Highlands Days 5 & 6 (8/31-9/1)

Today we had breakfast at the hotel before heading out to our first stop of the day at Culloden Battlefield. At this site we not only had a chance to tour a cool museum of both the battle and the Jacobite Uprising in general, but also a guided tour of the battlefield itself. The museum had several cool features, in addition to the interesting artifacts and exhibits you might expect. The first of these was a hall narrating the events of the Uprising, presented as a sort of split narrative, with one side of the hall being from the Jacobite perspective, and the opposite side from the Government viewpoint.

We were fortunate to have great weather again, so our tour of the battlefield was pleasant and engaging. There were few remnants of the actual battle remaining, as the land had not been under conservation until relatively recently, but it was instructive to be out on the moor and see how the armies had aligned themselves and to get a good sense of the scale of the place. Our tour guide led us nimbly around the site, painting a vivid picture of the history and the specific events of the day before bringing us back to the museum. It was here we encountered the other interesting feature of the center, where one large exterior stone wall was made with a number of stones that protrude from the face of the wall; on one end were 50 such stones representing those lost on the ‘Government’ side of the conflict, and on the other end were 1500 for the Jacobite war dead.

After Culloden, we next stopped at the site of a much older landmark - the Clava Cairns, ritual and burial sites which date back roughly 4000 years.

On leaving the Cairns, we gave a fellow traveler who found themselves a bit stranded a ride back to the main road, then got on our way towards Inverness. We had tickets to an afternoon football match, but had some time to kill before we could head over to the stadium. We wandered around downtown, visiting the Victorian Market, passing by Inverness Castle (currently being restored), and did a bit of shopping before sitting down for a tea and scone in a quiet cafe.

As the weather was still beautiful (bright sun and 70 degrees!), we decided to make the 30 minute walk to the football stadium, rather than drive and try to park again. We arrived at the Inverness Caledonian Thistle’s pitch ~45 minutes before kickoff time. This was fortuitous because, apparently in Scotland alcohol cannot be server during the match, so we had 15 minutes to get a pre-game drink before last call. Quick beers in the club pub enjoyed, and home team scarves acquired in the team shop, we headed to our seats to watch the Scottish League One match between the Inverness Caledonian Thistles and Queen of the South.

The teams were quite evenly matched, and the game back-and-forth, but happily the Thistles scored an early 1st half goal, and then held onto their lead with solid goalkeeping and defense (despite some…questionable refereeing) to come away with a 1-nil win. We had a great time.

We left the stadium and walked back into downtown, managing to find a table in a pub that had been recommended to us, Mascgregor’s, to sit and have a beer and dinner before driving back to the hotel for the night.

Tomorrow, we’d leave Inverness and make our way back towards Edinburgh, with stops at Dalwhinnie distillery, and hopefully to see some Highland Cows!

It’s September (!!) and our final full day in Scotland! Our journey today is from Inverness, down through the Cairngorms National Park and back to Edinburgh before getting on a morning flight for our trip back home to the States. After a quick breakfast at Bunchrew House, we loaded up and got on the road, with the plan on making a few stops to break up the drive into Edinburgh. We stopped first at Ruthven Barracks, the roadside ruins of a fortification that at one time controlled the nearby glen that served as the passageway from the Highlands into lower Scotland.

Next, we stopped for lunch and tea at a cute cafe in the town of Dalwhinnie, where I got my first sausage roll of the trip (which feels like it can’t be right), saw some good doggos, and a tandem-cycle team? Next, we went to what would be our final distillery tour of the trip at Dalwhinnie Distillery. It was a lot of fun, and the fanciest of the 4 I’ve been on, but I think Kari and I are starting to feel like we could give these tours! The tasting at the end of the tour was accompanied with paired chocolates, which was nice for me, since I was driving and would be taking my sample whiskies to have later.

Then, it was time to be on the road again, headed to the last attraction before ending the drive in Edinburgh - a stop to meet some Highland Cows.

Specifically we were stopping in Perth, at a rest station on the way that had a pair of Highland Cows you could hand feed. We bought a package of feed, and headed around back to their paddock to spend a few minutes making friends with a couple of real Heilan Coos.

Abuzz from that meeting, we set off on the final leg of driving, then loading into the airport hotel just outside of Edinburgh. We then popped onto the tram and headed into the city to grab dinner at an Italian restaurant I’d noticed during Fringe, near to our venue, where I had a tasty calzone and a Negroni. I then took a final walk past Greenside, which by now appeared to be fully returned to its normal service as the Royal Society of Edinburgh. It was a bittersweet return to the city that had been home for the last month, but I was glad to have a chance to say goodbye.

Tomorrow was the final travel day, flying from Edinburgh to Heathrow and then Home!