It is all of 250 years now since the last real threat to the English throne (prior to Princess Di, that is), was quashed. Where did that threat originate but amongst the highland armies? Bonnie Prince Charlie, the Jacobite 'Young Pretender (young because his father had played the part of 'Old Pretender just thirty years earlier) barely escaped with his life in the spring of 1746. His ingenuity, born of the immediate need to survive, no doubt, saw Prince Charles Edward Stuart making a remarkable escape disguised as a ladys maid while his supporters were comprehensively walloped at the Battle of Culloden.
The war did not end with the routing of the rebel forces though. The upstarts friends were systematically rooted out of their highland lairs and chased into exile. The Protestant King George was in no mood to have any truck with Catholic Jacobites.
(How ironical, though, that the Scots, whose Scottish English is difficult at the best of times, should support a prince who spoke with a strong Italian accent, in their bid to- unseat the Hanoverian King George II, who spoke a guttural Teutonic German, from the English throne.)
History books might put the Battle of Culloden down as the point that saw the end of Scottish designs on the throne. But the fiery Scottish clans were never to forget their lost leader. Every year, on August 19, they celebrate the coming of the 'Young Pretender, reenacting his landing on Scotland's shores. And grannies and grandpas still relish the telling of the many legends that have grown around the bonnie prince, while all around them castles shudder to life as tales are retold of that last lost bid for the English throne.
Could there be a more stirring moment the tourism industry could capitalise on? For centuries the stately homes and country estates dotting the Scottish countryside (a number of which are now accessible to the public) were held up as centres of culture and history, as symbols of the highest order of achievement. Today they constitute the USPs for Britains tourism industry.
There is a not-so romantic reason though for opening these symbols of a golden past to the public. The reason paucity of funds for maintaining the sprawling castles. A few continue to be in private, blue-blooded hands. These are the homes that have been mute spectators to the joys, trials and tribulations of as many as a dozen generations, sometimes even more.
The royal connection lends the glamour factor, an additional incentive for the tourists taking the still rather obscure route across the highlands. A few hours drive from the portentous Grampian mountains are the castles of Balmoral, Braemar, Stirling, Holyrood Palace and the home of the Royal Highland games. Guide books are available a dime a dozen, weaving in every conceivable historical angle around each castle.
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Take Glamis (pronounced Glams) Castle, the ancestral seat of the Queen Mother. Remember Macbeth? Shakespeare may never have visited this castle north of Dundee all those four hundred years ago, but the Hollinshed chronicles provided him descriptions of the perfect setting for that great tragedy.
The 800-year-old castles fairy-tale turrets have earned quite a name in the twentieth century as the ancestral home of the Bowes-Lyon family. For Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, who married the Duke of York, was to become HM Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, when Edward VIII abdicated the throne in 1937 in favour of his brother.
The castles history is tinged with Jacobite connections. A pre-war travel guide says that Bonnie Prince Charlies army camped in the extensive castle grounds a fact best kept under wraps in these days when Catholic Jacobite connections are frowned upon. Amongst the castles many fabulous exhibits are a sword and a silver half-hunter pocket watch, which are believed to have been left behind by the 'Old Pretender who, legend has it, camped there before the 1715 insurrection.
The uninitiated visitor could begin his tour of the highlands at Perth, with its extensive literary and historical connections. To the east are Scotlands golfing Meccas, to the north are the Grampians, dotted with faerie castles (this is where the whisky trail begins), and to the south are the historical relics around Edinburgh and Sterling. All virtually a stones throw away.
Golf is the Scottish national sport. A prime centre for the sport is the medieval city of St Andrews. But calling it a golf city would be tantamount to stripping it of most of its glory. With the sea by its side, it is a popular summer resort and home to one of Britains premier universities founded way back in 1412. One of the modern colleges on the precincts has found inspiration in India it goes by the name Madras College.
The seats of political and religious power, the castle and cathedral, both now in ruins, have seen much turbulence in the last millennium. Near the Royal and Ancient Clubhouse is the Martyrs Monument in memory of all the reformers burnt at the stake for their untimely convictions.
John Knoxs first sermon was held here in 1547, ushering Protestantism into Scottish country. The site was sanctified by many more august sermons, but that could not prevent decay setting in. A hundred years of neglect and apathy followed, and what little remains is there for all to see.
Travelling northwards through the Grampians and criss crossing the whisky trail are any number of breathtaking medieval castles. On the A9 highway from Perth to Inverness is the seventeenth century Killiekrankie battlefield. In the twentieth century this functions as a leisure resort, complete with a scenic country park. You could go fishing along the tumbling river.
Along the same road at Blair Atholl is the 750-year-old historic Blair castle, home to the Duke of Atholl, the only person on the British isles permitted to maintain a private army which he does. The Atholl Highlanders are brought out of mothballs for an annual parade every summer.
Ballindalloch Castle on Speyside is strategically positioned, close as it is to the Glenlivet and Genfarclas distilleries. The castle, family home of the MacPherson-Grants since 1546, is also open for public viewing.
References to the Bonnie Prince surface again between Inverness and Nairn. For it was here that a fort was built to ensure that the pretenders did not disturb the kings peace ever after. Work on Fort George on Moray Firth was completed in 1758.
The 15 acre fort is an arrow headed pentagon, designed to fit the peninsula jutting out into the Firth. It bears an amazing likeness to Calcuttas Fort William and the Madras Fort George, all of them being somewhat contemporary structures. The fort was designed to be formidable and impregnable. Unfortunately it has never been called upon to prove itself in battle and has, over the years, degenerated into an obsolete curio piece. Today it functions as a fascinating 'live in museum for the Seaforth Highlanders who, though part of the British army, have their barracks and parade ground in the fort premises. They are subjected to regular inspection, as are all the other forts and castles in the vicinity by squadrons of inquisitive tourists.
Every year on August 19, fiery Scottish clans
re-enact the
coming of Bonnie Prince Charlie
Hot on the trail
of some of
Scotland's
breathtaking
castles, Peter Mcmanus
tells of how Scotsmen
revitalise their sense of being through a
re-enactment of a watershed episode in their history