19/08/2026
ON THIS DAY:
On the 19th August 1745 a Stuart Standard was raised at Glenfinnan by the Duke of Atholl.
After staying at Kinlochmoidart from the 11th to the 17th, Charles Edward Stuart was beginning to lose potential recruits as Highlanders joined the Hanoverian cause. This included the fervent Jacobite family in previous risings, the Seaforth Mackenzies, and other large land owners such as Lord Sutherland, Lord Reay, Grant of Grant, Munro, Alexander MacDonald and MacLeod of MacLeod with MacCrimmons.
The regiment they joined was the first Highland Regiment to endorse Gaelic culture in the British Army; Campbell of Loudoun’s Highlanders. This regiment included two of the finest pipers ever produced by the Gàidhealtachd and twenty companies of Highlanders were raised in just a few weeks. The regiment was not raised as a result of Charles’ arrival, but was raised the same week.
On the 18th, Charles marched from Kinlochmoidart to Loch Shiel before taking a boat to Glenaladale where he spent the night. It was here that he first met a prisoner captured for his cause as he was introduced to Captain Switenham of Guise’s Regiment, taken prisoner by Keppoch on the 14th with a small body of men.
It is also likely that Charles met one of very few named pipers in the Jacobite army on the 18th, Donald Campbell, Pìobair Mòr, Mac a’ Ghlasraich (the great piper, son of the vegetables). Campbell had been Glenaladale’s piper for some time and was a named piper in Keppoch’s Regiment, despite piping not being a professional position in the Jacobite army. Campbell is thought to have been Charles’ favoured piper and the family once possessed a silver chanter given to Campbell by the Prince, until it was unfortunately lost.
On the 19th, Charles went by boat to Glenfinnan at the head of the freshwater Loch Shiel. His army was pitifully small and, guarded by just 50 Clanranald men, he was met by a further 150 men of Clanranald with Morar. Switenham was in attendance when the Duke of Atholl raised the standard in the morning.
That afternoon, Charles’ hopes must have risen dramatically when Lochiel arrived with c.700 Camerons, including a large number of women. Keppoch then arrived with c.300 MacDonalds a couple of hours later.
It must have been a nervous day, but the 1745 Jacobite rising was officially underway. An army had been mustered and prisoners had been captured. Charles released Switenham on the 21st to join General John Cope and explain what he had seen.
In my research I have found that the romantic notion of a large number of pipers being at Glenfinnan is very likely to be false. It is possible to name two, perhaps three, pipers in attendance at Glenfinnan and it is possible to make an educated debate for at least two tunes which are likely to have been played. This; the individual pipers on both sides; and the culture of piping in the Jacobite period, is something I intend to write about in the future and have been gathering additional interesting information on this subject in the past few years (feel free to share this with any potential publishers who may be interested). This is part of what I discuss on Royal Scotsman, A Belmond Train tours.
With recent news articles about how the ‘Harry Potterisation’ (I should copyright that name for it) of Glenfinnan is impacting the community, it makes me even more driven to speak up about the culture of bagpiping that has a specifically interesting story to be told at Glenfinnan which relates more widely to piping culture at the time of the 1745 rising, but also historical bagpiping culture in the Highlands.
