On the last day of the main tour, we visited the Culloden Battlefield, the site where the last major battle fought on mainland British soil occurred.

For our farewell dinner that evening, our group had a private room at Tulloch Castle, which dates back to the twelfth century, according to their website, or the fourteenth century, according to Wikipedia.  Either way, it was old!

(For all photos, click on the image for a full screen view.)

We bid farewell to Tom, our wonderful tour leader as well as half of the group who opted not to join the post-tour extension.  The remaining eight of us headed to the airport the following morning to fly to London and join our new tour leader, Marc, for “Classic English Landscapes: The Cotswolds to London.

Oxford was our destination for the day.  We visited the University of Oxford, the oldest university in the English-speaking world.  (There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096!)  The university is comprised of 43 constituent colleges that were built in one of the English architectural styles: Anglo-Saxon, Gothic, or Tudor. 40,000 students attend the university in a town of 150,000.

Following Marc’s walking tour and a group lunch, we had time to explore the town on our own.  The different styles of architecture were quite a gorgeous site to see (and photograph)!

We continued to charming Cirencester, our base for three nights.  This will be the subject of my next post: UNITED KINGDOM #16: CHARMING CIRENCESTER IN THE COTSWOLDS