April 16th 2010

[English Bloke]

Thanks for posting those Jock. I must make time and get up there some day, it looks like a most atmospheric place. Glad you're back to firing on all four aswell, don't go over-doin' it.

[Sir William]

Thanks for posting these photos Jock. Mine from last summer didn't turn out near as well, but I've never been a good photographer.

It took me some little time to find the Clan Donald marker when I was there. Not exactly well marked...but I did find it.

[Jock Scot]

Thanks for posting those Jock. I must make time and get up there some day, it looks like a most atmospheric place. Glad you're back to firing on all four aswell, don't go over-doin' it.

Yes Culloden has an atmosphere unlike any other battlefield that I have ever been to and I have been to more than a few. I don't find it creepy ,or sinister in any way, but there is an intangible "something" that makes it different. Does any one else feel that way?

I am doing well thank you, but I just over did it a bit yesterday, but after the couple of hours of being driven home and a couple of reviving gins and all was nearly well. Yet another lesson learned though.

[Rollo]

Many thanks ! It is so touching !

[starbkjrus]

Thank you for posting those Jock. One day I'll make it up there in person.

[ThistleDown]

Yes Culloden has an atmosphere unlike any other battlefield that I have ever been to and I have been to more than a few. I don't find it creepy ,or sinister in any way, but there is an intangible "something" that makes it different. Does any one else feel that way?

Yes, Jock, I do. I've volunteered there for years and years and still have that strange chill on me from time to time. Most often that will be in the early morning. In an earlier post you said you thought you liked the battlefield better before the recent changes. I must agree. In many ways what we now see is a tourist mecca with many demanded (or perceived to be demanded) bells and whistles; what we saw just a few years ago was the remnants of the Victorian romanticism (Culloden's cairn and the stones and the road through it all), but in some ways that was easier on the senses. I well remember it when it was still forested and that period was far worse than what we have today, though.

Rex

[Redshank]

For the sake of good order, and to complete the full set, and for the benefit of any Clan Donald members, here with the grave marker as taken at the 2009 anniversary memorial ceremony.

[Jock Scot]

Rex.

I am glad I am not the only one!

Thank you for making up the "set", Chris.

[RobertParker]

Yes Culloden has an atmosphere unlike any other battlefield that I have ever been to and I have been to more than a few. I don't find it creepy ,or sinister in any way, but there is an intangible "something" that makes it different. Does any one else feel that way?

Growing up in the southeastern U.S., I've been to a great many American Civil War battlefields, and for the most part, yes there was something intangibly solemn about them.

I have to say that the most difficult one I've been to is Auschwitz, in Poland. I realize this is in no way connected to kilt-stuff, and it's not a battlefield per se, but.....

I was there in late September. The story of getting there will wait for another day; suffice to say as a 21-year old American traveling in Eastern Europe for the first time, it was somewhat challenging to get there and probably added something to my frame of mind for that day. Nonetheless, from the moment I stepped off the bus at the entrance, there was something very different.

After a couple of hours it became apparent - there was no sound. Apart from the small snippets of quiet conversation or footsteps of other visitors, there was nothing. No birds, no wind, none of the ambient sounds you often find if you listen. It was dead-quiet, and I choose that phrase on purpose. Writing in my journal later that day, I described it by saying that all the suffering that occurred at that place, along with all the painful and fearful screams, grunts, and sighs, were enough that little other noise be made in that place.

Perhaps that's a bit fanciful, but it was something very tangible to me. I've had similar experiences at other places, but none so intense.

[McClef]

Thanks for sharing Jock, helps history to come alive.