JACO BITES OFF MORE THAN A HAN' OVER IAN

 Appropriately for March, we were marching round a battlefield!

In this case we were at Culloden. Culloden as a Highland place name is interesting. Generally speaking, the English version of Gaelic placenames takes a step away from the original spelling. For Culloden, the name in Gaelic is nowadays given as Cuil Lodair. However, it was originally known as Cuil Lodain - the nook of the small pool or marsh. The original Gaelic name had been corrupted by the 18th Century.

However you say it, the battlefield marks the brutal end of the Jacobite Rising against the Hanoverian Crown. The Jacobites sought to restore the Catholic Stuarts to the British throne, but this ambition failed and 1600 men were killed at the battle in April 1746 - 1500 of those killed fought on the side of the Jacobites. After the battle, survivors faced imprisonment or death and the destruction of their homes and lands. Subsequent Acts of Proscription led to the destruction of the clan system and the suppression of Gaelic language and culture. In turn, this paved the way for the Highland Clearances. The effects were profound and shape much of the Highlands to this day.

It is, therefor, a bit ironic that the English battlefield name is closer to the original than the ancient Gaelic form.

Here we are gathering on a very cold morning ready to set off. In true Highland style, we have parked in the free spaces, rather than paying! Dave, I hope, is fiddling with his jacket zip!

Soon we were ready and off we went, heading to the Government lines, without fear of being stopped by any foe. It was a wee bit muddy, though!

Almost immediately, we were beside Leanach Cottage. There is some debate about whether this building, or its predecessor were standing at the time of the battle. Whichever building was here, it was thought to have been used as a field hospital by the Hanoverian army. To hark back to the original Gaelic name of the battlefield, Leanach means swampy or marshy.

The battlefield is owned by the National Trust for Scotland and it is seeking to return the site to the condition it was in at the time of the battle. Given the Gaelic name, this will involve significant removal of trees and shrubs and return to a more swampy appearance. To that end, they have used Shetland Cows to graze out some of the unwanted vegetation.

This is a little ironic, in that after the battle, up to 20000 sheep and cattle were driven off and sold at Fort Augustus. The victorious soldiers split the profits, whilst the defeated clansmen, their families, and innocent inhabitants were faced with penury and starvation.

The Shetland cows are used here as they are very hardy and less in need of grass than other, more modern, breeds. They are rare, though, and only 180 calves are born on average each year across the world!

The cows are normally black and white, but about 10% of the world herd is red and white. Weirdly, 5 pregnant cows and one bull were sent to the Falkland Isles to replace cattle killed during the Falklands War!

There is no doubt about the importance of the battle in British and Highland history, but there seemed to be no enthusiasm to commemorate, or indeed to celebrate, the battle. The cairns marking the site of fallen men were only erected in 1881.

This one is supposed to mark the burial of the "English" or Hanoverian fallen. However, more recent archaeology has determined that there are no bodies under the grass!

I don't know if the same is true of this grave, which may or may not contain some of my ancestors. Given they were mainly Lochiel's clansmen, it is entirely possible.

The large cairn was also erected in 1881, although some of the carved stones set into the cairn were carved some years earlier. The memorial was not built through lack of funding.

From here on, once we pass the Jacobite lines, we depart from the route that most tourists who visit the the battlefield would follow. We are really passing through the lines of the Irish and French supporters of the Jacobites. It was still cold!

It might well be cold, but there are signs that Spring is on the way. If only it would hurry up!

After leaving the NTS owned battlefield, we pass on to land with a scatter of houses. Looking across the fields we spot a deer. It seems unconcerned by us, which is not surprising, because it isn't real!

We also get a bit of a view over the Firth towards the Black Isle and beyond. It would have been much more attractive if someone hadn't put these poles in front of the view!

After passing by Blackpark Farm and a row of blackthorn (sloe) bushes, we enter Culloden Woods and quickly come upon St Mary's Well. The well is a healing well or clootie well. These are found throughout much of Celtic Britain. They are assumed to be quite ancient and to derive from the ancient Celtic practice of leaving votive offerings to water spirits. Healing wells work on the basis of leaving a rag or piece of clothing tied to a sacred tree at the well to aid healing. As the rag disintegrates, so the ailment fades away. St Mary's Well was thought in the 1800's to be named after a nearby St Mary's church, but most of these wells could easily pre-date Christianity. Sometimes clootie wells were the subject of ritual visiting on May Day. Until relatively recently, this was a big thing and there was an ice cream van stationed at the lower car park for the occasion.

This is the well itself and the site has been improved, with the removal of a two metre high enclosure, making it tidier and more pleasant than it used to be. The colour of the spring water would suggest it is a chalybeate spring. Chalybeate springs tend to be very high in iron and have long been thought to have healing properties.

Forestry and Land Scotland helpfully point out that only biodegradable materials should be used to cure ailments, because they will decay with time. Polyester won't help cure any ills.

Nobody would admit to any illness needing cured and certainly nobody was in a hurry to take a knife or scissors to their walking gear, so off we went through the forest.

These are mature trees and some of them have fallen victim to storms over the years, lifting huge root plates as they have been blown over.

It isn't all a tale of woe. There are signs of new life, with frog spawn in many of the roadside ditches. Despite appearances to the contrary, the large brown objects at the bottom of the photo are spruce cones

                                                                                        

The forest did open out a bit to allow views across to the Black Isle, although the view will disappear in a few year's time.

People were getting a bit hungry, in fact they were looking a bit menacing without access to their sandwiches and the like.

Luckily, there was a bench right by the Prisoners' Stone. It was here that 17 wounded Jacobite soldiers were said to have been summarily executed beside the stone. The soldiers were wounded during the battle, and had been kept at Culloden House for three days before being taken in carts to the stone and then shot at close range. Just the place for a spot of lunch!

After our hearty lunch, we set off along forestry roads and that is when we got a little damp as the rain fell. It had been threatening up until then, so we had been quite lucky. Even more luckily, it did not last for very long.

See, I told you so. Blue skies were much in evidence, once we emerged form the trees and on to the Balloch road.

We walked up the fairly newly tarred path on the edge of the woods.

It doesn't take long to get back to the battlefield and we walk past Leanach Cottage to get to the visitor centre café. Whilst it is not certain that this building was standing at the battle, an associated barn was standing a little to the west, but it is no longer evident. That might have something to do with the tradition that this was where wounded Highlanders were carried and over whom the Duke of Cumberland ordered the building to be burnt to the ground. This and subsequent brutality led to Cumberland, the third son of King George II, being labelled as Butcher Cumberland. In 2005, he was selected by the BBC's History Magazine as the worst Briton of the 18th Century!

The cottage is quite quaint and is probably photographed by most of the people who visit the site, oblivious to its past.

It is amazing how distance in time from the events that took place here 280 years ago make it much easier to enjoy a cup of tea and a piece of cake! Nobody who was there then, would recognise it now, nor would they understand what the world had become. Tea and cake on a battlefield, indeed.

Thanks are due to Dave and Sandra for arranging everything today. I think everybody had a good day out despite the horrors of what once happened here.

Next up is our April weekend away.

HOW TO TUNE A EGG AND OTHER SHANKIE CURIOSITIES

   February already! After the romance of Valentine's Day, we were off for a walk around Nairn. What better place to dispel the romance than meeting up at The Maggot car park? The Maggot is most likely derived from the Gaelic Magh which describes a plain or wide, flat area of land. It certainly is an accurate reflection of the land as it currently looks. The use of Gaelic in Nairn is sometimes disputed, but there is little doubt that it was important in the history of the town. Samuel Johnson, on his famous tour in 1775, took Nairn to mark the boundary of the Highlands as it was the first place he had come to with peat fires and spoken Gaelic.

Nairn is named after the river, and the Gaelic name is Inbhir Narann the mouth of the river Nairn, which in itself is thought to be the river of the Alders. Here is said river of the alders, with not an alder in sight. The pine needles are, I think, Corsican Pine, which does well in exposed seaside locations. It is native to the Mediterranean, notably Sicily. I bet it was feeling the cold today!

No matter the etymology of the place, it was pretty damned Baltic when we got out of the cars. The eagle eyed among you will note the presence of a guest walker. Yes, it was another Susan! This Susan is the sister in law of Jimmy, who happened to be staying with Jim and Jacque and couldn't find a suitable excuse not to join us.

The only way to get warm was to start walking. The route took us past the Thomas Telford harbour. Nairn was always an important fishing location, but the shallowness of the beach and narrowness of the river had been a problem preventing larger boats gaining access. The construction of a harbour by Telford solved that problem, The disappearance of herring, in particular, means the harbour is used primarily by pleasure craft nowadays. The flock of waders was a cluster or a fling of Redshanks.

Once past the harbour, we were walking along the seafront. The beach and frontage here was used to practice the D-Day landings. Many of the beaches around Nairn had been mined and they were cleared by using high pressure hoses to cover the mines with shingle before exploding them!

Looking back to the east.

The path along the front was extremely icy and discretion and a desire to avoid 'having a fall' led us to split up. Some of us walked along the beach and the rest went inland to walk through the fine buildings of the west end of Nairn. To get to the smart houses, we had to walk through the West Links park. Local opinion is that the original Nairn Castle was sited on a corner of the Links. It is said to date from the late 900's, which was quite a while ago.

The Links are part of the Nairn Common Good and they are a well used park area, especially in the summer.

Nairn has a very benign climate and it is one of the driest and sunniest places in the Highlands. The town became hugely popular in the 1880's with the coming of the railways to Nairn. This popularity is reflected in the scale of Victorian house building in the west end. To my mind, this area of housing is one of the finest in the Highlands, helped by the presence of mature trees. Charlie Chaplin clearly agrees, as he spent holidays here with his family towards the end of his life.

I wouldn't normally take many photos of occupied houses, but this one was once home to Dave's mother and it was he who painted the walls. He must have used the right paint as it seems to have lasted reasonably well.

I also made an exception for this, not so much for the house, but the gate and the name. The house is modern rather than Victorian, but it belongs to Sandra's retired dentist, so she effectively paid for some of the gate, at least. Note the name of the house..Dunfillin.

Charlie Chaplin never stayed at the Golf View Hotel, so he wouldn't have been too worried about being unable to play tennis today!

Just beyond the tennis courts we met up with the beach bunnies.

Off through the golf club car park.

Some wee birdies having a doss on the outfall pipe. I think these wee birdies are Dunlin, which are commonly found in coastal areas during winter, spreading to higher moorland for breeding into the summer.

We started to move away from the seafront to go inland. We crossed the golf course, looking back to the clubhouse. The golf course is well known and well thought of throughout the world. It was founded in 1887. The driving force behind the establishment of the club was RB Finlay, a barrister and local MP who went on to become Lord Chancellor. It was, of course, for men only, until the founding of the ladies section in 1922, by a Mrs Whitelaw. Her son, Willie, went on to become the Deputy Prime Minister under Margaret Thatcher. So, when I talked about the establishment of the club, I really did mean the establishment. Of course, our very own Hugh is a member here, and he is the veritable epitome of establishment.

Off we went across the fairway towards the practice greens and the far side of the course. Suffice to say, there weren't many people playing today and we were safe from stray balls. 

That's not to say that we didn't see any.

There was a genuine nest of balls, or, were they eggs? I was, by now, thinking of my lunch of an unctuous tasty egg mayo roll and these eggs had just ignited a burning desire on my tastebuds.

Dave and Jimmy were seriously contemplating pocketing a few balls for later use. However, decorum prevailed as such an act would certainly be frowned upon here. It would be worse than double tapping in an Olympic curling match.

Honesty is, of course, the best policy.  I feel there are more than a few politicians who could choose to follow such a doctrine.

We were climbing up from the golf course and over the remains of the East of Scotland Main Post-glacial Shoreline, that is, we were walking up the slope of the ancient beach. This was where the beach was in the Flandrian period, which started 12000 years ago. It was the result of the glaciers melting. They once covered Scotland to significant depths. So much so, that when the ice melted, sea levels rose, but the land began to rise, freed from the weight of all that ice. Indeed, that uplift from the isostatic depression of the land is still taking place today! About 6000 years ago, the sea level was much higher and the shore was much further inland than it is today. It illustrates what might happen if global warming continues and sea levels begin to revert to ancient heights. The golf course would become one giant water hazard.

You get a nice view, though!

The route takes us through some nice woodland in the Achareidh area of Nairn. I am guessing that Achareidh comes from Achadh, Gaelic for field and Reidh meaning flat - a flat field. Certainly, it was very flat, but most of the field is now under trees or houses.

To the north east of the path are the grounds of the Newton Hotel, which is where Charlie Chaplin and his family holidayed in the 1970's.

There is a somewhat run down stable/farm block associated with the hotel right by the path. This was once an associated house attached to bays for 9 horses and 3 carts. It is a shame to see it so abandoned and apparently unloved.

Through the woods you can get a glimpse of the grand hotel.

We left the wooded path behind and took a short route through some 70's housing.

Then this route took us past another of Dave's Mother's houses. He hadn't painted that one.

We next came to the station, which was first opened in 1855. The line was extended to Dalvey in 1857 and then in 1861 the Inverness and Aberdeen Junction Railway company was formed. In 1885/86 the Highland Railway improved facilities and extended and raised the platforms.

The station is notable as the last working example of Highland Railway Company signalling principles. There was a signal box at each end to work the points and signals and the key token levers for working the single line were located in the main station building. Such was the distance involved in getting from one end to the other, with a stop in the middle to operate the machinery, that British Rail actually provided the signaller with a bike!

At the same time as the platforms were extended in 1886, this iron footbridge was built.

Of course, that provided the perfect opportunity for the traditional bridge photo.

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   From the station, it was on to Cawdor Road, heading toward the river, by way of Mill Lane. There doesn't appear to be any remains of a Mill, but surely it must have been near here at one time. There is a very straight path leading off to the south of where we were. This leads directly to Firhall Bridge, which is now a public footbridge, but once carried piped drinking water into Nairn. Whether there was once a mill lade there I cannot discern.
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We were cutting that bit off the route to save a bit of time. We passed loads of snowdrops on the way to the bank of the river.

There were even more by the river itself.

A pleasant spot for a lunch. Boy, was I looking forward to my egg roll. I had boiled the eggs yesterday and Sharon was making up the rolls while I loaded up the car and dealt with any number of details. I saw her chop some spring onions, which I really like in an egg roll.

Can you imagine how crushed, nay, devastated, nay, bereft, nay, distressed and wanting I was, when I opened up my little sandwich bag to be confronted by a tuna roll!? Let me tell you, your imagination was as a pin prick compared to the yawning maw of grief that swallowed me up. A tuna roll! How could this have happened?

The answer was "I forgot about the eggs" and "just be quiet, get on with it, and count yourself lucky you have something to eat at all".

I may have laboured the point a little, but I just could not let the matter pass without bringing up my disappointment at every opportunity, much like I am doing now.

Here is the offending tuna roll. It was perfectly pleasant, but it wasn't a soft, yielding symphony of egg, mayonnaise, spring onion, salt and pepper, that would have been akin to Ambrosia brought by nymphs to my heavenly feast.

Still, I grudgingly ate it with only the odd mutter that threatened to bring the wrath of the gods upon my innocent head.

We carried on by the riverside until we got to Riverside Park, where little children, untroubled by my trauma, besported themselves without a care in the world.

The route took us under the 1857 railway bridge.

The path passes very close to the disused parish graveyard. Most of the burial stones date from the 19th century, with a few from the 17th and 18th.

The original parish church was built here in 1658 and then rebuilt in 1810, with the walled graveyard. Some skeletal remains have been found outside the wall, and these are thought to be associated with the older church.

Just when you think the riverside path is about to disappear like an egg roll, there is a wee path that takes you up from the river into the town, via what becomes Water Lane.

We can soon see the clock tower of the Town and County Buildings through the giant spider's web! The time was correct and, from my time of working in Nairn, that was one of the most important considerations of the local townspeople and their elected representatives!

The Town and County Buildings, or The Courthouse, replaced a run down Tollbooth and jail in 1818. The Tollbooth was in such a poor state of repair that even the prisoners complained in 1670! It was burnt down in 1716 by His Majesty's Forces who were keeping guard! The replacement was not built until 1818 and was then altered significantly in 1870.

Just to the right of the left hand lamp is the Market Cross. This was moved from its original site in 1757 and then moved again to the present site in the early 70's. The sundials in stone near the top are thought to be the Old Horloge stone about which very little is known.

From the High Street, the safety conscious among us went under the A96 road bridge, which was built in 1803. That replaced an earlier bridge from 1631, which fell into the river in 1794, The bridge that we see today has been repaired at least 4 times following flood damage.

Of course, going under the bridge meant that we walked straight along the river side path to see the swans which often nest at this point in the river.

Those who took the risky route across the busy A96, ended up following the public road down to the cars.

That was us back at the cars after a varied and interesting walk. From the Maggot we were off to Househill Café for our tea and cakes. We were joined by Jimmy's brother, David, who was doubtless glad to have missed the egg roll saga.

However, it isn't over yet!

Here is my lovely egg ready for breakfast. Whilst it was so good, it wasn't a luscious egg roll. It certainly made me feel a bit poetic, if not Shakespearian!

I thought to myself....

Shall I compare thee to a soft egg roll?

Thou art lovely, but harder and less temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling onions green,

And Sunday's roll hath all too short a date;

Sometime too hot the water doth boil,

And often is his golden yolk dimm'd;

And every ovum from mayo sometimes declines

By lunch or breakfast's course untrimm'd;

But thy lovely eggy taste shall not fade,

Nor lose possession of that mayo thou ow'st;

Nor shall death brag thou lingered in his shell,

When in eternal rolls to time thou spread;

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see

So long lives this and this gives life to egg rolls.