Inverness Museum and Art Gallery
We learned more about Scottish history with a focus on the Highlands. There’s a great timeline and exhibits beginning with the formation of the highland landscape and moving on to the Picts with their carved stones, medieval times, the Scottish Gaelic language and culture, the Stuarts and Bonnie Prince Charlie, the Jacobites, Scottish bagpipes and music, a beautiful collection of Inverness silver and ending with the modern city of Inverness.
There were lots of things to do, including trying on a replica bronze armlet, playing ancient Celtic board games (Merells and Hnefetafl), and even trying on an 18th century Highland kilt.
G posing by a old fire wagon.
G and L had lots of questions about these “ancient” phones and cameras!
Ship Space Museum
We weren’t exactly sure how far of a walk it was going to be to get to this museum, so we hailed a cab. When Mike told him where we were headed, the cab driver said, “Are you sure?” with a smile. So, with that we were off.
We understood what he meant. It wasn’t bad. It was just really quirky! We opened the door of a building that looked like a house with a yard full of hand built boats in various states of completion. A guy came through a door, said hello, and told us we could just follow the path around the upstairs and that will lead us to the door with a porthole down to the basement which will lead us out to the yard.
And that was it. He went back to where he came from, and we made our way around the rooms full of clippings, posters, pictures, models, etc. It’s a one-man venture mostly about The Titantic. There was one space where he had “Ghosts from the Abyss” playing on a t.v., which we watched for a bit. It’s a documentary that James Cameron and Bill Pullman did in 2003 about their travel to the bottom of the sea to see the Titantic, using high-tech submarines and robots, etc.
In the basement, there was a real boat, where the kids played a video game where they drove the Titanic through a race course.
One of hundreds of clippings thumb tacked to the cork-board walls, and the porthole in the door leading out to the back yard.
Outside, there was an 88 foot, 1:10 model of The Titanic!
The Scottish Kiltmaker Visitor Centre
There was a fun movie about kilts and their history. In addition, it describes the amount of cloth needed to make a kilt (8 yards) and how many pleats needed (depends on the design of the tartan and the size of the person). All of the kilts made at The Scottish Kiltmaker are made by hand! After the movie, we walked around a large room with various displays of uniforms and all the varieties of tartan. There was also a large window looking into the workshop, where we could see craftspeople working on cutting and sewing kilts.
Black Watch tartan and high fashion tartan!
Next stop, a fabric store for some tartan! (Not exactly, but it’s on my list!)
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