Glenfinnan Monument, set amid superb Highland scenery at the head of Loch Shiel, was erected in 1815 by Alexander Macdonald of Glenaladale in tribute to the clansmen who fought and died in the cause of Prince Charles Edward Stuart. It was designed by the eminent Scottish architect James Gillespie Graham. The raising of the Prince’s Standard took place at the head of the loch on 19 August, 1745, in the last attempt to reinstate the exiled Stuarts on the throne of Great Britain and Ireland. Despite its inspired beginnings and subsequent successes, the Prince’s campaign came to its grim conclusion in 1746 on the battlefield at Culloden.
Handed over to the care of the The National Trust for Scotland in 1938 by Sir Walter Blount, proprietor, on behalf of himself, the trustees of Glenaladale Estates and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Argyll and the Isles. A conservation agreement protecting 11 ha (27 a) surrounding the monument was made by Mr A MacKellaig.