Moving ceremony at lonely
Jacobite hero's grave.

Roderick Mackenzie, writes Christian Lady Innes of the Clan Mackenzie Society, was an officer in the army of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, and after Culloden the Prince was in hiding from the Hanoverians in Glen Moriston.

Whether Roderick was accompanying the Prince, or not, is unknown but it seems that Cumberland's troops were getting too close for comfort. Mackenzie was of similar build and looks to the Prince and showed himself to the enemy leading them away from the cave where he was hiding.

Roderick was captured and later executed and his head was taken to Fort Augustus, where Cumberland had his headquarters, for identification. The ''Butcher'' left Fort Augustus on July 18, 1746 for the south, taking the head with him.

Eventually word came back that the head was not that of the royal fugitive and the delay meant that the Prince was able to escape. The exact date of Roderick's murder is not known but the secretary of the 1745 Association has narrowed it down to between July 12 and 17, 1746. Roderick was on his own when he encountered the Redcoats and his action was that of an outstandingly courageous man who gave his life for his leader.

Today he would have been given an award for gallantry. Instead, his grave fell into a state of neglect, which is why members of the Clan Mackenzie Society of Scotland and the UK have joined forces with the 1745 Association to tidy it up.

At 12 noon, with the sounds of a sad lament from the pipes of the Clan Mackenzie piper carrying in the wind, a wreath was laid by Mrs Leitch, a direct descendent of Roderick. It was a short but moving ceremony to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the death of a very brave man.