Culloden Moor

My second day in Inverness I got up late, having gone to bed quite late the night before. I'd love to show you pictures of my interesting night and the pub challenges I completed, but again I'm on a computer that won't allow me to connect my camera, so you'll just have to use your imagination. To give you some sort of idea how awesome my night was, start with me taking down a giant robot bear by a flying kick to the groin. And that should give you some idea as to why I got up at 11:30.
Well, okay - it wasn't quite that awesome, but I did drink a lot of Guinness, so there you go.
Anyway, I really only did one thing that day, which was visit Culloden Moor. This is where the famous battle of Culloden took place in the 18th century and changed Scotland's history forever. At the time a group called the Whigs were in charge of Britain, who ruled with a constitutional monarchy. However the house of Stewart contested the throne, and collectively people who supported them in rebellion were known as Jacobites. The Jacobites acquired a surprisingly large army in Scotland, where the Stuarts were from, and for quite a while campaigned very successfully against the Whigs. This was mainly because the government commanders underestimated the highland soldiers. However when they finally got the idea that the highlanders were quite formidable in battle they changed their tactics accordingly and soundly defeated the Jacobite army at Culloden Moor in 1746. To give you an idea, the Jacobite army lost 1500 men while the government troops only lost 50. Afterwards the government came down hard on Scotland and the Highlands, trying to destroy the clan system which made the Jacobites so strong. Everything from tartans to bagpipes were banned.
And Culloden Moor is a bit of an eerie place. Bleak, boggy and windswept would describe it well. The visitor centre, while a bit pricey, was incredibly informative too. I only had to go to Wikipedia once for this post!