Tour from Inverness, Clava Cairns, Culloden battlefield and grand finale Glen Affric

So, here I am again with another brilliant Rabbie's tour. 

This is my last day in Scotland this time.

Actually the tour Covers a lot of this map, to Clava Cairns near Culloden, Beauly, Glen Affric  And Loch Ness, one of the 35,5000 lochs in Scotland

The Clava Cairns are not only ancient, 4000 years old, but also located in the midst of gorgeous woodland.

The colours were beautiful, especially all the lichen on the stones.

There were three main circles, certainly burial mounds for important people.

We didn't have long here. It was a place requiring time to meditate and think how life and the people were at that time. 

Yet another beautiful place, with such a sad history! Culloden.

At school, we studied the Battle of Culloden and the story of Bonnie Prince Charlie.  Not really of great interest to me then, but brought to life as I stood in the middle of the battlefield

 where over 5000 of his men perished  , massacred by the English army, who lost only 50 soldiers. The wall in the photo shows the number of deaths on each side, depicted by stones which stick out, representing each soldier killed. 

With such huge losses, the names of the Highlanders could not be displayed, only a stone bearing the name of the clan with the approximate number of casualties. 

We made a very short detour to this spectacular viaduct, Viaduct of Culloden 

This was a very special extra stop to get really close up to two orphan Highland cows. They are such massive creatures, but seem so placid - perhaps because they had just eaten!

lunch was in Beauly, a wealthy village with an attractive river walk.

As we drove to Glen Affric, we passed several fields full of rather unusual black Hebridean sheep. They have tiny horns. 

 

Glen Affric was exceptionally beautiful. The forest floor was carpeted with heather, in full bloom. What a picture!

The river walk we did was quite short but absolutely sensational. 

After so much rain , the water was thundering over the stones.

It was quite a tricky walk in places but really fantastic. At times I was a little stressed, as there were no real signs and the group had gone ahead..it would have been a very long way to walk along the single track one-lane road.

Fabulous reflections.

Silvery waters and once again dark threatening clouds.

This is a special place which few know about. Shhh. Don't tell anyone.

A great day out with Colin and his mascot Brandon.