Step back in time and imagine! (Culloden Battlefield and Visitor Centre)

Member Name: sugar78

Product:	Culloden Battlefield and Visitor Centre
Date:	02/07/09 (65 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very informative, brilliant guided tour

Disadvantages: May struggle to get around the field if you are in a wheelchair

Me and my partner visited Culloden Battlefield in May of last year (2008). It was our first time in visiting Scotland and Culloden was on my list to visit!

Culloden Battlefield is about a 20-25 minute drive from Inverness. It is really easy to find Culloden as there are signposts all along the way from Inverness. The route has some spectacular scenery and you will see plenty of Highland cows along the way!!!

As you approach Culloden from Inverness you will see the battlefield to your right and will notice that there are blue and red flag markers all along the field (i will explain the flags later!).

As you turn into the car park, you will notice that the car park is quite large. There is also seperate parking for coaches. It is a good job it is a large car park as it can get full pretty quickly. We paid £2 for the car park ticket.

We arrived at Culloden really early and before the visitor centre opened, but the opening times are 10am-4pm (November-March) and 9am-6pm (April-October). As mentioned, we went in May, so we arrived there before 9am (early birds that we are!).

The visitor centre is all brand new and is a fantastic place. It is accessible for all and wheelchair friendly. It cost us £9 each for admission, but normally costs £10 each. There was an exhibition that wasn't working, which is why we got a discount.

The exhibitions in the visitor centre are great. There is a lot of interaction with them as there are lots of audio and visual exhibitions that you control. We spent an hour in the first room, just going through the exhibitions!

From there you are led into the display room, which is full of swords, axes and other weapons that were used in the battle. Some of the weapons are fantastic, but i wouldn't want to come across someone weilding one at me!!!

The entrance to the battlefield is from the display room, but while we were there a guided tour had just started and we decided to join in the tour. I am glad that we did as it was fantastic, and i cannot praise the tour guide highly enough. The tour lasted for around 1 hour and took us all the way around the battlefield, explaining about the clans, the ordinary people who took to battle, the surrounding area and the people that lived there.
The tour took us back to the visitor centre, and then you are free to roam the battlefield yourself and in your own time. Due to the tour, it gave me and my partner a better sense of what we were looking at and how we percieved the field.
The red and blue flags interpret where the Jacobeans and Governmental soldiers were lined up before the start of the battle. It is amazing to notice that they were extremely close to one another!
On the battlefield there is also the mass graves of the clans. The bodies of the dead from the clans were left on the battlefield for over 2 days, and then the English allowed the families of the dead to bury them in mass graves. It is quite a moment to see the graves, as you can see the sheer scale of them.

There is a lookout point, which is situated on top of the roof of the visitor centre, which gives you a clear view of the battlefield and the surrounding area. You can take some beautiful pictures from up there!

There are paths that you walk on around the field, but not all of them are wheelchair friendly, so beware. They may have changed them now, but last year it would have been difficult for someone in a wheelchair to do a full tour of the field.

You can buy a memorial stone for your loved one and have it placed on the walkway into the visitor centre. The stones would make a lovely gesture for someone who loved to visit Culloden, or had a connection there somehow.

The visitor centre has a cafe and a gift shop. We didn't visit the cafe, but we did buy a few items from the gift shop. I didn't find it too expensive. We bought 2 t-shirts for 2 male friends back home, and they cost around £5 each. I thought that this was cheaper than some of the sites we visited.

We had spent about 4 hours at Culloden and by the time we left, the car park was aboslutely bursting! My advice is to get there about 1/2 hour the visitor centre has opened. It won't be so crowded and you can join in with the first guided tour!

I will be visiting Culloden again. It was a fantastic day!

Summary: Brilliant day and well worth the fee