Long before Culloden, Scottish Gaels were living through major social and economic changes. But this process was speeded up by traumatic defeat, repression and the legal and political measures which followed the battle. The Rising focused government attention on the region and its people. The Highlanders were to be controlled and integrated with the rest of the kingdom.

For some, these dynamic changes opened up extra opportunities for profit in the British Empire. Others joined the ranks of the British army. Many ex-Jacobites fought with Loudon in North America during the Seven Years War and, in the 1770s, for King George in the American Wars of Independence.

For others, however, the destruction of traditional Gaelic culture and ways of life meant an insecure, increasingly bleak future.