Ness, Ness, and More Ness, or Day 21 in Inverness, Culloden, and Loch Ness

Oh, it was painful to get up before 8 today. We wanted to catch an 8:45 bus to get to the Culloden Battlefields as early as possible so we could also do Loch Ness this afternoon.

And we made it! With minutes to spare (which I used to grab granola bars, which actually exist in this country). We got to the high tech visitors' center and spent an hour or two watching and listening to the audiovisual. The Battle of Culloden was the last stand of Bonnie Prince Charlie, when the Jacobites (made up of many Highlanders) were sorely defeated by the government supporters. The government supporters lost 50 men on the battlefield; the Jacobites lost 1,500.

It was rainy when we headed out on the battlefield with our nifty GPS audio guides. The battlefield had been drained a bit, so wasn't quite the moor that it was in 1746, but we got the idea (cut down by half or so by the road in the middle). Around the field were the stones memorializing the clans that fought and a cairn to memorialize the battle.

We grabbed some lunch stuffs then hopped on a bus back to Inverness to head to Loch Ness next. We missed (or there wasn't scheduled) a bus for right when we came back, so we wandered over to the train station to check out transportation options for tomorrow to get to Portree, on the Isle of Skye.

We headed actually to the Urquhart Castle, on the shores of Loch Ness (which is just a lake named Ness, just like the river in the town we are staying, and the "inver" or entrance to the sea at Inverness). It had three changes in command that came with slightly interesting stories, but for the most part, I just enjoyed climbing around the castle ruins. And there was sun!

It was suggested that we walk the two miles back towards the town with the Nessie craze, and so we did, passing a bunch of sheep and cattle along the way. We waited for the bus again, and got back into Inverness.

It was about 8pm by this time, so we were ready for dinner. We ended up at an Irish pub that served Scottish food, so I had a chicken breast stuffed with haggis. We also had a black pudding for an appetizer and a toffee pudding for dessert. How much more British can you get?

We were both tired from this morning's early start, so we were thinking we'd walk the block up to the castle at Inverness, see the sunset, then head home. And we did that... but heading back to the guesthouse was actually an hour or two of walking along the river, skipping around the bridges between the islands, watching them get dazzlingly lit up by incomprehensible Christmas lights, then, somehow, ended back up at the guesthouse.

Another travel day tomorrow... Hopefully with another castle too!