Loch Ness
Loch Ness, the largest body of water in Great Britain, holds many secrets. The Lord of the Glens departed from Fort Augustus, our overnight berth at the south end of the Loch, to cross its 23-mile length towards our final destination of Inverness. The early morning mist hanging low over the water soon dispersed to gave us a day bathed in autumn sunshine. Soon we were level with Castle Urquhart, that great medieval fortress occupying a promontory of rock dominating the west side of the Loch. After an illustrious history of serving as a royal castle, it was finally blown up in 1691 to prevent it falling into the hands of Jacobite rebels, and it has been celebrated as a historic ruin ever since.
After lunch we departed for a tour of the battlefield of Culloden, a fitting climax to our journey in the footsteps of Bonnie Prince Charlie and his ill-fated highland supporters. The exemplary brand-new visitor centre employs state-of-the-art interpretation of the conflict and its wider background, but strolling around site and its environs in such pleasant weather, it was hard to conjure up the reality of that sleet-soaked day in April 1746. This was followed by a stop at the Clava Cairns, amazing prehistoric monuments dating back 4,000 years to a time when early farmers built complex stone structures to observe the solstices. Today they are set amidst a lovely wood, where red deer flitted.
Then it was back to the Lord of the Glens for the Captain’s farewell cocktail party, and a traditional Scottish dinner of Scotch broth and haggis, complete with a rendition of Rabbie Burns’s ‘Ode to a Haggis’, and rounded off with an evening of Scottish country dancing.
Loch Ness, the largest body of water in Great Britain, holds many secrets. The Lord of the Glens departed from Fort Augustus, our overnight berth at the south end of the Loch, to cross its 23-mile length towards our final destination of Inverness. The early morning mist hanging low over the water soon dispersed to gave us a day bathed in autumn sunshine. Soon we were level with Castle Urquhart, that great medieval fortress occupying a promontory of rock dominating the west side of the Loch. After an illustrious history of serving as a royal castle, it was finally blown up in 1691 to prevent it falling into the hands of Jacobite rebels, and it has been celebrated as a historic ruin ever since.
After lunch we departed for a tour of the battlefield of Culloden, a fitting climax to our journey in the footsteps of Bonnie Prince Charlie and his ill-fated highland supporters. The exemplary brand-new visitor centre employs state-of-the-art interpretation of the conflict and its wider background, but strolling around site and its environs in such pleasant weather, it was hard to conjure up the reality of that sleet-soaked day in April 1746. This was followed by a stop at the Clava Cairns, amazing prehistoric monuments dating back 4,000 years to a time when early farmers built complex stone structures to observe the solstices. Today they are set amidst a lovely wood, where red deer flitted.
Then it was back to the Lord of the Glens for the Captain’s farewell cocktail party, and a traditional Scottish dinner of Scotch broth and haggis, complete with a rendition of Rabbie Burns’s ‘Ode to a Haggis’, and rounded off with an evening of Scottish country dancing.
