Friday, May 15, 2015

CULLODEN AND CAIRNS.......

Yesterday we spent a gloriously sunny day wandering the trails of Culloden Battlefield, site of the  final Jacobite stand against the government army.  The experience was sobering.  In effect, a culture, a heritage of a thousand years, scourged on the fields of Culloden.
True, it seems the Jacobites had pushed their luck in this final stand to reclaim the throne for Scotland. Exhausted and outnumbered after month upon month of fighting to save their homeland from British rule, their final attack fell short and within an hour the Highland clans were slaughtered.  Our emotions upon completing the walk were ones of extreme sadness.

We then drove  a couple miles to Clava Cairns, ancient burial sites dating some 4000 years.
Our initial sighting was of a lone standing stone rising from pasture land.   Upon entering the site itself,we found three distinct circular cairns. Each cairn encircled by smaller stones.....each cairn owning its own twelve larger standing stones....each standing stone ringed by smaller stones.....circle upon circle....stone upon stone......
The ancient world unfolded before us. What we learned from a local photographer, a chatty Scot  happy to share history,is that the entire valley is dotted with these sites, aligned specifically to utilize the winter and summer solstice as pathways for the dead to travel to the afterlife.

And, in the heart of all this history, our  photographer utilizes what we deemed the world's largest selfy stick....locals picnic next to ancient stones.......cows graze non chalantly on the verdant Scottish greens......old and new worlds side by side.













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