Culloden House was the centre of a very big estate providing employment
throughout the centuries for many Invernesians. They farmed and/or rented
out the lands, feeding themselves and their households from the produce
of their lands and the three acre walled garden planted with fruit trees
and vegetable, selling the surplus in the nearby markets of Inverness
and Nairn for ready cash. This would have been spent on the house of
Culloden itself or on purchasing the fine foreign goods such as silks
and satins, ports and wines, without which a noble lifestyle was not
possible.
Culloden first appears on record in the early 13th century, circa
1232, when it is mentioned in a charter of the Bishops of Moray, based
in Elgin. By the end of the 14th century it had passed into the ownership
of the notorious "Wolf of Badenoch", Alexander Stewart, a
younger son of the the first Stuart monarch, Robert II. He was notorious
for his burning of the burghs of Forres and Elgin, with Elgin Cathedral,
in 1390, as part of a feud with then then Bishop of Moray, Alexander
Bur. The impressive remains of his main stronghold, Lochindorb Castle,
can still be seen on an island in Lochindorb, just 28 miles south of
Inverness on the road to Grantown on Spey.
The lands of Culloden remained with the royal family until 1455 when
they appear in the hands of a trusted royal servant Williamson Edmondson,
described as "of Culloden" in that year. The Edmundsons were
a lowland family, with lands largely in Stirlingshire - this grant of
lands in the Highlands to them was part of a concerted attempt by King
James II to isolate the powerful Douglas family, who held wide lands
in the area, and were considered a threat by the king.
The Edmundsons were absentee landlords who leased out their lands in
the north to local families: the first on record were the Strachans,
who by 1506 had become the owners of the estate of Culloden. It is they
who were probably the builders of the first Culloden House or castle,
which is described in a document of 1634, when the estate comprised
the lands of Easter, Mid and Wester Culloden, as the "castle, manor
place, mill and fishings of Culloden".
This earlier house was designed in a castellated style, and Timothy
Pont's cartographical manuscript of 1595 shows it with two square towers
apparently protected by barmkin wall. This house was purchased by Duncan
Forbes from Lachlan Mor, the 16th Chief of MacIntosh, who had himself
acquired the house in 1576 from George Strachan. Duncan Forbes, or Duncan
of the Skins, as he was popularly known because he may have been in
the fur trade, was born in 1572. he became the Provost of Inverness
(mayor) and MP for the Burgh. He undoubtedly bought Culloden House in
1625 with the money earned from the fur trade. Thus began nearly three
hundred years of association of the Forbes family with Culloden.
Find out about the Forbes
family.
Find out about the present
day Culloden House
Find out about the Battle
of Culloden, the last battle pitched on British Soil.
