The Scottish Military Research Group - Commemorations Project

[DerekR]

UKNIWM Ref: 5891
OS map ref: NH741451

It has been a few years since I last visited Culloden but I'm afraid to say that all the "improvements" taken place since that time have left me very uneasy.
It's now more history by Disney than history for remembrance IMHO.
What have they done to the headstones by painting the lettering? The headstones were a Victorian embellishment but at least they blended into the scenery before their "makeover".


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Time but th' impression stronger makes, As streams their channels deeper wear.

[DerekR]

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Time but th' impression stronger makes, As streams their channels deeper wear.

[DerekR]

How one of the headstones used to look:



And todays view:


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Time but th' impression stronger makes, As streams their channels deeper wear.

[DerekR]

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Time but th' impression stronger makes, As streams their channels deeper wear.

[DerekR]

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Time but th' impression stronger makes, As streams their channels deeper wear.

[DerekR]

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Time but th' impression stronger makes, As streams their channels deeper wear.

[DerekR]

What is this?

Answers on a postcard to.................


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Time but th' impression stronger makes, As streams their channels deeper wear.

[mfi]

I'm not familiar with the 'pre-improved' Culloden site, and have no particular opinion on the painting or gorse-clearance around the Clan graves.
What did strike me as remarkable and almost completely unpublicised is the way in which one whole elevation of the new Visitor Centre, opened this Spring, has been built so as to constitute a war memorial itself. The very long stone wall that faces the battlefield site has been designed so that one stone protrudes from wall for each man who died on the battlefield. They are arranged with the appropriate Jacobite number at one end, and after a section of wall where all the stones are flush, the protruding stones re-commence for each of the Government men killed.

The plaque which explains all this is small and only likely to be seen when re-entering the Visitor Centre and only then if you're eyes are peeled and you're neither dodging the rain or the midges.

The approximate £9 million cost of the Centre says something quite profound about the things for which we subscribe to voluntary organisations. To create what is in effect a 2008 memorial to a battle of 1746, and one which can still divide opinion, suggests that 'remembrance' has a much wider appeal to many people than the 1914-1945 era alone.

If I could work out how to post my own pix I'd be happy to oblige!
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I am interested in the full contemporary recognition of current conflicts, (Afghanistan, Iraq, UN peacekeeping service etc.).

[Adam Brown]

[Adam Brown]

Keptie's recent posts on Jacobite memorials close to Culloden reminded me that I visited the battlefield a year ago and took these photographs.

This is the memorial wall MFI mentioned above

[Adam Brown]

The positions of the regiments have been replaced by stone markers. They are also in a different position from the wooden markers after work done by Glasgow University.

The Government marker for Chobham's Dragoons and Argyllshire Militia. They were on the left flank of the line which is currently on private land next to the NTS's battlefield.



The Jacobite Atholl regiment



The number refers to the strength of the regiment and the dotted lines on the bottom right of the stone show its position on the battlefield. I visited just before the April anniversary of the battle so a sprig of heather in remembrance obscures this particular position.

[Adam Brown]

A plaque on a bench next to the main memorial cairn which Derek posted above.



Adam

[Adam Brown]

I have a lot more photographs of the battlefield but they are not all appropriate for here. You can see them on the Scottish Military Research Group's own Facebook Page's Culloden album:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.207100969320156.61295.171539162876337&type=3

We also have the French Stone and Irish Stone listed under the Highlands - Regimental & Unit Memorials section of the forum.

Adam

[stuartn]

For now I have added this new memorial wall under existing WMR report 5891.
I am unsure if, in strict terms, it counts as a separate memorial in its own right, as there are no names on the stones in the wall.