The guest house was a nice little place, a privately owned house run by an elderly couple. Very nice people, and Inverness was a surprisingly nice town, not too big, with a genteel atmosphere. It is one of Europe's fastest growing cities due to its reputation for good schools, low crime and good job market.
One surprising factor was the local accent. I'd expected the usual unintelligible mumbling and throat clearing sounds, something like Glaswegian on steroids, but it's quite the opposite. The Inverness accent is actually the Scottish accent closest to southern English, and I had no problems at all understanding the natives.
Monday I drove out to Culloden battlefield, where the Scots had their hairy, blue asses handed to them by the Redcoats in 1746. The military campaign of 1745-6 was an attempt to bring back on the British throne the papist branch of the Stuarts, personified this time in "Bonnie Prince Charles", one of the most incompetent, self-important idiots ever to contend for the job, and that's saying something. His idiocy was a great part of the reason why the Scots were crushed, and good riddance to him... although when you think about it, the Kraut (Hanoverian) branch weren't much of an improvement on things. In 1760 George the 3rd became king and managed to lose the American colonies and even his mental health in a few years. But that's another story.
Some pics:
The battlefield as it looks today.
Our guide, Mike who was funny, knowledgeable and clever. I highly recommend paying the money for a guided tour.
Less than five minutes from Culloden is the bronze age burial site of Clava Cairns. These burial mounds are 3-4000 years old.
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