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European Adventure 2017
This morning was a rather sobering visit to Culloden near Inverness which is the place where the Battle of Culloden took place and this was the last hand to hand combat to occur on British Soil and was a battle for the Scottish Highlands. Standing on the ground where flags were strategically placed marking the lines which both the Red Coats and the Jacobites held at the start of the battle and walking around with an audio guide describing what things happened when was very moving. With over 7500 soldiers the government army out numbered the local Jacobites who had 5500 but as they had never been beaten in battle the Scottish thought they had every chance of winning. Unfortunately for them they were out numbered and outclassed. In less than an hour 1500 Jacobites and 50 government soldiers were killed. More lost their lives afterwards as the government forces rounded up all those they believed were involved or who were sympathisers. The English learned a lesson from the battle too and from that day on for the next two hundred years they employed the tactic of charging forward towards and into their foe for hand to hand battle. The site of all those Scottish Jacobites running at them was apparently terrifying. From there to happier things and to some distilleries on the Speyside (the towns along side the River Spey). The lads chose two to do, the first was MacAllan and the second Glenfiddich. All the way along that area there were acres and acres of barley presumably for the making of the whiskey. There are heaps of Distilleries, some of which are huge. The MacAllan was very pleasant and after a tasting Charlie bought a bottle, Geoff meanwhile was waiting for Glenfiddich which is his favourite. Between distilleries we saw a young guy fishing for salmon on the Spey. He was using a big heavy fly rod but in the 5 minutes we were watching he had no luck. Glenfiddich was bigger than we had imagined and very pretty. After tasting some Geoff bought a bottle to have over the remaining time we are in the UK. Somewhere along the way this fella arrived in the van........getting into the Scottish spirit so to speak.
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Annon Oh dear!!