Culloden: New home plan poses "irreparable scar" for historic battlefield

Plans to build another home within the historic boundary of Culloden Battlefield will create a further “irreparable scar” on the land, campaigners have claimed.

Campaigners are concerned about a growing number of housing developments planned for the Culloden Battlefield. Only a third of it is held by the National Trust for Scotland with the memorial cairn (pictured) part of its property. PIC: Creative Commons/Herbert Frank/Flickr.

Highland Council has received an application for the proposed property at Muirfield Farm at Westhill, near Inverness.

It is the latest in a string of contentious applications for land that falls within the original battlefield boundary.

If built, the house will sit to the north-west of the area owned by the National Trust for Scotland.

David Learmonth, from the Group to Stop Development at Culloden, said of the latest proposals: “This proposal will result in a significant, irreparable scar on another strategic part of Culloden Battlefield.

This site is likely very close to where the south-eastern wall of the Culloden Park enclosure stood and from where the last firing Jacobite gun was silenced.”

The Muirfield Farm site falls on the route from Culloden House taken by the Jacobite army ahead of the battle, although no actual fighting took place on the land earmarked for development, according to a report submitted by archaeologists acting for the applicant.

GUARD Archaeology was hired by the applicants to survey the site, with no artefacts linked to the 1746 encounter between the Jacobites and the British Army found.

The report said: “The setting assessment has found that the proposed development would have no significant indirect effect upon the settings of Battle of Culloden Inventory Battlefield and the category B-listed Kings Stables.”

Campaigners are worried about the accumulative effect of planning applications on the wider Culloden Battefield area, which has no statutory protection.

Successful developments include the 16-home estate at Viewhill Farm to the north of the battlefield. Other applications in the system include a luxury home on land just south of the National Trust for Scotland fence.

Andrew McKenzie, former general manager at Culloden Visitor Centre and founder of Highland Historian bespoke tours, said: “This won’t end until National Trust for Scotland and Historic Environment Scotland speak out strongly against developments and speak up for conservation.

"It will also continue while statutory protection is not in place for battle sites. These things are not looking like changing as quickly as we need them to. This is a huge shame and a disaster for conservation."