Isle of Skye to Pitlochry

Eilean Donan 

Eilean Donan was founded in the 13th century and became the stronghold of Clan Mackenzie and their allies Clan Macrae.

Unfortunately the castle was destroyed after the Jacobite Rebellion of 1719, fortunately for us though Lieutenant- Colonel John Macrae reconstructed the castle to produce it's current stunning appearance.

Eilean Donan is one of the most photographed castle's in Scotland, making appearances on shortbread tins, whisky packaging, calendars and a few films as well.  I certainly took a lot of photos here. When we approached the castle we were undecided whether to tour the castle or just stop and take photos, we had heard mixed reports about inside the castle.  I certainly got lots of good photos when we arrived, (the first photo on the blog is one of them) anyway we decided to tour the castle and  I m really glad that we did, because it was really lovely inside. But also because as we wandered back to the car the clouds parted a little the sun shone through and I shot a few more photos, and got a really great photo that those of you whom follow me on Instagram and Facebook would have seen.

After leaving Eilean Donan we headed to 

Culloden

Culloden is the site of the last Pitched battle on British soil.  Those Outlander fans probably already know all about Culloden. For those of you who don't this is the brief explanation . . . 

     

The Battle of Culloden was the final confrontation of the Jacobite uprising of 1745.   The Jacobite 's were supporters of Bonnie Prince Charles Stuart, whom was trying to regain the English and Scottish crown for the house of Stuart from the House of Hanover.  The Jacobite's were supported and supplied by Louis the 14th of France. They had won quite a few battles prior to this so were on a bit of a winning streak.

Unfortunately however they lost this battle and approximately 2000 Jacobites died. The loss of the battle was the first blow for the highlanders , the aftermath was a brutal crackdown on Jacobitism with highlanders, including women and children, being inprisoned for the simplest things, such as speaking Gaelic or wearing their Clan tartan.  

This was a very moving place and the tour guide was excellent . . . I enjoyed our visit here.

 

For the fans of Outlander . . . The stone marking the grave of Clan Frazer. 

Just down the road was the road was the 

Clava cairns 

  

The Clava Cairns are A Bronze Age cemetery complex of passage graves, ring cairns, kerb cairns and standing stones. They believe that This site was used as far back as 4000 years ago. It was a lovely tranquil spot. Although I got really annoyed here. The site is not guarded as such and there is no cost to enter. There is signs that clearly ask people to respect the site and not climb or walk on the Cairns, however we watched as adults one after another climbed up and walking over the Cairns.   

Similarly throughout many of the sites people are asked either not to take photos inside or not use flash but they just ignore it, these sites are history we are privileged that they are opened to the public and they deserve respect.

So disappointing and disrespectful  

anyway I will get down off my soap box, we had a very late lunch here then headed off to the lovely little town my gorgeous Scozie friend suggested

Pitlochry 

Pitlochry is a beautiful town in the county of Perthshire in central Scotland.  It has gorgeous buildings built in the Victorian Scottish baronial style ( they were super gorgeous) loads of great shops , it would have been lovely to stay here for a few days but unfortunately we only had one night here as we need to keep moving on . . . 

A h-uile la sona dhuibh

‘s gun la idir dona dhuibh!

(May all your days be happy ones)

Googy Girl