Isle of Skye and Inverness (day 4 & 5)

On day 4 we woke up to rain.  Not too big of a deal since it seems to stop quite quickly.  The breakfast selection was the same as the morning before.  Only this morning I actually tried a very small bite of the blood pudding.  NASTY stuff.  Will not be doing that again.  I’ll eat haggis again first.

By the time we left the rain had quit but it was windy.  We had rain off and on and the funny thing was every time we got out of the bus the sun was out and the rain quit.  We went through Fort William and I’m sad to say that the only thing left of the fort today is a small piece where they used to land the boats.  The rest of the fort was destroyed to put in train tracks and road. S

Stopped at Glenfinnan Monument.  This is where Bonnie Prince Charlie raised his standard with all the highlanders he had gotten to support his cause and was off to take back the Scottish throne.  If you turn around to face the mountains you will see the railway Viaduct that is used in the Harry Potter movies.

We drove into Mallaig to take the ferry over to the Isle of Skye.

Yes, that is our motor coach pulling onto the ferry.

We then visited the Clan Donald center and the castle ruins.  You wouldn’t be able to tell that there is no room on the ruins until you get up close to them.  The castle is really just a shell now.  There are no floors separating the levels any longer.  The outside looks really good though.  We were able to take pictures through the windows but couldn’t go in because of the rubble inside.  Got some really good pictures of the grounds.

We didn’t get to see any more of the island.  We left and got back on the mainland and stopped at Eilean Donan castle for some pictures as well as Urquhart castle.  Ok, this one was different.  We were all told to get on the wall for our picture instead of going down to the castle.  We then drove by Loch Ness.  No, no sitings of nessie.   Then on to Inverness and our hotel.

Day 5 – Culloden battlefield

So on our way out to the Sheepdog trials we learned that they burn the heather in the hills in different stages.  They do this because the young grouse rely on the new heather for food.  So by burning it, the heather is always having to grow back and there is always new growth.

The sheepdog trials was very interesting.  They train the dogs to respond by voice commands, sounds (they each have their own sounds) and body language.

Culloden battlefield was our next stop.  The vistor center was really neat because at the end they have three projectors set up for a display that shows how the battle went along with commentary.  You can see the men moving and falling as they were killed.  It really was very interesting.  We then got our headphones for our guided audio tour and went outside.   The wind was blowing so hard you couldn’t hear anything on the headset and it would stop you in your tracks even if you were still trying to move.   Because of the wind we didn’t go through the entire battlefield.  We did make it out to the memorial cairn in the middle.   Those rotten British soldiers make the townspeople come out to the moor and bury the dead highlanders in mass graves after the battle was over.  So there are mounds were the bodies were buried and stone markers indicating which clan was buried there.

You can’t see it very well but the marker is sitting on a mound.