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Rare Gaelic recordings inspired by the Jacobite cause released for Culloden anniversary

Culloden battlefield reenactment.
Culloden battlefield reenactment.

Rare recordings of haunting Gaelic songs inspired by the Jacobite cause are being aired today to mark the 274th anniversary of the Battle of Culloden.

For centuries, a commemoration has been held each year on the site of the famous 1746 battle.

But the coronavirus pandemic has forced conservation charity the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) to move this year’s memorial online.

In a video the NTS shares the original audio recordings of a series of Gaelic songs collected by archivist John Lorne Campbell from Canna in the book ‘Highland Songs of the Forty Five’.

John and his wife Margaret Faye Shaw were noted scholars of Gaelic culture and life.

John Lorne Campbell and Margaret Fay Shaw at Canna House.

Published in 1933, the book brought together songs inspired by the events leading up to the battle and beyond, many of which had never been written down before.

The couple also collected recordings of the songs from Ruaiaridh Iain Bain and Annie Johnston of Barra.

The film was created by the trust’s Canna House archivist Fiona MacKenzie who was due give a talk on the book at the battlefield as part of the 2020 anniversary.

Raoul Machin-Curtis, the NTS’s Operations Manager at Culloden, said: “These beautiful songs reflect the haunting beauty of battlefield, one of Scotland’s most special places, so powerfully.

“We feel it is fitting to share them on this poignant day.”