The Wonders of Scotland and Ireland: Beaches to Moores to Beaches

We left Nairn after a quick breakfast and headed towards Inverness. Of course, when we saw the sign for Culloden we quickly turned off the road to make the stop and we're so glad we did. This is the best visitor's center I've ever been to. I wish I could show more pictures, but alas, like many places here "no camera's or cell phones allowed". I'll try to be historically accurate by calling the English the "Government" since they did indeed have both Scots and English fighting on their side and I'll call the Scottish the Jacobite Army as they, of course, had English and French on their side. This was all explained in great detail by a nice chap who gave a fine presentation on what happened to the Jacobite rebels that survived the battle (p.s., it wasn't good).

The visitors center had shot, buckles, knives, etc. that they've unearthed from the battle field. They had a great chronological telling of the events, along with two extremely impressive video representations. The first was shocking and actually brought tears to my eyes. You walk into a square room and on each wall is a video spanning the entire size of the wall. You are standing right in the middle of the battle. The government on one side and the Jacobites on the other. They switch around for different vantage points and then the fighting commences. Picture a scene from Braveheart with cannons bigger than life. Don't bring a small child into this room unless you want them to have nightmares. The other video representation was on a low platform that you could look down on. It was a birds eye view of the battle and showed how the troops moved. The visitor center worked hard to bring the field back to how it was at the time of the battle - boggy in a lot of areas. The boggy land, along with the Jacobites being tired, cold and hungry was a huge disadvantage. They charged through muck while the government stood on the high flat ground waiting for them... Here are some pics of the field (we could take these).

From Clan Fraser's point of view - very boggy and messy

From the Governments point of view - easy to see, flat & dry

Had to take a picture of this chap - they use highland ponies to maintain the grounds

After we left Culloden, we made our way to the lovely city of Inverness. We had lunch in the oldest recorded pub from the 1841 census. I wish we could have stayed in this town longer, it was quite charming, but we had reservations to keep in Oban.

We also found some sheep with an old rock fence along the way (hahaha - they're everywhere)

After Inverness we wound down Loch Ness. It was so much like the Columbia River Gorge... Very beautiful.

Arbour is the black building and St. Annes is just to the right

Oban... Wow... so glad we picked here to stay. Actually, it was because there was no "room at the inn" in Fort William. Happy coincidence again. We are here two nights. One night at St. Annes guest house and then we move next door to Arbour guest house. We haven't had good water pressure in a couple of days. Really hoping to get some at Arbour so I can wash my hair.,..

We were delighted in this seaside town with the amazing weather (we've been lucky all week), the high school pipe and drum band practicing near the water, and a beautiful sunset. It's 7:45 AM our 2nd day here as I type this while sitting on the front patio and batting away incessant biting flies. I'll sign off now before they eat any more of my flesh. Today we have a tour of the Oban Distillery :).