Battle lines

THOUSANDS of visitors are expected to converge on a bleak Scottish moor next year folllowing the opening of one of the most ambitious visitor centres to be designed in Britain.

The £9m centre is on Drummossie Moor, near Inverness, the site of the Battle of Culloden, which in 1746 was the last major conflict to take place on British soil.

It is the largest construction project ever to be undertaken by the National Trust for Scotland and combines state-of-the-art technology with a fresh look at events leading up to the famous battle.

Visitors are taken to the very heart of the conflict through a film following the progress of real-life characters who took part in the Jacobite rebellion, led by Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie).

The film is the culmination of an interactive exhibition that follows the progress of the Jacobite army on its unsuccessful campaign and offers a unique insight into what life was like in Scotland at the time of the battle.

Visitors can shadow a real-life character through the years of the rebellion and find out what happened to them in the bloody aftermath of the battle.

The exhibition, according to project co-ordinator Alexander Bennett, aims to offer a new level of understanding of what happened in the conflict on April 16, 1746.

"We are trying to portray to our visitors the brutality of war through realistic and powerful film and the moving accounts of people who lived at the time," he says.

"There are still lots of myths about Culloden, including that it was a battle between England and Scotland. With the interactive exhibition we have tried to bring the whole story to life and demonstrate in a very powerful way that Scots fought on both sides in the battle, often against their will.

"Culloden and its aftermath changed the course of history, so it's particularly fitting that we have been able to open the centre in 2007, the year that Scotland has been celebrating Highland culture."

The actual battlefield, which has been managed by the National Trust for Scotland since 1938, has also undergone a t r a n s f o r m a t i o n , with a new network of footpaths and walks tailored to the amount of time available to visitors.

Tours of the moorland battlefield can be accompanied by new handheld audio devices, which use satellite technology to provide information on what was happening at strategic points during the battle.

Designed by award-winning Scots architects Gareth Hoskins, the centre features environmentally friendly materials, such as sustainably sourced timber, Caithness stone and a woodchip-burning biomass boiler to provide heating.

Gaelic music and text also feature strongly in the centre, reflecting the large amount of Gaelic spoken by both sides in the conflict.

The Culloden project was largely funded by the Scottish government and European Regional Development Fund, along with £1.88m raised through a public appeal.

Although it's now open to the public, an official opening ceremony will take place at Culloden next April. Before that, the National Trust of Scotland will be launching a search for children with ancestors who fought in the battle to take part in the ceremony.

One thing is certain there will be no shortage of children volunteering to take part in this historic ceremony.

For decades, Culloden has been a shrine for the descendants of Highlanders who perished on that bleak moor.

Where the Stewarts, Frasers, Mac- Donalds and Camerons of Locheil fell before the English muskets and guns, improvised monuments of stones with bits of heather have appeared every year, placed there by visitors from every part of the world.

The battlefield is a strangely silent place, where few can pass through without shedding a tear. And, despite the advent of new technology, it's certain to remain so.

TRAVEL FACTS

The National Trust for Scotland, which was established in 1931, has acted as a proud guardian of the nation's magnificent heritage of architectural, scenic and historical treasures.

In its care are 127 properties, which welcome more than 1.7 million visitors each year. They range from castles to lighthouses.

But few are likely to give greater pride to Scots, both at home and worldwide, than this creation of the new Culloden.

www.nts.org.uk The Battle of Culloden, which took place on April 16, 1746, on Drummossie Moor, near Inverness, was the last great conflict to take place on British soil.

The armies were led by the Duke of Cumberland, on the Hanoverian side, and Charles Edward Stuart, or "Bonnie Prince Charlie", on the Highland side. The battle resulted in the deaths of about 2,000 Jacobites, compared with only 300 casualties on the Hanoverian side.

It ended all prospects of a Stuart restoration to the Crown.