Loch Arkaig Treasure - The Treasure Arrives

The Treasure Arrives

In April 1746, the ships Mars and Bellona arrived in Scotland with 1,200,000 livres (another Spanish instalment, plus a large French supplement). However, on learning of the Jacobite defeat at the Battle of Culloden on 16 April, the ships left, unloading only the Spanish money at Loch nan Uamh, Arisaig on 30 April (the same place from where the Prince had disembarked the year before, and would later embark for France). Thus, seven caskets of Spanish gold arrived in Scotland. As the Jacobite cause was by then lost, with the army scattered and the Prince and his lieutenants in hiding, the money was to be used to assist the Jacobite clansmen (then being subjected to the brutalities of the government forces of the Duke of Cumberland) and to facilitate the escape of leading Jacobites to the continent.

Six caskets (one having been stolen by McDonald of Barrisdale's men) were brought to Loch Arkaig (just north of Fort William) and hidden. Their secret was entrusted to Murray of Broughton, one of the Jacobite fugitives. Murray began the distribution to clan chiefs, but when he was apprehended by the government (and later turned state's evidence) the treasure was entrusted first to Locheil, the chief of Clan Cameron, and then to Macpherson of Cluny, head of Clan Macpherson. Cluny was hiding in a cave at Ben Alder, which came to be known as "the cage", and when Charles briefly joined him there, Cluny had control of the money, which was still hidden at Arkaig.