I want to start off by letting you know that to save money Stu is giving up his morning coffee in favour of beer.  We pay close to 2.50 £ for a coffee, not a fancy coffee, not, a latte, not a cappuccino, just a plane black coffee.  We can get a half pint of beer for 1.80.  We have mentioned this to a couple of servers and they laugh and say “Well you’re in Scotland”  🙂

Well we had an AMAZING DAY!!!  We booked a tour with a company called Premier Tours.  The guide picked us up at 9:30 on the button.  He took us first to Culloden where he gave us a brief backgound on the site and let us loose in the Museum in the Visitors Center.  The Museum is very well done.  There is a 360 degree video re-creation of the April 1746 Jacobite rising final battle against the British  army that puts you in the middle of the fray.  There are weapons and other artifacts recovered on the site.  There was no photography allowed inside.  However, we were free to photograph the battlefield itself.  We headed to the large cairn that our tour guide advised us to.  We very quickly found the stone commemorating the Clan MacLean (Stu’s Mom was a McLean)

This is where the MacLeans were positioned at the beginning of the battle.  From this diagram you can see that the Scots were outnumbered by the British.

There are stones marking the spots of the demise of many other Clans in this memorial.

After we wandered the battlefield and the museum our guide took us to Clava Cairns.  This is the site that inspired Craig Na Dun in the Outlander books.  It has 3 ancient buriel cairns.  Each cairn is surrounded by 12 standing stones.  2 of the cairns are very similar and the other has a lower profile and from what our guide tells us, cremated remains have been found inside it.  The openings to these cairns face the setting sun and the bodies placed inside also facing the setting sun.

Well I am still in 2017.  I guess I just don’t have the genetic predisposition to travel through the stones, perhaps it wasn’t a soltice, perhaps I didn’t have the right gem stones.  In any case I am still in present day Scotland.

This is the Culloden House Hotel.  Our guide tells us that Bonnie Prince Charlie spent a few days here prior to the battle.  According to Travelocity it goes for $475 CAD per night.  We move on to the next site!!  🙂

After this site our guide takes us to a spot that is not on the standard tours of Inverness, Colloden battlefields or any Outlander sites.  This is the private mausoleum of the Fraser Clan.  We are the only ones here.  Our guide collects the key to the key (a large skeleton key is locked in the tower stairway).  He unlocks the BIG key and lets me unlock the mausoleum.  This is the burial place of Simon Fraser, the old fox, Lord Lovat.  He is a character in the Outlander books, but he is also a real historical figure.  After the battle of Colloden he was taken to the Tower of London for execution.  Our guide tells the story of his demise.  There were quite a number of people attending his beheading.  So many that the scaffolding collapsed, killing 20.  Lord Lovat, Simon Fraser, The Old Fox began laughing.  He is reported to be laughing up until he was beheaded.  Hence, the saying “laughing his head off!!”  🙂  HAHAHAHA!!  Here are some photos that very few people have seen.

Our next stop is Castle Leod.  Known in the Outlander series as Castle Leoch.  The seat of Clan MacKenzie.   It is a beautiful old castle with beautiful grounds.  We are at the castle before 2.  It is open to the public between 2 and 6 today.  Oh well, another time 🙂

This castle is in the county of Ross and Cromarty.  We think our friend Greg may inherit this place!!

Our next stop is Beauly, specifically the Beauly Priory that was founded about 1230.  The Priory is the burial place of the MacKenzies.  There are many stones in the cemetery and now inside the Priory.  According to our guide after Culloden, during the Reformation, the Catholic churches, including this Priory, were burned in an attempt to eradicate Catholicism.

James our guide drives us through the countryside and delivers us back to the center of Inverness.  Once here we decide to have lunch at the Castle Tavern.  We have tried to have dinner here for the past 3 nights, but it is a small tavern and they are always too busy.  So today, our last day in Inverness we decide to get there early.  Hopefully we can get a seat.  We are in luck.  There are 2 tables available inside.  We grab one in the corner and Stu orders us a couple of half pints as we peruse the menu.  We decide on Ale and Beef pie to share.  It is a perfect size and very tasty, as is the beer.

An amazing day!!

Tomorrow we are heading to the Orkney Islands.  We have a car reserved.  We will pick it up and drive north to catch a ferry to the islands.  It should be another great day!