Scotland day 6, Culloden Battlefield and Clava Cairns stone circle

Today we visited Culloden Battlefield to soak up the rich history and haunting atmosphere of the last battle ever fought on British soil. In The Outlander, Culloden is the spot where Claire and Jamie said their goodbyes. The Culloden Visitor Centre offers an excellent indoor audio guided tour taking you through the history of this sad part of the demise of the Scottish Clans. Outside there are walkways through the battlefield with headstones markers for the various clans and a large monument tribute to the thousands that lost t heir lives in the brutal one hour battle.

Our drive to Clava Cairns took us on narrow roadways, over one lane bridges and through the colourful scenic countryside.

Little is known about the standing stones which date back 4000 years. The large stone structue form a circle and have a walkway into the centre of them. To this day they are still a mystery. There are approximately 50 of these stones located in this area. This is as close as we are going to get to the fictional Craigh na Dun, where Claire is swept back in time. Clava Cairns is one of Scotland’s most evocative stone circle sites. The scenery in this area is stunning, narrow roads, green pastures and nosy cows wondering what the ladies are doing on the roadway.

In the afternoon we travelled to the unspoilt town of Beauly, home of the clan Mackenzie. We explored the ruins of the ancient Beauly Priory in a secluded spot fringed by trees and framed by wooded hills. In the TV series, this is the spot where Claire meets the Seer. This amazing place dates back to the 1400’s. It was named when Mary Queen of Scotts visited and said it was a beauly place or pretty place. That’s why it’s called Beauly.

We returned via the country roads and to our delight spotted some famous Highland Cows.

This evening we had a great pub meal at Johnny Fox restaurant and later stopped in Gallion’s, the oldest pub in Inverness. This evening we were in for a treat, a popular local musician and his band were performing traditional Scottish music. A fun night was had by all.