Bonnie Prince Charlie’s Cave, Gilmour’s Linn, Touch Glen

Today’s adventure with Ailsa Gray was a little trip through fields, woods and Touch Glen to Gilmour’s Linn. What piqued our interest? There is a cave behind a waterfall, and apparently Bonnie Prince Charlie hid in the cave. Gilmour’s Linn lies on the Touch estate to the west of Stirling. The Touch estate was owned by the Seton family for centuries.

The Setons were renowned Jacobites and supporters of Bonnie Prince Charlie. It is said that Bonnie Prince Charlie stayed at Touch on the day of the Battle of Prestonpans. It is also claimed that Bonnie Prince Charlie, after defeat at Culloden – rather than stay in the house of an openly Jacobite supporter whose house may have been under surveillance – hid in this very cave at Gilmour’s Linn in Touch Glen. Many caves in Scotland have similar claims made but we do know that the Setons were a notable Jacobite family.

We know also that Hugh Seton was close to some of the Stewarts. Hugh Seton of Touch bought the Appin estate in 1765, from Dugald Stewart of Appin. Touch was also visited on the journey that James of the Glen Stewart took from Appin to Edinburgh, when he also met with some of the Stewarts of Balquhidder in the weeks prior to the murder of Colin Campbell in 1752, for which James Of the Glen was hung in Ballachulish. I will let Ailsa add more on that. Any how a good walk. No broken bones, one bramble attack, one cold swim, two wet feet. Sorted.