a one point the Jacobites were nearly in London, but false information sent them in retreat. What if - that’s wat the Scots say about the Euro’s if Scotland didn’t have a player sent off - What if (never mind that they were two down at this stage).
The burial stones with the clans names were added in 1881 by the land owner, quite a few of them say mixed clans, in actual fact it indicates where the mass graves are. The stone with Fraser on has it’s own rope fence, to keep the fans away.
Leanach cottage was used for a government field hospital after the battle, the Scots were left to die or hurried on to their maker, no mercy was shown, most that escaped were hunted down afterwards. Very sobering.
Back through Inverness and started making our way west, an early lunch at Beauly, fish chowder and bread for me. A bit of prettiness along the way.
Brief stop at Achnasheen RailwayStation, thought we could use the W.C.s but out of order so photo opportunity instead. The scenery is really pretty hear, a little less green and it could be home.
We then continued on our way to Plockton, we were told it is one of the prettiest towns in Scotland. More prettiness along the way. Please note the dolour of the sky!
Plockton, we stopped for a while to have a walk around, have an ice cream and admire the cabbage trees, so much more popular than they are at home, but it looks as if they look after them well too, no dead fronds/leaves? Hanging around. Plockton was a fishing village but now mostly holiday houses , very pretty and the sun was still shining.
This one above, could almost be Whangaroa Harbour in Northland
How exotic are our the cabbage trees? Not much further on and we were crossing the bridge over to the Isle of Skye for two nights, some pictures out the window on the way.
Toravaig Hotel, my room, with lovely sleigh bed .
Back to the sister hotel for a fancy meal,and story telling by a lovely gentleman Connacht? Not sure of spelling but sounds like Cognac.He related some of the History of Skye through a couple of battles and a couple of skirmishes between the McLeods and the McDonalds. It’s the second time we have been told that the Highlanders especially the warriors were big men at least 6 foot 4 inches. The fighting was pretty gruesome with a fair bit of decapitating going on. Mostly because of the nature of their huge two handed broadswords.
this is the room we had the story telling in, gorgeous over the top crushed velvet furniture.
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