Inverness
Inverness was the last bastion held by the Jacobites in the days of Bonnie Prince Charly in 1745. The site of his final defeat in this last Jacobite uprising, the battlefield of Culloden, we wanted to have a look at.
Recently the Netflix series Outlander has made the Jacobite cause more commonly known. But only here we understood in full the complexity of this conflict, which was more than Highlanders against the British. It was more like a civil war between those believing in the Stuarts’ devine right to the throne of Britain and in absolute monarchy and the followers of the established Hanoverian rule, standing for a balance between king and parliament. Funny thing is, that the fighting parties Bonnie Prince Charly son of James III (James = Jakob) and George II, the Hanoverian King, were both direct decendents of the first Stuart king.
As the Jacobites had won many of the fierce and brave Highlanders for their cause, these were hit in the aftermath of the battle by the British indiscriminate will to take revenge, resulting in the total annihilation of the Highland clan cultur. Men were slaughtered, women and children were driven from their homes, their land was seized and sold to lowland Scots or Brits. Wearing kilts, playing bagpipes, speaking Gaelic – all forbidden under threat of severe punishment.
The Highlanders were recruited only 10 years later by the British army, to support their troops in various oversea conflicts. The Highlands and its folklore became fashionable by the beginning of the 19th century and, romanticized by the dramas of Sir Walter Scott, resulted in Queen Victoria establishing Balmoral as her favourite summer residence.
Around the corner 1/2 mile away, there is the entrance to the Caladonian Canal. Our passage we had booked online in advance, which made the procedure at the first lock run very smoothly. From the lockmaster we received a map and the keys, which will open up all the facility blocks along the way. Now we are waiting for Chanan to arrive, he will be our bord guest for the next 5 days.
For anyone wondering what this is all about: While waiting for Chanan to arrive, we had planned to move four locks further up. We slipped the lines at 10:45 a.m. after having beeing called to action by the lock keeper. The boom had been lowered and the traffic stopped at the swing bridge and then… nothing happend, the bridge would not move. After waiting for half an hour hovering in front of the bridge, we moored at a jetty in a waiting position. After two more hours we were informed, that there is a defect that needs a replacement part for repairs and we returned to our berth. We are hopefull that they will get it repaired by tomorrow. This, we were told, happens quiet regularly. The age of 200 years of this canal must be taken into account. We keep our fingers crossed🤞
Ein Gedanke zu „Inverness“
Danke für die tollen Bilder und Informationen.wir wünschen euch weiterhin gute Fahrt und viel Glück.liebe Grüße von Tiger und Schnappi