Mixed Emotions

The day started off a bit dull and cloudy, so we decided to visit the new-ish National Trust for Scotland Culloden Visitors' Centre, as there's plenty to see indoors if it rains. The Centre is pretty awful-looking on the outside (think large brick!), but is lovely on the inside and the exhibition and displays are really well done.

One of the experiences is a "cinema" with large screens on four walls, depicting a live re-enactment of the Battle of Culloden. You stand in the middle of the room and your senses are assaulted by the noise and horror of the battle scenes around you. I found the whole thing incredibly moving and it really gave a different perspective on the history I learned at school.

We walked on to the battlefield, now a peaceful place with buttercups, daisies and other wild flowers, surrounded by forest, but still the resting place of many soldiers from both sides and so a war grave. Very thought provoking.

The clouds had gone and instead there was warm sunshine, so we decided to head for the Black Isle, just north of Inverness and try our luck at dolphin spotting. The Dolphin Centre at North Kessock recommended we drive to Chanonry Point at Fortrose, as the tide was coming in there and the dolphins usually follow the fish the tides bring in, although there are never any guarantees.

However, it was our lucky day and after waiting for about half an hour, the first dolphins were spotted by the serious photographers lined up by the shore. Some of these cameras weighed more than I do!! For the next hour, we were totally entranced by the antics of a pod of dolphins only a few metres from where we were standing as they chased the salmon and played in the waves. Adults and young ones followed one after the other, but (stupid me!), I was so emotional at seeing them so close, that I could hardly hold and point the camera in the right place at the right time. This photo is one of the better ones, believe it or not, as the others seem to have only a fin or a small hump in them!

So it was a day of very different emotions and I was totally exhausted when we got back to the cottage that evening:-)