A Tradition of Killiecrankie.

Bruce Herald, Volume VII, Issue 655, 4 December 1874, Page 2

A Tradition of Killiecrankie.

.. « . Travellers proceeding to the upper part of the Pass of Killiecrankie by the lower road will observe on their right a deep ravine, known by the name of the " Troopers' Den," crossed by the viaduct of the Highland Railway. The erection of this mass of masonry has in some measure filled up the lower part of the den, through which a stream (ia winter a torrent) rushes to join the Garry. Previous to the formation of the railway numerous fragments of rusty iron, the remains of bits, spurs, saddles, <fee, occasionally made their appearance as the soil was washed away ; and the discovery of such relics is accounted for by a tradition that before Mackay met Lord Dundee on the field of Eiiliecrankie, he posted a regiment of cavalry on the upper bank of the hollow. After the defeat and subsequent retreat over the hill of Tulloch of King William's general, the victorious clansmen came down in force on the troopers, who, with their hosres, perished in the ravine. Their bodies were buried, or covered over with earth, on the sloping banks of the brook, but so superficially that their decay produced very unpleasant results, to obviate which a Highland farmer damned up the water of the rivulet in several places above the Aceldama, and, when sufficiently pent up, the torrent was let loose, and in its descent swept the contents into the G-arry. The site of the excavation from which the earth was taken to cover the bod ies is still pointed out, and a friend of mine had for some years the frame of a troop-saddle found in the ravine. — <{ D. A.," in ' Notes and Queries.'