It’s another beautiful day so it was somewhat reluctantly that set off this morning for the 90 min drive to Culloden.
We arrived around 11am. First up we went through the visitors center. It’s well set out but was a bit too much reading for the girls. The short 360 deg movie showing what the battle was like was really good and bought tears to my eyes. We saw a presentation which was really good and probably more helpful to the girls.
We then went out to the battlefield where we took the audio tour.
It wasn’t as moving as it’s been the last two times here but I’m not sure whether it was because of the weather (last time it was gloomy) or the audio tour (as opposed to the live guide) or just that we had the girls! It was still good though and very sad to think of all the lives lost in the battle and the subsequent end to the traditional highland way of life.
We had lunch at the cafe, where Amy spotted a Goldie.
Christy sat at the special kids table.
I had a lovely salad.
followed by the sharing of Mars Bar Slice.
Next we drove to Fort George (getting a little lost along the way).
This was SO much bigger than we’d expected. Another audio tour told us the main points of this still working barracks (thought the Scots Watch are currently in Kenya).
We also saw a show about the life of a soldier – and amazingly it was same guy from the Glen Coe demonstration. He even picked on Christy again and when we checked with him at the end of the show that it was indeed him he remembered her giggly :-).
We left here at 4.30pm and drove to Aviemore and on to Rothiemurchus Estate where we are staying for the next 3 nights. It is not what I had expected. It is HUGE and the campground a little more rustic that I’d thought. At first I thought we were in the wrong campground :-).
Once the initial disappointment was over it really is a nice park – full of trees and streams.
And thankfully, I have internet again so am able to blog the last few days.