Loch Ness, Cullendon, Inverness
From World Tour 2008 in Loch Ness, United Kingdom on Oct 14 '08
see all photos »
Today we head off in anticipation of seeing Nessie at Loch Ness. Mike diverts the coach briefly to show us a "Witches Bridge" - properly named Carr Bridge. This was used originally by pack horses to carry loads over the bridge. It is no longer in use today due to wear and tear, but is an amazing sight to see it's high arch.
We then travel to the prehistoric Clava Stone Circles. This ancient burial ground contained three circular burial tombs, two of them surrounded by stone circles. Mike tells us the folklore that if women walk three times around the stone cirle in each direction, that night when they go to sleep they will be whisked away in their dreams by a knight on a white horse, and returned safely with a smile on their face by dawn. Well I made a bee-line for the circle and started my orbits!! He also said that their is a strange magnetism felt in this area, and by standing and touching one of the stones circle stones, you can feel it pulse through your body and may experience healing powers.
Where art thou Nessie...
see all photos »
After another short ride we arrive at the Culloden Battlefield. A memorial is set here for commemoration of the 1746 battle between the Jacobites (the scottish clans) and the Government of the time. It was a slaughter, with all of Bonnie Prince Charlie's men being slaughtered in just minutes by the 80 cannons and gun weilding light-horsemen. They had no chance with their hand-held weapons. Joe and I walked the battlefield - down the red goverment line, across the middle of the moor, and then up the blue flagged marked line of the Jacobites. Along the way there were stone markers for each of the clans who participated and the number of men and women who were lost, 500, 200, 250, 300 etc.
see all photos »
It was then back on the bus and off to Loch Ness. Mike the tour manager said he was going to take us away from the tourist area of the loch, which is full of shops and blow-up nessie dolls, to a private beach. When we arrive and disembark the bus, we are hit by a chilling wind. We walked down a short distance to the shoreline and looked out across the loch. It was so windy that waves were lapping onto the shore. One of our touring companions took off his shoes and paddled out into the water. The rest of us just looked out across the soft caps, looking for a head to pop out of the water (heehee). Alas not today.
see all photos »
We stopped for lunch at nearby Inverness. This was a small metropol, where we walked around the old "Victoria markets" - which was just small local shops where most of them were closed or vacant. We headed off in search of public toilets and ended up in a nearby shopping centre where we grabbed something light for lunch. We returned to the town square centred by the scottish unicorn, and board the bus back to our hotel. This was a great day trip enjoyed by all.
We had an easy afternoon and dinner once again in the Hotel restaurant. Our after-dinner drinks were disrupted by the hotel fire alarm going off and us all having to evacuate the hotel. Which would have been fine if we weren't dressed for the warm restaurant. We all grabbed the important stuff - our drinks! and headed outside. It was soooo cold. After being asked to move away from the building they started doing a roll call of the room numbers. This didn't get very far as the hotel manager came out and said that someone had been smoking in their room and had set off the alarm. What a relief. We headed back in and took our seats to listen to the Wednesday night entertainment - a guy singing songs from 60s and 70's. It was more like karaoke - as the backing music had the normal vocals on them, and the music was turned up so loud that most people thought the guy was lip sync-ing. Most of our group didn't stay very long and called it a night. Another day done.
Would you like to comment or ask a question?