Scotland - Day 12

Today we went to Culloden and Fort George. The battle of Culloden was part of the 2nd Jacobite Rebellion. That rebellion occurred in 1745. Price Charles Edward Stuart, also called Bonnie Prince Charlie, was in the family of Stuarts. He wished to become king, and was trying to convince the French that they should help him. They sent him with a fleet of ships to England in 1744, but it was scattered by a storm. If that fleet had landed in England, they would probably have took over England and Scotland.

The next year he left for Scotland with only two ships, one of which was attacked and forced to return home on the way. He landed in Scotland and raised his standard at Glenfinnian on April 19, 1745. He moved south and his forces grew to 3,000 men. He began a march to take over the capital, London. His army came within 125 miles of London, but the generals decided to return to Scotland.

They fought the 2nd battle of Falkirk Nairn on April 14, 1746. The Scots planned a night attack, which failed. The English came out on the 19th of April, 1746. Their army was about 9,000, and the Scot's was about 5,400. The Scots formed 2 lines, and the English 3. There was a short exchange of artillery, and then some of the Scottish clans decided to charge. Charles gave the order, but the McDonalds on the left refused to move because they were not positioned on the right. Those who did charge were forced to avoid some boggy areas, and were defeated when they hit the English. The Scots lost about 1,250 killed, 1,000 wounded, 558 captured and the English only 52 killed, 259 wounded. After the battle the English killed all Scots that they could find.

A flag Jacobite at Culloden.

This is the Battlefield looking towards the Scottish line.

This is what the soldiers would have looked like: British (left) and Highlander (right).

This was the last Jacobite Rebellion. After Joshua told us about the battle at Culloden and we walked to all the corners of the battlefield, which took about 3 hours, we left and went to Fort George. The building of Fort George was started in 1748 by William Skinner, who was the king's military engineer of North Britain. By 1757 the main defences were completed and the internal buildings were starting to emerge.

A cannon at Fort George.

The whole fort was completed in 1769, well behind schedule. Fort George was made to have all the provisions of a small town. Fort George is very large, 42 acres. Joshua enjoyed it very much.
The walls are very thick:Fort George is still in use today. We saw some snow flurries even though it was very sunny, but it was cold and windy. We spent about 2 1/2 hours at Fort George, then we went back to the condo.