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Excerpts from the book: Charles left Ruthven on 15
February and was received with a less than enthusiastic welcome at
Inverlaidnan House, the home of Grant of Dalrachny. The next morning as the
band of men departed Grant’s wife was moved to comment, ’What a pack ye are.
God lat me never hae the like of you in my house again.’ The following day a
more effusive welcome was provided for the Prince at Moy Hall, the home of
‘Colonel’ Anne Mackintosh, a loyal Jacobite whose husband was in the
government army.
Lord Louden, the Hanoverian holder of Inverness, was interested in the
reward of £30,000 that was on the Pretender’s head and the kudos to be
gained from his incarceration and so resolved to capture Charles. Louden
marched towards Moy with 1500 men intending to take the Prince by surprise.
However, his Lordship had not reckoned on the response of Colonel Anne’s
mother, Lady Mackintosh, who lived in Inverness. According to James Gib, the
Master of the Prince’s Household, when Lady Mackintosh heard of Louden’s
plan she dispatched a young clansman, Lachlan Mackintosh, through the
government cordon to her daughter’s house to warn Charles. On hearing the
news Colonel Anne sent five men, including the Moy blacksmith, to keep a
look out for the arrival of Louden’s men. When they saw the advance guard
approaching the men fired their weapons and filled the air with war cries
and chants. Believing that the whole Jacobite army was about to descend on
them the terrified attackers panicked and fled back to Inverness in
disorder.
The ‘Rout of Moy’ produced only one casualty, the MacLeod hereditary piper,
Macrimmon, who had prophesied his death in the lament ‘Cha til me tuille’
which translates as ‘I’ll return no more.’ However, the ignominious rout
demoralised the garrison in Inverness and two hundred men deserted the
following day.
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A short mile south-west of Sluggan Bridge are the desolate remains of
Inverlaidnan House where Prince Charles spent the night with Grant of
Dalrachny and his inhospitable wife. The building has been in a state of
complete ruination for more than a hundred years. I carried on to the
isolated farmstead at Insharn and found the woodland road and bubbling burn
that lead to Slochd on the A9.
The military road continues parallel with the A9 to Tomatin and Moy. After
Culloden ‘Colonel’ Anne Mackintosh continued to live with her husband Aeneas
at Moy Hall. Aeneas died in 1770 and Anne moved to Leith near Edinburgh
where she died at the age of 64 in 1787. Colonel Anne is buried in a
cemetery in Coburg Street, North Leith where a plaque close to the entrance
commemorates her life. The precise site of her grave is unknown.
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