Cawdor Castle & Culloden Battlefield, Clava Cairns Inverness

Clava Cairns are a well-preserved Bronze Age cemetery complex of passage graves; ring cairns, kerb cairns and standing stones in a beautiful setting. Clava Cairns or the Prehistoric Burial Cairns of Bulnuaran of Clava are a group of three Bronze Age cairns located near Inverness. A hugely significant and exceptionally well preserved prehistoric site, Clava Cairns is a fantastic example of the distant history of Highland Scotland, dating back about 4,000 years. Clava Cairns is a well-preserved Bronze Age cemetery near Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. For many years, it played second fiddle to its more famous neighbour, Culloden Battlefield. That all changed in 2014, with the release of the TV dramatization of Diana Gabaldon’s popular Outlander novel. Clava Cairns became a bucket list destination overnight, after it was suggested that Outlander’s fictitious stone circle, Craigh na Dun was inspired by the site.

The massive red sandstone masonry viaduct is the longest of its kind in Scotland, at 1,800 ft. Built by the Highland Railway and engineered by Murdoch Paterson, Culloden Viaduct opened to rail traffic in November 1898. Today, it is still in use and is the largest structure on the Highland Main Line (scenic rail) between Perth and Inverness.

Listen to tales of the Jacobite rebellions and the brutal Battle of Culloden, on our visit to Culloden Battlefield. The course of British, European and world history was changed at Culloden on 16 April 1746. A ferocious war had come to Scotland, dividing families and setting clan against clan. It was here that the Jacobite army took their last stand to reclaim the thrones of Britain from the Hanoverians for a Stuart king. The Jacobites fought to restore the exiled James VIII as king and were led by Prince Charles Edward Stuart, James’s son; George II’s government army (led by the Duke of Cumberland, George’s son) was equally determined to stop this happening.

A romantic fairy-tale castle that has been the home of the Thanes of Cawdor since 1370, Cawdor has evolved into a charming family mansion and the most outstanding of stately homes. The dramatic medieval tower, dungeon, turrets, battlements and...more Cawdor Castle with its iron yet gate, moat & drawbridge, turrets, turnpike stairs and vaulted 16th century kitchen is steeped in intrigue and history. This ancient medieval tower house built for the 3rd Thane of Cawdor has been home to over 23 generations of the Cawdor family. Explore 12 principal rooms of this unique home containing collections of Rare Tapestries, Fine Art, Furniture, Ceramics and Sculpture spanning 3,500 years