Undetonated Mortar Shell Recovered from Scotland's Culloden Battlefield

Archaeology Magazine ^ | April 15, 2026 | editors / unattributed

[SunkenCiv]

An intact mortar shell has been discovered at Scotland's Culloden Battlefield by a team of researchers led by Derek Alexander of the National Trust for Scotland and Tony Pollard of the University of Glasgow, according to a Scottish Field report. Fought on April 16, 1746, the battle marked the English government's defeat of Jacobite forces, who supported the return of the exiled Stuart king to the English throne after the Glorious Revolution in 1688. The undetonated shell is thought to have been fired by government troops from a Coehorn mortar and then to have landed on boggy ground, where its fuse was extinguished. "Along with the other projectiles recovered, this discovery helps us better understand the formation of troops and concentration of fire during this brief, but brutal battle," Alexander said. "The mortars may have been aiming at the Jacobite artillery, so the place where the shell landed may mark the heart of the Culloden battlefield," he added. The shell was X-rayed and cleaned to render it safe for display. For more on battlefield archaeology in Scotland, go to "Bannockburn Booty."

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TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: coehornmortar; culloden; gloriousrevolution; jacobites; jamesii; maryii; scotland; scotlandyet; stuarts; williamandmary; williamiii; williamoforange

[SunkenCiv]

Unexploded mortar shell

National Trust for Scotland

[SunkenCiv]

There was no Kaboom.

[FreedomPoster]

Still, these sort of stories are why much of Europe has EOD as a 4th responder operation along with police, fire and EMS.

[TigersEye]

Wow! A 280 yr old mortar shell. And still potentially dangerous.

[dfwgator]

The mortar the merrier!

[mass55th]

Visited Culloden battlefield back in 2006. It was one of the stops during the 3-week bus tour I took of the British Isles.

[Pontiac]

The undetonated shell is thought to have been fired by government troops from a Coehorn mortar and then to have landed on boggy ground, where its fuse was extinguished.

Wow! A 280 yr old mortar shell. And still potentially dangerous.

It would be a very remote possibility that this shell was dangerous (other than dropping it on your foot).

This was a blackpowder shell. Once it was wet it was not going to explode.

Being wet for, at least periodically, the saltpeter would have leached out of the blackpowder years ago.

Note the hole in the mortar. When ready for use the would have been plugged with a wooden pin through which the fuse passes. This plug buried in boggy ground would have rotted away a century ago.

I would imagine that the museum people mentioned safety just to satisfy the Karens reading the article.

"We made it safe for all the little children that visit the museum."

[NorthernDancer]

I visited Colloden with friends in 1985, and we discovered that people from two of our ancestral families had fought against each other at a particular spot there (the Stewarts of Appin v. the Munros).