The Culodden Battlefield Memorial and Visitor Center is a very impressive museum. It must have been renovated recently as everything in it is completely up to date, technologically. The Battle of Culloden was an important battle between the British Army and the Scottish Highlanders (Jacobites). Unfortunately for the Scots, they were outnumbered and outsmarted in this battle and lost many more men . . . nearly 2,000 casualties in a battle that lasted a little over an hour. This was the last pitched battle fought on British soil.
I overheard a guide in the museum talking about the history of Scotland asking some Americans "How would you feel if your Civil War had been fought 8 different times?" That kind of put things in perspective . . . .
The Museum has a very life-like video recreation of the battle that surrounds you on four walls. They also have a table-based video representation of the battle that shows exactly how the two armies were situated throughout the short battle.
We were treated to a demonstration of the period weapons by a great volunteer who used Bryce as a prop while showing us how to put on an old-school Kilt!
Clava Cairns
Clava Cairns is a prehistoric burial ground and bears some similarity to Stonehenge and Avebury in that there are large and small stones placed in a way that commemorates the winter or summer solstice. The rocks at Clava Cairns aren't as big as those at Avebury or Stonehenge, and there are several large piles of somewhat smaller rocks, which we were told were actual tombs. The site lies just above the River Nairn. It was fascinating to think about how these prehistoric folks moved all these rocks 4,000 years ago -- nobody knows exactly how they moved them there. Our guide told us that one of the large piles is set up in a way that, when the winter solstice arrives, the light shines directly into the center of the tomb.
We also visited Cawdor Castle that afternoon -- more on that later . . . .
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