Culloden

Today I sent an email to my friend Yura in Tomsk in Siberia trying to explain to him the battle of Culloden. This was the last battle on British soil, in 1746. As a kid in Inverness I often used to cycle to the battlesite at Culloden.

Wikipedia says the following -

The Battle of Culloden (April 16, 1746) was the final clash between the French-supported Jacobites and the Hanoverian British Government in the 1745 Jacobite Rising. It was the last battle to be fought on mainland Britain. Culloden brought the Jacobite cause—to restore the House of Stuart to the throne of the Kingdom of Great Britain—to a decisive defeat.
The Jacobites—most of them Highland Scots—supported the claim of James Francis Edward Stuart (aka "The Old Pretender") to the throne; the government army, under the Duke of Cumberland, younger son of the Hanoverian sovereign, King George II, supported his father's cause.
The aftermath of the battle was brutal and earned the victorious general the name "Butcher" Cumberland. Charles Edward Stuart eventually left Britain and went to Rome, never to attempt to take the throne again. Civil penalties were also severe. New laws attacked the Highlanders' clan system, and even highland dress was outlawed.


Then I was browsing YouTube and I searched for The Skye Boat Song. This was written about Bonnie Price Charlie's escape after Culloden to the Isle of Skye, helped by Flora MacDonald. From Skye he set sail for Rome and ended his days in France. This version is sung by the Corries, the best of Scotland's folk duos. Ronnie is sadly no longer with us. But anyway here is the Skye Boat Song.