For our first full day out of Inverness, we stopped by several fairly close sites. I really loved being in our own car – we got to explore a little more than the people in the tour buses.
Culloden is the site of the last battlefield on British soil – the last battle for Bonnie Prince Charlie in the Jacobite rebellion. It’s worth visiting, even if you don’t have heritage in the Highlands. It’s one of the best visitor center displays I’ve ever seen. You go on a path that has the Jacobites on one side, and the government on the other side. It’s balanced, and very immersive. Once you get outside, if you’re not with a tour, and walk the whole grounds, they have colored flags set up to represent the battle lines. It’s so clear how doomed the Jacobites were as you walk around. (They also have a really nice gift shop – the National Trust usually does a good job with those. Historic Scotland/English Heritage as well – Stirling Castle had two nice shops, with locally made goods.)
Clava Cairns is a short drive away from Culloden, and was probably pretty sleepy until Outlander came out. It’s said to be the inspiration for the stone circle that sent Claire back in time, so it’s now on the Outlander tourist trail. It is a very cool site. It’s about 4,000 years old, and even with a fair number of people around, it was fun to wander around.
At this point, we decided to visit Cawdor Castle, and weren’t really paying attention to where the sat nav wanted to send us, so ended up on the most intense backroads journey of our trip. Which was fine – P will tell you it was overall a fun experience, and it was a lovely route. At one point, we were going up a one lane hill, and a plumber’s van came screaming around a corner. He at least had the good grace to back up to let us through. So we got our genuine Scottish driving experience out of the way.
Cawdor Castle is still owned and run by the family (the dowager countess in this case), and the castle is an interesting tour, but as you can tell from my pictures, the gardens were the highlight for me. There are three separate gardens: the flower garden next to the castle, a wild garden behind that, along the river, and a walled garden a short walk away. All three were different and lovely in their own ways. I managed to see Himalayan blue poppies in bloom in person for the first time – I can see why all the British gardening shows are obsessed with them. That blue is amazing in person.