Today we’re making our way to the Inverness area to take in Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness, Culloden Battlefield, and Clava Cairns.

This whole trip the gps in our car has had a mind of its own. It takes us on a completely different route than our friends. Today was no exception. But the problem is that sometimes we can’t seem to find some of the places we want to go. And that was the case today. We eventually got it sorted out by putting in a different address close to where we were going but it makes for some stressful times when we see our friends getting off at a different exit than us.

First stop Urquhart (pronounced UR-Kurt) Castle on Loch Ness. I have to admit that as soon as the loch came into sight my eyes were on the water and my camera at the ready in case I spotted Nessie. No such luck! We arrived at the Castle’s visitors centre, looked at some artifacts and saw a film taking us through 1,000 years of history. Then it was time to explore the ruins. We lucked out with the weather as it was another beautiful, sunny day.

Once one of Scotland’s largest castles, Urquhart saw great conflict during its 500 years as a medieval fortress. Control of the castle passed back and forth between the Scots and English during the Wars of Independence. The power struggles continued, as the Lords of the Isles regularly raided both castle and glen up until the 1500s.

The last of the government troops garrisoned here during the Jacobite Risings blew up the castle when they left. Urquhart’s iconic ruins remain, offering glimpses into medieval times and the lives of its noble residents.

Loved strolling through the ruins and taking in the views with one eye always looking for Nessie.

After a thorough exploration, we tore ourselves away to visit Culloden (pronounced Kuh-LAW-dehn) Battlefield, the Scottish Alamo. There was a great visitors centre where we learned all about the battle and saw some artifacts and then we were able to wander through the fields. On 16 April 1746, the final Jacobite Rising came to a brutal head. Jacobite supporters, seeking to restore the Stuart monarchy to the British thrones, gathered to fight the Duke of Cumberland's government troops. It was the last pitched battle on British soil and, in less than an hour, around 1,500 men were slain – more than 1,000 of them Jacobites.

On the fields where the fighting took place there is a cottage that served as a hospital during the conflict. Red and blue flags show the lines of the government army (8000 troops) and the Jacobite army (5000 troops). The field is very uneven and boggy. I can’t imagine trying to run across it armed with muskets, swords, knives, and shields. And they weren’t close together either. It was hard to see the flags from one line to the other. There is a stone cairn, known as the Cairn of the Clans, that commemorates the 1,000+ Jacobites buried in the field. And there are several gravestones spotted around that mark other mass graves of the Clans. Entire clans fought, died and were buried here. It was hard to take it all in. Certainly, it was not uplifting.
A visit to Culloden is a poignant experience. Headstones mark the graves of hundreds of clansmen who gave their lives for the Jacobite cause; a 6m-high memorial cairn honours the fallen; and an eerie silence often falls across wild Drummossie Moor – there is no escaping the emotions Culloden evokes.

The Clava Cairns are about a 10 minute drive from Culloden. The Clava Cairns are about 4,000 years old and were built to house the dead. They are a Bronze Age cemetery complex of passage graves; ring cairns, kerb cairns and standing stones. The cemetery remained a sacred place in the landscape for millennia. What remains today would have once been part of a larger complex.

As I said, I’m still tying to sort out the picture uploading issue but in the meantime I’ve been posting some pics on Facebook.