The Daily Diary of a Wandering Restaurateur
Life Is A Battlefield
The Culloden Memorial is one of the best of its kind that I have ever seen. There is a route through the interactive exhibits that tells both sides of the events that lead up to the battle itself along with a 360-degree movie that re-enacts what happened and gives a sense of what it might have been like to be in the middle of it. (Needless to say, you really would not have wanted to be in the middle of it!)
Most of the historic spots we have seen have a tea room where you can pick up a light snack. We didn't avail ourselves of those services here, but I thought they set new standards for truth in signage ... even if they were just translating the Gaelic.
The actual battlefield on Culloden Moor remains pretty much as it was back in the day. The position of the English and Jacobite forces are marked with red and blue flags. When you have completed the path through the museum you might catch a brief demo on how people dressed back then. Folding your tartan into a kilt was a real piece of work ... and produced a garment much more utilitarian that you would think.
Then you picked up a PDA-like device with an earphone and headed out onto the battlefield itself. As you followed the various paths, low power transmitters sent an explanation to your headset about had happened in that spot. The Jacobites were buried where they fell (and no matter whether they were dead or alive!) Since the various clans fought as a group they also died as a group and the burial sites are marked with a stone. A stone cottage that was on the battlefield in 1746 still stands.
© 2009 Restaurant Doctor
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