On 16 April 1746, the Battle of Culloden ended in less than an hour. Roughly 1,500 Jacobite soldiers were killed on the moor east of Inverness. The British government forces lost fewer than 50 men. It was the last pitched battle ever fought on British soil, and it broke the Highland clan system for good. Nearly 280 years later, people are still making the journey to stand on that moor. Some come from Canada. Others from the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Argentina. They carry flowers. Some carry small bags of soil from the country their ancestors settled in. A few leave notes weighted down by stones.
This article covers what you will find at Culloden today, why people keep coming, and what to know before you visit.
[newsletter_cta]
Want more Scottish history, travel guides, and heritage stories? Subscribe to our free newsletter and we’ll send them straight to your inbox.
What Happened at Culloden
The battle was part of the Jacobite rising of 1745, in which Charles Edward Stuart — known as Bonnie Prince Charlie — attempted to reclaim the British throne for the House of Stuart. He landed in Scotland in August 1745, gathered a Highland army, and marched as far south as Derby before retreating north.
By April 1746, the Jacobite army was exhausted, underfed, and outnumbered. They faced the Duke of Cumberland’s government forces on Drummossie Moor. The terrain was wrong for the Highland charge that had won battles before. The government’s artillery fire cut through the Jacobite lines before they could close the distance. The battle was over in around 40 minutes.
What followed was brutal. Cumberland’s troops pursued and killed wounded and fleeing Jacobites across the surrounding countryside for days. Villages suspected of Jacobite sympathy were burned. The Dress Act of 1746 banned Highland dress. The Heritable Jurisdictions Act stripped clan chiefs of their legal powers. The military roads built by General Wade in the decades before the battle allowed government troops to reach every part of the Highlands. Within a generation, the traditional Highland way of life had been dismantled.
The Highland Clearances that followed over the next century pushed hundreds of thousands of people off the land and onto emigrant ships. Their descendants are now spread across the English-speaking world, and many of them eventually find their way back to Culloden.
The Clan Stones
The most visited part of the battlefield is the clan grave markers — flat, rough-cut stones that mark where groups of men from the same clan fell together and were buried in mass graves. The stones you see today were placed in the 1880s by Duncan Forbes of Culloden. A large memorial cairn was erected in 1881 near the centre of the battlefield. Around it, stones were set for clans including Fraser, Cameron, MacDonald, Stewart, MacKintosh, and others.
Not every clan that fought at Culloden has its own stone. The records from the battle are incomplete, and some burials are uncertain. But for the clans that do have markers, the stones have become focal points for a kind of informal commemoration that has no official organisation behind it. People simply come. They leave flowers — often purple heather or Scottish thistles. They leave notes, sometimes written on weathered paper, sometimes laminated. Some leave small stones from their own countries, or soil in pouches, or whisky.
On the anniversary of the battle — 16 April — a formal commemoration is held on the battlefield. But the stones receive visitors year-round, often in quiet ones and twos, people standing for a few minutes in front of a name they recognise.
The Visitor Centre
The National Trust for Scotland manages Culloden Battlefield and opened a purpose-built visitor centre in 2008. It replaced an older facility that had been criticised for failing to do justice to the site. The current centre has an immersive exhibition that places you inside the sounds and chaos of the battle itself, with maps, artefacts, and first-person accounts. It covers the Jacobite cause, the battle in detail, and the aftermath.
There is also a café, a shop selling clan-related books and gifts, and staff on hand who can help visitors find information about specific clans. The centre draws around 200,000 visitors per year, making it one of the most visited heritage sites in Scotland.
The battlefield itself is free to walk. You do not need to pay to enter the visitor centre to access the moor. The walking paths are clearly marked with flags that show the position of both armies at the start of the battle. In good conditions, a full walk of the battlefield takes about 45 minutes to an hour. The moor can be exposed in wet or windy weather — bring layers even in summer.
Finding Your Clan Stone
If you have Scottish ancestry, there is a reasonable chance your clan has a stone at Culloden, though not every clan that has Scottish roots fought there. The major stones on the battlefield include Fraser, Cameron, MacDonald of Clanranald, MacDonald of Keppoch, MacDonell of Glengarry, Stewart of Appin, MacKintosh, Mackenzie, Grant, Chisholm, MacLachlan, and several others.
The visitor centre has a guide to the clan stones and their locations. If you are researching your ancestry in advance, the National Trust for Scotland website has information about which clans fought at Culloden and where their stones are on the battlefield. It is worth spending a few minutes on that before you visit, so you know where you are headed.
For many visitors, particularly those from North America and Australasia, finding the clan stone is the reason for the trip. They may have spent years tracing a family line back to a specific Highland name, and standing in front of that stone is the end point of that journey. It is not dramatic in any theatrical sense. The stones are simple. But the act of being there carries weight for the people who make the effort to come.
If stories like this interest you, sign up for our newsletter — we cover Scottish history, heritage travel, and ancestry every week, free.
Practical Information
Location: Culloden Battlefield is about 5 miles (8 km) east of Inverness, just off the B9006. The postcode for sat-nav is IV2 5EU.
Getting there: There is a regular bus service from Inverness city centre (Bus 5 from the bus station, journey time around 20 minutes). By car, there is a large car park at the visitor centre. Inverness is the nearest city and is well served by train from the central belt.
Opening hours: The battlefield is open year-round. The visitor centre is open daily, with seasonal variations. Check the National Trust for Scotland website for current opening times before you visit, as hours change between summer and winter.
Entry fees: Walking the battlefield is free. Admission to the visitor centre is charged. National Trust for Scotland members enter free. A family ticket covers two adults and up to three children. Check the NTS website for current pricing.
Accessibility: The visitor centre is fully accessible. The main battlefield paths are surfaced and accessible for most mobility aids in dry conditions. Some of the more remote parts of the moor are unpaved and may be difficult in wet weather.
Guided tours: The visitor centre runs guided walks of the battlefield, typically led by NTS rangers who can explain the battle in detail. These are worth booking in peak season. Private guided tours are also available from operators based in Inverness.
What to Expect on the Moor
Culloden is not a dramatic landscape. It is a flat, open moor with a wide sky and very little to interrupt the view. That plainness is part of what makes it feel the way it does. You can see the full extent of the battlefield from almost any point on it. The flags marking the two army positions give you a clear sense of the distance the Jacobites had to cross under artillery fire.
In April, the anniversary month, the moor is often cold and grey. The heather is not yet in bloom. In August, the purple heather is out across the moor, which changes the feel of the place considerably. It is worth knowing that in summer the site can be busy, particularly in July and August when coach tours from Inverness arrive throughout the day. If you want the moor to yourself, come early in the morning or out of season.
There is something about the scale of the place that makes it easy to stand quietly without it feeling uncomfortable. People come to Culloden in a particular frame of mind. Even busy summer days tend to be quieter here than at other heritage sites. People are more thoughtful. That tone is set early, at the visitor centre, and it carries through to the moor itself.
Why Culloden Still Matters
The battle happened nearly three centuries ago. The political cause it was fought for — the restoration of the House of Stuart — has been irrelevant for generations. The men who died there had no particular say in the strategic decisions that led to the defeat. Many of them were tenants who followed their chiefs because that was the social structure they lived within, not necessarily because they were passionate Jacobites.
And yet the site continues to draw people from across the world. The reason is largely the diaspora. The clearances that accelerated after 1746 sent Scottish Highlanders to every part of the British Empire and beyond. Their descendants, now millions of people, carry those surnames — Fraser, Cameron, MacDonald, MacDonell, Stewart — as the most concrete link they have to a place and a people they never knew directly. Culloden is where that thread goes back to. It is not the only thread, but it is one of the sharpest ones.
Visiting Culloden will not give you your family history. It will not tell you exactly who your ancestor was or whether they fought here. But standing on the moor tends to close a loop for a lot of people. Something that had been abstract — a name on a census record, a story passed down through a few generations — becomes concrete. The soil underfoot is real. The stone with the clan name on it is real. The distance from the Jacobite line to the government line is real, and you can walk it.
That is why nearly 300 years later, people are still coming. Some with flowers. Some with soil from the other side of the world. Some just to stand there for a few minutes and look at a name on a stone.
For more on Scotland’s history, heritage sites, and ancestry travel, join our free newsletter. We cover stories like this every week.