The newly opened Visitor Centre at Culloden is superb and full of interactive displays.  We visited on a bright sunny day but it was not hard to lose yourself in the full horror of the brief, but bloody battle. It took barely an hour for the government troops to defeat Charlie’s Jacobite army, resulting in the Bonnie Prince fleeing to France.  In the weeks that followed, the clans were ‘tamed’ and the kilt and tartan were banned!

Anyone with roots in Scotland will want to work through the chronologically themed corridors, discovering what led to the battle, where their clan was involved and the affect it had on Scottish history.  I was particularly moved by the ‘battle room’ where you are immersed in the combat; with commands, voices, gunfire, etc all around you.

There is a very good café area and shop, and it is somewhat disconcerting to see a Jacobite or English soldier queuing for home-made soup!  Back outside, with our battlefield plan, we visited Leanach Cottage, a farmhouse on the battlefield which still stands there today.  It has been carefully restored to its original state – people must have been shorter then!  Each area of the field is marked with stones to the clan or troop that fought there and we were able to find Clan Farquharson, with whom members of the Shaw clan fought on that day.

By Yvonne Shaw.  Yvonne has been with PerryGolf for over 10 years and is a member of our admin team.