06th June 2010: Left Skye today and drove to Inverness, crossing the Glenelg Scenic Way. Finally was getting to visit Nessie!! Loch Ness is just this huge, and I mean huge expanse of water. 25 miles long, 1 mile wide, over 700 feet deep. Interestingly it's a mix of salt and fresh water - salt water stays at the bottom and fresh water on top, with some kind of geothermal layer acting as a barrier. Not sure of the technicalities but interesting fact anyway.
Looked around for Nessie but maybe she was sleeping in, it was a Sunday morning after all! Took some pix, picked up some pebbles as I'd promised my sister, and then we left for Inverness.
I'd been lucky with weather so far, in all my time in Scotland there hadn't been a drop of rain and we had some glorious sunny days. Today that changed and the day was dark, gloomy, windy with bouts of rain every now and then. Apparently this is more what Scottish weather is supposed to be.
From Inverness we went on to visit the Culloden battle site. This was the flat patch of moor where the Jacobites led by Bonnie Prince Charles fought a final battle against a much larger, superior, well rested English army under the Duke of Cumberland in the mid 18th century. Danny told us the story and had us spellbound with the way he described the build-up and the battle. It was literally a massacre, over in less than an hour's time for the most part. No prisoners were to be taken, so all survivors including the children were killed, as were the women who had followed in the wake of their Jacobite men. And that isn't all. Once the battle was over, the English set two trained butchers on the field to ensure that none of the dead would be recognisable in any way. As a result, all that marks the dead of this battle is one big common cairn in the middle. There are also numerous small stones scattered around, each bearing the name of a clan that fought and died here. The story was so painfully sad that I suspect not one of us was left dry-eyed. It was a very sad place.
At Culloden I took a coffee break because somehow I found myself very affected by the whole story of the battle and the brave Highlanders. In time we all got back and soon a short drive brought us to Clava Cairns, a prehistoric burial site that is supposed to be three to five thousand years old and the best preserved Bronze Age burial site in Scotland. The cairns of stacked stones were constructed in such a way that on a solstice day the light of the sun would hit the inside wall of the cairn. Nobody knows exactly why the cairns were built but it is supposed that they came up gradually over many years.
From Clava Cairns we drove to this tiny little town called Aviemore, which is mostly a base or jump-off point for people going trekking/skiing/hiking in the mountains. Practically half the town was built around the one High Street. I will remember Aviemore for the awesome hot chocolate I had here :-)
Leaving Aviemore we went past Blair Atholl castle (I realised that this is the place after which the original Scottish owners had named what is now Wallwood Garden in Coonoor) to Pitlochry, a slightly bigger town. It was raining much too hard to look around though, and we continued in the driving rain towards Edinburgh. Crossed the Firth bridge and were at the Mile by 6pm, saying bye to everybody. I left for the bus station with two of the nicer American girls, as we found that all three of us were taking the night bus back to London.
So, midnight saw me bringing in my birthday in a National Express coach somewhere on the highway to London!!
Looked around for Nessie but maybe she was sleeping in, it was a Sunday morning after all! Took some pix, picked up some pebbles as I'd promised my sister, and then we left for Inverness.
I'd been lucky with weather so far, in all my time in Scotland there hadn't been a drop of rain and we had some glorious sunny days. Today that changed and the day was dark, gloomy, windy with bouts of rain every now and then. Apparently this is more what Scottish weather is supposed to be.
From Inverness we went on to visit the Culloden battle site. This was the flat patch of moor where the Jacobites led by Bonnie Prince Charles fought a final battle against a much larger, superior, well rested English army under the Duke of Cumberland in the mid 18th century. Danny told us the story and had us spellbound with the way he described the build-up and the battle. It was literally a massacre, over in less than an hour's time for the most part. No prisoners were to be taken, so all survivors including the children were killed, as were the women who had followed in the wake of their Jacobite men. And that isn't all. Once the battle was over, the English set two trained butchers on the field to ensure that none of the dead would be recognisable in any way. As a result, all that marks the dead of this battle is one big common cairn in the middle. There are also numerous small stones scattered around, each bearing the name of a clan that fought and died here. The story was so painfully sad that I suspect not one of us was left dry-eyed. It was a very sad place.
At Culloden I took a coffee break because somehow I found myself very affected by the whole story of the battle and the brave Highlanders. In time we all got back and soon a short drive brought us to Clava Cairns, a prehistoric burial site that is supposed to be three to five thousand years old and the best preserved Bronze Age burial site in Scotland. The cairns of stacked stones were constructed in such a way that on a solstice day the light of the sun would hit the inside wall of the cairn. Nobody knows exactly why the cairns were built but it is supposed that they came up gradually over many years.
From Clava Cairns we drove to this tiny little town called Aviemore, which is mostly a base or jump-off point for people going trekking/skiing/hiking in the mountains. Practically half the town was built around the one High Street. I will remember Aviemore for the awesome hot chocolate I had here :-)
Leaving Aviemore we went past Blair Atholl castle (I realised that this is the place after which the original Scottish owners had named what is now Wallwood Garden in Coonoor) to Pitlochry, a slightly bigger town. It was raining much too hard to look around though, and we continued in the driving rain towards Edinburgh. Crossed the Firth bridge and were at the Mile by 6pm, saying bye to everybody. I left for the bus station with two of the nicer American girls, as we found that all three of us were taking the night bus back to London.
So, midnight saw me bringing in my birthday in a National Express coach somewhere on the highway to London!!