Two heritage giants are uniting to offer fresh insight into the enduring complexities of the Battle of Culloden.
The National Trust for Scotland and the National Trust have each created podcast episodes exploring opposing figures who shaped this historic clash.
Listeners will be transported to the Jacobite Rising of 1745 and its decisive end in 1746, through the stories of Lord George Murray and James Wolfe.
In Love Scotland, Jackie Bird speaks to Professor Murray Pittock about Lord George Murray, the skilled but often conflicted Jacobite general.
Murray’s tense relationship with Charles Edward Stuart and his tactical brilliance offer a gripping portrait of a man often overshadowed in the narrative.
Meanwhile, the National Trust’s Back When focuses on James Wolfe, a key Government commander whose Kent childhood home, Quebec House, they now care for.
Wolfe would go on to become a national figure, but at Culloden he was still a rising officer playing a vital role in a brutal battle.
Both episodes will air in April, around the anniversary of the battle that saw over 1,500 lives lost in under an hour.
On 16 April 1746, the moor at Culloden bore witness to the bloody conclusion of a civil war that shaped not only Scotland but the British Isles and beyond.
Each year, around 250,000 people visit Culloden Battlefield, where the National Trust for Scotland preserves both the site and its solemn memory.
Jackie Bird described Culloden as one of Scotland’s most significant historical moments and praised the new podcasts for giving voice to the people behind the politics.
She said Professor Pittock’s analysis of Lord George Murray reveals the general’s human complexity and sheds new light on the internal struggles within the Jacobite camp.
Michelle Douglass of the National Trust highlighted how this dual podcast approach brings two distinct but intertwined perspectives together.
She explained that listeners will experience not only battlefield events but the human stories and consequences that echo far beyond that fateful day.
The Love Scotland episode launches on Friday 18 April, while Back When debuts Monday 30 April, both available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
This year marks 279 years since the battle and 100 years since the Gaelic Society of Inverness began commemorating the event.
A special service will take place on Saturday 19 April, starting with a 10:30am procession from the visitor centre to the memorial cairn.
Costumed presentations across the weekend will bring Jacobite life to visitors, including Clach An Airm and Fight like a Highlander.
The Christopher Duffy Memorial Lecture also returns on Saturday 19 April at 1:30pm, featuring Dr Darren Scott Layne and Dr Arran Johnston.
Using eyewitness accounts and detailed data, the lecture will explore the uprising’s realities from both strategic and personal perspectives.
These new podcast collaborations and live events invite a deeper, more human understanding of Culloden’s past and present.
Tickets are available via www.nts.org.uk/culloden
