Victorian Market is the 19th century equivalent of a shopping mall. Featuring lovely cast iron supports and wooden roof this is a covered version of the traditional open aired markets in most market towns.
View of the Ness River and Inverness Castle; our hotel is on the right, the modern stepped building.
We caught a bus out to Culloden Battlefield. It is a moving experience to visit a battlefield where so many men lost lives in such a short amount of time. And when we realized that our visit was nearly the same day in April as the battle (April 16, 1746), it added to the haunting atmosphere.
Articulating the impetus for this final battle in the Jacobite uprising in Scotland is a challenge; what I understand is Queen Anne died without an heir and the next in line for the throne was George, a Hanoverian, not a Stuart. Some of the Scots, backed by France, wished to see Bonnie Prince Charlie, a descendent of King James of the Stuart line ascend to the throne. Those who backed a continuation of the Stuarts (James' line) were call Jacobites.
In an hour of fighting, 9,000 British troops fighting for King George, took on 5,400 Jacobites leaving 2,000 or more Jacobites dead or wounded.
Today Culloden is a war memorial with all of the dead buried on site, gathered into mass graves by clan where possible and a variety of monuments designating the graves and erected in honor.
It is hard to imagine 14,000 men fighting hand to hand in this heather moor with the noise and carnage and loss of life. The small house on the right, below, served as the field hospital for wounded.
The weather was crazy windy, cold, sunny and rainy mixed with snow, so after a few hours of that we picked up the next bus back to town and enjoyed a nice hot cuppa and our picnic lunch in the hotel room.
The sun broke through in the afternoon and we headed up to Inverness Castle and a stroll up the river along the Lady's Walk to the Islands in the Ness.
