Day 6 - The Great Scottish Tour

Inverness: John O’Groats and Culloden

Many of the Inns we stay at offer breakfast as part of the package. If we were people who got up leisurely sat over coffee then got going, this would be great. Usually we just politely decline the evening before as we would be up and going very early.

Our hostess at Dionard was having none of that – instead of giving us breakfast, she packed an incredible lunch for each of us to take on the road. Sandwiches and scones, potato chips and fruit. Since we usually live off of convenience store food for lunch, this was a gift.

This morning took us north.

As far North as you can go and still be on Great Britain’s mainland.

We managed the morning fog much better this time...

...(probably since we were on a main road and not a cow path with cars coming straight at us) and headed to John O’Groats, a fishing village on the north coast.

It was a nice ride and a very pretty little town.

It’s also part of the North Coast 500 – 500 miles of road on, you guessed it, the North Coast. We rode up to the east

and then came back on the western route.

The wind was ferocious and there were several times we felt like we were actually going to get blown off the road. So when we saw a drive that said “Public Entrance”...

 ...we decided to get out of the wind and see what we were publicly entering.

This was a wonderful surprise – Castle Mey, the late Queen Mother, Elizabeth’s Scottish estate which is now a public trust and open to tourists. The green houses were amazing with every kind of flower imaginable.

Side note: if you watch The Crown television series, Castle Mey was featured predominately in the second season when the Queen Mother went for a walk and ended up having tea with the owner of the castle, and then buying the estate.

Back on the road, we finished the North Coast 500 and headed back to Inverness.

Full disclosure. I am a closet Jacobite nerd. Have been since college and my earlier trips to Scotland. I don’t know why I’m so drawn to that time in history, but probably most of us experience this type of fascination about one thing or another.

So. If you aren’t familiar with the Jacobite Uprising read about it here – or in short, the Scots (and some Irish and English) wanted to re-instate a Catholic king in Scotland (and really all of Great Britain). In 1745/1746 they almost succeeded, but Prince Charles Stuart got greedy and moved farther south than he should have. The British government pushed the Jacobites back north, and in the final battle at Culloden Moor in April 1746, decimated an entire culture.

We were in Scotland. We had to visit Culloden.

Luckily, Culloden sits right outside of Inverness, so it was easy for us to stop there and spend half a day at the museum. The exhibit itself was really well done and fascinating, making it seem like the uprising happened not 250 years ago, but just yesterday. The tour of the battlefield itself was…gut-wrenching. 

Most of the Scottish clans were exterminated that day, any remaining clans were outlawed, as was the wearing of clan tartan. The clans and their fellow soldiers, were memorialized in this field.

On our adventures, we often talk about those who came before us, or who stood in the exact spot we were standing and saw, for the first time, what we were seeing.

We didn’t have to imagine. Like many battlefields (like Gettysburg or Vicksburg) the moor has been kept very much like it was in 1746 (upgraded with some walking paths, but still awfully close).

The fighting still hung heavily in the air and I could see and smell the battle.

We left and enjoyed a relaxing dinner and drinks, still surrounded by Jacobite ghosts.