Whether you view him as the rightful king or a traitor, a statesman or a playboy, Prince Charles Edward Stuart's attempt to restore the Stuart claim to the British throne remains a topic of much debate over 200 years after his death.
The aftermath led to a fundamental and violent overhaul of Highland society, whose impact endures to this day. The roads you travelled through the Highlands were probably built to prevent any future Jacobite challenge to the British Crown.
Although most people think of Glenfinnan as the spot where Bonnie Prince Charlie landed in Scotland, we in the Outer Hebrides know that his first steps on Scottish soil were on the island of Eriskay on 23rd July 1745 at The Prince's Beach (Coilleag a' Phrionnsa). After initial successes and causing panic in London as his forces progressed south, Charles's ambitions came to an end at the Battle of Culloden, outside of Inverness, where his troops were massacred.
In an intriguing piece of historical symmetry, it was the Outer Hebrides that hid the Young Pretender nine months later, and evade his enemies, despite a reward of £30,000, allowing him to escape back to France.
Having arrived back in Benbecula in April 1746, in a dreadful storm, Charles spent several months criss-crossing the Hebrides including visiting Scalpay and Stornoway to find a way to escape. His escape, was enabled by a young South Uist woman, Flora MacDonald. She was initially unconvinced, partly as her step-father, Hugh MacDonald commanded the pro-government militia in Benbecula who were on the trail of the prince.
Eventually, she was convinced and Charles escaped to Skye and then Arisaig as an Irish maid called Betty Burke in June 1746. He finally left Scotland on 19 September 1746, never to see it again (though he is believed by some to have returned to London in 1750)
Flora was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London, but was released after sympathisers collected over £1,500 for her. Those who took up her cause included Frederick, the then Prince of Wales, heir to the throne and Charles's sworn enemy. Flora told him she helped Charles "out of charity and would have done the same for him". There is also a cairn marking Charles's arrival in Lewis on a hill at Arnish, just to the south of Stornoway including hte inscription "Deoch Slàinte an Righ" - Gaelic for "Drink to the Health of the King"
The Bonnie Prince Charlie trail guides visitors around several of the key locations related to Am Prionnsa Teàrlach in Eriskay and South Uist including Flora MacDonald's home at Milton in South Uist.
