| Well today I wasn't sure where I'd go as
at breakfast the clouds were angry looking and looked as if it would be a
day of rain. Anyway... I decided to go to Blair Castle as it was
only around 30 miles away and then I'd decide what to do with myself for
the rest of the day. As I drove
through the gates I came across the famous peacocks and low and behold the
cock decided I wasn't going to get anywhere near his hen! I ended up
having to drive around him :-)
This was the view as I got our the car and on
entering the footpath I noted this sign
As I left Blair Castle the sun
started to come out and I decided to drive up to Inverness to see the
Battle of Culloden site. I must say that drive up the A9 to Inverness is a
really beautiful road with lovely scenery. There are also lots of
wee places you can visit if you just take the time to go 1 to 5 miles off
the road. I did in fact do one wee diversion on the way back which
I'll tell you about later.
As you can see the cloud was breaking up and
the sun came out. These are a couple of view on the way up to Inverness
My one observation is that on
the way up to Inverness there were many tourist signs telling you about
things to see in the area but no-where did I see a sign telling you about
the Battle of Culloden. In fact had I not know the site was on the
Aberdeen road out of Inverness I may well have not found it. Once
you come off the main A9 there are in fact plenty of signs once you get to
the road but I really think for such a major site they should have done a
better job signposting it. Once you get there you'll find a visitor centre
with lots of information, guided tours and a restaurant. As you walk into
the site you get presented with a plaque showing you the layout of the
site.
These were signs and grave markers on the way
to the cairn and around the whole site and from the picture below someone
obviously placed a feather by this marker.
I confess that as the land is so flat you
didn't really get a feel for the battle, or at least I didn't. The
description in my account of the battle on the site just didn't seem to
tie up with what I saw there. You can get a guided tour around the whole
battlefield and I suspect it would be worth the money.
On my way back from Inverness
I took a wee diversion to see the Black House and am glad I did.
On the right and below you'll see the Black
House and the Kailyard outside. This was a banked enclosed area to prevent
the topsoil being blown away. They would normally grow potatoes and
greens and sometimes fruit and they would surround the house. They told me
that 2 men from the Isle of Lewis came over to build it for them and they
have to have a peat fire going twice a week to ensure the thatch keeps
waterproof. Well worth a visit and below you'll see some of the farm
implements they used.
Above right is the inside with the fire in the
centre of the floor at the foot of the picture. They usually had three
rooms and this was the middle one where they lived. There was one that
held the animals and some peat being dried before use and one on the other
side that was for births marriages and special events.
There are just a few of the farming implements
you can see
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