Archaeologists believe newly uncovered musket balls from the historic Culloden Battlefield may mark the site of a courageous last stand that helped save thousands of retreating Jacobite soldiers.
More than 100 lead projectiles, including musket and pistol balls, were discovered earlier this month during excavations on the 279-year-old battlefield near Inverness. Researchers from the University of Glasgow and the National Trust for Scotland suggest that some of the finds may be linked to a desperate rearguard action by around 150 Irish troops who held off government cavalry during the closing moments of the Battle of Culloden on 16 April 1746.
Led by Bonnie Prince Charlie, the Jacobite army was crushed by forces loyal to King George II under the Duke of Cumberland. As the defeated Highlanders fled, the Irish regiment—sent from France to aid the rebellion—reportedly faced down hundreds of mounted soldiers, allowing the bulk of the Jacobite force to escape. Many of the Irish defenders were killed or captured, with survivors later held as prisoners of war in England before being sent back to France in 1747.
Professor Tony Pollard of the University of Glasgow told the BBC the musket balls’ distribution suggests a fierce clash between government dragoons and Jacobite fighters. “This valiant action helped thousands of men get away, yet it barely earns a mention in most history books,” he noted.
The find was made in a previously unexplored area north of Culloden’s memorial cairn, once covered in commercial forestry. National Trust archaeologist Derek Alexander praised volunteers for helping to uncover new insight into the final hours of Britain’s last pitched battle.
Culloden marked the end of the Jacobite rising of 1745, in which Prince Charles Edward Stuart sought to reclaim the British throne for his exiled father. The battle left about 1,600 men dead—most of them Jacobites—and cemented government control over the Highlands.
