When Adri was planning her visit she threw out some ideas about where the two of us could take a mini-trip. When I went to Scotland last year with my parents we didn’t make it up into the highlands and so when Adri suggested that I jumped on it.
We got an afternoon flight out of London on Sunday, which was nice because we could take our time getting to the airport. We flew to Inverness, picked up our rental car, and had a couple hours of daylight to explore the Culloden Battlefield. We were even lucky to have some sunshine.
The Battle of Culloden took place in 1746 between the Jacobites and the government. It was part of the Jacobite rising, an attempt to overthrow the House of Hanover and make “Bonnie Prince Charlie” the king. The history is interesting, you can read about it here, but it was essentially the end of the Scottish clan system.
There were monuments for each of the clans, erected in 1881.
The Memorial Cairn
The Leanach cottage predates the war, and survived the battle.
Shadow shot at dusk, my favorite time of day.
After we left the battlefield we made the most of our final few minutes of daylight by taking a walk in the woods on our way back into Inverness. Adri said it reminded her of Utah and it reminded me of Island Park.
Once it was dark we drove back to Inverness and ate dinner in a cozy pub, classic British comfort food, with sticky toffee pudding for dessert. Then we checked out the Inverness Castle, walked along the River Ness, and popped into a cathedral to do a little Sunday worship. I didn’t take any photos because I’m a terrible nighttime photographer, but it was all really pretty. I borrowed a few from online…
We made our way to our Bed & Breakfast. (Sadly we wanted to get an early start on Monday so we missed the Scottish breakfast part.) It was such a tight squeeze getting the car into the parking lot behind the B&B that I convinved Adri we could just walk to the nearest Tesco to get some things for breakfast. It wasn’t too far…
We were up and gone before sunrise on Monday. We drove southwest and crossed the bridge to the Isle of Skye, but I’ll save that for a separate post.
The sun just peeking up over Loch Ness, and no sign of any mysterious monster…
This water, I just have no words.
Just before crossing the bridge to the Isle of Skye, we passed the Eilean Donan Castle. The sun was shining directly on it and there were photographers all over the place rushing to set up tripods and catch the shot. Obviously I didn’t get it in time…
This might be my favorite picture I’ve ever taken.
Adri crossed the bridge to explore the castle (which may or may not have been legal…) and said she loved it.
Just Your Average Jo 