The January when our castle saw its last siege
DIGGING INTO THE PAST with Dr Murray Cook
It sometimes feels as if we’re under siege from Covid but in late December 1745 Stirling was preparing to face Bonnie Prince Charlie’s Jacobites who wanted a winter base to rest and regroup.
The Council’s 400-strong militia were placed under General Blakeney in the castle, who dismantled the inner arch of Stirling Bridge. The town’s defences were strengthened, however, supplies were short with only eight days’worth.
On January 3, the first of 8000-9000 Jacobites began to mount cannon, it was clear that the town could not withstand them. On January 6, Bonnie Prince Charlie was welcomed to Bannockburn House, he wrote to The Council demanding entry. A public meeting was held and General Blakeney urged The Council to fight to the last and he would keep a door open for them. Meanwhile the Jacobites fired 27 cannon shots to encourage the right decision.
Famously, he surrendered the militia and all the guns went to the castle. The town welcomed Bonnie Prince Charlie on January 8 when he was presented with the city gates’key, surely a wise decision. The town ended up under Jacobite martial law with anyone harbouring garrison families to be shot.
Throughout January, in what was the last ever siege of the castle, the Jacobites tried two different gun batteries to blast the castle, Ladies Rock on the 12th and Gowan Hill on the 29th - neither had much success and both were destroyed along with the roof of Mar’s Wark.
They had more success on January 17 when they defeated a Government army at Falkirk but eventually fled the town on February 1 when another Government army led by The Duke of Cumberland was close.