#the 45

On January 8th the burgh of Stirling surrendered to the Jacobite army.

Significantly however, as with Edinburgh the previous year, the castle remained in Hanoverian hands despite a Jacobite siege which caused many casualties on both sides.

Stirling has always been a pivotal Scottish location. It had been an important, strategic site for centuries, particularly throughout the first and second Scottish ‘Wars of Independence’ of the 13th and 14th Centuries and, indeed, during the entire mediaeval period. The history of Stirling, the name of which is said to derive from ‘striveling’ meaning ‘place of strife’, which really ffits with the amount of battles fought in the Stirling are and d the 1745-6 Jacobite Rising also making its mark.

On January 6th of 1746 the Prince’s army arrived in the Stirling area, avoiding Edinburgh since it was now held by Hanoverian Lieutenant-General Henry Hawley. The Jacobite army was now reinforced by the arrival of Lady MacKintosh and her four hundred clansmen, among others, which brought total forces to over 9,000.

During this time the Prince committed many man hours toward the siege of Hanoverian-held Stirling Castle. Among others who were injured or killed at Stirling was Hugh Cameron of Loch Arkaig, an officer in Lochiel’s Regiment. He was shot through the thigh at the siege and taken to Montrose for treatment. In time Hugh would be taken by Hanoverian troops, tried at Carlisle and hung during the autumn of 1746.

The impenetrable fortress at Stirling appeared to be impossible to take, especially since Hawley was approaching with 8,500 Government troops. You might remember a previous post where it took Edward I with his “Warwolf” to take the castle.

The Prince took command of the army at this point, having little trust for most of his advisors, who he believed had deserted him if not in actuality then in their hearts. On January 15th and 16th he was drawing up the Jacobite army in battle order on Plean Muir, just south of Bannockburn.

The Jacobites spent the rest of January laying siege to the castle while "enjoying" the hospitality of the citizens of Stirling. The government forces in the castle no doubt watched the Jacobites setting up a cannon battery on the adjacent Gowan Hill. With the bedrock inches under the soil, digging in the cannon wasn’t quick and it wasn’t easy. In some regards it was nice of the Castle troops to let the Jacobites finish their work and fire one cannonball. Before they unleashed the many powerful cannon of their own and obliterated the Jacobite position within thirty minutes/

The Earl of Mar was less impressed; that one cannonball flew over the castle and landed on his house at the top of Broad Street, as seen in the second pic, destroying the roof. The building, Mars Wark is still there today. It is still without a roof.

After two fruitless days of waiting the Prince acknowledged Lord Murray’s proposal to march the army to Falkirk Muir, where they were able to take possession of a commanding position by midnight of the 16th. There, the Camerons took a position at the left flank of the first line along side the Stewarts of Appin. I will pick up the story in a few days.

Sturgeon’s Hollow Victory

Separatism lost before.  It attained a high point of 45% support in 2014. And now, again, just 45% supported the SNP in the general election of 2019.  

At what point does the SNP accept that its inability to win a majority of Scots over its ONE SINGLE POLICY is not success but is in fact - failure.

And those numbers don’t even account for those who voted for the SNP but NOT for #indy..!  And in case you think that’s a fanciful notion - just recall what SNP candidates were instructed to say:

An article on the BBC about an upcoming show going into the Indyref.

I can see that this is going to cause some anger, because I could actually feel my blood pressure rise just reading the article, so who knows what state I'm going to be in when I watch the show.

It's on the BBC, and I'll be reminded of a certain phrase akin to "we investigated ourselves, and we found that we did nothing wrong."

But for anyone with even the smallest grasp of reality and critical thinking, the propaganda machine was in overdrive around that time. News segments either on the TV or radio would have their newscaster read out a sentence from the Yes campaign, but give a live reading or showing to someone on the No side.

And they admit this in the article. Alan Little, a BBC journalist of 30 years says "that our responsibility was to produce a series of pieces to demonstrate how foolish it would be to vote Yes".

So impartial.

Look at the article. No quotes from anyone associated with the Yes campaign, nor any images either. But somehow images of Ed Miliband, Ruth Davidson, and Nick Robinson and a few select quotes make the cut.

One of the few satisfying moments post-indyref was witnessing people cancel their TV licence, such was their disgust at blatant lies and manipulation.

I know all of this because... because... I'm from the future.