Riding The Scree: Bonnie PrinceCharlie
One of the most exciting scenes in the film, “Bonnie Prince Charlie,” with David Niven in the title role and co-starring Margaret Leighton, was filmed 2,000 ft. up in the middle of The Three Sister mountain in Glencoe. In this London Film, directed by Anthony Kimmins, the whole campaign in which Prince Charlie led his gallant Highlanders in 1745 is thrillingly depicted in Technicolor. The actual settings and battles were carefully and accurately filmed, but some of the feats performed by the tough eighteenth century clansmen were difficult indeed.
One of these feats of Prince Charlie’s army was to “Ride the scree. ” Mountaineers describe this as glissading down a mountainside which is covered with loose stones. For these scenes men were specially chosen from the Scottish Mountaineering Club, but even these skilled athletes could not ride the scree with bare feet, as Prince Charlie’s men had done. These modern mountaineers had to wear camouflaged shoes!
The excitement of such scenes can well be imagined, the shouts of the attacking Highlanders, the Kaleidoscopic effect of so many tartans rushing to the attack, the thunder of the loose stones as they charge down the scree!