When I last left off on this blog, we were driving from Pitlochry to the Highlands.
This picture is of the short-term rental that we drove straight to when we got to The Highlands. It was across the driveway from our renter’s house. It is located about 20 minutes from Inverness, the largest settlement and only city in The Highlands.
We loved this rental, it was so cozy. It came with everything our family needed including a refrigerator, Nespresso machine, heated towel bar in the bathroom (most of the rentals that we stayed in had those), washing machine in the kitchen, and drying rack for clothing.
One thing that I would like to point out is that aside from the first short-term rental that we stayed at near Fife which had no washer, all of the rentals that we stayed in had small front-loading washing machines and zero of them had clothing dryers. Clothing dryers are less common in Scottish homes. Instead, people dry their clothes using free-standing drying racks and outdoor clotheslines.
This is a practice that we took away from our trip. We recently ordered a clothesline and are going to set it up in our yard soon.
Across from our rental was a field of sheep. Apparently when the British kicked the Scottish clans out of Scotland after the Jacobite uprising the 1740’s they replaced the people who were relocated with sheep. We saw a lot of sheep in The Highlands. We also saw some of those trendy Scottish symbols, the Highland Cow aka the Hairy Coo which is pictured on the right.
We used our Historic Scotland Explorer Pass to visit Urquhart Castle, one of the most famous castles in Scotland. It was located about 45 minutes from our rental house and about a half-hour from Inverness.
Urquhart Castle is a famous, ruined castle originally dating from the 6th century, when it was a Pictish fortification. Its heyday was from about 1200-1692 when it was blown up to keep it out of enemy hands. It sits on Loch Ness and played a role in the Scottish Wars For Independence in the 14th century.
The boys were originally unenthusiastic about visiting Urquhart early on in our visit to the castle. However, once we walked into the actual ruins of the castle, they became much more interested. I think that they liked how the castle wasn’t completely intact and visitors were free to roam the grounds and climb things if they were so inclined.
Urquhart Castle felt different than an American historical site where there might be places that you couldn’t touch or couldn’t go. There were zero places in the castle ruins that were off limits to visitors except a crumbling walkway. We were able to walk down the hill from the castle and put our hands into Loch Ness, which was very cool to be so close to the famous body of water.
Later that day we visited the Loch Ness Experience and took a boat cruise with Jacobite Cruises to learn more about Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle.
After a day of exploring, we drove the half-hour back to the city of Inverness to have a look around.
Street and roadsigns in Inverness are lettered in both English and Gaelic as you can see in the picture on the left. We went out to dinner in Inverness and Mr. Katie and I enjoyed a flight of whiskey with our dinner in the picture on the right.
We stayed that night at our short-term rental outside of Inverness. I neglected to mention that our rental house was located on a single-track road. What single-track means is that when you are driving if you spot another vehicle, you pull onto a passing place and wait for the other vehicle to pass before you continue. We encountered very few cars on the road between our rental and Inverness but still, this added a little dash of interest to trips into the city.
In the morning, we vacated our rental house for the last time but had a few more adventures in the nearby area.
As a Outlander fan, Clava Cairns was a “must see” since we were in the Inverness area.
Speaking of Outlander, we also visited Culloden battlefield, the site of the 1746 brutal 40-minute battle where the Jacobite uprising led by the Bonnie Prince Charlie was crushed by the British Government. The outcome of this battle sent ripples that can still be felt today. After the battle, the British government dismantled the clan system and suppressed regional identity by banning traditional dress (i.e. wearing kilts).
You can see in the picture on the right that we saw the stone of the Culloden battlefield that commemorates the members of Clan Fraser that died at Culloden. Apparently, there were five James Frasers that fought at Culloden that day. I would like to point out that the Clan Fraser stone is the only clan stone that has a rope around it. Apparently, there are many women (because it is probably not men) like me who learned their Scottish history by reading Outlander novels or watching the TV show.
Here are some cool things that we saw in the gift shop at the Culloden battlefield. I didn’t buy any of them, but I took pictures and this brings me almost as much joy as owning them. The left picture is a necktie with the Nicholson tartan pattern.
We ate a picnic lunch afterwards then left the Culloden Battlefield with our sights set on the west coast town of Oben. It was a journey that took us all afternoon. There were many single-track roads between the Inverness area and Oben. We saw some beautiful views.
The boys slept much of the way. At one point Mr. Katie and I stepped out of the car to take a picture, and the boys did not want to join us, so here we are!
Check out my next dispatch will be out soon, where I will detail the Oben leg of our trip.
See you soon,
Katie
