Clan Rose 3 Day Tour – Itinerary
Clan Rose 3 Day Tour – Pick up and Drop off
The Clan Rose 3 Day Tour will pick up and drop off at your chosen locations near Glasgow or Edinburgh.
Clan Rose 3 Day Tour – Accomodation
The Clan Rose 3 Day Tour will stay for two nights in the Highland Capital Inverness. After booking we will be in contact directly to discuss accomodation options and to help craft the perfect journey for your group going to and from Inverness. (Day 1 and 3) Your second day will be your Mackenzie Day Tour!
Clan Rose Day Tour
The Clan Rose Tour runs east from Inverness, as the clanlands lie primarily in Strathnairn and Nairnshire. Clava Cairns is the first stop, and then we travel on to the ancestral burial ground at Geddes. Then we take a look up-country where some of the wilder branches of Clan Rose lived. We return to the coastal plain to visit the village of Auldearn and the town of Nairn. The final portion of the day is a photostop at the clan seat, Kilravock Castle.
Clava
Clava Cairns and Standing Stones are 4,000 years old and are a ritual landscape of fantastic design and spirituality. The Bronze Age peoples constructed these monuments to align on both sun and moon. As a result, archaeologists consider this site to be a temple of astronomy.
Geddes
The Rose family settled at Geddes in 1230, just uphill from the river Nairn. Nothing identifiable remains of the Chapel of St Mary of Geddes built here in the early 1200’s. This is because the private burial enclosure of the Roses of Geddes and Kilravock is built on the exact site of the chapel. The churchyard hosted an annual fair held around 5th of April up until the end of the nineteenth century.
Upland Nairnshire
There were many branches of Clan Rose throughout the Highland area of the county. These tended to be the branches many of whose members were declared outlaw in the 16th and 17th centuries. Roses of Clunes, of Belivat, of Levrattich and of Coulmony were all involved in feuds with Dunbars, Falconers and others. This is a beautiful area, worthy of a photo stop or two.
Auldearn
Just above the village of Auldearn stands a Bronze Age stone circle – Moyness. After a photo stop at the stones we skirt the Rose estate of Kinsteary on our way down to Auldearn Village. Should time permit then we will go way of Auldearn Antiques.
Town Of Nairn
The Rose family has always had a close relationship with the town of Nairn, and maintained a townhouse on the High Street there. All except one of Nairn’s Provosts (Mayors) between 1450 and 1777 were Roses.
Kilravock Castle
Rose of Geddes married the Bisset heiress of Kilravock (pronounced Kilrock) and thus secured what became their clan seat, The castle that stands on the site now was constructed around 1460. The current chief is David Rose, 26th Baron of Kilravock. We always manage at least a walk and some exterior photographs here, although we may be able to arrange a visit with your chief if you request it.
Some Clan Rose Snippets
William Rose, Kilravock the 2nd, fought in the Scottish Wars of Independence alongside King Robert the Bruce, fighting at Bannockburn, and falling, decades later, at Halidon Hill. Nairnshire had become a wild and lawless place by the late 1500’s, as a result of several branches of Clan Rose,taking to murdering, burning and looting. Kilravock 11th found himself imprisoned in Edinburgh due to his loss of control of his clan, and the continuing “Wars of the Roses” in Nairnshire. The sheriff of Moray stepped in, in 1611, imprisoning and executing some of the worst offenders, after which peace was declared. Kilravock 17th entertained Charles Edward Stewart, serving him punch, while the Duke of Cumberland slept in the Rose Townhouse in Nairn.
Wild Rosemary is the plant badge of Clan Rose. Constant and True is their motto. The clan crest is a harp on a hat.
Clan Rose 3 Day Tour – Price
£1740 – for the private tour and up to 7 of your favourite people