We are now on our way to Iverness.  Our bus journey there was lead by our Celtic tour guide, Michael.  The first thing we learned about was the Forth Bridge.  Apparently people were afraid to trust bridges, so he made this one extra strong and even sat on the model to prove its strength.  It was quite an amazing bridge; I’ve never seen one like it.   We then moved onto the distillery!  I wish we could have toured it, but it was still a good time all the same.  I think that alcohol here is really a part of the culture.  Back home people never go out every night and there isn’t a bar in every restaurant.  There’s far more pubs here then there are in Iowa, even in a college town.  Furthermore, I think they consume more alcohol on a daily basis then we do.  I was reading their newspaper here and they were talking about how it was really becoming a problem in Britain.  However, I think that the pubs and all the alcohol is part of the culture here and it is something that can and should be enjoyed. 

            From the distillery, we moved onto see the Barracks.  I had never really knew a lot about the Jacobites and their uprising before coming here.  I have heard some brief mention of it in my high school history classes, but I had long forgotten it and I’ve never studied in depth.  I learned some whilst at the Barracks, but I really gained an understanding of it all when we went to the battlefield.  I found it really interesting and it may be something I look into more in the future.   The first thing I learned at the exhibition is that the Jacobites are a political position supporting Prince Charles and not a nationality or tribe.  Prince Charles’ family had been kicked off the throne because they were Catholic and instead William of Orange (or at least I think that’s who it was) got the crown and the English now had a Protestant ruler.  Not all the Jacobites were Catholic though, in fact a good many of them were Protestant, but they supported Prince Charles because they believed he had the divine right to the throne.  Others supported for other reasons, but for one reason or another, people joined Prince Charles as he made his way through Scotland and he created an army.  They went to England to recruit, but found little support there and were forced to go back to Scotland.  So far they were undefeated and had not lost a battle, but that was about to change.  The battle at Culloden (please excuse my spelling errors) was a short, bloody one.  Lasting only an hour, the Jacobites were quickly defeated by the red coats, ending the Jacobite uprising.  The aftermath of the battle was devastating.  The English soldiers went and killed as many Jacobites as they could find, even killing some who were not Jacobites.  The Highlanders faced much ill will after this, sadly enough. 

            This is just a short summary of what I had learned this day, and I think throughout the journey around Scotland I’ll learn much more.  There is so much history here and so much that I do not know.  I look forward to finding out more in the days to come!