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Only in the Inverness Courier
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2 September, 2010
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Published: 17 April, 2009
THE unsuccessful night march made by the Jacobites in a bid to surprise the Duke of Cumberland's army on the eve of the Battle of Culloden was re-enacted for the first time on Wednesday night to mark its anniversary.
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A team of more than 20 people — some dressed in traditional plaid — walked 20 miles from Culloden House to the Muir of the Clans, on the western edge of Nairn, arriving at Culloden Moor in the early hours of yesterday. The trek took around 10 hours, with only 12 people completing it. Two people were taken to Raigmore Hospital with ankle injuries. On the evening of 15th April, 1746, the Jacobite army, led by Bonnie Prince Charlie, prepared to surprise Hanoverian forces who were thought to be sleeping at a camp on the western edge of Nairn. But the night march was a disaster as the force of 3000 men began to disintegrate across rough moor and thick woodland on their way towards the government camp. Hungry and exhausted, the Jacobites became disorientated in the pitch black of night and, with the element of surprise lost, the march was eventually abandoned.
As dawn approached the Jacobites made their way back, having marched 20 miles through cold and wet weather. That morning the exhausted Jacobites faced a well-fed and rested government army and were ultimately defeated on Culloden Moor on 16th April 1746 — the last battle to be fought on British soil. "From what we know from the accounts and the distances they covered that night, it would have been gruelling," explained march organiser Tony Pollard, director of the Centre for Battlefield Archaeology at Glasgow University. "It could have gone either way for the Jacobites. It was a very risky undertaking and proved to be a mistake, but if they had surprised the camp then it might have changed things. If they had beaten Cumberland in the field then the French may have thought the Jacobites were a worthwhile cause to support." The march also raised money for charity, with Erskine, which cares for ex-service men and women, the beneficiary. 
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