Culloden home ‘would leave irreparable scar’
● Campaigners hit out at proposals for house within battlefield boundary
Plans to build another home within the historic boundary of Culloden Battlefield will create a further “irreparable scar” on the land, campaigners have claimed.
Highland Council has received an application for the proposed property at Muirfield Farm at Westhill, Inverness.
It is the latest in a string of contentious applications for land that falls within the battlefield boundary.
If built, the house would sit the north-west of the area owned by the National Trust for Scotland.
David Learmonth, from the Group to Stop Development at Culloden, said: “This proposal will result in a significant, irreparable scar on another strategic part of Culloden Battlefield.
“This site is likely very close to where the south-eastern wall of the Culloden Park enclosure stood and from where the last firing Jacobite gun was silenced.”
He said the proposed house would be a new property and not one that uses the footprint of an existing building, which has been the case with a number of other successful applications for the wider Culloden area.
The Muirfield Farm site falls on the route from Culloden
House taken by the Jacobite army before the battle, although no fighting took place on the land earmarked for development, according to a report submitted by archaeologists acting for the applicant. Guard Archaeology was hired by the applicants to survey the site, with no artefacts linked to the 1746 encounter between the Jacobites and the British Army found.
The report said: “The setting assessment has found that the proposed development would have no significant indirect effect upon the settings of Battle of Culloden Inventory Battlefield and the category B-listed King’s Stables.”
Campaigners are worried about the cumulative effect of planning applications on the wider Culloden Battefield area, which has no statutory protection.
Successful developments include the 16-home estate at Viewhill Farm to the north of the battlefield.
Other applications include a luxury home on land just south of the National Trust for Scotland fence.
Andrew Mckenzie, former general manager at Culloden Visitor Centre, said: “This won’t end until National Trust for Scotland and Historic Environment Scotland speak out strongly against developments and speak up for conservation.
“It will also continue while statutory protection is not in place for battle sites. This is a huge shame and a disaster for conservation.”