Scotland - Day 6 - Ancient Scotland

First I must say regarding today...weather wise it has been the most fabulous day.  We had sunshine and blue skies all day long!!  What a treat!  For the first 5 days the weather has been overcast and if not raining outright then at least spitting at us off and on throughout the days.  This day was fabulous!

Today not any Outlander stuff, just ancient Scotland.  First stop of the day was at the 4000 year old ancient site of standing stones and carins of Balnuaran of Clava.  I don't know about the others, but standing there it was just an erie feeling, to be looking on something that ancient.  

Standing back, looking at a carin

Looking inside the carin

And with a standing stone in the foreground

From within the carin

We were in the countryside and I fell in love with the surrounding landscape.

A country road

We weren't long at Balnuran and then it was a short drive to The Culloden Battlefield.  For those of you not familiar with Scottish history, this site is equivelant to our Gettysburg Battlefield.

On April 6, 1746 - the last pitched battle ever fought on British soil - saw the defeat of Bonnie Prince Charlie and the end of the Jacobite dream when 1200 Highlanders were slaughtered by government forces in a 68-minute rout. Those who did not die in battle were either executed on site, sent to horrible prisons and in some case were eventually shipped off to the 'New World'.  As a result of this battle the Scottish Highland Clans were never again to regain their former structure or standing in the world.  

The battlefield is obviously considered a war memorial.  On the grounds are stones marking the sites where the different clans fell.  It is a somber feeling, even still, to walk along the moor knowing what happened here.

If you can imagine fighting a hand to hand battle on a highland moor that looked like the photo below...the Scots never had a chance.

From Culloden we headed through Inverness with no stop there.  It was a lovely city but the road beckoned us.

From the photo below can you guess our next stop?

Yes, this is Nessie, the elusive monster of Loch Ness, and no, we did not see her!!  Howerver we had a fantastic 1/2 hour boat ride on the Loch down to the Urquhart Castle.  Again, I was so thankful for our beautiful day as it was perfect for the boat ride.

Loch Ness waters are pitch black and bitterly cold.  The Loch stretches for 23 miles between Iverness and Fort Augustus.  It has been extensively explored in search of Nessie, but of course she is rarely seen.

Urquhart Castle was our departure from the boat.  The Castle has been repeatedly sack and rebuilt (and sacked and rebuilt) over the centuries; in 1692 it was blown up to prevent the Jacobites (Prince Charlie supporters) from using it.  The five story  tower house at the northern point is the most impressive remaining fragment of the original castle.

We left Loch Ness and headed north toward Thurso.  The drive is gorgeous!!!  Such dramatic landscape, photos don't begin to do it justice.

The roads at this point are pretty narrow and as I've said before, our coach driver is highly skilled.  Just so you know, the photo below is of our coach passing another full size coach on the road to Thurso. 

Thurso is the northernmost town on the British mainland.  It's history stretches back to at least the era of Norse Orcadian rule which ended conclusively in 1266.  Neolithic horned cairns found nearby were used for burials and rituals and date back about 5000 years.  The town was an important Norse port.

Tomorrow we leave from Thurso to head to Orkney Islands.