VIDEO: Development threat to Inverness–shire battlefield explored in annual 1745 Association lecture to commemorate 275th anniversary of the Battle of Culloden

To commemorate the 275th anniversary of the last battle fought on British soil, a call has been made for more powers for the National Trust for Scotland (NTS).

Raising fears that as land encroaching on the battlefield continues to attract commercial development the site may be lost altogether, historian Andrew McKenzie, argues for the entire area to come under single ownership.

He was speaking last night at the annual NTS-1745 Association Culloden Lecture. The video is now available on YouTube, and can be viewed here.

In his lecture, entitled ‘Tourism, Research and Conservation at Culloden Battlefield, 1746-2021', Mr McKenzie describes the threat to the Culloden Battlefield posed by commercial development proposals, and expresses the hope that a land purchase programme by the National Trust for Scotland to assemble the entire battlefield under single ownership may preserve it for future generations.

After the lecture, Michael Nevin, chairman of the 174Associationon said: "The alternative 'business as usual' scenario poses the very real risk that there will be no annual Culloden Ccommemoration in a hundred years' time, for the simple reason that there will be no Culloden Battlefield, only a series of viewhill farm / treetops-type developments where the battlefield used to be.

"Mr McKenzie ends on a hopeful note, that serious proposals are now being developed to consolidate the entire battlefield under the NTS."

READ: Culloden Battlefield is a war grave and protection of it should be enshrined in law, says campaign group

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