Scotland Day 4

After yesterday's wirlwind excitement we slept in today. This was ok, because the bus was not going to be there to pick us up until 1:30. Abigail was excited about this, because by time we left the Hostel it was just after 10:30 which gave her 3 whole hours to shop in Pitlochery! Actually it was not to bad, as we did begin to find items for her Celtic themed bedroom. This is the only picture we have from the town of Pitlochery itself: I can only assume England is the same way, but in Scotland every town has a WWI and WWII memorial for those who died from that town. This one from Pitlochery really shows what most of them look like. The MacBackpacker's bus was on time and we were off. The first stop we made was at the Pass of Kilicrankie There the tour guide/bus driver who was an incredible story teller told us the story of Bonnie Dundee and the Highland army he led against the British there in 1689. From there we continued up towards Inverness. The next stop was the Ruthven Barracks After the Glorious Revolution, the Scots refused to be ruled by a foregin king and instead supported the Stewart family (who really were the rightful heirs to the Scotish and British thrones) this led to a series of Jacobite rebellions, and to control the rowdy Scots, the British built a series of forts, and this is one of them. From there we made a breif stop at a group of cairns. These are essentially elaborate graves that date from the same time as the stone circles. From there it was not to far until we stopped again at Culloden fields. This was the site of the last battle on British soil. The most successful Jacobite rebellion was led by Bonnie Prince Charlie who was close to attacking London, but the British brought troops back from France and pursued the Jacobites to Culloden, there the cannons of the British laid waste to the Scotish. Once again the guide was an absolutly incredible story teller and he really made it possible to feel the history, to the point that seeing the memorial built there was an emotianl experience for all . We made one last stop at Loch Ness, mostly just so everyone can say they had seen/swam in the famous loch. From there it was off to Inverness for the night.

Abigail and I walked around the river front looking for a pub she ate at the first time she was there, and we found it but they said they were to busy to serve us. So we ended up at some Itallian restraunt. This was actually ok because it turned out to be the local date place. Seriously with the exception of like two families the entire place was couples, they also had Abigial's much loved Gellato so that was good. It was our plan to then go walk on around on a series of islands in River Ness that are all connected by foot bridges. However, as soon as we started, it started to pour rain so we turned around and called it a night.