GOHO's in Gordon Land

What a day!!!!!

Today saw us try and leave the hotel (but first we had to find who had parked us in).  Thankfully, it turned out to be one of the staff on the desk. So we packed up the car and hit the road after breakfast and head for Culloden Battlefield.  Culloden is the site of the final Jacobite rising.  Culloden is the last and most harrowing battle to be fought on British soil. The battle was not originally set to be here but due to major lack of resources within the Jacobite army, they ended up fighting here  (which did not give them optimal circumstances to start their battle).  The video that is shown at the visitor centre prior to the tour of the battlefield, shows how well prepared the red coats (English Government) were in comparison to the Jacobites.  It very much showed that the Jacobites were a group of townsfolk etc that were willing to fight for their cause, whereas the red coat army were a very well oiled machine of an army.  The tour guide told us that the battle was accidentally started early by the Jacobites when they accidentally set off a cannon.  So fight on! The Jacobites took an average of 5 mins to reset their cannons whereas the red coats could reload and fire within 40 seconds. Needles to say there was a loss of about 1500 Jacobites lost during this battle and the "official" number of red coats lost was 50 men.  It is believed though now that there may have been more like 300 men lost for the red coats and the 50 was made up by the English.

From Culloden it was on to the Clava Cairns. The Clava Cairns are said to be about 4000 years old and used to house the dead.  The Clava Cairns are large mounds of stones arranged in circular heaps with standing stones around. The Cairns are said to give a real insight into the beliefs of Bronze Age Society.

Once we had finished staring at stones we headed to Cawdor Castle and gardens.  We figured we didn't need to go inside the castle here but the gardens were beautiful so we walked around and looked at these. The garden maze was made of holly but it was unfortunately closed for maintenance. However, the rest of the gardens were very beautiful and we had a good look around.

After walking in pretty gardens we headed to Elgin Cathedral.  Building of the Elgin Cathedral was started in 1224. Elgin was the principal church of the Bishops of Moray. It lost its roof shortly after the Protestant Reformation of 1560, and later its central tower fell. But the cathedral’s fortunes began to change when it became a visitor attraction in the early 1800s. Even as a ruin, the cathedral is spectacular to look at.  Gordo headed up one of the towers right to the top for a bit of a look see. It was super windy and had to hold hand rail to stop being blown back to Inverness.  Carrie was smart and stayed the next level down and stared at some more stones. From the top of the tower, we headed back down and went for a walk through the chapter house, which still had its original stone ceiling.

We headed next to see Huntly Castle, which used to belong to Clan Gordon. Unfortunately, like any good Gordon house, it required some work and was closed to the public.  You would think that google might know that, but even the National Trust of Scotland allows you to book tickets for the castle even though it is closed.  All good for us though as we have a castle pass for the time we are here and we didn't lose anything as a result as it is on the direct route to Aberdeen.

We finally arrived into Aberdeen after 1700, we checked in and decided to have a walk around and find somewhere to eat.  We decided on a pub and grab a steak (as we feel a little deficient).  We had more 'looking looking' around the city and found more Gordon paraphernalia so made Claire have a picture with all of them as one does (unfortunately Hoppo isn't so common so Carrie will keep kissing the castles).