The Sausage That Was Stolen at Culloden A Hidden Chapter of Scotland's Meaty Tragedy.
History records the Battle of Culloden, fought on 16 April 1746, as the brutal end of the Jacobite Rising. But what most historians fail to mention is the true tragedy of that day, the theft of the Cumbernauld sausage recipe, Scotland’s spiciest national treasure.
As the Jacobite army, weary and underfed, made their final stand on the misty moor, among their ranks marched Hamish MacDonald, Cumbernauld’s most legendary butcher and unofficial “Sausage Marshal” of Clan MacDonald. In his satchel? A weathered scroll wrapped in oiled tartan, containing the original, secret recipe for the famed Cumbernauld sausage. MacDonald had been tasked with a sacred mission, to feed the army after victory.
Unfortunately, there was no victory. The battle was lost, the scroll was seized, and the Duke of Cumberland, already known for his brutal tactics, took a curious interest in the sausage scroll. He allegedly called it “a rather intriguing meat doctrine” and had it sent south along with other Jacobite spoils. What followed was a campaign not only of cultural suppression, but of culinary appropriation. Within months, a suspiciously similar sausage emerged in the north of England, it was longer, coiled, peppery… and rebranded as the Cumberland sausage.
Meanwhile, back in Cumbernauld, locals mourned. Not just for their fallen sons, but for the soul of their breakfast. Songs were written, poems burned, and one widow famously shouted in the street, “They took ma Donal' and they took ma sausage, bastards, the lot o’ them!”
Today, few know this tale. But among the butchers of Scotland, the theft of the Cumbernauld Sausage is whispered still.
