Scotland 2007, Day 7, Inverness

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Thursday, August 2nd- Inverness (with a trip to Dingwall aka Tulloch Castle).

Inverness. In the morning we went to Culloden (where the Battle of Culloden took place.) After this battle (which the Scots lost), Bonnie Prince Charlie went into hiding (Flora MacDonald disguised him as her “lady’s maid”) and eventually made it to Greece where he remained ‘til he died. Clan Davidson did fight in this battle, they made up part of Clan Chattan (according to Wikipedia). Anyway, so the battlefield now has blue flags which show where the Scots line was and red flags which show where the British line was. There are also stones that show where the heads of certain clans “fell” and other stones which represent where the clans stood on the field. In the middle is a stone memorial.

Fort George. It is still an active Fort in the blah blah blah region and was built in blah blah blah by blah blah blah. I just walked around and took pictures. In honor of its history, I took a picture of the young military studs jogging in formation. Unfortunately I was focusing on them and didn’t notice that mom started to jog after them. Nice that we have the same brain waves. After that, a soldier dressed in Scottish garb walked by and went into a building. So, I camped out on a hill and waited for him to come out so I could get some more pics. 10 minutes later he came out and I got the shots (of his back unfortunately). Then, I decided to wait and take a picture of John and Mom as they came out of the Fort. 10 minutes later they did and I took the picture. Thrilling. At one point Joe spotted me sitting on the hill staring and he, hesitantly, waved his hand at me. Think I scared Joe.

After that, prepare to be shocked, we went to a castle. “Cawdor Castle was the setting for Shakespeare’s Macbeth and for over 600 years home to the Thanes of Cawdor.” It had a nice river running by it and a maze garden. Nothing overly exciting happened here (I wasn’t swarmed by horses and old men didn’t hit on me.) Got some pictures of John down by the river. I went off into the forest and ignored the path sure that I was going to find a wonderful hidden secret, or at least a snake. Found some old stones from a house (or the castle) that now had moss growing over them, but that was about it. Trouble will have to be found another day.

Then it was time to head back to Inverness. The excursion that night was to Loch Ness. None of us felt like going and instead, we planned on going to Tulloch Castle- home of the Davidson clan (Mom’s clan- Dean). John decided he didn’t want to chance getting lost in the country side with me and Mom so it was just her and I. We walked about 4 blocks to the bus station and jumped on the bus to Dingwall. It was about a 20 minute drive and the driver came and got us personally when it was time to get off. He gave us directions and up the hill we went (Mom swears it was a mountain) and found our Castle. Yup, ours. I’m sure I have the deed somewhere. Anywho, we walk into reception and ask the lady if we can walk around and she gives us free reign (except for the bedrooms- they were booked solid). So, we walked thru the castle. The only thing of note is that while we were in the dining room, I became nosey and opened a door at the end- I saw a spiral staircase going up (and obviously off limits). I looked at mom and she said “go” and she did look out from below. Quite a climb and I can’t say I got any amazing shots from the top, but a fun story nonetheless. Mom hissed at me (she’s mean) to come back down and we scurried out of there looking like the angels that we are. After that we peeked around some more and then took off. To any Tulloch folks who read this, sorry about that! 😊 We asked the lady at the castle where the bus stop was and off we went.

Along the way we stopped at a convenience store and bought munchies. We were sitting on the bus bench enjoying nature and each other’s company when I made the faux pas of all faux pas: I mentioned that we were doing good on traveling alone and that nothing bad happened. A few moments later, mom and I watched our bus go by on the other side of the road. We both kept eating and just moved our heads as it passed us. Then we looked at each other and laughed (and I’m sure cursed too). So, we decided to try the bus stop on the other side of the road (where that one bus would have stopped). A few minutes later we walk across the street and go into a gym to steal their bathroom. Coming out we asked the lady at the counter for directions and she directed us down the street and around the corner. So we went. When we got there, we couldn’t find the right location, so we just kept walking. Another gentleman gave us directions in his nice, HEAVY, Scottish accent. We thanked him and admitted to each other that we didn’t know what he said. Eventually we were in front of the Police station and we went inside for directions.

I would like to take a moment and say that Bubba Skinner (come on folks, "In the Heat of the Night") has been replaced as the best looking cop around- this guy was very dreamy and very willing to help us (stupid wedding band). We asked if there was a train station nearby or where the hell the bus stop was. He said that the bus wouldn’t be back for a couple of hours and our best bet was the train. He pointed us in the right direction, and before we parted ways, I got a shot of mom with Officer Yummy. So, we walked down to the train station and, after asking another stranger how to buy tickets, we eventually hopped on the friggin train. To add insult to injury, when we arrived at Inverness we went out the front door of the Train Station and there, right in front of us, was the front entrance to our hotel. We didn’t need to walk the 4 blocks at the beginning of the trip. If we had caught the bus like planned, we would have left Dingwall around 5pm and would be back in Inverness around 5:30pm. As is, we caught a train at 6:50pm and we were back at the hotel by 7:30pm. We’re smart. But at least we found a man (mom and I plan on flipping for him later- then we’ll decide who gets the guy). For dinner all 3 of us went to a Italian place nearby- food was pretty good.

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Photos

Fort George
The tiny purple spot is Mom and John is next to her.

Dingwall
Town where Tulloch Castle is located at.

Me & Mom at "our" castle!
And yes, we did have fun storming the castle.

Tulloch Castle
One of my shots after creeping up the stairs.

Mom and Officer Yummy
Dingwall