Battle of Culloden 1746
Outline: officially registered battlefield boundary. Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 27 April 1746 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1746 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | Early modern (1500–1799) | derived from year |
| Location | Scotland | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Jacobite risings | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Jacobitism, Kingdom of France, Kingdom of Great Britain | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 57.4772, -4.0925 | Wikidata P625 |
| Official record | HES Inventory BTL6 | OGL v3 |
| Registered area | 654.5 ha | OGL v3 |
About the battle
The Battle of Culloden took place on 16 April 1746, near Inverness, in the Scottish Highlands. A Jacobite army under Charles Edward Stuart was decisively defeated by a British government force commanded by the Duke of Cumberland, thereby ending the Jacobite rising of 1745.
Charles landed in Scotland in July 1745, seeking to restore his father James Francis Edward Stuart to the British throne. He quickly won control of large parts of Scotland, and an invasion of England reached as far south as Derby before being forced to turn back. However by April 1746 the Jacobites were short of supplies, facing a superior and better-equipped opponent.
The Jacobite commanders decided their only option was to stand and fight. When the two armies met at Culloden, the battle was brief, lasting less than an hour, with the Jacobites suffering an overwhelming and bloody defeat. This effectively ended both the 1745 rising and Jacobitism as a significant element in British politics.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Culloden (revision 1370109396), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Battlefield boundary: contains Historic Environment Scotland and OS data © Historic Environment Scotland and Crown Copyright and database right 2026, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. See also this battlefield on Battlefields of Britain.
Nearby battles
- Siege of Culloden House (1745) 1745 · 3 km
- Siege of Inverness (1429) 1429 · 8 km
- Siege of Inverness (1746) 1746 · 8 km
- Siege of Inverness (1649) 1649 · 8 km
- Siege of Inverness (1715) 1715 · 8 km
- Siege of Inverness (1562) 1562 · 8 km
Other battles of the Jacobite risings
- Battle of Dunkeld 1689
- Battle of Killiecrankie 1689
- Battle of Cromdale 1690
- Battle of Prestonpans 1745
- Battle of Falkirk Muir 1746
All 6 battles of the Jacobite risings →
Browse more: battles in Scotland · Europe · Early modern battles