Culloden Battlefield: Clan Chief’s shoe buckle among new discoveries

Archaeologists have unearthed fascinating new artefacts from the Culloden Battlefield – including a clan chief’s shoe buckle.

Researchers working around a 60 square-metre area close to what was the Government frontline at the 1746 battle uncovered incredible finds, including a variety of musket balls and grapeshot.

A broken copper alloy buckle was also uncovered, which is believed to have belonged to Donald Cameron of Lochiel, the hereditary chief of Clan Cameron who led a 400-strong regiment at the Battle of Culloden.

A staunch Jacobite, he played a key role in the 1745 Rising and marched with his clan regiment to Derby and back.

Despite being wounded at Culloden, he managed to escape to France with Bonnie Prince Charlie in September 1746.

Findings include a shoe buckle belonging to the Cameron clan chief wounded in the battle. Credit: National Trust for Scotland

He died of a stroke in northern France at the age of 53 in 1748. After the Rising, he was give the nickname ‘The Gentle Lochiel’ due to him preventing the Jacobite army from sacking the city of Glasgow in 1746.

‘This fascinating archaeological discovery adds to the legends surrounding one of my most famous ancestors, the Gentle Lochiel, and certainly tallies with the fact that he was injured by grape shot in that particular location at Culloden,’ said Donald Cameron of Lochiel, the current (28th) chief.

We will of course never know the full picture but it’s intriguing that the battlefield is still producing such interesting artefacts even today.’

The finds come ahead of the 278th anniversary of the battle on 16 April 1746, which saw around 1600 men killed in less than an hour.

‘The grape shot has obviously hit something with great force as one side of the lead ball has been completely flattened,’ said head of archaeology at The National Trust for Scotland, Derek Alexander.

‘The ball would have been around 2-3cm in diameter and, at 102g, weighed about four times a standard musket ball.

‘The flattened side of the impacted ball has a striped impression, with part of the surface gouged and rolled back and an angular cut on one of its edges.

‘It looks like it hit something angular with enough force to flatten the ball but also at an angle to cause the gouge across it.’

The National Trust for Scotland’s Head of Archaeology, Derek Alexander, with grapeshot. Credit: National Trust for Scotland.

The other item found in the same hole was a flat copper alloy object. It appears to be part of a broken rectangular framed buckle for a strap measuring 26mm wide.

The buckle is decorated on the outside with cast beaded dots, plain lines and a central twisted-rope pattern, with a shape reminiscent of the flat, slightly-curved shoe buckles often shown in contemporary illustrations.

‘The juxtaposition of both these artefacts, recovered from the same hole and within 20-30m of the British Army front line, is intriguing and the obvious conclusion would be that the grape shot hit the shoe buckle and broke off one end,’ said Derek.

‘This is of particular significance as one of the most recounted stories of the Jacobite charge at Culloden is the wounding of Donald Cameron of Lochiel, known as The Gentle Lochiel.’

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