Military roads of Scotland significant person William Caulfeild
A network of military roads, sometimes called General Wade's Military Roads, was constructed in the Scottish Highlands during the middle part of the 18th century as part of an attempt by the British Government to bring order to a part of the country which had risen up in the Jacobite rebellion of 1715.
The roads were constructed to link the Central Lowlands with a series of fortified barracks located strategically across the Highlands. Their purpose much like the network of roads constructed by the Romans more than 1,500 years earlier was to suppress and exert control over the local population. The engineered roads of the Roman period did not extend into the Highlands, which was where these later roads were constructed.
The first four of these roads were constructed in the 1720s and 1730s under the direction of General George Wade (an Anglo-Irishman) and are commonly referred to as General Wade’s Military Roads or simply as Wade’s Roads.
The network was subsequently expanded considerably under the direction of Major William Caulfeild though his name is now largely forgotten and each of the roads that he had put in place are referred to, on Ordnance Survey mapping for example, simply as "Old Military Road". A further road was constructed by Caulfeild in southwest Scotland in the 1760s.from Inverness to Fort William (along the south side of Loch Ness)
from Dunkeld to Inverness via Pass of Drumochter
from Crieff to the existing road at Dalnacardoch by Aberfeldy and Tummel Bridge
from Dalwhinnie to Fort Augustus via Corrieyairack Pass (and a spur to Ruthven via Crubenbeg)The roads were built by the military at an average cost of £90 per mile (£60/km). Their standard width was 16 feet (5 m) but shrinking to 10 feet (3 m) as required. Construction took place between April/May and October of each year, the winter months being too harsh for such labours. Work in the summer could be arduous too with uncertain weather and the presence of the ubiquitous midge. The construction parties consisted of one hundred men overseen by two corporals, two sergeants, two subalterns and a captain. They were generally also accompanied by a drummer. Wade engaged craftsmen with skills in masonry, carpentry, for example, to ensure that major structures such as bridges were built to a standard. Encampments were established at 10-mile (16-kilometre) intervals and the inns which developed became known as Kingshouses. Some of these continue to serve travellers today. The well-known Kingshouse on Rannoch Moor sits beside the route made by Wade's successor William Caulfeild.Caulfeild’s Roads
Wade himself retired in 1747 but not before his successor, Major William Caulfeild had been appointed to assist him as Inspector of Roads in 1732. Like Wade, Caulfeild was of Irish birth. He continued in the role until his death in 1767. It is Caulfeild who is credited with the lines: