Day 8: Adventures in Scotland
Inverness Adventures
If you have been following along, you are probably wondering how Day 8: Adventures in Scotland deviated from our original plan. Nothing actually changed much, although we did end up with a funny story for Culloden! I fell in love with the city of Inverness, which is saying a lot because I am very much a country mouse. Inverness is a delight with Ness River running through and a local nature reserve on the Beauly Firth. It is also a city where you can walk, or bike, pretty much anywhere you want to go.
We did not drive anywhere on day 7, our full day in Inverness, even though we were off doing things all day.
It was a perfect morning for our first stop, Merkinch Local Nature Reserve. Research for Destination: Highland Council Part 1 helped us decide to visit Merkinch instead of Carnac Point. We were happy with our choice!
Merkinch Local Nature Reserve
The nature reserve is beautiful and we got to use my new-found midge knowledge on our walk. We walked right through a cloud of midges and neither of us got bit!
Winning the Battle with Midges
- Smidge up-consider it your new perfume and best friend! It protects you from midges, ticks, and other nasty biting insects.
- Keep Moving-if you are around midges, don’t stand still.
- Midges like where it is warm and moist. Prepare before you are in wet, warm and humid areas.
- Check the Midge Forecast.
- If it is cold or windy, there are no worries about midges. You also don’t need to worry about midges in town unless you are going to be around water.
Knocknagael Boar Stone
My aunt and I are crazy about stone circles and Pictish stones. We had both been looking forward to seeing the Knocknagael Boar Stone in 2020. Five years later it was as incredible as we hoped. It was fairly easy to find. If you want more pictures you need to pay for parking. We pulled in just as other tourists were pulling away from the curb. Since we didn’t have much time anyway, we jumped out and hurriedly snapped a few pictures and drove away.
Knocknagael Boar Stone seen through the glass at the Highland Council Headquarters in Inverness 
Highland Pictish Trail: 29 Knocknagael Boar stone
Farm Ness
We were in a hurry because we had booked a hands-on meet and greet with the Highland Cows at Farm Ness. Not only do you get to enjoy all of the animals, they have farm shop where you can pick up gifts or local food products. They also serve local coffee and ice cream. Banoffee (banana toffee) is not an ice cream flavor that I’ve ever seen in the U.S. so I had to have a truly Scottish ice cream that is sourced from a neighboring farm. Farm Ness offers a lot of fun for kids of all ages!
Clava Cairns
The next thing that was scheduled was a Culloden Battlefield guided tour, but we had lots of time to visit Clava Cairns first. We decided to have our Scottish cheese on sourdough sandwiches in the parking lot before walking around Clava Cairns. We were keeping track of the time so we wouldn’t be late for the Culloden Battlefield tour, but that is exactly what happened! I have a theory that there is a time-warp at Clava Cairns.
Culloden Battlefield
When we got back to the SUV it was much later than we thought. My aunt was distressed about missing the tour, but I told her not to worry, I would sort it! We were blessed with close parking so we hurried in and I went straight to the desk. I told the nice lady that we were so sorry that we were late and missed our tour. I said that we had a lot of time so we stopped at Clava Cairns and got totally lost in the wonders of Scotland. (My aunt looked like she hoped the floor would open up.) I apologized again for the inconvenience we had cause and asked if there was any way that we could still join a tour. The poor lady looked at me like I might be slightly unhinged but said that we could go on the next tour! We both thanked her profusely and apologized again. No doubt she told her co-workers about the crazy American she had to deal with that day!
We were absolutely enthralled with the guided tour. The guide was extremely knowledgeable and wove an amazing story of the history leading up to, during, and after the battle at Culloden. I always thought that it was a matter of England vs Scotland, but on both sides were English, Scottish, Irish, and French. It really came down to politics and religion.
Cullen and the Moray Coast
Don’t let the time shown on Google maps fool you. It took over 1.5 hours to make the drive from Culloden Battlefield to our cosy, seaside fisherman’s cottage AirBnB. We didn’t even make any stops along the way. Both of us were too excited to finally be in Cullen after having to cancel our dream trip to Scotland in 2020.
Driving into Cullen was absolutely surreal. We could image Marie, the main character in Angel Harp (a book by Michael Phillips which I highly recommend) driving into Cullen. I almost expected one of George MacDonald’s characters to open the door of a fishing cottage as we drove into Seatown.
Believe it or not, we were able to stay at the same AirBnB that we had reserved in 2020. I was thrilled with its’ close proximity to the beach! That far north, the end of June, sunrise was close to 4am with sunset about 11pm. A friend who was already in Cullen gave me the tide chart first thing. She knew that I wanted to spend a lot of time with my feet in the sand!
The End of Day 8: Adventures in Scotland
Each day of my adventures in Scotland was so much more than I had dreamed. Pictures and videos don’t have the scent of the sea breeze, the sound of birdsong, the wind rustling through the grass, the warmth of the sun and the experience of ‘Scottish Sunshine’ in the rain.
Planning the destinations of the 2025 trip was chiefly about all of the things to see and do while finding the Scotland of the George MacDonald and Michael Phillips books on the reading list. I quickly came to realize that there is American time and Scottish time. It takes a lot longer to get places in Scotland and half of the joy is in the journey! Perhaps most of us start out with a list for ‘doing’ in Scotland but learn along the way that true enjoyment comes from just ‘being’ in Scotland. We had 5 wonderful days to just ‘be’ in Cullen. I can’t wait to share all of those adventures!
