This Cairn marks the place where Roderick MacKenzie gave his life for Bonnie Prince Charlie in July 1746.

Roderick MacKenzie, son of an Edinburgh watchmaker, was a well dressed man of similar stature to Prince Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) and was often said to have been mistaken for him whilst serving in the Prince’s Lifeguards (Elcho Troop). After the battle of Culloden, in April 1746, he encountered some of Cumberland’s men here in Glenmoriston, and during the ensuing fight was slain, crying out “You have killed your Prince”.

The soldiers, hopeful of claiming the reward of £30,000 (That is about £6.1 M in 2026) offered by the Hanoverian government for the Prince “dead or alive”, struck Roderick’s head from his body, and took it to nearby Fort Augustus for identification. The rest of Roderick’s body is said to have been interred by the river.

None of the Jacobite officers imprisoned at Fort Augustus were prepared to identify the head without the body. The Duke of Cumberland nevertheless, believing the Prince dead, returned to England, while the head was paraded through Inverness, Stirling, and Edinburgh, before being taken to London. The Prince’s valet was brought down from Carlisle prison to identify the decayed head, which he failed to do. It was soon realized that a mistake had been made. In the meantime, however, the fugitive Prince made good his escape, eventually appearing alive and well in Paris.

Little is known about Roderick himself. He is on record as a timber merchant in Fisherow, Musselburgh, and as such would possibly have been well travelled in the Highlands in the course of his business. It is not known how he came to be in Glenmoriston in July 1746. Possibly he was on his way to seek refuge among kinsmen in Kintail, where tradition has it that he was a Murchison (a sept of the MacKenzies, whose members would often have used the clan surname outwith the Highlands). It has also been suggested that as a Jacobite he felt unable to return to Edinburgh lest he put his widowed mother and sisters in danger.

Bonnie Prince Charlie himself arrived in this area at the end of July, where he took refuge in “The Prince’s Cave” with the famous “Seven Men of Glenmoriston”. He evaded capture long enough to find a ship to take him into exile partly as a result of the sacrifice of Roderick MacKenzie…

A BRAVE ACT BY A BRAVE MAN.