Loch Dochfour

Our first stop today was at the famous Lochn Ness. Whilst some of the group decided on a cruise on the lake, we opted to do a bush walk in the hills overlooking the lake. This worked out well because today was a bit cooler with a lot of clouds and some wind (we thought we had somehow managed to skip proper Scottish weather - of course not!!)

We took in some stunning views of the massive lake as we climbed up through the hills and managed to get ourselves lost due to some poor signage and a sub-par map!
We had a fun time trying to find our way back and managed to make it back in time for the bus with 10min to spare! We also learnt a few fun facts about the lake, including:
- Loch Ness is said to be up to 220m deep at its maximum (but it really difficult to measure because of all of the peat in the water - because of this, it is pitch dark at around 10m in depth as opposed to 70m in depth in the ocean).
- 65 billion people stacked up side by side and on top of each other (8 times the population of the world) in Loch Ness wouldn’t fill it.
- The first spotting of the Lochness monster (Nessy) was in 565 AD by St Columba and there has been no official sightings of Nessy since the initial one! In fact, National Geographic will pay you £5 million if you give them a "certified" photo of Lochness!

We then had lunch in a town called Beauly. Mary Queen of Scots visited the place and called it a ‘Beau lieu’ (meaning ‘beautiful place’ in French) so that is how the town was eventually called 'Beauly'. We had a sandwich and hot chocolate (as it was much cooler today) from the local supermarket and ate it on a bench at the local shinty field (a game only played in the Highlands which looks like a type of mixture of hockey and rugby!) We walked through the Beauly Priory which was a church from the 1500s. After the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s, the church became a burial site (so there are some very old bodies buried there with their original headstones). Interestingly, the buildings were stripped of the stone from the roof for a fort in Inverness so the old buildings don't have a roof which looks quite cool!

After lunch, we headed to Culloden, the sight of the battle between the Jacobites and British Government in 1746 (now famously covered in the recent famous TV show, Outlander). We did a tour of the battle grounds and had an incredibly in depth tour of the battle with a very knowledgeable and enthusiastic guide.
During the tour, we learnt a lot including that:
- This was the last hand to hand battle on British soil.
- This was effectively two conflicting parties fighting over which king should rule Scotland (that is, contrary to popular belief, this was not a battle between the Scots and the English as there were Scottish on both sides or a battle between the Catholics and Protestants). There was at the time a German born king on the British throne with a challenge to the throne being made by the descendant of exiled king. People on each side had different reasons for fighting in the conflict for the Jacobites - some believed it was for the independence of Scotland, other for religion and some just for adventure.
- The descendant on the exiled king, Bonnie Prince Charlie, was leading the ‘Jacobite’ uprising, opposing the side of the British government (also referred to as the 'Red coats'.)
- The Jacobites had been successful in a few battles and decided not to approach London but instead go to the Wcottish highlands to gain more supporters.
- The battle was supposed to take place the previous day but it was the 25th birthday of the Duke of Cumberland's (the leader of the Red Coats) and he held a party and all the Red Coats received extra food and drink so they were in good spirits! Meanwhile, the Jacobites had been waiting in the cold at the Battlefield and finally decided that night to have a suprise attack on where the Red Coats' were staying 12 miles away. They marched 11 miles in the pitch dark with very little food in their stomaches (unlike the Red Coats, they has been receiving only 1 biscuit a day) when the Jacobites decided to turn around and march another 11 miles back to the Battlefield when they realised they wouldn't make it in time.
- A few hours after the Jacobites returned to the battlefield, the Red Coats arrived. Both sides started firing artillery but the Red Coats were far better trained and were more effective (the Red Coats could shoot utility every 40 seconds whereas the Jacobites took around 5 minutes). The Jacobites were fuelled with passion for the exiled king but lacked the military prowess of the British government
- Shortly after this, the Jacobites started running from their line to the Red Coats' line (called 'The Highland Charge'). The Highland Charge had been very effective at other Jacobite battles but it was ineffective at Culloden because of the boggy and swampy ground.
- The Red Coats surrounded the Jacobites and continued shooting. Within 2-3 minutes, around 700 Jacobites had died and by an hour of the battle, the remaining Jacobites were forced to retrest.
- During the battle, Bonnie Prince Charlie (leader of the Jacobites) managed to flee.
- During the battle, 1500 of 5000 Jacobites died, whilst only 50 of 8000 government died within 1 hour of the battle starting once the jacobites were forced to retreat.
- Following the battle, there was a regime of propaganda and people who were suspected to be Jacobites were imprisoned and tortured. Approximately 3000 Jacobites were hunted down. In this period in Scottish history, wearing the kilt or tartan was banned.
- The battle is now seen as very significant to the politics in Europe and history may have looked very different if the result of the battle had been different.

We also explored the museum at Culloden which unbiasedly told each side of the story of the battle. The musesum also including a very eye-opening re-enactment of the battle (it was quite bloody!)

We found the whole experience very sombre and moving and, having not known a lot about Scottish history before this trip, we certainly took something away from this visit.

We made one last stop at the Clava Gardens on the way back to Inverness to see the ‘standing stones’. These are stones whose history is largely unknown but which form very unique shapes and whose shadows are said to line up during the summer and winter solstices (so they may have been used for farming!)

We then got back to the hotel and freshened up before heading out to dinner. For dinner, we went to a traditional pub with some of the group where we shared a haggis (very delicious!) and watched some live Scottish music which of course included bagpipes - very entertaining and impressive!

We then went for a trivia night in a local pub and after being second for the first two rounds, our Scottish knowledge failed us and we unfortunately finished outside of the prizes after the third and final round.Read more