Jacobite Rising

Reconstructing Jacobite Rising battlefields through terrain analysis, primary sources and on-site research

Walking the battlefields of the Jacobite Rising (1745-1746)

The Jacobite Rising of 1745–46 was a fast-moving campaign fought across the Highlands, Lowlands and central belt of Scotland, culminating in the last pitched battle on British soil. Led by Charles Edward Stuart ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’, the Jacobite army moved rapidly through some of the most challenging terrain in the British Isles — mountain passes, narrow glens, heather moors, boggy flats and the defensive perimeters of major towns and fortresses.

Terrain repeatedly shaped the campaign’s outcomes. At Glenfinnan, the raising of the Jacobite standard occurred at the head of a strategic glen that controlled movement across the West Highlands. The victory at Prestonpans unfolded on a small, compartmentalised coastal plain where the Jacobites exploited local tracks and marsh edges to launch a surprise flank attack. And at Culloden Moor — a bleak, uneven plateau studded with walls, drainage lines and gorse patches — the Jacobite charge was blunted by ground that favoured disciplined musketry, artillery, cohesive line formations, and a new bayonet drill designed to defeat the highland charge.

This landing page brings together battlefield studies from the 1745–46 Rising, combining modern field reconnaissance, period maps, eyewitness accounts and terrain analysis. By walking the ground at Prestonpans, Culloden, Edinburgh and Glenfinnan, these studies reveal not just what happened, but why commanders made the decisions they did, and how landscape, weather and movement corridors shaped each phase of the campaign.

Together, they provide a clear, evidence-based perspective on one of the most dramatic and consequential uprisings in British history.

Selected works on the Jacobite Rising

Overview of the Jacobite Rising, 1745-46

The Jacobite Rising of 1745 was the final attempt to restore the exiled Stuart dynasty to the British throne. Launched during the War of the Austrian Succession, it reflected both dynastic ambition and lingering Highland loyalty to the House of Stuart. Prince Charles Edward Stuart — “Bonnie Prince Charlie” — landed in the Hebrides in July 1745 with a handful of supporters and quickly gathered a Highland army under Lord George Murray.

The Jacobites seized Edinburgh and defeated Sir John Cope’s government forces at Prestonpans, securing control of much of Scotland. In November, the army advanced south into England, reaching as far as Derby, but the lack of widespread English support and the threat of converging Hanoverian forces forced a withdrawal. Pursued north, the Jacobites fought a series of rearguard actions before their final stand at Culloden on 16 April 1746. The government army under the Duke of Cumberland, disciplined and heavily supported by artillery, destroyed the Jacobite force in less than an hour.

Culloden marked the end of two centuries of dynastic conflict in Britain. The aftermath brought harsh repression, the abolition of the clan system, and the disarmament of the Highlands. Militarily, the rising demonstrated the contrast between irregular clan warfare and the professional army of the Enlightenment era — a clash between tradition and modernity that marked the close of the Stuart cause.