Hiya, I'm Bruce Fummey. As a Scottish history Tour Guide, some folk want me to tell them
stories from Scotland's history, other folks just want me to take them to Outlander film locations.
Today, when it's way too snowy to travel, just a short distance from my house I can do both
here at Tullibardine Chapel. That's the beauty of Scotland, even when my plans to take you to
the Ardnamurchan Peninsula are wiped out by snow, just a few miles from home is a film location from
the fantasy series Outlander that's got real Jacobite connections, so I'm going to tell you
what this place was used for in the hit tv series, and a story from the real Jacobite history.
So if you're interested in the people, places and events in Scottish history, then hit the subscribe
button in the bottom right any time during the video and ring the notification bell to find out
when I publish new videos, in the meantime, let me tell you a Jacobite story. Come on!
For those of you that don't know, Outlander is a series of books
turned into a TV series where an English nurse, glad to see the end of World War Two battlefield duties,
comes to Scotland for a relaxing honeymoon in the Highlands. Now, when her history-nerd
husband, stupidly gets lured away to look at some really interesting historical documents,
she visits a stone circle on the day of Samhain Harvest Festival. Are you mental?! That's
like riding a kelpie into a fairy mound on a full moon and shouting 'Who wants some? Who wants some?'
So now it's 1743, and Claire Randall has been regularly rogered by a big ginger clansman
who's an outlaw Jacobite, but thanks to his time traveling English rose now knows that the 45
uprising is doomed, but there's nothing that he can do about it apart from more rodgering.
The answer to most dilemmas seems to be more rodgering, so ladies if you like soft porn in a
kilt, with a hunk of a man who's strong but tender, you get the picture. It's very popular on the
other side of the Atlantic, but the UK government discouraged it here in 2014. I can't think why.
In season two, episode 11, 'Vengeance is mine', Tullibardine Chapel here is the setting for events
after the decision to turn back at Derby. In the book it was after the Battle of Falkirk, but
there's loads to pack in the telly, you know what it's like. Anyway the heroine Claire Randall is
hiding out in this chapel with a bunch of Mackenzie clansmen, of which our hero, Jamie, the giant ginger
Jacobite is one. He's actually a Fraser, but just watch the series or read the book. I'll leave
a link in the description. The point is they're cornered and surrounded by Red Coats,
who threaten to burn the place down. There's no way out, unless what say we tell them that we have this
English woman as a hostage, and you'll be burning her too. As it was, some Highland villagers had
already tried to burn her as a witch in a film set about five miles that way, but that's another story.
The point is, that if the Red Coats didn't want to burn an English woman alive with these Highland
savages, then they would have to make a deal, and at the door at this chapel is where they negotiate.
Now if they want the English woman, they'll have to give their word that the Highlanders go free.
Now you and I know that she's with the Highlanders, but the Red Coats don't. This is the only way out.
She has to make up some cock and bull story to explain how she, a genteel English woman, managed
to find herself in the midst of this rebellious horde, as the Red Coats take her south to England,
which is where she's from, but not when she's from, and not only can she not get back to her own time,
but she knows Culloden's approaching and may never see her Highland lover again.
Inside the chapel they embrace in one of those 'Will they ever be together again?' moments.
Now, if you don't want to know the results, look away now, they do.
Now, in the real world, this was a private chapel of the Murray's of Tullibardine, who acquired the lands
in this area in 1284. It's part of the great Murray of Atholl family. The chapel was built in
1446, so it did well to survive the Reformation, partly because it was a private, rather than a
parish chapel. Now you know aristocrats would build a chapel so that the family could be buried and
pay priests to pray for their eternal souls after their death. The wonderful thing about medieval
Christianity was that you joined the aristocracy by being a warrior who fought in bloody combat
for a certain King. If you chose the winning side, then in addition to getting to keep the pillage
in plunder, you got lands and a title and the land, title and plunder meant you could afford to build
a chapel and pay priests for them to pray for your immortal soul, which had been so blackened
in the process acquiring the lands, titles and plunder. The secret, was to choose the
right side. Now to be fair, in this case they just married for it, but it was probably a cousin so ...
Anyway, the member of the Murray family that I want to talk about is Lord George Murray. He was
with Bonnie Prince Charlie at the real life Battle of Falkirk and Prestonpans and Derby and Culloden.
He and his brothers, Lord Charles Murray, and the eldest, William Murray, the Marquis of Tullibardine,
all joined up with a Jacobite cause in the 1715 uprising. When it failed, Charles was
captured at Preston. Now if you're interested in how that part of the 1715 rising went,
I've got a great video all about it up there. You can come back and click the white tab later.
Anyway, George, and his eldest brother William, had to flee and live in exile in mainland Europe,
but they both came back for the failed uprising in 1719. They were serial Jacobites. After more exile
in 1724, Lord George sneaked home to see his dying father, the Duke. Realising that the
Jacobite cause was lost, he repented, conformed and was rehabilitated to the Hanoverian regime.
Now his brother, James hadn't supported the Jacobites, and having picked the winning team,
he owned all the lands, estates, titles and chapels. Lord George took the lease of an estate from his
brother and somewhat sadly on the 31st of August 1740, he had to write his brother to say that he
just laid the body of his daughter Susan, who died of smallpox, here in this chapel. He also asked
permission, that his own, and his wife's bodies would be placed there in the chapel beside her
when their time came. Having lost their daughter so young, there must have been some consolation in the
fact that at the end of your days you'll be with her, in the family chapel on these ancestral lands.
Now we can't go inside because it's an Historic Scotland place and it's Covid, right okay, but once
this is finished, you can book me for a tour. Of course five years later, Bonnie Prince Charlie
landed in the Western Isles unannounced, unbidden and unexpected. Now, as a reformed man, Lord George was
appointed Sheriff Depute of Perthshire here, and an adviser to the Government Commander in Scotland,
but like many others, he decided that he could not but join the Prince's cause, and when the Jacobites
arrived in Perth, he joined them. He was one of the key leaders, and one of the men of judgment that
tried to temper the impulses of the Prince as he led and advised all the way down to Derby and then
with less favour, on the way back to Culloden. He and his Prince didn't always see eye to eye in strategy and tactics.
After the defeat of Culloden, Lord George managed to escape to France. He then wandered a bit, trying
to find a role in the European continent, but Charles Edward Stuart, for whom he'd given up home,
title and safety, not only refused to speak to him again, I've heard tell they even tried to have him
imprisoned. Four years after Culloden, as Lord George Murray lay dying in the Netherlands, I
wonder if he looked back on 10 years of exile after the 1715 uprising, then risking life and
limb in the 1719 and then again rising in 45, in spite of having made his peace with the Hanoverians.
I wonder if he weighed the years of a second exile against the snub of the Prince that he'd served
and for whom he'd risked all, or did he just wish he was here to be laid out in Tullibardine Chapel
next to his daughter? For more insight into what Bonnie Prince Charlie got up to after Culloden,
I've got a video called 'The Other Charles Edward Stuart'. I filmed it in the brilliant Bannockburn
House, and you can click here to watch the video, or click below to find out how to support the
channel in the description. In the meantime, tha mi an dochas gum bith lath math leibh. Tiorridh an drasda.