Formal Tours

Formal tours are a great thing. First and foremost, someone else is driving. If they are good, they will not only drive, but back-up, turn around and generally maneuver in places that you were certain they could not all for the sake of the perfect picture. We had all of that and more in Hugh Allison.

Hugh was doing an Outlander tour. For those of you who have read The Outlander series, you will know what this means. For those of you who have not, it simply means that we were able to see places relevant to the book, some real, some that just fit the author’s fictitious places. Hugh was a wealth of information, and a published author. He had a wonderful sense of humor, and I would be amiss if I did not say that if you ever needed a tour in the Highlands of Scotland, Hugh Allison would be your man.

I also should mention the others who were on the tour, if only because we crashed at the last minute. Michelle was a huge fan of the Outlander books, her husband and son, not so much. Mark and Josh hung in there with admirable patience, considering the subject matter. Mark was quick-witted and generally happy, and Josh was a model of politeness, gallantly taking the back seat without complaint.

We started at Clava Cairns,

However, since I covered that in the previous post, I will only say here that Hugh was very knowledgeable about the stone cairns, and it was refreshing seeing it with someone who could explain the fascinating aspects.


We headed to Culloden Moore next.

Since Robyn and I had already spent three hours there the day before, we had hot chocolate and scones while they toured the inside. Have I mentioned how good the food is? When I asked for hot chocolate, the girl at the counter asked if I wanted Marshmallows and cream. I get both? It was heaven, and as I slurped the mound of whipped cream and melting marshmallows, I only wondered for a second how long it would take to walk it off.

Once the group finished with the inside, we all went outside to get Hugh Allison’s expert talk on the battle of Culloden. He was quite educated on the matter, and had many stories to tell, collected from his years of working at the visitor’s center. For instance, Leanach Cottage was occupied up until 1912, when the woman living there, who was 80 by then, finally moved out.

I am talking about a dwelling that is roughly the size of a small living room, and has a roof made of heather. This woman was a battlefield guide, as was her father, grandfather, and great-grandfather.


The next place we went to was something called a Clootie well.





What is a Clootie well? A Clootie well is a place where ailing souls go to rid themselves of their infirmities.  Different theories abound. It must be done on the 1st of May; you must circle the well three times chanting a Celtic prayer, or possibly dip the article of clothing associated with the illness, ie; stocking from an ulcerative foot,  in the well before hanging it on the tree. No matter how many theories there are regarding the placement of the clothing, the one certain thing that everyone seems to agree on is one must never remove something that you didn’t hang, because if you do, you will take on the ailment of the individual who did put it up.

The next stop on our tour was The Storehouse at Foulis Ferry, on the shore of Cromarty Firth in Monro Country.

There was a lovely restaurant with a view of the water, a visitor’s center shop, and of course, the 18th Century Storehouse set up as a self-touring adventure complete with a movie at the end. The
Storehouse was the place the Lairds would bring   their tennants rent in the form of grain or livestock.  It would reside here until they could get it onto a ship to take to a large city where they could convert it to cash.

Next stop was a Mackenzie dwelling; a structure, which served as the model for Castle Leoch in Outlander.
I would not mind living here!
The next place was found after the book was written in an effort “show” what Lallybroch might have looked like. It is indeed, an 18th century dwelling, and serves as a Bed and Breakfast. The owners kindly allowed us to have afternoon tea here.

After a delicious tea, we headed to Beauly Priory. http://www.scalan.co.uk/Beaulypriory.htm This website has some interesting information about the Priory and its history. Although the Priory is amazing in its own right, I could not stop thinking about the 800-year-old Elm tree that marks the gated entrance. If trees could talk, what a tale it would have to tell…

Battlefields, Cathedrals and Palaces

Praise God, the driving is getting easier, and I may actually begin to enjoy it the next time I try it. Today I drove to Culloden Battlefield (O.K., so it’s only a few miles from where we were staying) and managed to navigate all the round-abouts. What an impressive place. The interactive center leads you through the year prior to the battle, highlighting the main commanders involved, and the divided sympathies of the people via some very high tech interactive gadgets.

The visitor gets the perspective of the British on the left side of the exibit, and the Highlanders on the right, and follows the developments leading up to the fateful battle that occurred on April 16, 1746. The battle itself lasted less than an hour, but within the first three minutes, 700 Highlanders lay dead on the cold, wet moore, while the English army lost only 50, with 250 wounded. The Duke of Cumberland, wanting to make sure such a rebellion never happened again, sent troops all through Scotland to burn the cottages and dwellings, frequently shooting Highlanders regardless of their sympathies and turning women and children out of their homes to starve. He was nicknamed The Butcher. All in all, a very sobering experience.

The technical gadget used to walk the battle field was something I had never seen before. A device that looks like a smart phone, but was a satellite receiver. All over the field were places that triggered the device to play an audio explaining the particular place you are standing in, and what happened in the battle at that place. Diagrams showed on the screen in explanation as well as pictures of key people in the battle. What an amazing technological device!

After walking the battlefield, we came in and had lunch at the wonderful cafeteria in the visitors center. If I could only say one thing about the food here, it is that it is hot. Everything that is supposed to be served as a hot meal, is, well…hot. This may sound redundant, but I’m certain that Americans don’t quite meet this standard. We tend to serve things warm, not hot, for fear of someone getting burned and thus are open for a lawsuit. Here, the food is served in a way that gives new meaning to the term, “piping hot” and it is really amazing. Don’t get me wrong either—I prefer it this way, especially since the weather is always damp, chilly and rainy.

Our next stop was the Clava Cairns. This is a set of three circles of standing stones. For those of you who have read Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series, I did not hear the stones scream at me, which was something of a disappointment. Maybe I should come back on All Hallows Eve and try again.

There are three separate cairns here, two for holding the souls of the dead until the continue on their way in the afterlife, and one for cremating the bodies. They also served as a giant sundial and calendar for the people who lived 3500 years ago.

On this site there is a fourth rudimentary stone ring which gives the appearance of an attempt to create something like the other rings, though it doesn’t meet the mark. This ring it was found, was an attempt to create a ring like the others, 1000 years later. They scientists know the time period from studying peat samples below the surface of the earth. These peat samples indicate that there was a period of seven years where this part of the earth was covered in darkness, and nothing grew and many things died. The event that caused this was the eruption of a volcano, that permanently cooled this region, as it had been a warm and temperate climate prior to the eruption. When the sun finally was able to show through the ash cloud, we had entered into the bronze age, where the inhabitants didn’t quite have the knack for creating the stone monoliths from a thousand years prior.

From Clava Cairns we went to Elgin Cathedral. This was built in 1224, and served the people and the Bishops until the Reformation in 1560, when it took rather a bad beating. The lead was ordered stripped from the roof, and time began to take its toll, eroding away at the structure.

After Elgin Cathedral, we drove to Spynie Palace. Spynie Palace is a Bishops Palace, built in the late 12th century, and while the Bishops cathedral was moved to Elgin Cathedral, the Bishops continued to reside at Spynie. The landscape has changed considerably around the Palace, as there was a sea loch that ran behind the north wall that is no longer there, having filled with silt and becoming solid land.