Glenfi nnan Histories

BONNIE PRINCE GATHERING

Iain Ferguson On August 19 1745, Bonnie Prince Charlie raised his standard in Glenfinnan and to mark this 275th anniversary, various groups took to the beach in front of the monument.

Some were dressed in clothing of the period, others merely to record the event as momentous in the history of Scotland. The event coincided with another local event, perhaps without the massive historical overtones, but nonetheless of proven global interest, The Glenfinnan Gathering.

Always held on the Saturday nearest the date of that royal landing, the Gathering this year marks its 75th anniversary of conception and 74th year of taking place. It attracts an international range of competitors in sports, piping and Highland dancing, not to mention the myriad of foreign spectators.

As with so many other events, it had to be cancelled this year, on what would probably have been amongst the warmest and sunniest days in its history.

On ‘the day’ a small gathering of local people performed the flag raising ceremony by the stage which normally signals the official opening. Supporter of the Gathering from its early days, 93 year old Donald Sinclair travelled from Cornwall and as a great friend of long-term Gathering organiser, the late Ronnie MacKellaig, laid a white Jacobite rose by his grave.

Also on the field was Tearlach (Charlie) MacFarlane, renowned for his knowledge of history and probably the most wellknown and eminent specialist on Moidart genealogy, with immense knowledge of the links that flow from the ‘45’ to the present day in this part of the Highlands.

Mark Entwhistle of The Lochaber Times conducted a lengthy interview with Tearlach at his home on the shores of Loch Sheil.

He wrote: ‘Just when you think you’ve heard all the stories about Bonnie Prince Charlie and the rising, Tearlach always manages to surprise with a startling new nugget of information.’

About the official opening of the famous monument to the clansmen, Tearlach recalled: ‘When the monument opened in 1815, it is said there were old men in attendance who remembered, as boys, witnessing the actual event of the Prince raising the standard. Even if they were only 10 years old in 1745, that would have made them 80 in 1815,’ he explained.

‘So if there had been a few

boys aged 10 at the opening in 1815, by the time they were 80 it would be 1885. And then some 10-year-old boy speaking to one of these men in 1885 would be 80 in 1955, which is not that long ago. You’re only talking about going back a little more than three generations to someone who was actually present on that day in 1745.

‘When I was young, people still talked about it as if it had just happened.’

Tearlach, who was born beside Loch Leven opposite Glencoe but grew up in Fort Augustus, added: ‘There was an abbot at Fort Augustus, who I vaguely recall, and he said to my father he could remember sitting on his granny’s knee when he was very small and her telling him how she remembered seeing Prince Charlie in Rome as an old man, on his way to church, with his daughter on his arm.

‘That would have been around the late 1790s. So if the abbot was in his 80s, he would have been speaking in about 1935. The time gap just spans

three generations. It’s not that long ago.’

Tearlach moved back to Lochaber in the 1960s and has never been away from the area much since. ‘Even when I came here to Glenfinnan in 1971, the Prince was referred to frequently as someone quite recent. It had such a massive impact on the Highlands as a whole, especially around here. It was very much imprinted onto people’s memories.

‘I once knew an old centenarian lady, back in 1972 or 1973 in Arisaig, and she remembered her greatgrandmother talking about giving a mug of milk to the Prince when he was on the run after Culloden. That was remembered down through her family.’

Historians record the fact many Highlanders, clan chiefs and clansmen were reluctant to join the rising. Asked if that was how they felt, why did they still join, Tearlach explained: It was said that in Moidart, and this probably applies in other places in the Highlands, a lot of people didn’t want to know, the ordinary clansmen I’m talking about here.

‘But their fathers and grandfathers had fought in the ‘15’ and at Killicrankie and they had to honour their forebears. Of course there was also allegiance to their chief, but they were mainly doing if for their families as much as anything. I wouldn’t like to have been living then, as it would’ve been difficult making that choice. And if the chief joined, the clan followed. It was that simple. Same with the Reformation.’

After the Prince and his army were defeated at Culloden in 1746, the British government launched what was tantamount to a process of ethnic cleansing in the Highlands. The Act of Proscription (1747) was aimed at destroying the military power of the clans and saw the banning of traditional Highland dress and the possession of arms.

‘The British Empire saw some terrible things done to indigenous peoples but there is no record of anywhere else where the people were forbidden to wear their own clothes,’ said Tearlach.

There are many more interesting facts to be revealed by Tearlach and his interview will be continued in a future Lochaber Life. Thank you to Mark and Tearlach.

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