Cumberland Crescent, Culloden, may not be a coveted address – leader comment

Given the reputation of the Duke of Cumberland – deemed one of the worst 10 Britons in 1,000 years by one poll of historians historians – residents of the proposed ‘Cumberland Crescent’ may wish to suggest the street is named after a different kind of ‘butcher’.

The Duke of Cumberland ('Butcher Cumberland') (1721- 1765). Painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds and used in Part One of The Story of a Nation.

The Hanoverians may have triumphed at the Battle of Culloden but, as the hit TV series Outlander demonstrates, the Jacobites seem to have won the PR war.

So, regardless of the rights or wrongs of either cause, the idea of naming a new street in the Culloden West development on the outskirts of Inverness after the victorious general, the Duke of Cumberland, aka ‘The Butcher’, was always likely to be controversial.

But it’s not just tartan romantics who dislike the youngest son of George II. In 2005, a poll of historians for the BBC saw him named as one of the ten worst Britons of the last 1,000 years, which is saying something, given the competition.

It’s probably a safe bet that there are no streets named after Jack the Ripper and fascist leader Oswald Moseley, two of the other entrants on the list, given the potential negative impact on house prices.

So if Cumberland Crescent does eventually become a reality, residents might be wise to take a leaf out of Inverness Provost Helen Carmichael’s book and suggest it’s a reference to the famous sausages or, possibly, their vegan alternatives.