The Great Scottish Adventure
Day 16
Urquhart Castle/Culloden/Clava Cairns
The heavy rain continued through the night, but had eased off a little bit come morning. We left camp at 7:30 and made a quick stop, again at the Eilean Donan Castle. Under more favorable conditions, I was able to get a few more photos of the amazing fortress (photos highlighted in the previous post).
Then we made our way on the twisty turny A82 road to the Urquhart Castle ruins located on the edge of Loch Ness. We kept our eyes out for, but did not sight “Nessie“. The castle grounds were quite large and the site has a history of being used as a fortress as far back as the 5th century! The present ruins date from the 13th through 16th centuries. There was a cool replica of a trebuchet, apparently built from plans found in a 13th century manuscript.
From there it was on to the Culloden Battlefield where the Jacobites lost the final battle to the British forces. The stop here was twofold. First and most importantly was the connection with my Stewart ancestry. Second was the familiarity due to the popular TV series Outlander.
The battle took place on April 16th of 1746. The Jocobite army was lead by Charles Edward Stuart (“Bonnie Prince Charlie”). Their cause was to restore the Stuart dynasty to the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland. There were roughly 300 men of the Clan Stewart of Appin who fought in the battle. It is said, of the 300 Stewarts, 92 were killed and 65 were wounded. You may recall Appin from my previous post Fairy Bridge/Castle Stalker.
The tour guide was very informative and actually stopped right next to the Stewarts of Appin headstone that I was looking for! Headstones of the clans who fought in the battle were erected in 1881 on the battlefield to mark the site of the mass graves. This is what I had come for. To pay my respects to my ancestors who had fought for what they believed in!
From Culloden we went to the Balnuaran Clava Cairns. Bronze Age circular burial tombs with standing stones dating back to 2000 BC! Pretty interesting and a little creepy!
We finished our day at the Oakwood Campsite in the Cairngorms National Park.
Tomorrow we have our biggest day, driving wise, of the trip…
