We continued on with our castle circuit on Wednesday. We are on Scotland after all! However, we mixed it up a bit and added a famous battlefield to the day's itinerary as well. The two events (plus a few other small sights thrown in for good measure), worked out to be a nice balance.
We had a hearty Scottish breakfast at Heathmount (and conferred on that day's itinerary while we ate - note the Scotland travel book on the table ), before heading out for a full day of sights.
Our first stop was the immense Culloden Battlefield. This battlefield marks the site of the historic 1746 battle between the Duke of Cumberland and Prince Charles. In April of 1746, this was the site of the final Jacobite Rising. Jacobite supporters, were seeking to restore the Stuart monarchy to the British thrones and gathered to fight the Duke of Cumberland's government troops. In less than an hour, around 1,500 men lost their lives, more than 1,000 of them Jacobites.
It was a beautiful and peaceful place to visit, as unexpected as that may sound. Once again, we had a fabulous tour guide, Alexander, who kept us entertained and engaged as we walked the battlefield. To learn more about this important historic place use this link: https://www.nts.org.uk/visit/places/culloden
Next, we made a quick stop at Clava Cairns which is a well-preserved Bronze Age cemetery complex of passage graves; ring cairns, kerb cairns, and standing stones in a beautiful setting. To learn more about Clava Carins use this link: https://www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/clava-cairns/
Finally, we stopped and had a bite to eat before carrying on for the afternoon.
After lunch we headed to Cawdor Castle which dates back to 1370 and was built as a private fortress by the Thanes of Cawdor, a family made famous by Shakespeare's play "Macbeth". Most Scottish Castles are now unoccupied or run by Trusts, but the Cawdor family still owns the castle and occupies it in the winter. Both the castle and gardens were absolutely stunning. To learn more about Cawdor Castle use this link: https://www.cawdorcastle.com
Once back in Inverness, we had our afternoon (pre-dinnertime, more accurately) tea in our room and enjoyed an hour or so of downtime before heading out to dinner at the pub across from our hotel.. We were so tired from our long day out that we couldn't entertain the thought of getting back in the car to drive to dinner. Garin stayed behind and watched a BBC documentary he was so spent from the day.