Jacobite banknotes

JACOBITE BANK NOTES REBORN

Iain Ferguson

As Bonnie Prince Charlie and his supporters fled across the Highlands following their defeat at Culloden in April 1746, belongings were scattered, lost or given away. One such lost item, a copper printing plate for producing Jacobite banknotes, was discovered in 1835 close to a ford across the River Spean. It now resides in Fort William’s West Highland Museum.

It is known that the Prince crossed and recrossed that ford in August 1746 and during his flight through the heather, historians can only assume it was lost from his baggage about that time. The plate was made by Orcadian Robert Strange. A printing press had been set up just before the Battle of Culloden, but never produced a banknote.

The plate was forgotten for 90 years until its discovery and was passed into the possession of the family of General Hugh Ross of Glenmoidart, who gifted it to Cluny Macpherson just before the general’s death in 1864. It was then that it first came to wider public notice through an academic article and it is thought a handful of prints were made from it in the 1890s by the Jacobite scholar Walter Biggar Blaikie.

It was acquired by the museum in 1928 at the sale of Cluny’s effects in London, with the Scottish artist D Y Cameron raising funds to purchase the plate. A total of 52 numbered and signed prints were then made, being sold for 10/6 each to raise funds for the museum, which had only come into being six years earlier in 1922. No other prints were made in the last century.

Now, 275 years after it was made, the plate has once again served the purpose for which it was made with a further 22 prints of the Jacobite banknotes being produced, this time to mark the centenary of the museum itself. The first of this numbered series will be sold by public auction at Messers Lyon and Turnbull this month. Number one will being unique in that it is being framed in beechwood sourced from the famous Beech Avenue at Achnacarry, the seat of Clan Cameron. As this and the others will undoubtedly be sold for prices well beyond the wallet of the average person, the museum will be organising an online raffle, with tickets a more affordable £10 each. This will bring the opportunity for a larger number of people to have the chance of owning one of these exclusive, limited edition pieces of history, while also helping to raise funds to continue the good work of the museum.

Keep an eye on the West Highland Museum social media pages to get your ticket.

Launch of LEG Power’s £2M share offer to fund community-owned hydro scheme is imminent

View from Beinn a Bheithir

LEG Power Lochaber (LEG Power) will launch a £2m community share offer to build a community-owned micro hydro (544kW) scheme in summer 2021. Members of the public will be invited to apply for shares in LEG Power and can expect to receive a return on their investment through member share interest.

The Abhainn Greadhain hydro scheme in Glenachulish is being led by Lochaber Environmental Group (LEG), a charity that has been serving Lochaber for more than 20 years. The profits from the scheme will be used to fund environmental projects in Lochaber. LEG took over the scheme in 2019 after being approached by Local Energy Scotland (LES) with a view to offer the scheme for community ownership. LES offered grant support and a loan which enabled LEG to review the feasibility of the scheme, pay for the package of permissions and complete the development tasks, including raising the necessary finance.

LEG then established LEG Power Lochaber, a community benefit society, with the purpose to develop and own the hydro scheme.

LEG Power Lochaber is registered with the Financial Conduct Authority as a community benefit society, registration number 8053. The funds raised from the public share offer will be used to build the hydro scheme.

This exciting opportunity gives Lochaber residents and other supporters of renewable energy schemes

a chance to get involved by becoming a member of LEG Power. Community shares are a practical way of supporting this environmental charity that serves the Lochaber community through sustainable food, active travel and energy-efficiency projects. The scheme will be 100 per cent owned by LEG Power.

LEG Power will be working in partnership with Energy4All Limited, based in Cumbria, to manage the administration of the share offer. Energy4All is a non-profit distributing social enterprise that supports community ownership of renewable energy in the UK. To date, Energy4All has promoted 30 co-operatively owned projects and raised more than £88 million for community renewable energy projects.

The site for the scheme is on land owned by Forestry and Land Scotland on the Abhainn Greadhain river at Glenachulish in Lochaber.

The environmental impact will be minimal due to a number of existing access tracks for construction vehicles and trees felled will be replaced.

As chairperson of LEG Power Lochaber and Lochaber Environmental Group, Marian Austin has a real passion for renewable energy, is an advocate of sustainability and has a determination to make things happen.

She has previous experience in project managing the construction of a successful hydro scheme at Nevis Range which has now been in operation for five years. Using a burn on a nearby hill, this provides much of the power used on the site, cutting their running costs and feeding ‘green’ energy into the grid for distribution throughout the country.

Marian sees LEG Power Lochaber as an exciting new venture in harnessing some of the area’s natural resources to generate not only electricity, but also money to help finance other LEG environmental projects and provide a good return to investors.

While the benefits of hydro power are becoming ever more evident in a world aiming to become carbon neutral, Marian is well aware careful planning and working with a number of official bodies is required to complete the Glenachulish project.

Preparing

To this end, she and fellow members of the LEG board have been planning and preparing to get the project under way for almost two years and with support from Local Energy Scotland preparatory work has already begun by clearing commercial woodland for access and building work.

But like so many ventures, Covid has brought things to a halt at times.

Marian said: ‘Everything is now running about a year behind our original schedule, but all that we have achieved, such as the grid connection and permissions are still in place, as they too have had to allow for the ‘Covid factor’.

‘The community share launch is going ahead with our partners at Energy for All and this is the final key in making the project happen.

‘The minimum share application is likely to be £100 and every share sold brings us closer to our goal.

‘While this project may be based in Glenachulish, it has far reaching benefits for the whole of Lochaber, not to mention the global environment.

‘Every share is an investment for a greener future and will also benefit the investor with a reasonable rate of return. We urge Lochaber residents to sign up for more information on the share offer.’

To register your interest in receiving a copy of the share offer document when the offer launches please visit www.legpower.coop/register. Further details about the project can also be found on our website.