DNA test the key to solving clan chief mystery

● Forensic tests could uncover the final resting place of historical figure

Forensic experts who exhumed a body from a Highlands crypt thought to be the remains of a 18th century clan chief believe they have found a bone to provide DNA.

Simon Fraser, the 11th Lord Lovat, was the last man beheaded at the Tower of London, in 1747, for supporting the Jacobite rebellion.

A team led by forensic anthropologist Professor Dame Sue Black of Dundee University recovered a headless body from the Wardlaw Mausoleum at Kirkhill, near Inverness, earlier this month.

They have since been examining the skeleton in an effort to confirm if it is male, of the right dimensions and age, and that it bears signs of decapitation.

Now they have said one bone may be in a sufficiently wellpreserved condition to provide genetic material.

0 Professor Sue Black at work identifying some of the bone found in the mausoleum at Kirkhill

The team established the remains were of an elderly man.

The findings could point to the body being Lord Lovat, but now scientists are hopeful that one bone might be in a strong enough position to provide DNA.

If the forensic tests are possible, it could lead to the 270-year-old mystery of whether the remains are Lord Lovat, nicknamed the Old Fox, being cracked. Erik Lundberg, of the Wardlaw Mausoleum Trust, said: “The best bone found, a sternum, gives us the best chance of getting a DNA sample. It is very exciting.

“This could help us to finally get a definitive answer.”

The bone is being analysed at a genetics centre in Cardiff.

The findings are expected to be revealed at a meeting in the Highlands next month.

The Old Fox was executed for backing Bonnie Prince Charlie, whose uprising ended with the Battle of Culloden in 1746.

Lord Lovat’s body was buried under the floor of a chapel at the tower, but according to the Clan Fraser, was later taken by loyal supporters north to the Highlands and laid to rest at the family mausoleum at Kirkhill.

It is said that several people who had gathered to watch Lord Lovat’s beheading died after the wooden scaffold they were on collapsed.

The clan chief is claimed to have found this incident funny and is said to have been so visibly amused when he was executed that his death led to the phrase “laughing your head off ”.

The Old Fox is known by readers and TV audiences as the grandfather of Jamie Fraser, a character in the Outlander books and hugely popular TV drama.

The day of the exhumation and examination was filmed by TV presenter Dan Snow and there was excitement when the lead casket was first opened to reveal that there were indeed human remains.