04 November 2023, Starts: 20:00, Ends: 21:30

Archaeology at Culloden Battlefield

Talk by Professor Tony Pollard

Venue: Culloden Suite of the Drumossie Hotel. Donation of £5 suggested. Book places on Eventbrite here. Prebooking essential. The event is part of NOSAS 25. Enquiries, please contact nosasmail@gmail.com.

On 16 April 1746, the Jacobite armies led by Charles Edward Stuart met the Duke of Cumberland’s government troops on Drumossie Muir, just east of Inverness. In the resulting battle, the Jacobites were decisively defeated. This continues to be an emotive and much talked about event to this day.

Culloden may have been the last battle of the Jacobite risings, but it was also the first battlefield in Scotland to be subject to archaeological investigation. The first phase of this long-term project took place in 2001 as part of the BBC television series Two Men in a Trench but has since continued under the auspices of the National Trust for Scotland as part of the Culloden Battlefield Memorial Project. The investigation carried out by the Centre for Battlefield Archaeology has included topographic, geophysical and metal detector surveys along with archaeological excavation.

Tony Pollard is an archaeologist specialising in the archaeology of conflict. He is Director of the Centre for Battlefield Archaeology at the University of Glasgow and archaeological co-director of the charity Waterloo Uncovered. He is the co-presenter of the BBC series Two Men in a Trench, co-founder of the Journal of Conflict Archaeology, and guest expert on Time Team.