An evening stroll last night produced a few more photos,
then this morning, after a hearty breakfast, we set off in bright sunshine on
the short drive to Culloden Moor, the site of the last major battle on British
soil when, on 16 April 1746, Charles Edward Stuart – “Bonnie Prince Charlie” -
pitted his Jacobite army against what turned out to be a much better English
army under a much cannier leader in the shape of William Augustus, Duke of
Cumberland,son of the reigning English king, George I. Stuart had raised the army in an attempt to
overthrow King George and reclaim the throne for his exiled father James (more
British royal family intrigue) and had had a couple of initial successes. But it was not to be on this occasion; his
forces were completely routed in just under an hour, those still alive went
home never tp rise again and Charles faded into oblivion (he died in Rome,
almost penniless, in 1788), ending any challenge to the Hanoveran monarchy.
It is a very impressive site. A huge visitor information
centre contains long display panels and dioramas, there are dozens of cabinets
and hands-on displays of weapons and other contemporary military equipment, a
surround cinema presenting a short dramatisation of the battle. We then walked out, in a group of less than a
dozen (one of whom has been an extra in the TV series “Outlanders”), for a guided tour of the battlefield itself. It is virtually unchanged from that day two
hundred and seventy three years ago, and permanent standards, in red and blue,
have been set up across the site to indicate where the opposing forces were
arrayed before and during the battle. We
saw a number of tomb stones, each bearing a clan name, to indicate where the
slain Jacobites are buried, although they would most certainly not have been
buried according to their clan as the bodies were stripped of their clothing by
the victorious British and townsfolk were brought from Inverness to dig pits
and throw the naked bodies in en masse.
And the tomb markers were only put in place in 1881.
After elevenses in the spacious café we continued on to Fort
George, a huge military fort – still in use – constructed on the orders of King
George I after the Jacobite uprising as one of a number of forts in the general
area of access to the Highlands to keep those pesky Highlanders in check. It is an enormous site, situated on a
peninsular so it is surrounded by the sea on three sides and protected by a
wide moat on the landward side. We
wandered around through the displays of guards’ and officers’ quarters, across
the expansive lawns to view the dog cemetery and the parade ground, and spent
quite some time in the three-storey museum that celebrates the various Scottish
clans that established regiments and have now been amalgamated into one regiment,
the Queen’s Own Highlanders. We also
visited the chapel, which houses the only known stained glass window displaying
a bagpiper.
We then continued on little further to the small town of
Nairns for a ploughman’s lunch and then made our way back to Inverness. A day well spent.
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