Wee Trip to Scotland — Culloden

The last battle.…

On 16 April 1746 the last bat­tle to be fought on British soil took less than an hour to reach its bloody con­clu­sion here on what is now know as Cul­lo­den Moor. It was not, as often por­trayed, a bat­tle between the Scots and the Eng­lish: large num­bers of Scotsfought on the Gov­ern­ment side while the Jaco­bite army includ­ed French units and some Eng­lish Jaco­bites. Rather it was the last chap­ter in a spo­radic civ­il war for suc­ces­sion to the throne that had been under way since 1688.(for more His­toric Infor­ma­tion have a vis­it on this Page ).So Cul­lo­den marked the end of a spo­radic civ­il war for suc­ces­sion that had last­ed 60 years. But the bru­tal reprisals and sup­pres­sion of the High­lands that fol­lowed under the com­mand of the Duke of Cum­ber­land (“Butch­er Cum­ber­land”) brought about the end of a way of life, and the end of a mean­ing­ful clan system.

In less than an hour it was all over. Some 50 Gov­ern­ment troops had been killed and a fur­ther 300 wound­ed. A much larg­er num­ber of Jaco­bites and oth­ers had been killed dur­ing the bat­tle. Many more were killed as they lay wound­ed on the bat­tle­field or after being tak­en pris­on­er. And the Gov­ern­ment dra­goons dis­patched to hunt down flee­ing Jaco­bites roamed far and wide, indis­crim­i­nate­ly killing rebels, bystanders, spec­ta­tors, res­i­dents and any­one else who was with­in reach. It is esti­mat­ed that the total dead on the Jaco­bite side was around 1,250.

The Wall at the new Vis­i­tor Cen­ter is a reminder of all the Men who died this Day. The Num­ber of fall­en on both sides are rep­re­sent­ed  of pro­ject­ing stones in this wall.

Old Leanach Cottage

The orig­i­nal farm­house of Leanach sur­vived the bat­tle and has been restored sev­er­al times. The roof is heather thatched, a tra­di­tion­al High­land craft.During the Bat­tle of Cul­lo­den Leanach Cot­tage was sit­u­at­ed in between the Gov­ern­ment lines and it is like­ly the build­ing would have been used as a field hos­pi­tal for the gov­ern­ment men.

The Memorial Cairn and some Headstones

Pos­si­bly the most recog­nis­able fea­ture of the bat­tle­field today is the 20 feet (6.1 m) tall memo­r­i­al cairn, erect­ed by Dun­can Forbes in 1881 In the same year Forbes also erect­ed head­stones to mark the mass graves of the clans.

Most trag­ic is the grave of the ‘Mixed Clans’ – mem­bers who were so bru­tal­ly dis­fig­ured in the bat­tle that their remains were uniden­ti­fi­able. Their fam­i­ly name and clan ties for­ev­er wiped out from his­to­ry. As a read­er of Diana Gabaldon‘s “Out­lander” the stone of Clan Fras­er caused me goose­bumps (fic­tion­al or not..the Name alone did his Job)

It was a strange feel­ing on this bat­tle­field. When one sees how close the troops were, how many have died in this field, how much blood this soil has absorbed while Cul­lo­den Moor is beau­ti­ful to look at. With the small water fur­row, the marshy ground you can actu­al­ly see what it has been for a tru­ly “dirty” bat­tle. In some places the flo­ra looked like  from anoth­er World.

But you will always be remind­ed that you are on a bat­tle­field. So for exam­ple, through this wall, which was used by the British as ambush.

Here a Video with most of the High­lights and the music of  Caper­cail­lie (Karen Math­e­son) — Cumha Do Dh‘uilleam Sios­al, (see trans­la­tion below)

The Lone Piper (David Methven) — Glengarry‘s Lament

“Cumha Do Dh‘uilleam Sios­al” lyrics trans­lat­ed to English:

“Lament for William Chisholm”
Oh young Charles Stewart
Your cause is the rea­son of my sorrow
You took from me every­thing I had
In the war on your behalf
I am not mourn­ing cat­tle and sheep
But my partner
Since I am left alone
With noth­ing but my shroud
My bright young love

I am torn apart
And although I say it, it is no lie
My joy turned to sorrow
Since you will not return from death
One of your wis­dom and understanding
Was not easy to find
And not one stood at Culloden
Of your appear­ance and bravery
My bright young love

You real­ly should vis­it this Place when you are in Scot­land. All Infor­ma­tions can be found on the Site of the Nation­al Trust of Scot­land.