We visited Culloden Battlefield today and fortunately the rain stayed away for our visit. It was many years since we had visited the site and we were very impressed with the new visitor centre. The site is famous for its eerie atmosphere and is well worth a visit.

The Battle of Culloden was the final confrontation of the 1745 Jacobite Rising and on 16 April 1746, the Jacobite forces of Charles Edward Stuart fought loyalist troops commanded by the Duke of Cumberland.

The Jacobite army consisted largely of Scottish Highlanders, a number of Lowland Scots, a small detachment of Englishmen from the Manchester Regiment, and supported by Irish and Scots units in French service. The Hanoverian loyalist forces were mostly English with a significant number of Scottish Lowlanders and Highlanders, a battalion of Ulstermen, and a small number of Germans and Austrians.

The battle was quick and bloody and was over within an hour. Between 1,500 and 2,000 Jacobites were killed or wounded in the battle. Government losses are recorded as 50 dead and 259 wounded although recent geophysical studies on the government burial pit suggest the figure to be nearer 300.

The conflict was the last pitched battle fought on British soil and the Hanoverian victory at Culloden decisively halted the Jacobite intent to overthrow the House of Hanover and restore the House of Stuart to the British throne.

This is the view of the battlefield looking towards the Hanovarian line. In the middle foreground is the Cameron memorial. As a Cameron by marriage I chose this view, there being no Scott memorial. MOH was quite put out by my vehement denial that I am a Scott and not a Cameron - forever true to my roots and anscestory but I will never admit to him or my sons that the Scotts fought for the Hanovarians.

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