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Culloden April 16th, 1746. The last battle of the rebellion, when Jacobites, under Bonnie Prince Charlie, challenged the British forces. It resulted in a bitter defeat for the heavily outnumbered Jacobites, and Culloden marked the end of any serious attempt by the Jacobites to restore the Stuart dynasty to the British throne The cycle route passes close to the scene of this final battle at Culloden, which is now just a quiet tract of open moorland. But the clash in 1746 is important to the history of Scotland and England. It lasted only forty minutes, and some 1,000 of the army of 5,000 weak and starving Highlanders were killed by the 9,000 Redcoats, who lost only 50 men. The devastating slaughter of the Jacobites was the result of British cannonade and the subsequent tactics of the Redcoats during the attack of Highlanders, when each British soldier instead of attacking the Highlander in front of him, bayoneted the exposed side of the man to his right. The tactic worked, the Highlanders broke and fled, and were hounded by British troops. One thousand more were killed in subsequent weeks of harrying by British troops, and hunted by troops and spies, Prince Charles wandered over Scotland for five months - with a £30,000 price tag over his head - before escaping to France and final exile. A memorial cairn to the fallen Highlanders was erected on the battlefield in 1881. The Battle of Culloden was the last great battle fought on British soil. Information The National Trust | |
