The 'desecration' of war grave Culloden

Published on Wednesday 15 July 2009 22:12

THE battlefield at Culloden stirs up many emotions for visitors, but for Alasdair MacNeill the main one was anger.

On a recent visit to the site of the 1746 battle, Mr MacNeill became furious at the disrespectful behaviour of some tourists. One family was having a picnic on top of a war grave, he said.

Now the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) is having signs made, urging visitors to respect the site and the fallen soldiers.

Mr MacNeill, a member of the Circle of Gentlemen, a society that celebrates the Jacobite cause, said: "There was a family of four with two dogs. They were sprawled across one of the large mounds with the father leaning up against a headstone munching on a Scotch egg and smoking a cigarette. All the time, the two dogs were sniffing around. I went home and contacted the NTS right away."

He added: "There are plenty of signs around Culloden battlefield pointing out where various regiments lined up. I'm hoping the trust will put the new signs on the path leading to the big cairn so they will be right in your face, saying you are about to enter a war grave.

"Hopefully, people will stop and treat it with the respect it deserves."

He said he would not expect such behaviour to be acceptable at First World War battlefields such as Flanders or Ypres.

"Many people, especially American tourists, come to Culloden because it is a revered place and to find their relatives."

An NTS spokeswoman said: "The signs are in production at the moment. They will remind people the battlefield is a war grave and asking them to behave accordingly."

Culloden was the scene of the last major battle fought on mainland Britain. The conflict ended the attempt by the Jacobite army to reclaim the British throne for a Catholic Stuart king.

The 5,000-strong Jacobite army was outnumbered by the government side which had 9,000 troops and superior weaponry. The fighting was over in less than an hour.

The aftermath of the battle saw the systematic destruction of the clan system in the Highlands and the Jacobite cause was forced underground.

The Circle of Gentlemen was a secret society that existed in Edinburgh and was "loyal to the rightful King James and his decedents".

Today, the group celebrates Highland culture and the influence the Gaels have had on the world following migration in the year after Culloden.

Last month, the Queen became the first British monarch to set foot on the battlefield.

She was given a tour of the visitor centre, which opened in December 2007 after the NTS spent 9.5 million constructing and fitting out the building and restoring the battlefield.

About 100,000 visitors come through the centre's door each year with about 200,000 walking around the battlefield.

Visitors to the battlefield can now have a "personal digital assistant", using satellite technology to give audio and visual displays relating to areas where the action took place.

FALLEN HEROES REMEMBERED ABROAD

SOME of the biggest war graves to British soldiers are in France and Belgium and were built after the First World War.

There are also cemeteries in the Middle East and Iraq, as a result of battles against the Ottoman Empire during the Great War, and in North Africa, the Far East and Italy from the Second World War.

In the Ypres Salient battlefields in Belgium there are more than 137 British and Commonwealth military burial grounds and 40,000 unidentified graves. One of the largest cemeteries is Tyne Cot, north of Ypres, which contains 12,000 graves.

Many shipwrecks are also classified as war graves, including the Royal Oak which was sunk by a German U-boat in Scapa Flow in October 1939 with the loss of 833 of the 1,400 crew.