I was very keen to check out the Culloden battlefield – home of the final defeat of the Jacobite rising led by Bonnie Prince Charlie to the English. Our NZ Historic Places Trust card got us in for free which was great since we had barely used it. We watched an entertaining live show with a man outside a periodic cottage talking about the weapons used at the battle and why they were instrumental in the Jacobite defeat that day. After watching a short historical film, we walked out onto the battlefield where I was surprised to learn that the Munro clan was on the side on the English that day!
We had planned to have a look at Cawdor Castle before leaving, but we had spent a lot of time on the battlefield and we needed to get going. Before leaving the beautiful Inverness, we stopped for lunch and fuel at Tesco, then headed halfway down the western edge of Loch Ness to the ruins of Urquhart Castle. Tim and Hayley weren’t too worried about going in so they offered to look after Will while we headed in. Our explorer pass got us in for free and we walked down past a working replica of a siege machine called a Trebuchet and into the ruins. There were a lot of tourists there but the castle afforded magnificent views of the loch as well as being an interesting site to visit.
We hopped back in the car and carried on down the Ness. The road reminded us very much of the road leading to Milford Sound on the West Coast and we felt very much at home. We arrived at Fort William with an hour to spare so we unloaded our gear at the Dalraida B&B and headed over to Neptune’s Staircase for a look and a bite to eat at the local pub. Neptune’s Staircase is so named because of the ten locks in quick succession that enabled boats to descend a good 35 m.
We let Will loose on a good playground before heading indoors to check out the local food. The service was very slow at the pub and it wasn’t long before Will got fed up and starting tearing the place down. I took him out to the playground again until he was happy to come back in for dinner by which time mine had been given to someone else! To their credit they prepared my meal very fast but it was a disjointed dinner.
We arrived back home, cracked open a bottle of wine and played San Juan. Tim and Hayley had enjoyed the game so much when we had played it with them earlier in the year that they had bought it for themselves and brought it along. Lou felt upset about loosing Moosey so before we went to bed we jumped on to eBay and bought a new one!