Oliver's Army Was Here To Stay
I love coming across little pieces of history in the most unexpected places. Today, for example, I was in Harbour Road in Inverness - home to every kind of car dealership known to humankind - and was investing big money in a new set of windscreen wipers. Well that certainly wiped the smiles off the new car salesmen.
On the way home, I found myself driving through the real industrial heart of the city where cement works jostle for space next to the oil terminal. Then, in the middle of all this bleak modernity, there was a little clock tower which turned out to be the remaining part of a seventeenth century citadel.
The citadel - or fort - had been built by Oliver Cromwell's forces and, for ten years, was home his English troops who were charged with quelling any potential uprising by pro-Royalty clans. The citadel had been built in the shape of a pentangle - a military pentagon - but was to pieces when the English garrison moved out and the Monarchy was restored.
All that's left is this little tower.
