Prince's Cairn
Coordinates: 56°53′42″N 5°44′43″W / 56.89495°N 5.74517°W
| Prince's Cairn | |
 At this place Prince Charles departed for France on 20 September 1746 O.S. |
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 Prince's Cairn
Prince's Cairn shown within the Highland council area |
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| OS grid reference | NM720844 |
|---|---|
| - Edinburgh | 172 miles (road) |
| - London | 539 miles (road) |
| Council area | Highland |
| Lieutenancy area | Inverness |
| Country | Scotland |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Beasdale |
| Postcode district | PH |
| Dialling code | 08457 |
| Police | Northern |
| Fire | Highlands and Islands |
| Ambulance | Scottish |
| EU Parliament | Scotland |
| UK Parliament | Ross, Skye and Lochaber |
| Scottish Parliament | Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber |
| List of places: UK • Scotland • | |
The Prince's Cairn is a cairn at Loch nan Uamh in Lochaber, Scotland.
On 19 September 1746[1], Charles Edward Stuart arrived from "Cluny's Cage", that refuge on Ben Alder, accompanied by Donald Cameron of Lochiel, John Roy Stewart, and others. There they found L'Heureux[2], the French frigate that was to carry him to safety. All that day, the 19th, they embarked the refugees that were to accompany the Prince into exile, and on the 20th they sailed away from Scotland. The Prince never saw it again, except perhaps in his dreams which may have helped to mitigate the bitterness of his later life[3].
Loch nan Uamh is also the place where the Prince first set foot on mainland Great Britain on 25 July 1745 and the place from where Charles escaped to the Hebrides after the Battle of Culloden.
"On the evening of 26 April 1746 the Prince, Colonel John William O’Sullivan[4], Captain Felix O’Neil, Father Allan MacDonald, Donald MacLeod "The Faithful Palinurus", Ned Burke and several boatmen set out to sea from the shore of Loch nan Uamh. The weather was terrible and the boat began to fill with water. Even MacLeod who knew the seas well thought all was lost. The sailors prayed for deliverance, prompting the Prince to comment that while the clergyman who was with them ought to pray, the rest would be better employed bailing out the water. Next morning they struggled into a creek at Roisinis on the north-east point of Benbecula."[5].
The cairn can be found just off the A830 road, sometimes known as the Road to the Isles. (The nearest railway station is Beasdale about 2.5 miles to the West.) The cairn was erected by the 1745 Association on 4 October 1956.
[edit] References
- ^ All dates are in the Julian calendar or Old Style (O.S.) which, at the time, was eleven days behind the dates in the rest of Europe.
- ^ There was some confusion over the name of the ship in which Charles departed. It is now generally accepted to be L'Heureux and it was accompanied by Le Prince de Conti frigate under control of Captain Warren. Charles arrived in France at Roscoff on 10 October 1746 (N.S.).
- ^ The Highlands in History by C.R. MacKinnon of Dunakin. Published by Collins in 1961
- ^ John William O'Sullivan's memoires by Alistair and Henrietta Tayler 1745 and After (1938) T. Nelson and Sons
- ^ Walking with Charlie by Steve Lord
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Prince's Cairn |
