Monument record MHG43935 - Culloden House, Brangas Tree

Brangas Tree (NAT)
OS 6"map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1907)

"Brangas Tree…An English elm, standing in front of Culloden House, in which is fixed a brangas, or iron holdfast, in which in feudal times, it was customary to padlock the arm or leg of any malefactor".
Name Book 1868.

The tree has been felled and its roots pulled out. A stone, 1.5m high and bearing an inscription, has been erected on the site. " Here 16 soldiers were killed by the English after the Battle of Culloden and were buried in front of Culloden House" (at NH 7202 4637) (Information from the caretaker, Culloden House, Balloch). A low mound 18.0m. X 14.0m x 0.2m is the only evidence of the burial place; a tree stands in the centre of the mound.
The above information, although acknowledged to be fact by local people was not substantiated by a suitable authority.
In Inverness museum are the jougs and part of the tree mentioned by Name Book (1868).
Visited by OS (E G C) 25 April 1962.

Culloden House Sale Catalogue 1897 has photo showing the brangas on the tree. <1>