
After a family funeral in Inverness this summer, we made a very brief tour of the battlefield at Culloden. It suited our sombre mood. The bench above, with its Gaelic inscription, is dedicated as follows to Gordon Thom:

Around the bench were memorials to the fallen, on both sides.




This is Leanach Cottage. A cannon ball is said to have been recovered from its turf wall more than a century ago.

I’m linking this post to Jude’s Bench Series which, for November, is looking for benches with a message.
Loved it.
LikeLike
So glad!
LikeLike
I’m catching up on reading blogs this morning. It seems fitting to read this one given the tragic events in Paris a few days ago. It’s a solemn reminder that violence and sadness are nothing new in this world.
LikeLike
Yes, I had been going to publish it anyway but it does fit into the general sadness of 11 November, followed by Paris. It’s all equally hard to make sense of.
LikeLike
The eerie quiet must have been deafening in such a place.
LikeLike
Yes, it was eerie. Everyone walked about very quietly and respectfully.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It looks so quiet there and yet such a battle happened eons ago. The little cottage looks homey to me-does someone live there?
LikeLike
It is quiet – eerily so. No, the cottage is part of the site, I don’t think it would be habitable.
LikeLike
We were there on a sunny, breezy day in June. As you say it is sad; spending time understanding the lead up and the tactics made the tour feel antiseptic until I stepped outside and realised how relatively small the area was and yet how huge and indiscriminate was the slaughter.
LikeLike
Sometimes they can overdo the information! We were terribly boorish, we just had half an hour so went straight outside and skipped the exhibition. (The good thing about having a membership card.) Last time we visited (almost 30 years ago) the visitor centre was tiny and you were hit more or less straight away by the bleakness.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The exhibition is very good so do catch it if you can
LikeLike
Next time!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s true, there’s a sense of lonelyness on the battlefiled. But I like it that follen on both sides are remembered.
LikeLike
Yes, that’s a good point.
LikeLike
Battlefields are strange places. As others have mentioned, sombre, desolate, sad. Thinking of all those men slaughtered. For what? Now the whole planet seems to be a battlefield, and not only soldiers are being slaughtered. Aside from that your cottage photo is absolutely beautiful, I’d be tempted to crop out that tree on the left-hand side, but otherwise a perfect composition 🙂
LikeLike
Yes, it’s quite appropriate at the moment. Nothing is worth indiscriminate killing.
LikeLike
What a desolate place, Anabel. The bench was a good find though.
LikeLike
Desolate is an apt word. Battlefields always make me feel that. So much waste of life.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I agree with you. I remember going to Little Bighorn Battlefield in Montana and seeing General Custer’s grave with the grasses waving in the breeze. That was also really desolate.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Anabel,
I agree with you about the sense of sadness around Culloden. That’s what is in my memory of a visit there long time ago.
Have a great Sunday,
Pit
LikeLike
Thanks, you too, Pit.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This bench doesn’t look particularly comfortable. But then, nothing about Culloden looks comfortable.
LikeLike
No. It has a pervasive sense of sadness about it.
LikeLike