Wednesday, September 28

We left Oban early Wednesday morning & headed north towards Inverness. Our route took us alongside Loch Ness but we saw no sign of Nessie.

We crossed over the the Caledonian Canal & stopped at Fort Augustus for a coffee break to watch boats going through the locks. The canal is about 60 miles long & runs between Scotland’s east & west coasts. About 22 miles of the canal is man made & was built between 1803 & 1822.

While we were at the locks there was a 70’s vintage Nauticat in one of the groups of boats “climbing up” the set of three locks. I went over to have a chat with the skipper but he was German & his English vocabulary was limited. He did manage to tell me that the boat was not his, it was a charter they he & his buddy had been on for about 2 weeks.

We continued on towards Inverness & were making such good progress that we decided to go to The Culloden Battlefield Historic Site to see where the last battle took place between the English & the Scottish Jacobites in 1746. The site is only a few miles outside of Inverness. The Visitors Center & the self guided tour of the battlefield are very well done.

In one section of the battle site memorial stones were erected where members of each clan are buried.

The battlefield was a farm at the time of the battle. The building in the photo below was the farmer’s family home. It was commandeered by the British before the battle began & was likely used as a command center & hospital for the British officers. The battle lasted less than two hours. In that time about 1,500 Jacobites were killed but only 50 British soldiers died.

We then carried on to Inverness & checked into our hotel. It’s a classic style building at the edge of the downtown commercial area & on the banks of the Ness River. On the opposite bank of the river is Inverness Castle, which is currently the City Courthouse. Our guidebook states that the only way to get inside this building is to be in trouble with the law. We think we’ll pass on the tour.

The hotel had a really nice bar, so I managed to find time for a pint & watch some football ⚽️

Cheers everyone!