RCSS Director Leith Davis and students Emma Trotter and Julianna Wagar present “Female Rebels: Women of the 1745 Jacobite Rising” at the ScotFestBC Cultural Tent at the 2022 British Columbia Highland Games (Saturday, June 18th, 2:45 p.m.).

Drawing from research being done by the Centre in partnership with the National Library of Scotland, the presentation explores the stories of Jacobite women contained in the massive ten-volume manuscript, “The Lyon in Mourning,” written by the Jacobite Robert Forbes after the Battle of Culloden. Forbes’ manuscript features accounts about well-known characters, such as Lady Anne MacIntosh and Flora MacDonald, as well as individuals who have been forgotten in the historical record—like the Gaelic-speaking Anne McKay who helped the Jacobite Robert Nairn escape or Mrs Anne Leith who took provisions and secret letters to Jacobite prisoners in Edinburgh Castle. Our readings from “The Lyon in Mourning” are complemented by musical performances by Sheila Allan (fiddle), Scott Alpen (bodhran), Rob McGregor (mandolin)—plus a song and dance or two by our students!

You can see images of Forbes’s manuscript on SFU Library’s website and read more about the project here.

Tickets for the 2022 British Columbia Highland Games are available here.