The battlefield: war grave, audio tour and tour toute

The battlefield as war grave
Remind pupils in advance that the battlefield is today regarded as a war grave, a place where more than 1500 men lost their lives and where many of them are buried. For many visitors, the site is a place of pilgrimage, a place linked to their family history. Please get pupils to think about what kind of behaviour is appropriate to such a place.

The Battlefield Guide – audio tour
To enhance your visit further, you could make use of the Culloden Battlefield Audio Guide. This is a GPS-triggered audio tour, which guides visitors round the battlefield. It includes an audio-commentary, dramatised eyewitness accounts and relevant images. Though designed for general visitors, pupils would probably enjoy using parts of this and would find it motivating. Please discuss this with Learning staff when you book your visit.

The battlefield: a suggested tour route
If staff are available, they can assist with your tour of the battlefield. The following route and tour notes should be adapted to the abilities and interests of your class – if you use them at all. Ideally, pupils will have identified their own reasons for visiting the battlefield and it may be that you do little more than provide them with the map and are available to assist with any difficulties.

This route takes in all of the key features of the battlefield, stopping at eight different points. It can of course be shortened depending on your agenda. All of the stopping off points are beside Pathway Panels, interpretation panels which have brief information on what happened at that point during the battle and what can be seen there now. At each of these points our tour suggests activities for pupils and teachers loosely based on some or all of the following:

• Discuss – discussion points based on what pupils can see around them and the content of the interpretation panel. Questions are deliberately open-ended so that all can participate.
• Collect evidence about – suggestions for themes for evidence collection
• Try – suggestions for simple role play, aimed at illuminating pupils’ understanding of what happened on the battlefield

Please note that these are just suggestions, and we recommend that you use only those which you feel are appropriate for the age and stage of your pupils.

Pupils may well have devised their own way of collecting evidence on a particular topic. If they have not, you may wish to use the map which follows, which shows the battlefield and provides space for notes, drawings, etc.

click here to download the Culloden battlefiled evidence record