May 26, 2015

Culloden lies less than 10 miles east of Inverness.  I wanted to see it because I had read a fictionalized version of a devastating battle there in Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. Her fictional account lines up pretty closely to the account we heard at the museum, and that I heard on the walking tour outside. Naturally, the museum provides more context.

A man who works in the museum gift store said this site has become much more popular since the publication of Outlander (and the ensuing TV series, I'm sure).

In 1746, the Jacobites faced the British at Culloden in their bid for Scottish independence. In a battle that lasted less than an hour, 1,500 Scots were slain. The British buried them in mass graves, the war was over, and a period of brutal oppression followed. Jacobites were rooted out and executed.

On a happier note, we visited Cawdor castle and grounds. In Shakespeare's Macbeth, Macbeth is the Thane of Cawdor. There's a countess who lives there now. 

Many of the castle's plaster walls are covered by 17th-century tapestries. A couple of the tapestries depict scenes from Miguel Cervantes's Don Quixote (e.g, Don Quixote tilting at a windmill).

Of course, it would be a poor excuse for a castle with no ghost stories. One staff member said that the ghost of the widow-countess's husband has been seen, as well as a woman wearing a blue nightgown.

I assume it's all true. I don't think I've ever met a ghost story I didn't enthusiastically believe.

Now that Tom and I are in another Airbnb rental in Aberdeen, we have a chance to wash our clothes. I am grateful beyond measure.