Lead buck and ball shotNational Trust for Scotland
Lead buck and ball shotNational Trust for Scotland
“Fought on April 16, 1746, the Battle of Culloden marked Britain’s final defeat of the Jacobite army led by Charles Edward Stuart, who was also known as Bonnie Prince Charlie.”
We spent a couple days in the Highlands in August. We stayed in Fort William, 70 miles SW of Culloden. It was there that the final siege of Fort William ended on April 3, 1746, just 13 days before Culloden. We hiked the Waters of Nevis (River Nevis or Glen Nevis), but this wasn’t the route taken by the army.
I find very old musket balls all the time, but never considered it newsworthy.
Whiff of the Grape?.............
I’ve basically done a 180 about Culloden since I was a young man. I used to fantasize about what what glories might have come to pass if the Stuarts had prevailed, but as I’ve become better informed about the period I’ve come to realize that in the long run the English still would have won. The real power in Scotland had always lain with the Clans, and no monarch could rule without their support. And there are repeated events in Scottish history that showed that the average Clan chieftan would rather be rich than be Scottish. And the English crown always offered better bribes than the King of Scots did.
Nonetheless, I still won’t wear a Black Watch tartan because of Culloden. The Black Watch and the Rob Roy are the two authentic/historic tartans you see most commonly in general apparel garments, bath robes and such, and the only Black Watchers at Culloden were on Butcher Cumberland’s side.
Not that it matters anyway because almost all ‘ancient’ tartans are fraudulent (hard to know which are and which aren’t), thanks to the Sobieski Stuarts.
https://grokipedia.com/page/Romanticization_of_Scottish_tartan_culture#definitions-and-key-elements
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sobieski_Stuarts
And Bonnie Prince Charlie was a bit of a wackjob. Born in Rome and grew up in Italy, he’d never set foot in Scotland until he decided to invade it because ‘God had ordained’ that he be King. His military leadership was a bit wacky, too. Not sure he’d have known what to do with Scotland if he’d had it.
He’s entombed in St Peters in the Vatican, alongside his father.
