Culloden Moor Battlefield By Inverness On Visit To The Highlands Of Scotland

Tour Scotland travel video, with Scottish bagpipes and drums music, of Culloden Moor Battlefield near Inverness on visit to the Highlands. The Battle of Culloden was the last pitched battle fought on British soil. It was fought on 16 April 1746 and saw the Jacobite army of Prince Charles Edward Stuart defeated by the army of the Hanoverian King George II under the leadership of the Duke of Cumberland. The battle put an end to Jacobite hopes of restoring the Stuart dynasty to the British throne. The Memorial Cairn, was erected in 1881 by Duncan Forbes of Culloden. The Well of the Dead and graves of the Clans are located at the East end of the moor. The Battle of Culloden, Scottish Gaelic: Blàr Chùil Lodair, was the final confrontation of the Jacobite rising of 1745. On 16 April 1746, the Jacobite army of Charles Edward Stuart was decisively defeated by a British government force under William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, on Drummossie Moor. Bonnie Prince Charles was the eldest son of James Stuart, the exiled Stuart claimant to the British throne. Believing there was support for a Stuart restoration in both Scotland and England, he landed in Scotland in July 1745: raising an army of Scots Jacobite supporters, he took Edinburgh by September and defeated a British government force at Prestonpans. The government recalled 12,000 troops from the Continent to deal with the rising: a Jacobite invasion of England reached as far as Derby before turning back, having attracted relatively few English recruits. The Jacobites, with limited French military support, attempted to consolidate their control of Scotland, where by early 1746 they were opposed by a substantial government army. A hollow Jacobite victory at Falkirk failed to change the strategic situation: with supplies and pay running short and with the government troops resupplied and reorganised under the Duke of Cumberland, son of British monarch King George II, the Jacobite leadership had few options left other than to stand and fight. The two armies eventually met at Culloden, on terrain that gave Cumberland's larger, well rested force the advantage. The battle lasted only an hour, with the Jacobites suffering a bloody defeat; between 1,500 and 2,000 Jacobites were killed or wounded, while about 300 government soldiers were killed or wounded. While perhaps 6,000 Jacobites remained in arms in Scotland, the leadership took the decision to disperse, effectively ending the rising. Culloden and its aftermath continue to arouse strong feelings. The University of Glasgow awarded the Duke of Cumberland an honorary doctorate, but many modern commentators allege that the aftermath of the battle and subsequent crackdown on Jacobite sympathisers were brutal, earning Cumberland the sobriquet Butcher. Scots, English and Irish fought on both sides at Culloden. Sometimes clansmen fought their own fathers, brothers, and uncles. On the Jacobite side were, amongst others, Chisholms, MacLeods, MacLeans, Frasers, Farquarsons, Camerons and Gordons. All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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