Our morning started with a full Scottish breakfast minus the haggis and black pudding. Not sure I am ever going to understand the draw of pinto beans and mushrooms with my eggs. But I guess breakfast tacos would be weird to the Scottish. They did have some delicious granola which I am going to miss when we move on.

The first stop was Culloden. It is the first day we were happy to have overcast skies. A sunny day would just seem weird while walking the field where so many highlanders lost their life. Julian has worked on the museum and information supplies in the audio guides. So he was well prepared to show us the highlights. We have heard a lot about the Jacobite rebellion and BPC so we were well prepared to see where the story pretty much came to conclusion.

The museum is set up without the often romantic view of the highland cause. The British army was not a horrible killing machine but a well trained army fighting to preserve the established government. I did not realize that the Duke of Cumberland was the 25 year old son of the King George II. He was well liked by his men and as portrayed in Outlander his birthday was the night before the battle and BPC did try a sneak attack to catch them drunk from the celebration. has the story goes they got lost and then were all tired the day of the battle.

The highland charge that had been so successful in previous battles was not enough to overcome the well trained army who had practiced new tactics and had better artillery. has our tour guides Julien and Micheal continually repeated that the English took the BPC and the Scottish position serious and planned and prepared to defend again the attack in 1745 and any future attacks by building forts like Fort George that we visited earlier).

The battlefield conservatory owns only about a fourth of the actual battle ground. The part that is owned is the far north portion where the two lines of soldiers were closer together than at the other end. It was this misalignment that caused additional trouble for the highlanders as those on one end got to the British much more quickly than the others and in fact lead to some of the highlanders to never charge. Without the charge the highlanders had no advantage and were never going to win in a gun or artillery battle.

One of the questions is why did the highlanders fight that day. They could have snuck around the British and headed back up to Edinburgh or elsewhere in Scotland but they stayed and fought. It appears BPC did not want to run again. He had already turned back from his route into London and he was running out of money to fund the advance. He also knew that the British never had captures the ship carrying additional funds from France and that no other aid was likely to be sent. it was either fight and win at Culloden or disband nd head home. It is thought BPC did not want o be seen as his dad was in 175 when he got chased out of Great Britain.

Walking through the battlefields the ground looks endless. The ground is uneven, soft and marshy. not the ideal place to run 400 yards. The clans have laid out stones to identify their fallen. The British are all just buried together regardless that there were several highland and Scottish clans that fought for the English. I walked the distance from the Jacobite line to the English and I have no idea how the highlanders ran the entire way to take on the English in hand to hand combat.

It was a moving experience to walk where basically a way of life died.

Now onto Act II of the day – looking for Nessie. Our first stop is the Loch Ness Center. The center is the old hotel where the majority of sightings from the 1930 and it is basically a Disney type display of not only the eco system of the Loch Ness and the Loch Ness monster myth. You move from room to room getting different information and end with a vote on whether you believe Nessie is real, a hoax or a possibility. It is not as cheesy a it sounds but more for families.

From the center we rushed to catch a boat to take a short bit cruise. The cruise take you down Loch Ness and passes the ruins of Castle Urquhert. The castle was built in the 16th century and used for several until raided in the 1700s. It had been abandoned for years before a storm brought even more of the castle down. Now it is a lovely set of ruins right on the waters edge.

It was windy and cold on the boat but we stuck it out outside to get some photos then moved downstairs for the return trip to the dock.

The ride back to the hotel was pretty uneventful and we had dinner at the hotel bar so it was an early evening and our second day in Inverness came to close.