The Battle of Culloden
The
Battle of Culloden was fought on flat marshy moorland, part of the
Culloden estate, and less than two miles from the house. Here an army
of some 4,500 Jacobites, tired, hungry and ill-equipped met a Government
force of 9,000 strong, well fed and rested troops under the command
of the Duke of Cumberland, George His younger son.This was the last battle pitched by a foreign force fought on British soil, and was over in less than an hour. Out gunned and out fought by the better trained troops of the Government army, the Jacobites were utterly defeated. They lost some 1,500 men during the battle and in the atrocities that followed which so shamed the Government, that even today, no British Regiment bears Culloden as a battle honour. This compares with 30 dead for Cumberland's army. The site has been restored to something approaching its state on that fateful day, April 16, 1746 and on a still Spring day, it still speaks eloquently but silently of the clansmen who died for the Jacobite cause. The site is now owned in perpetuity for the nation by the National Trust for Scotland. This 180-acre piece of boggy ground has become a place of pilgrimage for the many millions of Scots, both in Scotland as well as those scattered abroad. Culloden House therefore stands out as a symbol, both of Scotland's past, and her present. Its name and situation are redolent of a turbulent and romantic history; its present that of a welcoming Scotland, welcoming to her sons and daughters making the pilgrimage back home, providing the finest of modern accommodation within a superbly historic setting |
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