"For all who fought, and all who died
And all who have cried over Culloden"

Culloden Memorial Cairn
Photograph by Hugh DP McArthur

The Battle of Culloden was fought on 16th April 1746 between the Jacobite rebel forces of Prince Charles Edward Stuart and Hanoverian Government troops on Drummossie Moor a few miles east of Inverness. It was to be the last battle ever fought on British soil. The Jacobite defeat at Culloden marked the end of a long series of rebellions and the end of a way of life that had endured in Scotland for thousands of years. It was not the defeat but the aftermath of the battle; the ethnic cleansing of the Highland people; the trials; the executions; the clearances; the burnings; the killings and the mass transportation to the New World, that left a blight on Scotland's character which has never truly healed.

Although the power of Clan Arthur was broken some time before Culloden, the bearers of the name had long become woven through the tapestry of Highland life over the preceding centuries. Many MacArthurs took refuge with neighbouring clans, especially the MacDonalds, some of who fought for Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Jacobite cause. On their final day they stood together as brothers in arms against superior odds. The following information has been extracted from No Quarter Given ~ The Muster Roll of Prince Charles Edward Stuart’s Army, 1745 - 46.

APPIN (STEWARTS OF APPIN)
Other Ranks

DUKE OF PERTH'S
Lieutenants

FORFARSHIRE (OGILVAY'S)
Other Ranks

MacDONELL OF KEPPOCH’S
Other Ranks

MacKINNON’S
Other Ranks

JOHN ROY STUART’S (EDINBURGH)
Other Ranks

The list is incomplete and it is known that Charles MacArthur, Armourer to the Stewarts of Appin, was shot in battle and died. It is also known that Patrick McArthur of Glen Lyon was “out during the troubles” and there is a further story that John MacArthur, from somewhere near Strachur, and his six sons were in battle on the day. One unnamed son was reported killed. Of the four surviving brothers, one is thought to have been Alexander, father of John Merino Macarthur, born in 1767.

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