Winter holidays - Urquhart castle/Loch Ness and Inverness

Having spent the greater part of the day at the extremely interesting Fort George, we headed south to Loch Ness. Without consulting with the children, I made the decision to stay clear of Nessieland and the other very touristy stuff. Instead we focused on the historic site of beautiful Urquhart Castle (pronounced "Urkhart". Listen to pronunciation at http://www.pronouncehow.com/english/urquhart_pronunciation)

Urquhart Castle

We arrived at the remains of what was once one of Scotland's mightiest strongholds. It has a magnificent location on the banks of Loch Ness,. Though we looked for Nessie, he was nowhere to be seen and we concentrated on the castle instead.

The present ruins date from the 13th to the 17th centuries, though it was built on the site of an early medieval fortification dating. Inside the castle ruins are displays showing the development of the castle in this time period.


Urquhart Castle witnessed considerable conflict throughout its 500 years as a medieval fortress. The castle's history from the 13th to 17th centuries was particularly bloody. The castle was seized by  Edward I of England, known as ‘Hammer of the Scots’ due to his heavy-handed treatment of the Scots, in 1296. It later played a prominent role in the Wars of Scottish Independence in the 14th century, coming under the control of Robert the Bruce after he became King of Scots in 1306. Folowing King Robert Bruce’s death in 1329, Urquhart remained the only Highland castle holding out against the English in 1332.

Soon after the English threat evaporated the MacDonalds, Lords of the Isles arrived, raiding the castle on several occasions in the 15th and 16th centuries. The castle passed back and forth between the Crown and the Lords of the Isles. The castle was granted to the Clan Grant in 1509, though conflict with the MacDonalds continued. Their last raid, in 1545, proved the worst. The Islesmen got away with an enormous hoard. One of the displays inside the castle shows the 'MacDonalds takeaway menu', which included

• 2000 cattle and hundreds of other animals
• 12 feather beds with bolsters, blankets and sheets
• Tables and other items of furniture  
• A chest containing £300
• Brewing vats, roasting spits, pots and pans
• The castle's cannon and 20 guns
• Gunpowder, suits of armour
• The castle's iron gates
• Three great boats, in order to take it all away

When the last soldiers marched out in 1692, they blew it up to prevent its use by Jacobite forces. The castle soon fell into decay. Part of the Grant Tower crashed to the ground in 1715 during a violent storm. But attitudes changed  and the castle was passed into state care in 1913 and opened to the public. Urquhart Castle is now one of the most visited of all Scotland’s castles.

Inverness

From Urquhart Castle we travelled to Inverness, to take a look at the 'capital of the Highlands'. Even though it's the largest city in the north, it is more like a town in atmosphere, with a compact and easily accessible city centre.

Then name Inverness comes from the Scottish Gaelic Inbhir Nis, meaning 'Mouth of the River Ness'. Highland Council has made a commitment to give equal respect to Gaelic and English and this was the first time we saw street signs in Gaelic.

We also discovered a gallery called Gallery Håkon. We were quite intrigued by the fact that the gallery had a Norwegian name. A search on the internet later revealed that this was in fact the gallery of Norwegian artist Håkon Søreide.

The heart of the Highlands

Visiting Inverness we soon realised that this was truly the heart of Highland Scotland. There were a number of excellent hiking shops selling top quality hiking gear at a very reasonable price . We were of course extra lucky to arrive when  the sales were on, and ended up with quite a few bargains.

The other main thing to attract our attention was the vast number of kilt shops. Outside the kilt shops were big signs with lists of clan names. The signs said that if your name was on their list, then they could supply you with your clan kilt. The number of names on their lists was extremely impressive to us as tourists, seemed they covered just about all clans of Scotland.

Inverness Castle and the Macbeth murder

While we were in Inverness we also visited Inverness Castle, towering on a cliff overlooking the River Ness and the city centre. This red sandstone building was built in 1836 by architect William Burn to serve as the County Hall of Inverness-shire. It is built on the site of an 11th century defensive structure. This earlier castle was supposedly the location where Macbeth murdered Duncan I in the Shakespeare tragedy ‘Macbeth’.

The present Inverness Castle houses the High Court and council offices and is not open to the public. However, the grounds are open and you get a great view of the city and the River Ness from the castle gardens.