Military Cantonments of the

British Army in Scotland, 1745-56

Introduction

Leading up to, and for over a decade after the Battle of Culloden, the British Army garrisoned thousands of troops in most parts of Scotland including the Western Isles. The locations of the garrisons (some long-term in castles, others in temporary camps) are known as military cantonments.

A previously overlooked part of Scottish history, extensive research has now been done on these cantonments, beginning under the auspices of Stennis Historical Society. Initial information came from contemporary manuscripts of the British Army, the Cantonment Register and the Situation Reports. These handwritten documents were transcribed by Stennis members and published on the Stennis website. The documents relate to the mainland of Scotland. At a later date, another manuscript was found detailing many cantonments in the Western Isles.

The maps can be viewed on the Maps page or downloaded from the Downloads page. Also available for download is the research document (now updated to Version 3.0) containing all the data used to create the maps, including over 600 cantonment locations, dates, troop numbers, and manuscript source documents & page numbers.

The sources of the data used to create the cantonment maps are listed on the Sources page.

There is also a YouTube Channel, @cantonmentmaps, with videos describing the creation of the maps and animating the changing geographical distribution of cantonments across Scotland.