Guns and armour discovered at Scottish battlefield where Jacobites routed government more than 300 years ago
This article originally appeared on Culture24.
Spoils from the first Jacobite uprising have resurfaced at one of Scotland's best-preserved battlefields during excavations by archaeologists and metal detectorists
Horseshoes from Killiecrankie Battlefield© GUARD Archaeology A musket, worn pistol balls and part of a sword belt from a battle which killed a Jacobite leader in conflict with William of Orange’s forces have been found alongside copper alloy buttons, buckles, horseshoes and a helmet boss at Killiecrankie Battlefield – one of the best-preserved battlefields in Scotland.
Buckle and buttons© GUARD Archaeology Bonnie Dundee, more formally known as John Graham of Claverhouse, the 1st Viscount Dundee, was killed during his army’s rout of their Royalist enemies on July 27 1689. Originally found during the questing BBC series Two Men in a Trench more than a decade ago, archaeologists say the latest evidence has revealed the widespread nature of the battle and highlighted “areas of intense fighting”.
Buckle, pendant, horseshoe and sword harness fragments© GUARD Archaeology “The Battle of Killiecrankie was the opening battle of the first Jacobite Rising in Scotland,” says Maureen Kilpatrick, who led the survey at the Perthshire village in August and October 2015.
Lead munitions recovered from the battlefield© GUARD Archaeology “During the battle Bonnie Dundee was fatally wounded, although his army won the day. The rout of Government troops which followed is particularly remembered due to one Government soldier making the ‘soldier’s leap’ across the River Garry.”
Metal detecting volunteers helped the team from Guard Archaeology investigate the iconic site© GUARD Archaeology The work took place as part of a heritage assessment ahead of upgrade works to the A9 road in central Scotland. It was supported by experts from the Centre for Battlefield Archaeology at the University of Glasgow.
What do you think? Leave a comment below.Three museums to discover Scottish archaeology inHeart of Hawick Heritage Hub, RoxburghshireDuring the First World
War, the Stobs military training ground near Hawick was used as a mass
internment facility for 4,500 prisoners. These consisted of German
civilian ‘enemy aliens’ from across Britain and its Empire, and military
Prisoners of War taken from European battlefields. Find out more during a free study weekend, Hawick’s German Prisoners: Stobs Internment Camp in Global Context, 1914-1919, from June 18-19 2016.
National Museum of Scotland, EdinburghThe current exhibition, Celts, tells the story of the different peoples who have used
or been given the name ‘Celts’ through the stunning art objects that
they made, including intricately decorated jewellery, highly stylised
objects of religious devotion, and the decorative arts of the late 19th
century which were inspired by the past. Until October 25 2016.
The Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, GlasgowBuilt in around AD 142 during the reign of the Roman emperor Antoninus Pius,
the Antonine Wall ran coast-to-coast across Scotland from the Clyde to
the Firth of Forth. The permanent gallery at the Hunterian showcases the collection of spectacular monumental sculpture and
other Roman artefacts recovered from the wall, including richly
sculptured distance slabs, unique to the frontiers of the Roman Empire.
Source: http://www.culture24.org.uk/history-and-heritage/archaeology/art548811-killiecrankie-battlefield-scotland-archaeology-jacobite-war