From Inverness, we went south to the Clava Cairns, a trio of stone barrows with an added feature: a circle of standing stones around each, and perhaps other smaller barrows around them. These are the only barrows like that in all of the British Isles. Eerie sort of place, and the misty, chilly weather added to the effect.
1. One of the stone cairns at Clava Cairns.
Next stop was Culloden Battlefield where Bonnie Prince Charlie and his Jacobite army were smashed by Government forces, ending the Rising of 1745. This defeat effectively ended the Stuarts' chances of reclaiming the Scottish throne. There was a visitor's center and the obligatory giftshop, where I bought another book and a claymore-shaped letter-opener. Outside, there was a large memorial to the Highlanders who fell in the Jacobite army, and flags on flagpoles showed where the Government and Jacobite armies had formed their lines before the battle.
2. The memorial monument at Culloden Battlefield . . .
3. . . . and the plaque set into its base.
From Culloden we went south through the Cairngorms, which are similar in general appearance to the Western Highlands that we'd gone through on the first day. In the town of Newtonmore, we spent about an hour and a half in a museum of Highlander life -- a lot like a pioneer museum, "this is how they did it in the old days" sort of thing -- but in the Highlands, "the old days" were within living memory. Among the exhibits were a variety of machines and tools: a 1900s vintage tractor, a horse-drawn fire engine, a couple of looms and spinning wheels, farm machinery, etc. There was also a complete reconstruction of a typical Highlands "black house." In some isolated areas, black houses were still in use until the early part of the 20th century.
4. The "black house" seen from the outside. The sides are stone, like most Highlands buildings; the roof is straw thatch over a wooden frame.
5. The first room inside the black house: the livestock and storage area. The door from the outside opens into this room. This is where the family cow spent the winter.
6. The second room: the kitchen/family area. The fireplace was in the center of the room, and often produced smoke faster than it got out through the chimney. The dishes in the cabinet are slanted forward to prevent soot from collecting on the eating surface.
7. The third room: the bedroom. A four- or five-person family could exist in a black house for a winter, but that stretched the space to the limit. Imagine being cooped up in a place like this for months on end!
South of Newtonmore, we stopped at the Falls of Dochart, near the village of Killin. The Falls are actually a long stretch of whitewater on the upper River Tay, just above the head of Loch Tay. They're mostly just large rapids, with a few real falls a foot or two high, but nothing more than that.
8. One of the small waterfalls in the Falls of Doichart
We eventually wound up in Aberfoyle, near Rob Roy MacGregor's old stomping grounds, and spent the night there. An interesting bit of lore that Jette told us: Rob Roy probably used the name MacGregor rarely if at all. Clan MacGregor included a lot of cattle-thieves, raiders, killers, and just plain unpleasant people, and the entire clan was outlawed in the early 1600s. That Act was still on the books in Rob Roy's time a hundred years later. Simply calling yourself a MacGregor could get you thrown in jail, while a fugitive MacGregor could get himself a pardon just by bringing in the head of one of his clansmen.
