Edinburgh Castle Redcoat Cafe furore: The perils of politicians still fighting 278-year-old battles – Scotsman comment

Edinburgh Castle may have a Redcoat Cafe, but it also has a Jacobite function room

Amid uproar on social media over the re-opening of Edinburgh Castle’s newly renovated “Redcoat Cafe”, which several nationalist politicians joined in, Historic Environment Scotland (HES) has announced a review. Angus MacNeil, the former SNP MP who now sits as an independent, said the name, which began being used in 1992, would prove “useful” as “a new generation will within a month know all about the Butcher Duke of Cumberland. Prompts to history from Massacre of Glencoe to Culloden and afterwards, both by government forces, are useful”.

However, HES will also review the name of the castle’s “Jacobite” function room – perhaps their way of saying they hadn’t meant to take sides in the 1745 uprising but were simply using names redolent of Scotland’s history. It should be pointed out that many Scots served as Redcoats, both in the government army at Culloden and in later conflicts involving the UK.

Before 1992, the cafe was called “Mills Mount”. It’s a serviceable, uncontroversial and rather dull name. But with so many seeking to make political capital out of a 278-year-old battle, perhaps that’s what we'll get.