Jacobite Tours

12/09/2022

On November 15th 1746, James Reid was executed at York for being a part of the Jacobite uprising.

James Reid was one of several pipers who played at the Battle of Culloden. He was captured along with 558 men by Cumberland’s troops and taken to England. There James was put on trial and accused of high treason against the Crown. Piper Reid claimed that he was innocent because he did not have a gun or a sword. He said that the only thing he did that day on the battlefield was play the bagpipe.

After some deliberation the judges had a different opinion on the matter. They said that a highland regiment never marched to war without a piper at its head. Therefore, in the eyes of the law, the bagpipe was an instrument of war. The English jury, itself sympathetic, recommended mercy but it was rejected by a Commission headed by Lord Chief Baron Sir Thomas Parker

Seventy Jacobites were sentenced to death at York and were to be hanged in three batches of firstly, 13, of whom 10 were executed; and secondly 55, of whom 13 were executed.

Piper Reid was in the third batch of four men sentenced to be hanged. Before the sentences were carried out, one man had died and two others had enlisted in the British Army, and were reprieved, leaving only Piper Reid to suffer alone, and I very much doubt if a lament was played for him on that day.

The decision of those judges has echoed down through the generations. It was the first recorded occasion that a musical instrument was officially declared a weapon of war. For hundreds of years and many conflicts to come the bagpipes, when listed among the items captured in combat, was counted among rifles, sabers, and munitions. It is interesting to note that bugles and drums were recorded as musical instruments, where the bagpipe ranked among the lists of weapons. This continued through the Great War. Perhaps a fitting place for the pipes, but a tragic legacy for the piper James Reid who played at the last bloody battle of the Jacobites on Culloden Moor

In 1996, after some disputes with authorities, a man known as Mr Brooks was taken to court for playing the pipes on Hampstead Heath, an act forbidden under a Victorian by-law stating the playing of any musical instrument is banned. Mr Brooks plead not guilty by, claiming the pipes are not a musical instrument, but instead a weapon of war , citing the case of James Reid as a precedent. The unanimous verdict was that the pipes are first and foremost musical instruments returning them form a weapon of war to their rightful place as a musical instrument.

The pic shows Bagpipes that were said to have been played during the Battle of Culloden found on the battlefield and currently on display at the Culloden Moor Battlefield museum. Original owner, piper, of the set unknown.

26/08/2022

A good example of where family tradition associated with a museum artefact is at odds with the known history of a particular pattern.

Identified by the family to be a ‘Piece of the Old Appin Stewart Tartan’; it may have been what the Fasnacloich Stewarts wore in the late 19th/early 20th century but is in fact the Prince Charles Edward Stuart tartan. That name was a Wilsons of Bannockburn one and whilst there is the possibility that the design is earlier, there is no evidence to support it ever having been worn by Prince Charles Edward in 1745.

In c.1816-22, the chief of the Stewarts of Appin, Charles Stewart of Ardshiel, submitted a specimen of completely different tartan to the Highland Society but it has not been woven for nearly 200 years.

24/08/2022

22/08/2022

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20/08/2022

From Glenfinnan Friends

Raising the Standard at Glenfinnan tomorrow ⚔️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Ladies and Gentlemen

Our friends in The Royal Oak Society of Scotland will hold a raising of the Princes standard commemoration at Glenfinnan on Saturday 20th August at 12 noon.

They will March from just over the road opposite the visitors centre to the loch side at approximately 11:55.

Please join them at the commemoration at the loch side or afterwards at their stall at the game for a dram and a chat!

11/08/2022

06/08/2022

The Black Chanter of Clan Chattan

The Black Chanter (Feadan Dubh) is said to have originally fell from heaven, dropped by an aerial minstrel as it hovered over the heads of the MacPhersons at the end of the combat at North Inch - the cracks on the pipe believed to be caused from this fall. The MacPherson piper secured this enchanted pipe, and even though mortally wounded, poured forth the pibroch of the Clan till death effectually silenced his music.

According to tradition, the chanter is endowed with magical properties. The Black Chanter was believed to ensure success not only to the MacPhersons, but also to its temporary possessors, whenever lent to other Clans e.g. the Grants of Strathspey borrowed this magical instrument and its bold war-notes roused their energies and stimulated them to such valour that people would say “no enemy ever saw the back of a Grant.”

According to legend, the Duke of Cumberland was warned by a witch before the battle of Culloden that if the Bratach Uaine (Green Flag) and the Feadan Dubh (Black Chanter) appeared he would be defeated. Ewen MacPherson of Cluny was present at the Battle of Prestonpans with 600 of his Clan, and he accompanied Prince Charlie into England. On the Prince’s retreat into Scotland, Cluny with his men put two regiments of Cumberland’s dragoons to flight at Clifton, fought afterwards at the Battle of Falkirk, and was on his way from Badenoch to Inverness with his Clan to join the Prince when fugitives from Culloden met him with the intelligence of the Jacobite defeat. The MacPhersons, and the Feadan Dubh, had missed the battle.

The Feadan Dubh (pictured) is now housed in the Clan MacPherson Museum, Newtonmore.