Pitiochry

Monday, 23 September 2019

We had our last night in one of the best AirBnB's we have stayed in on this trip.  We packed up the car and were out just before 10 AM.  Today we will start with a history lesson and visit the Culloden Battlefield. 

The Battle of Culloden (16 April 1746) was fought between the Jacobites, with a strong support of Scottish Highland clans, and the currently reigning King George II.  The Jacobites were lead by Charles Edward Stuart (AKA Bonnie Prince Charles) who believed the throne belonged to his family.

Leading up the this battle, the Jacobites were doing well and won many smaller battles.  They even considered marching into London, but turned back and returned to Scotland.  By this time, the Government had time to study and figure out the Jacobites weaknesses.  When the two sides finally met in Culloden, the Jacobites were decimated in under 1 hour losing about 2,000 troops to the Government's 400 troops.

In the aftermath, the Government went after and killed all who sided with the Jacobites to ensure an uprising never happened again.  They also went after the Gaelic culture and pushed to undermine the Highland clan system by taking away land and making it illegal for non-military to wear tartan.

This is a memorial erected on the battlefield in 1881 to remember the commemorate the highlander who lost their lives.  There are also headstones marking mass burial sites of clans.

Just on the other side of a fence from the battlefield were three highland cows.  They seem to like posing for the camera.

Can you believe that we spent over 3 hours at this battlefield?  Wow...I think we now know more about this battle than any other.

We can't have a drive in Scotland without a stop to see at least one Neolithic rock formation.  Here is the Clava Cairns.  This formation consists of 3 Neolithic burial chambers along with stone rings 3,000 - 4,000 years old.

Burial carain

Large standing stone

We made it to our overnight town on Pitiochry around 4:30 PM.  We checked into our hotel and then walked down into town. 

Pitiochry town center

We were quite hungry, so we first ate (me: fish and chips; Tim: donnar kabab) then continued walking around.

Here is a nice display commemorating the 2019 Solheim Cup, a match tournament between the top American and Europe women golfers.  The tournament was just last week...by the way, Europe won.

Our town walk continued and took us on a pedestrian bridge over the River Tummel.  Tim loves this photo of a tour guide waiting for his group to catch up.

After crossing the river, we walked up to and over the Pitiochry Dam.

View from the top of the dam.

Tim took this shot as we entered back into town.  This is the Pitiochry Church of Scotland. 

We made our way back up the hill to our hotel.  We stopped at the bar and had a pint of beer and tried a couple of different gins (Me) and whisky (Tim).  We then went back to our room and called it a night.