Clava Cairns

Our First Visit of the day is to the fantastic Clava Cairns, a well-preserved Bronze Age cemetery near Inverness in the Scottish Highlands.The stone circles and burial chambers at Clava Cairns date back 4,000 years to the Bronze Age. This isn’t the earliest known use of the site either, as archaeological excavations has found it was once used for farming. Some of the early farm buildings may even have been recycled and incorporated into the burial site. Today, the remains of Clava Cairns are located on two separate sites. The main site – Balnauran of Clava sits in a quiet, leafy setting. It consists of three large burial cairns, each surrounded by a stone circle. Two of the cairns are passage cairns, where the central burial chamber is accessed via a narrow corridor. Between the two passage cairns sits a kerb cairn, with an enclosed central burial chamber. Cup and ring markings, which commonly occur during this period, can be found on the cairns and stones. Sadly, the true meaning of this ancient art has been lost in time so we can only guess at the significance

Culloden Battlefield

Culloden Battlefield Visit the powerfully moving site of the final Jacobite Rising – the last and most harrowing pitched battle to be fought on British soil. Explore the interactive visitor centre, view fascinating artefacts from both sides of the confrontation, and experience the battle in the immersive surround cinema. The richly researched, stimulating and sensitive Culloden Visitor Centre, which stands beside the battlefield, features artefacts from both sides of the battle and interactive displays that reveal the background to the conflict. It stands as a monument and a guide to a pivotal day in history. Discover how a bloody fight that lasted only an hour changed life in the Highlands forever. A visit to Culloden is a poignant experience. Headstones mark the graves of hundreds of clansmen who gave their lives for the Jacobite cause; a 6m-high memorial cairn honours the fallen; and an eerie silence often falls across wild Drummossie Moor – there is no escaping the emotions Culloden evokes.