Day 4: The Tragedy of Culloden Field

We drove up to Culloden Field today. A historic battle took place here, and it was kind of hard for me to actually see the place that I've been reading about in my favorite books (Diana Gabaldon books!). I'm going to site Wikipedia here; "The Battle of Culloden was the final confrontation of the 1745 Jacobite rising. Taking place on 16 April 1746, the battle pitted the Jacobite  forces of Charles Edward Stewart against an army commanded by William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, loyal to the British government. The Jacobite cause to overthrow the reigning House of Hanover and restore the House of Stewart to the British throne was dealt a decisive defeat at Culloden; Charles Stuart never mounted any further attempts to challenge Hanoverian power in Britain. The conflict was the last pitched battle fought on British soil, occurring near Inverness in the Scottish Highlands."

In about 3 minutes, 700 Jacobite men were killed by government soldiers. The battle lasted under an hour. In that time, 1500 Jacobites were slaughtered; only 50 government men died.


The clansmen who were killed were buried in the field, in mass graves. A large cairn stands on the site, in memory of these brave men. Here are some of the gravestones, representing the different clans.

Clan Mackintosh

Mixed Clans, still at Culloden Field

After visiting Culloden, we went to go see Clava Cairns- a prehistoric cemetery. It was awesome! There are some more photos of this on my Facebook page if you want to see them.

Clava Cairns

This day was really fun and interesting because of all the history represented. It's so exciting for me to see historical places that are so old, and that I've been reading about for so long. I can't believe I'm here!!
Tomorrow we're off to Edinburgh. We might stop at Blair Castle on the way. We'll see!