The Cursed Gold of Loch Arkaig

Skibo Castle, Sutherland, Scotland

Jacobite gold, landed too late for the '45 and buried in the hills above Loch Arkaig, is said to ruin everyone who touches it — the men who buried it met prison, exile, or the noose.

In May 1746, a month after the Jacobite army was broken at Culloden, two French ships slipped into Loch nan Uamh on the west coast of Scotland carrying gold coin — somewhere in the region of 35,000 louis d'or, sent by the King of France to support a rising that was already finished. The gold was landed, and with the cause lost and Bonnie Prince Charlie a fugitive, it was moved inland and buried in the hills above Loch Arkaig, in the country of Cameron of Lochiel. What happened to it after that has never been fully settled, and every man who had a hand in it came to grief. Lochiel died in exile in France within a year. His brother, Dr Archibald Cameron, returned to Scotland in 1753 partly to deal with the treasure and was captured, tried, and hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn — the last man executed in Britain for the Jacobite cause. Other custodians of the gold, including Cluny Macpherson, were accused by their own allies of helping themselves to it and spent years defending their names. Barisdale, another of the men entrusted with the gold, ended up imprisoned in the Tower of London on an unrelated charge and died before he could clear his reputation, still suspected by his own side of theft. Locals in Lochaber came to regard the gold itself as the cause: money raised for a king's cause, buried in secrecy, and cursed to bring ruin on anyone who tried to keep it. Some was recovered in dribs over the following decades. Most, by every serious estimate, was not. Treasure hunters have searched the hills above Loch Arkaig on and off for more than two hundred years, and the loch itself has been dragged more than once. The general belief in Lochaber is that most of it is still there — and that it is better left where it is.

Folklore Disclaimer: These accounts are drawn from local tradition, oral history, and community memory. They are not presented as factual claims.

Location accuracy: Approximate. Coordinates indicate the general area.