Hogue and Laskowski Travels

Today we started off from our over night stay in a fabulous prior private home turned hotel in Nairn Scotland which was our northernmost location. The house was built in the 1600s and in modern times was visited by the likes of Charlie Chaplin and other notables.

There was a wedding reception being held at the location as well.

We headed south toward Edinburgh and passed right through the Culloden battle field (1749). Unless you are a fan of the TV series Outlander you would not know the significance of this place. It is the location where Bonnie Prince Charlie made his last pitched Jacobite rebellion fight against the British. This rebellion was an attempt to put a Stuart back onto the thrown of Scotland and England. The battle was over in less than an hour and the result was the dissolution of the clans in Scotland as well as their way of life. The British outlawed kilts and the Gaelic language in Scotland in an attempt to bend them under their control. Of course that was impossible in the long run. Kilts remain but the Gaelic language had a tough time surviving as parents were afraid to teach their children for fear of fines or imprisonment.

We stopped in the city of St. Andrews, as Paul mentioned, and some of the other sites there were the ruins of St. Andrew's Cathedral and ruins of Castle St. Andrews. The center of the medieval church in Scotland, built in 1158, fell into disrepair after the Scottish Reformation outlawed mass and was robbed of its relics. A failure of one of its gothic center towers caused it to collapse and the town's people grabbed the stones and built their homes.

Standing on the inside of the cathedral

Built in approximately 1200 the castle changed hands between the Scotts and the British many times and finely in 1656 it was in such disrepair that the burgh tore much of it down to be used repairing the peer. Notable people as James I of Scotland and preacher John Knox (Scotland Reformation) spent time there. It also was used as a prison.