The Ghost Road of the Jacobite Dead

Culloden Moor, Inverness, Scotland

On the anniversary of Culloden — April 16th — witnesses have reported seeing a column of exhausted men in Highland dress walking south across the moor before dawn. They do not speak. They do not acknowledge the living.

The Battle of Culloden on the 16th of April 1746 was the last pitched battle on British soil. In approximately forty minutes, the Jacobite Highland army was destroyed by Government forces under the Duke of Cumberland. The aftermath was methodical and deliberate: the wounded were killed on the field, the surrounding area was swept for survivors, and for months afterward, individuals found to have supported the Jacobite cause were hunted and shot or hanged. The number who died on the field and in the immediate aftermath was approximately two thousand. The speed of the action — forty minutes — and the compactness of the battlefield means that a significant number of dead are buried within a very small area. Their graves are marked by clan name only. The ghost tradition at Culloden is among the most reported in Scotland. The National Trust for Scotland, which manages the site, maintains files of visitor accounts. The most consistent: on the anniversary of the battle, before sunrise, a group of men in Highland dress moves south across the moor. They are not running. They are walking, exhausted, in the direction away from the battle — the direction of retreat. They are seen from a distance. They do not respond to calls. They disappear before they reach the road. The site is visited by over 350,000 people annually. Staff have their own accounts, generally given in private.