Highland Clearances, A Field Trip to the Black Isle and a Bagpiper





Our tour is run by Road Scholar and yesterday we emphasized the SCHOLAR part of the name. Our first group activity of the day was a lecture on the Highland Clearances (~1750 -1860. You only signed up for a travel blog so I’ll leave you to look up the clearances yourself if you’re interested, but combined with the Jacobite rebellion it makes me think that peoples have LONG memories of times when they were oppressed. (And we seem to quickly forget times when we’re doing the oppressing).

 After lunch we headed out to the Black Isle which was one of the first parts of Scotland to experience the clearances where we:

Toured the village of Cromarty and  went to a wee museum focusing of Pictish artifacts and got a talk from a local expert on the Picts. Then we briefly stopped for a photo op of the ruins of Fortrose Cathedral before heading home. 


Carnegie Library in Cromarty


After dinner we were treated to a bagpipe demonstration at the hotel. To tell you the truth I hadn’t been looking forward to that but it turned out to be a ton of fun. The piper turned out to be a delightful young man who was a third generation piper. His band had just won a national bagpiping competition and besides being an excellent player he told us a ton about the pipes and was hilariously funny. Five stars, would recommend.


The bagpipes ended around 9:30 so we still had time for a short walk. This is what the Highlands look like at 9:30 in early summer.




Comments

  1. Maggie BCJune 3, 2026 at 6:52 PM

    Not sure if my comments got through but my one question is "how are the scones"? Did Clarinda's live up to your memories?

    ReplyDelete
  2. NinaJune 4, 2026 at 8:58 AM

    Oh I'm so glad you’re having fun! You’re learning so much and obviously making the best of everything. I’m enjoying your commentary very much, and the photos too.

    ReplyDelete

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