Forgotten places

We are currently researching a location where many of the Scots soldiers who fought and died with the British Auxiliary Legion in the Carlist Wars were laid to rest. A cemetery full of sculptures, mausoleums, and funerary architecture, now enveloped by the lush vegetation of Monte Urgull, San Sebastian.

We will share any interesting finds.

There must be so many of these (pre-20th C) places around the world. We have all seen the graveyards full of, or memorials to, people we have never heard of, but many of whom lived lives well worth the telling of a story.

We posted on twitter recently about Gabriel de Montgommery (as the French refer to him). He was Captain of the Scots Guard to the King of France, Henri II. Unfortunately, our Scot fatally wounded the king in a jousting competition, which didn’t do much for his future prospects!

Anyway, the tweet led to a comment from a battlefield tour guide, ‘Do you know about the plaque in Bergues [northern town in France] to the 1745 Highland lad’. We didn’t and were sent a photograph of a tribute to Cameron of Lochiel (who is buried in the local graveyard).

This was Donald Cameron of Lochiel, 19th Chief of the Clan Cameron (aka the Gentle Lochiel) of the ’45 Jacobite Uprising. He met with Bonnie Prince Charlie at Glenfinnan, along with an army of 800 Camerons, in 1745, when the Royal Stuart Standard was raised and the Jacobite Uprising initiated.