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Published: October 5th 2010
Hootenanny's
Transfixed by Rachel from CarrbridgeOur closest city is Inverness, the base that so many tourists use to visit the Highlands. Its perched on the River Ness, which drains from Loch Ness to the Moray Firth. You can travel by boat from the East coast of Scotland across to the West coast through a series of locks and lochs! Some of the lock systems are up to seven locks high, enabling a boat to travel upstream through a series of steps and into the lochs. Its interesting to watch the boats go up or down this watery escalator.
Inverness is a reasonably compact city dominated by a castle on the rivers edge with a number of bridges across the river, canal and firth connecting the suburbs with the city centre. We check out the loal music scene at Hootenanny's pub, a 3 story affair with different music on each level including some good traditional sounds. There are penty of festivals and concerts on at this time of year, so we're not lacking on traditinal music entertainment options.
We choose an appropriately grey and rainy day to visit the historic battlefield of Culloden. This was the location of the final bloody battle in Bonny Prince
A yacht heads up to Loch Ness
Locks on the Caledonian Canal, Inverness Charlie's failed rebellion. A big new interpretive centre has loads of informative displays, chilling videos, artefacts and a redcoats soldier giving talks on aspects of the battle. Its a bleak moor and the Highlanders suffered huge casualties. We wander past many clan memorials and are reminded of the pain, suffering and futility of war.
The Fairy Glen on the other side of the firth is a total contrast to Culloden. This is a well-known woodland walk, following a 'wee burn' (stream) up to a couple of waterfalls. Nicole and Becky lead the way, and at the top waterfall we find an unusual 'wishing log'. Instead of throwing coins into a wishing well, they push coins into the soft log, creating an interesting effect. Becky puts one in for all of us, hopefully not just wishing for icecream and chocolate!
Speaking of fairies, we also visit a classic fairytale castle, Dunrobin castle, an hour North of Muir of Ord. There are loads of castles around, and most look like those built for defence, but this one really looks like its popped out of the pages of a fairytale. Its topped miniarets with spires and is perched on a promontory
on the edge of the North Sea. There are beautiful formal gardens with a fountain, making a great location for watching the falconry display. Our favourites birds of prey on display are the wise-looking stealth hunters - the owls. There's a bizarre museum in the gardens, a taxidermist's dream but definately not to everyone's taste. Its filled with hunting trophies, collections of birds and animals from around the world and artifects ranging from pictish stones to african rhino hair whips. As I said, not to everyone's taste. On a slightly more uplifting note, in the garden we are treated to a beautiful natural display of living creatures, with heaps of different brightly coloured butterflies sunning themselves on a butterfly bush (buddlia?).
There are so many things to see in this area, both natural and historical, and its great to immerse ourselves in the world of Tessa and Keith's ancestral roots.
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