culloden

Dan Snow's observation in the times that Culloden defeat should be celebrated,  last week brought to mind one of the observations of my lecturer, Professor Gordon Donaldson, at Edinburgh. As we considered the Jacobite Rising of 1745, he pointed out that while 1,500 men were dying on Drumossie Moor, some 250,000 Highlanders were quietly going about their business crofting, fishing and spinning. The battle was certainly not for the heart of the Scottish nation, Highland, Lowland or Border.


Charles Edward Stuart led less than 10,000 men to the top of the hill, then ran away. What followed was the imposition of state-sponsored Hanoverian terrorism upon a community only guilty by their association by birth, culture, religion and language with the remnant who espoused and died for the prince’s cause. It was the Young Pretender’s effete greed for royal power which ransacked the Highlanders. It has taken almost 300 years, but Jacobite nobles persecuted after the defeat of Bonnie Prince Charlie at Culloden, could soon be pardoned and have their titles reinstated. A campaign backed by MSPs from across the political spectrum is seeking to give baCK THE TITLES BUT ITS ANOTHER WASTE OF TAXPAYERS MONEY BASED ON the useless lump of Scottish imbecile politicians in Scotland. the kilt is not even scottish in its present form. judging history with hindsight is not history. read John Prebble's culloden , get the facts.

Highlanders and Islanders were ruthless men and so it proved of the Scottish nobility when the penny dropped with the lairds of the highland and island clans. They turned on their faithful retainers and treated them as inconvenient garbage. Mind you, the clearances had started well before Culloden.