18th April is The International Day for Monuments and Sites also known as World Heritage Day.

In addition to monument preservation, the day seeks to raise public awareness of the diversity and fragility of cultural assets.

Scotland has an impressive 7 World Heritage sites, these sites are cultural, historical or scientific sites of ‘outstanding universal value’, important not only for the land they exist in but for the generations of people that surround it. The sites are protected by a number of international treaties and are judged as crucial to the collective interests of humanity.

Our seven World Heritage Sites.

The Antonine Wall

The Antonine Wall runs across central Scotland and marked the most northerly – and most complex – frontier of the Roman Empire nearly 2,000 years ago. Roman soldiers built the Antonine Wall for the Emperor Antoninus Pius around AD 142. Their efforts are commemorated by a unique group of distance slabs, the newest of which are in the town I live in, Falkirk.

Heart of Neolithic Orkney

Skara Brae, Maeshowe, the Stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar together make up one of the richest surviving Neolithic landscapes in Western Europe. Their impressive domestic and ritual monuments are masterpieces of Neolithic design and construction. They give us exceptional insights into the society, skills and spiritual beliefs of the people who built them.

New Lanark

New Lanark is a restored 18th-century cotton mill village situated in the narrow gorge of the River Clyde. Social pioneer Robert Owen was renowned for his enlightened management of the mill – the biggest cotton mill in Scotland and one of the largest factory sites in the world.

The Old and New Towns of Edinburgh

Edinburgh’s Old and New Towns form one of the most beautiful cityscapes in the world. The city’s unique character springs from the contrast between the medieval Old Town, with its pattern of distinctive narrow passageways, and the 18th-century New Town, the best-preserved example of Georgian town planning in the UK. I recently posted pics and history of some parts of the New Town, after wandering along the streets a few weeks ago.

St Kilda

St Kilda is a group of remote islands and sea stacks 100 miles off the west coast of Scotland. They host the largest colony of seabirds in Europe as well as unique populations of sheep, field mice and wrens. Evocative cultural remains chart some 4,000 years of human habitation up until the mass evacuation of the islands in 1930.

The Forth Bridge

The Forth Bridge is a 2.5km-long, 110m-high cantilever bridge that links Edinburgh and the Lothians in the south with Fife and the Highlands in the north. The building of this masterpiece of human creative genius conquered a natural barrier of a scale and depth that had never before been overcome by humans.

THE FLOW COUNTRY.

The latest to be added to our World heritage sites, he Flow Country is a breathtaking vast expanse of blanket bog, sheltered straths, moorland and mountain, covering much of Caithness and Sutherland. It’s a real gem in the Highlands of Scotland, and something you won’t find anywhere else in the world, it was added last year.

18th April 1934 saw the death of Glasgow businesswoman Kate Cranston.

Catherine, or Kate, Cranston was the daughter of George Cranston, a Glasgow baker baker and pastry maker who, in 1849, the year of her birth, diversified into running a hotel. Originally the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway Hotel, this became the Royal Horse Hotel and, in 1852, “Cranston’s Hotel and Dining Rooms”.

Kate’s older brother, Stuart, became a tea dealer at a time when Glesga had a strong temperance movement and tea, until the 1830s a luxury for the rich, was increasingly being seen as an alternative to alcohol for the working classes. Stuart pioneered the idea of tea rooms in which his tea could be drunk in simple surroundings. Although Kate was not the first in the family to enter the business, when she established the Crown Luncheon Room on Argyle Street in 1878 she took the tea room to another level, placing great emphasis on the quality of the design and decor, on cleanliness, and on quality and choice of food.

n 1892 Kate married John Cochrane, but continued to trade as Miss Cranston’s Tearooms. She had opened her second tea room, in Ingram Street. She added a further tea room in Buchanan Street in 1897, and completed her chain with the Willow Tea Rooms in Sauchiehall Street, which opened in 1903. Miss Cranston’s Tearooms became the thriving centres of Glasgow’s society.

Kate Cranston always saw good design as central to her success. In 1888 she commissioned interior designer George Walton to design an Arts and Crafts styled extension for it the Ingram Street premises. Then, in 1900, she asked Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife Margaret Macdonald to design a room, also at Ingram Street. She must have been impressed with the result, because she entrusted the pair with all aspects of the design of the Willow Tea Rooms. The results were a sensation at the time, and remain so today, such is the enduring quality of excellent design.

Kate Cranston pursued a number of other projects over the following years, sometimes calling on the design skills of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret Macdonald. When he husband died in 1917 she sold her tea rooms and other business interests, and withdrew from public life. She had no children and after her death in 1934 it emerged that she had left two thirds of her estate to the poor of Glasgow.

Harbourne Mackay Stephen was born in Elgin on 18 April 1916.

His parents were Thomas Milne Stephen and Kathleen Vincent Stephen, nee Park, who were married in Croydon in 1903. The house in which he was born was the North of Scotland Bank House at 151 High Street, his father at the time being the Bank’s manager. This house, erected in 1857 on the site of Drummuir House, one-time site of Elgin’s Theatre Royal, was replaced by the present branch of the Clydesdale Bank in 1969.

It is not known exactly when the Stephen family left Elgin, but Harbourne, known to his family and close friends as Harry, was educated between the ages of four and seven in Elgin by a governess, then in Edinburgh and finally as a pupil at Shrewsbury School. No doubt his somewhat disjointed education was caused by family moves, in association with his father’s banking career.

He left school at the age of 15 to become a Copy Boy, at 15 shillings a week, for Allied Newspapers in Grays Inn Road, London. After some years at Allied Newspapers, he joined the staff of the Evening Standard.

Flying had long interested him and, at the age of 20 in April of 1936, he joined the Volunteer Reserve of the Royal Air Force at White Waltham as a Sergeant pilot. He fitted his training around his newspaper work, flying Tiger Moths on Saturdays and Sundays. From the Tiger Moth he graduated to the Hawker Hart and, just prior to the outbreak of WWII, he converted to the Hawker Hurricane.

At the outbreak of war, he was called up to be a Sergeant pilot and the weekend training rapidly developed into a seven day a week process. In April 1940 Harbourne Mackay Stephen was commissioned as a Pilot Officer and was posted to 605 Squadron at Drem in East Lothian. During his short stay there he was credited with shooting down a Heinkel bomber.

Posted to 74 Squadron at Hornchurch in May 1940, and converting to the Spitfire, he was thrown in at the deep end of the RAF’s frontline in the Battle of Britain. By August 1940 Stephen had personally shot down a dozen German aircraft and had contributed to the demise of several others. His most memorable day was 11 August 1940 when, in the morning three sorties, he shot down four enemy aircraft and in the afternoon shot down another one and damaged a further three.

By the end of 1940 his personal tally was more than 20 aircraft destroyed and he had been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and Bar. In December 1940, now a Flight Lieutenant, he was awarded a Distinguished Service Order by King George VI on the personal recommendation of Sir William Sholto-Douglas, Air Officer Commanding in Chief of RAF Fighter Command. This DSO was the first ever to be awarded to an airman in the field. Harbourne Stephen was a “Fighter Ace” indeed.

After the war he had a successful career in newspapers where he became managing Director of the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph. He died on 20th August 2001.

Scotland versus England without the usual English biased wank commentators.

Good Morning from Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Sunrise, Shielswood Loch, Scottish Borders.

📸jedsheriff_photos_scotland/Douglas Lindsay

April 17th is the tenth anniversary of the official opening night of The Kelpies.

The Kelpies, located in Falkirk, tower a colossal 30 metres above the Forth and Clyde Canal and form a dramatic gateway to the canal entrance on the East Coast of Scotland. Created by Scotland’s leading sculptor Andy Scott, The Kelpies are a monument to horse powered heritage across Central Scotland.

Some details of the Kelpies, each structure contains approximately 18,000 individual pieces. There is over 1.5 miles of steel in each structure. They each weigh over 300 tonnes and sit on 1,200 tonne foundations. Each structure has 464 steel plates In a monumental feat of engineering, The Kelpies rose from the ground in just 90 days, in late 2013.

Nearly one million people visited the Kelpies sculptures in Falkirk in the first year, since then the visitor numbers have declined, but still have numbers of over 500,000 a year

Some people criticise the cost of The Kelpies, said to be around £5 million, to me it is justified, it does bring a lot of people into the area of Falkirk in general, and are we to be the generation that forgets about public art just because of the costs? I love them and have visited them to many times to remember of the years, I may not be in Falkirk now, but I will take a trip to The Helix again and grab more pics, enjoy a coffee and take in the views over to The Ochils.

The Helix will be hosting a celebration party on April 27th, I thought it would be this weekend, but maybe they don’t want to clash with the Easter holiday.

Full details of the party and more can be found at the link below.

On 17th April 1892, Alexander Mackenzie, the Scottish-born Canadian statesman, died.

Alexander was born at bLogierait, Perthshire, he was Canada’s second Prime minister.

Mackenzie left school at the age of 13, following his father’s death to help his widowed mother, and trained as a stonemason, in 1842, aged 19 he immigrated to Canada West (now Ontario), where he worked as a stone mason and established himself as a building contractor at Sarnia.

He became editor of a local Liberal newspaper in 1852. Mackenzie was a supporter of the confederation movement, which intended to unify the provinces of Canada. After the Dominion of Canada was created in 1867, he was elected to the first House of Commons, in which he effectively led the Liberal opposition. When dual representation was abolished in 1872, he gave up his post as provincial treasurer in the Ontario provincial government.

When fellow Scot, John A. Macdonald’s Conservative government fell in 1873, Mackenzie became Canada’s first Liberal prime minister. His government, however, could not cope with the urgent economic difficulties of the time. Macdonald’s protectionist policy was preferred to Mackenzie’s aim of renewed reciprocity with the United States. Mackenzie also failed to complete the Pacific railway. These factors led to the defeat of the Liberal government in 1878. Mackenzie resigned the leadership of the opposition in 1880 but retained his seat in Parliament until his death on April 17, 1892, in Toronto.

Like MacDonald before him, Makenzie has been criticised for trying to assimilate the first nation indigenous people of the country into their society, speaking in 1875, Mackenzie declared: “It is the mission of the Anglo-Saxon race to carry the power of Anglo-Saxon civilization over every country in the world.” Sadly some people around the United Kingdom still hold on to this belief.

The Indigenous narrative states, in contrast to the “Doctrine of Discovery,” that there were people living in what is now Canada for over 500 generations before the arrival of the Europeans. They had customs, languages, laws and beliefs — and a totally different relationship with the land — than the European newcomers.

On 17th April 1932, Sir Patrick Geddes, the Scottish biologist and social scientist, died.

Geddes was a man of diverse interests and talents. Today he is probably best known as a town planner, but he has also been described as a biologist, sociologist, conservationist, educationist, and ecologist.

Patrick Geddes was born on 2 October 1854, the son of Alexander Geddes, soldier and his wife Janet Stevenson. He was a biologist and was a professor at the University of Edinburgh. Geddes’ influential theories on civic planning, such as the importance of diagnostic survey as the vital first stage of planning and the planning of a city in its wider surroundings, helped to shape the 20th century development of planning and architecture in Britain, disseminated by practitioners in the field such as Raymond Unwin, Patrick Abercrombie and Geddes’ son-in-law, Frank Mears. Geddes actively campaigned for the protection and enhancement of historic Edinburgh, arguing that ‘the spirit and individuality of our city, its personality and character’ was vital for human self-fulfilment. For example, he founded the Town & Gown University Settlement with the object of creating staff and student residences within the Old Town. Sometime late in 1891 Stewart Henbest Capper became associated with him, and this resulted in the Ramsay Garden, Riddles Court, James Court and Blackie House development.

He hoped to extend the concept to Glasgow and, probably at Capper’s suggestion, wrote to John James Burnet who asked to see the Settlement’s accounts before taking the matter further. The association between Geddes and Capper ended in 1896 when Capper left to take up the position of first professor of architecture at McGill University, Montreal. Sydney Mitchell completed the Ramsay Garden project, and Geddes then formed a similar association with the much older George Shaw Aitken who undertook the restoration of Lady Stair’s House for Lord Rosebery at Geddes’ suggestion and provided architectural advice on the projects on which Geddes was consulted.The house is now The Writers Museum.

More on the man at the link below

Good Morning from Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Dawn breaking at Loch Katrine.

📸philcrowderphotography/Phil Crowder on Instagram

Singer/songwriter Gerry Rafferty was born April 16th 1947 in Paisley

Rafferty grew up in a council house on the town’s Foxbar estate and was educated at St Mirin’s Academy, his Father and Grandfather were both miners from Irish roots and it was the tradition music from there that he grew up listening to .It’s been said he had an unhappy childhood.

After working in a butcher’s shop, as a civil service clerk, and in a shoe shop while making music with his school friend Joe Egan in various bands. In 69 he collaborated with Tam Harvey and Billy Connolly in The Humblebums. The band went their own ways and Rafferty plugged away as a solo act before joining Egan again with Stealers Wheel, Stuck in the Middle With You reached the top 10 on both sides of the atlantic but before an album could be released Gerry had left the group. and was left unable to release any music for over 3 years due to legal issues.

In 1978, Rafferty cut a solo album, City to City, which would catapult him right into international stardom. Earning praise from many music critics, the release included the song with which he remains most associated: “Baker Street” the single reached the top 5 in the states and over here. The album hit number one in the US and number six in this country, his follow up Night Owls reaped a top ten hit of the same name but fared less well in the charts as did the other albums to follow.

Gerry struggled with alcohol throughout his life and this contributed to his reluctance to play live. Due to his alcohol abuse Gerry died of liver failure on January 4th 2011, he was cremated Woodside Crematorium in Paisley and his ashes later scattered on the Island of Iona.

Mary Skeffington, close your eyes
And make believe that you are just a girl again
Go to sleep tonight, dream of days
When you had something there to light the way.

Remember a holiday in a north-of-England town
You slept in a room upstairs on a bed of eiderdown.

Mary Skeffington, when you wake
You mustn’t be afraid to face another day
Think of what you have, you’ll get by
You’ve always been a lady so hold your head up high.

Look back on a home where you spent the best years of your life
Remember the man who asked you if you would be his wife.

Mary Skeffington, close your eyes
And make believe that you are just a girl again
Go to sleep tonight, dream of days
When you had something there to light the way.

On April 16th 1117 Earl Magnus of Orkney, later St Magnus, is betayed and murdered by his cousin Håkon on the island of Egilsay in Orkney.

This is a great wee story, most of it gleaned from OrkneyJar, dates differ on other sites and I will post a link at the end going through the alternatives.

Orkney was ruled for most of its history by Norway. It occupied a crucial position off the north coast of Scotland for the Norwegian ships that harried England, Ireland and Wales and indeed Scotland, from the 9th to the 12th Centuries.

Hakon and Magnus grew up in Orkney. Their fathers, brothers Paul and Erlend, were joint Earls of Orkney: each ruling half of the islands. It was a period of peace and prosperity. Hakon developed into a proud fighter and warrior. Magnus preferred books to fighting and turned to the church for his strength.

Upon the death of their fathers, the Earldom passed to Sigurd, the son of King Magnus of Norway. During this time Hakon accompanied the King on various expeditions down the west coast of of the British Isles and lived up to his reputation as a fierce and fearless warrior.
Magnus joined the king on one expedition – a raiding expedition down the west coast of Scotland, travelling as far south as Angelsey. He refused to fight against English noblemen with whom he said he had no quarrel. (Some version say they were Welsh)

Rather than join battle, he sang psalms and prayed. He was no coward, but did not believe in fighting for its own sake. The king’s wrath was incurred so Magnus escaped from the King’s ship one night and swam to shore of Scotland where he had to disappear for several years until the old King was dead.

When the old king died, Sigurd succeeded to the Norwegian throne and Hakon was given the Earldom of Orkney.

Hakon ruled alone for a while, until Magnus arrived from Scotland and claimed possession of his patrimony, with the blessing of the new King. Hakon initially refused to give up any of Orkney, but as the local noblemen wouldn’t fight Magnus, he had to cede half of the islands. They ruled as their fathers had done.

Hakon and Magnus ruled Orkney in harmony for seven years; defending their Earldom from invaders and marauders with success. They appeared to have had a good understanding and Orkney flourished under their joint rule.

It seems that Magnus was the more popular of the cousins. The Orkneyinga Saga tells of a blameless life, a wise man, eloquent, strong-minded, magnanimous, and more beloved than any other man. He was generous to the deserving but severe with robbers and raiders. He punished rich and poor impartially for wrong-doing. His justice was fair and consistent. To cap it all, he was God-fearing. He married a Scots girl and lived with her for ten years without touching her, to honour a bond between him and God. When he was tempted to break his bond, he plunged into a tub of freezing water and prayed for divine guidance.

Hakon became increasingly jealous of Magnus’ popularity, fuelled at least in part by men of evil dispositions, Sigurd and Sighwat Sokki, who spread inflammatory rumours in the courts of both Earls. It resulted in Hakon and Magnus both taking troops to the regular meeting of Orkney noblemen on the Mainland. Battle was only averted by the intervention of noblemen who, as friends of both earls, managed to broker a truce.

To seal the bond of their reconciliation and continued cooperation, Hakon and Magnus arranged to meet on the island of Egilsay. They agreed to take only two ships each and few men. Magnus stuck to this arrangement and was on the island, praying, when Hakon arrived with eight ships and men armed to the teeth. His intent was clear.
It is recorded that Magnus had no concern for his own life, but wanted to save his cousin from the consequences of a shocking crime. He offered to leave on pilgrimage, never to return to Orkney. Hakon refused. He offered to submit to imprisonment in Scotland. Hakon refused. Finally he said “Let me be maimed as you like, or deprived of my eyes, and throw me into a dark dungeon”. Hakon was set to accept this offer, but his noblemen objected, saying that one or other of the Earls had to die that day. Hakon replied he would rather rule than die. Magnus’ fate was sealed.

In one more twist to the story, Hakon ordered his standard bearer to kill Magnus. He refused, knowing that the killer of such a popular man would be an outcast in Orkney. It was to his cook, Lifolf, that Hakon turned, knowing that he would not dare refuse the order. As Lifolf wept, Magnus prayed for him, forgave him, then prayed for the souls of his enemies, Earl Hakon included. Lifolf took up his axe and brought it down on Magnus’ forehead.

The place where Earl Magnus was slain had been rocks and moss, but after his death, grass grew strongly, indicating to the saga-writer that it was the death of a holy and righteous man. Hakon permitted the body to be buried in the church on the Brough of Birsay, which had been built by their Grandfather, Thorfinn. Soon after the burial a holy light was seen above the church and the sick were cured when they prayed at the grave. Pilgrimages started from all over Orkney.
Earl Hakon took over the rule of all of Orkney and extracted huge fines from those who had been loyal to Magnus. After a while, he made a pilgrimage to Rome and perhaps he saw the error of his ways, because against all the odds, he returned to Orkney to become a just and popular ruler, much lamented when he died, many years later.
The cult of Magnus spread well beyond Orkney’s shores. He died on April 16th 1117 and that day is kept as the day of his martyrdom. In the 12th Century saints could be chosen by popular acclaim; the canonisation process did not need a process at Rome. By 1136 he was a saint, authorised by the Bishop of Orkney. In 1137 the building of St Magnus Cathedral, which stands in the centre of Kirkwall today, was started by Earl Rognvald, Magnus’ nephew. It was erected with the express purpose of receiving the relics of St Magnus, which were transferred there when it was ready for use.

There was no firm evidence that the bones of St Magnus really did reside in St Magnus Cathedral until 1919, when extensive cathedral renovation was going on. Some loose stones were removed from a pillar, with the intention of re-mortaring them. Within a cavity behind these stones there was a box containing most of a human skeleton.

The state of the skull conformed with the story in the sagas about St Magnus’ death wound to the head. St Magnus’ relics had been found. They were replaced and the stones fixed back in place.

On April 16th 1914 the Galloway born writer and ‘Scotland’s Forgotten Bestseller’ S.R.Crockett died.

Born plain Sam Crocket at Little Duchrae in Balmaghie, Galloway on 24th September 1859, he was raised in Castle Douglas, won the Galloway Bursary to Edinburgh University in 1876 and supported himself by journalism and as a travelling tutor.

His Scottish works, many set in Galloway, unveil social history and the reality of life for the rural working classes, as well as delving into the history of the Covenanters and the Hanoverian period.

Travelling extensively he also wrote European novels, often based in Spain and France. His work was widely serialised in the late 19th century and was both ‘popular’ and commercially successful. This led to jealousy and accusations (unfounded) of being a ‘Kailyard’ writer, though his writing ranges far and wide over a thirty year career. However, the kailyard writer label stuck and sadly it means that many who might really enjoy reading about Scotland and her people from the perspective of the ‘ordinary’ rural dweller have missed out for generations.

For anyone who enjoys Stevenson, Hardy or Dickens, Crockett has plenty to offer. 9 years ago The Galloway Raiders was founded to preserve his memory and promote his life and writing. To date more than 40 of his novels/short story collections have been republished and he is finding a whole new readership of folk who can see beyond the stigma of labels and enjoy history adventure and romance in their fiction.

Throughout his life Crockett never forgot his native Galloway and though his native Galloway has all but forgotten him, The Galloway Raiders’ exist to commemorate and celebrate his writing all over the world. find out more at

www.gallowayraiders.co.uk

Prof Joseph Black chemist, researcher, teacher, first to identify carbon dioxide, was born on April 16th 1728.

Born in Bordeaux to an Irish father and a Scottish mother, Joseph Black spent his working life in Scotland. He is considered one of the world’s most eminent chemists and one of the founding fathers of the science of chemistry.

Black was a modest man and an excellent teacher. His meticulous research techniques were an inspiration to others in his day and have remained so today. Joseph was educated at home by his mother up until he was 12 when he was sent to live with relatives in Belfast and attend school there.

Four years later he went to Glasgow University to study medicine. Scottish doctor and chemist Dr William Cullen, (yes the same guy from my earlier post) was beginning a new course of lectures in chemistry at this time. Black became Cullen’s laboratory assistant. Chemistry was a passion for Black, alongside his medical education, which he completed in Edinburgh in 1754.

Black was always a meticulous chemist, keeping careful note of all his results and measurements. It was this which led to his discovery of carbon dioxide. He intended to pursue this study further. However from 1756 he became occupied with duties associated with his new appointment as Professor of Chemistry at Glasgow University.

Black met James Watt at Glasgow, University and they became friends and collaborators. Watt the skilled engineer investigating the efficiency of steam engines produced model engines for Black to use in his lectures on the properties of heat.

As well as Watt, another close friend of Black was James Hutton. Hutton left his collection of fossils to Black upon his death in 1797. Both men were Fellows of the newly founded Royal Society of Edinburgh. They were also members of the Oyster Club, a group of intellectuals who met regularly in Edinburgh. In 1766, Black moved back to Edinburgh to become Professor of Chemistry. He was known as an excellent teacher who inspired a number of his students to pursue careers in chemistry.

He was also widely respected both as a scientist and a physician. Several medical works of the late 18th century contain dedications to him. Black was called upon as a consultant to give his expert opinion in many different areas. Although Black appears to have had many friends, he never married. He died in 1799, quietly in his chair, holding a cup of milk. Black’s obituary was written by the philosopher Adam Ferguson.

Black has a rather impressive grave in Greyfriars Churchyard, Edinburgh. Both Edinburgh and Glasgow universities have named their chemistry buildings after him.

April 16th 1746 saw the Battle of Culloden.

Much has been said about the site of the battle and the Prince has been criticised for “choosing” the moor.

Three sites were scouted in the 48 hours leading up to the battle, they knew Cumberland’s army was coming, their had been skirmishes in the week or so before this day, things were coming to a head.

The first site as at Dalcross Castle, which John Sullivan, the Irish adjutant and quartermaster general, rejected, because the distance across the ravine would have been too small to protect the Jacobite army from British musket fire from the other side.

The second was on the south side of the Nairn, chosen by Lord George Murray. This was poor ground, did not protect the road to Inverness and was vulnerable to British mortar fire from the other side of the river. It is clear that this site was a prelude to retreat and the dissolution of the army, because it was not an effective battle site.

The third site was about 1km east of where the battle was eventually fought, and John Sullivan drew up the army there on 15 April. It was on higher and less boggy ground than the final battlefield, and both wings of the army could see each other, which they could not in the next day’s sleet and rain. No one ‘chose’ the site of the battle on Drummossie Moor as a preference: it was the line closest to headquarters at Culloden House which could defend the road to Inverness.

Many of those soldiers who were asleep after the failed night attack on the 15th had retreated to the grounds of Culloden House, and there was little time to form them up as the British Army approached on the morning of the battle.

Some had urged the Prince to fall back into the hills and glens, split into units and launch a guerrilla campaign, historians can’t agree who ruled this out, some say Lord Murray, others Prince Charles, some a mixture of the two, no matter what it never happened, as we all know.

The battle began around before mid-day, the 9,000 well-rested Government troops advanced downwind across the Moor towards their exhausted opponents who faced directly into the north-east wind and its accompanying sleet. The Prince’s forces numbered about 6,000 and were in two lines. The left flank of the front line was held by the three regiments of MacDonalds, highly resentful that they were not in their traditional place of honour on the right, held by the Atholl Brigade.

In the centre were some of the best of the Jacobite infantry, veterans of the victories at Prestonpans and Falkirk: Lord Lovat’s Frasers, the MacLeans, Mackintoshes, McLachlans and Chisholms. Weak in artillery, the Jacobite frontline could see Cumberland’s gunners unlimbering and loading their batteries of cannon. Receiving no order to unleash the fearsome Highland charge, by far their best weapon, they must have known what was coming.

And come it did; Cumberland opened fire with roundshot across the unobstructed moorland. Behind his artillery, the Duke’s own front line consisted of six regular infantry battalions; the Royal Regiment on the right, opposite the MacDonalds, with Barrell’s Regiment on the left, facing the Athollmen. The second line contained six more infantry battalions, with yet three more in a third line alongside two squadrons of light cavalry. Out on his flanks were the feared heavy Dragoons: Cobham’s on the right, Kerr’s on the left. All was ready for the Jacobite charge.

Cumberland’s infantry had been given intensive training on how to deal with the onrushing Highlander, claymore in right hand, targe on his left. Having fired his Brown Bess musket, each man was to use his socketed bayonet to attack the opponent on his right front, trusting that his own comrade to his immediate left would do the same.

This was designed to avoid the parrying effect of the targe and inflict a disabling wound in the first shock of contact.

For a full half-hour the Government artillery thundered on unchallenged, roundshot and then grapeshot hammering into the Prince’s waiting battalions. Still no order to charge came as scores of men went down, thinning the ranks and producing frantic calls from officers and men to be released to the charge. Eventually they went off anyway.

The MacDonalds crashed in to Barrell’s Regiment, overrunning the front line before losing momentum and being shot and bayoneted by the upcoming second rank. Elsewhere the charge was even less successful; depleted by cannon fire and decimated by the rolling volleys of the infantry, Highland courage and dash proved no match for regular infantry discipline. The charge reeled backwards leaving up to a thousand dead in front of and among the Government positions.

Cumberland ordered a general advance and unleashed his cavalry. What had been a battle was now a rout. It had lasted an hour.

Jacobite casualties are estimated at 1,500 dead, with an unknown number of wounded and fugitives bayoneted and shot in the merciless pursuit that followed.Cumberland lost only 59 dead and 250 wounded, the only senior officer to die being Lord Robert Kerr, commander of grenadiers in Barrell’s Regiment and a son of the Marquess of Lothian.

It was over; the military neutralisation of the Highlands was about to begin.

The ease in which the Government troops surprised Cumberland, and he surprised further when the Jacobites did not regroup and force another battle, he certainly expected another, but none came, around 1000 gathered the following day at Ruthven ­Barracks, where a written order from Prince Charles told them to “seek their own safety” and disband. But, for many, surrendering was too dangerous an option.

As time went on, the risks of Jacobites handing themselves in became clear. The mood of the Ruthven meetings was downcast. Many fought on to avoid capture or because the risk of surrendering was high. In June, a number of Jacobites went into Fort William after the British government ­promised six weeks’ immunity. Captain Scott drowned them in a salmon net.

Jacobites engaged in low-level disruption, raiding and ­protection of vulnerable tenantry as well as recruitment to the Irish Brigade and probably Scottish regiments in French service, including Ecossais Royales.

Assassinations of unpopular ­government officers or sympathisers were also recorded. The British government still considered the Jacobite threat to be “major” at this time with around 12,000 to 13,000 soldiers deployed across the entire country – from Berwick and Stranraer to Elgin, Forres, Stonehaven, Inverbervie and Montrose – by the end of August 1746.

As government forces mobilised, significant units of armed Jacobites continued to appear in the field. At the end of April, 120 armed MacGregor men were recorded in Balqhuidder after marching home ‘colours flying and pipes playing’ with the Army unwilling to tackle or pursue Jacobite units that maintained discipline.

One battalion of Lochiel’s ­regiment was still operational in May – as were 500 men under ­Clanranald. Orkney remained under Jacobite control until late that month and, despite British attacks, four local Jacobite lairds remained successfully hidden

Clans made concerted attempts to resist Cumberland and his men with around a dozen chiefs meeting at Mortlaig in early May. At the meeting… they entered into a bond for their mutual defence and agreed never to lay down their arms, or make a general peace without the consent of the whole,” according to an 1832 account by James Browne.

“By the bond of association, the chiefs agreed…to raise on behalf of the prince and in defence of their country, as many able-bodied armed men as they could on their respective properties.”

Around 600 men gathered later that month across the north and west but the clans “ultimately did not have the time or morale to raise or retain enough men in the field.

Although a unified response failed to materialise, Jacobites remained active across Scotland. Jacobite expresses – the non-stop delivery of letters by horse – continued until August. A British regiment was deployed across Banffshire in the summer of 1746 with insurgents reported in Argyll that September.

Arms were surrendered in the Mearns right into the summer of 1748. British atrocities were carried out against innocent ­victims, but there were plenty of continuing Jacobite threats and remained so for some time, this led to the building of roads and bridges, to make it easier for troops to be deployed into the heart of the country, many still used to this day, these projects and the act of proscription meant the end of the old Highland way of life.

Many of us have made our pilgrimages to Culloden to pay our respects to those that died that day, and to the commemorations, both on the day, and at the one at midnight the night before, I hope you all take a moment and remember the brave men who fell that day and afterwards…………

Good Morning from Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Rattray Head Lighthouse at sunrise.

📸Fabio Todde on Flickr