Culloden

From Killiecrankie we drove further into the Highlands on the A9, stopping at Aviemar and then Inverness for shopping. We proceeded on to nearby Culloden, the great battlefeld where, in 1746, the Duke of Cumberland finally and decisively put down the Jacobites and Bonnie Prince Charlie, the Catholic and Stuart claimant to the British throne. (Well, his dad, actually). It was a great slaughter--”with extreme prejudice”, "no quarter," that is, no prisoners--after which followed the Proscriptions, banning weapons, tartans, and the clans, for good. All this despite the fact that Cumberland's army included many Highlanders loyal to the King. Oh well, collateral damage. Personally, I am grateful in that, after the rout, the Bonnie Prince hid out with various of his followers, including the Mackinnons of Skye, to whom he gave his still-secret recipe for Drambuie, my favorite liqueur. They're still making it. And we'll be making the pilgrimage to the Isle of Skye a bit later.

Entrance to Culloden; on the field, the placement of the regiments is denoted by 
red and blue flags

Culloden has a superb visitor center that makes sense of these highly complicated 
times and issues, using all kinds of hands-on as well as high-tech means; we also 
went on the battlefied tour

One of many Highlander memorials

The memorial wall: 1500 off-set stones for Highlanders 
killed, 50 for government troops killed; the Redcoats at 
this point had figured out the Highland Charge (or, as 
Frederick the Great once said, "God favors the larger

armies")

Prince Charles Edward's Liqueur, the "Spirit of '45" the labels used to say...