Today we decided to stay near our bed and breakfast and just check out the area.  We started by heading into Inverness to pick up our laundry that we dropped off the day before.  I wanted to check out Leakeys, which is a big second hand bookstore, but there was no parking.  We headed out to Culloden Battlefield.  It was mobbed with people.  I think there were about ten buses parked in the lot.  We finally found a parking spot and did a quick walk out to the field. We headed to the reconstructed farmhouse.  I read a few of the informational posters before the house was flooded with people.  The one fact that I couldn’t believe is that someone lived on that land until the 1920s and people would show up and dig up bones in the fields.  Disgusting.  I’m glad that it is now protected.  You can go into the visitor’s center and visit the shop or pay to enter the exhibit.  It cost about 11 pounds.  We didn’t, so I can’t tell you if it’s worth it or not.  

We drove a few miles over to Cawdor Castle.  The parking lot was not full and we walked to the entrance via a footpath.  There is a wool shop and a snack shop outside of the entrance. We paid 14.50 each to enter. The castle was built for the third Thane of Cawdor and has been the home to 23 generations of Cawdors. There is a legend that the Thane chose the site of the castle by where his donkey laid to rest at night.  The donkey rested under a holly tree and that tree is now petrified at the base of the old tower at Cawdor. The tree has been dated to 1372AD. Although many people refer to Cawdor Castle as the one in which Duncan is murdered in Macbeth, Macbeth was never the Thane of Cawdor and the castle did not exist during his lifetime. 

You enter through the great hall and there is a section above where the minstrels would play.  

The first bedroom is covered with tapestries and the bed and writing table are gorgeous. 

The sitting room has a strange configuration with the fireplace next to the door.  They have also modernized it a bit using an old cabinet for tv storage.  

The pink bedroom looks like it should belong to a Barbie fan.  The next room has some great Don Quijote tapestries.  The last room is tiny and was used for a bedroom or sitting room depending on the guests that were visiting. 

The big drawing room has a cozy feel to it even though the room is large. The fireplace is enormous. 

The dining room has more Don Quijote tapestries.  I made sure to take a picture of the famous windmill scene. 

They modernized the kitchen in the 70s, but you can also see the old kitchen downstairs. There was a shop you could peruse after finishing the inside castle tour.  It was located in the old stable.  I didn’t get a picture of the holly tree or the dungeon area.  It was very dark.  

The gardens were well maintained and constructed.  There was a walled garden with some well trimmed shrubs.  The flower garden smelled amazing. 

I would definitely recommend touring this castle.  It’s compact, but has some really cool art and furniture.  The gardens are lovely to wander around. 

We also drove out to Rait Castle. Although we couldn’t drive the entire way because the road was so narrow and there were branches with thorns on both sides, so we parked near a driveway and walked to the castle.  We had to go through a gate and the pathway was recently mowed.  I had read that the castle was considered a “scheduled ancient monument”, but that didn’t mean that it was actually protected.  They are trying to raise some money on the website just to keep it mowed and accessible.  There was a fire circle in the middle and I worry that there might be graffiti at some point, which would be sad. 

Rait Castle is really not a castle, but considered a hall house, which was common in the 13th century. The earliest owners were Mackintoshes, but the Cummings took over and changed their name to de Rathe. The Mackintoshes wanted their lands back in the 14th century, but were not allowed and the feud continued.  It came to a head in 1442 when the Cummings invited the Mackintoshes for dinner.  In true Game of Thrones type of story, the Cummings planned to slaughter all the Mackintoshes after dinner.  The Cummings’ daughter told this plan to the Mackintoshes’ son, so they were prepared and a slaughter of both families ensued.  The father chased the daughter around the castle and as she was hanging from outside of a window, he cut off her hands and she fell to her death. They say the castle is haunted by her ghost. I love that story! 

There was also a note the singer Bonnie Rait is a descendent of this family and has visited the castle. It was neat to hike out to this ruin and be the only people there. I didn’t find out about the stories until later. You can see where the walls are now part of the landscape under all the grass. It was a different kind of castle to visit.