Culloden - Did it really change World History?

The National Trust for Scotland is a conservative sort of organisation, not normally given to rash claims. And yet at the new Culloden Battlefield Visitor Centre there is a prominent announcement that this battle changed World History! I have visited several times and enjoy the new centre very much , but find no evidence that the battle 'changed history'! Even if Prince Charles Edward had by some extraordinary stroke of good generalship won on 16 July 1746, would he really have gone on with his army 6,000, valiant, tough, but mostly untrained Highlanders, to overcome the British Army of 62,000? Would Louis XV,who did not support the Prince when he embarked from France, nor at the propitious moment following the victory at Prestonpans, really have committed the French troops required to turn the tide? I think not, and anyway we are a long way from the Battle of Culloden changing European or World History. Surely it merely prolonged the status quo!

It's an excellent exhibition nevertheless, giving the lie to any idea that this was a Scots v. English affair, and well worth a visit.

And if you disagree with me, please post a comment!

The New Culloden Visitor Centre

Camera pans the battlefield as curlews cry, and the lilting tones of Finlay MacDonald intone, "We are here. On Drumossie Moor. Now restored to look more or less as it did in 1746. Except for the gravestones of course. They came later."

Yes, I liked the old presentation of Culloden Battlefield - simple, effective, familiar. But today I visited the new, multi million pound, hi-tech version. And I liked it even more. The new centre works on a number of levels - attention-grabbing presentation, plenty detail for those who want it, and good Scottish wood and stone to house it all. But most of all, this new exhibition is effective in setting the battle in a global, rather than a highland context. This will surprise, and I hope intrigue, many people. It also presents the whole Jacobite campaign of 1745/46 in shades of grey, rather than the black and white view with which many visitors arrive. This was a complex campaign of difficult decisions, bad decisions, divided loyalties, a campaign in which public relations and half truths drove the actions of both sides.

So, I recommend the new centre heartily. But allow a good two hours to get full benefit from your £10 entry fee.

Snow, and a date which very precisely marks the end of the clan system in the Highlands.

The snow came today; the first since December - large, wet flakes in the wind, bowing the daffodils, silencing the rooks that were noisily repairing nests in the tall Scots pines, drenching the plum blossom. The grey geese are still there in the upland meadows - heard, not seen, through the thick, heavy sky; it's good that they haven't left on their journey to the breeding grounds, as the recent harsh winds would have driven them well off course.

I feel sorry for our clients from Seattle, just embarking on their first trip to Scotland. However they wanted to explore sites linked to the novels of Diana Gabaldon. Her hero, Jamie Fraser, took his place in Bonnie Prince Charlie's army on Culloden Moor, fighting for a cause that few who were there fully understood. But if our clients visit Culloden Battlefield today they will get some idea of the plight of those tired, hungry Highlanders who, already exhausted from an abortive night march, faced driving sleet and the overwhelmingly firepower of the government army. It happened on 16 April 1746, a date which very precisely marks the end of the clan system in the Highlands.