Step up for Culloden challenge

To raise money to care for the battlefield, share its stories and significance, and continue to fight commercial development threats, the Culloden team are launching a sponsored Step Challenge, kicking off on Friday 23 July.

Open to all, the team hope everyone who feels connected to and passionate about Culloden, as well as those looking for a summer fitness challenge, will join in. The challenge is to do 500,000 steps in six weeks and raise money for Culloden’s Fighting Fund. A welcome pack, weekly emails and monthly podcasts will be made available, so people can chart their path through time, walking or running wherever they live, in the footsteps of the Jacobite army. Get marching, get inspired and help us protect Culloden now and for future generations!

Raoul Curtis-Machin, Operations Manager for Culloden Battlefield and Visitor Centre, explains: ‘Counting all their steps together, the team here at the Visitor Centre and Battlefield are committed to covering the same 800-mile distance as Charles Edward Stuart did in the 1745 Rising!’ He continues: ‘From landing on the Hebridean Isle of Eriskay, then raising the standard at Glenfinnan, he marched through Edinburgh and Carlisle, progressing as far as Derby, before turning back up north to make a final stand at Culloden. The Culloden Step Challenge kicks off on 23 July, the same day in 1745 when the Prince landed to begin the campaign. The team has estimated that an individual would have to walk or run 2 million steps to cover the 800 miles that the Jacobites marched.’

Modern housing developments are encroaching on the site where many hundreds of men fell fighting for a cause they believed in. The National Trust for Scotland is trying to fight inappropriate development, and Culloden’s Fighting Fund was launched earlier this year to protect and conserve the battlefield.

The Trust relies on the support of our members and donors to carry out our important work of caring for the natural and built heritage loved by people from Scotland and all across the world.

You can help by taking up the challenge, or by supporting the team and donating at our JustGiving page.

All the donations will directly support conservation and learning at Culloden. We hope to raise enough to help combat future development proposals, launch new investigations into the history of the battle and the site we protect, continue our conservation grazing program and explore the prospect of becoming a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

To take on the challenge, email ‘SIGN ME UP’ to CFFund@nts.org.uk for more details.