Remarkably, no Hanoverian troops entered Badenoch for a full month after the Battle. However, the districts near Inverness were subjected to the ravishing attention of the Independent Companies of Scottish clans who had sided with the Hanoverian government -- the Munros, MacKays, Gunns and Grants. Around the middle of May a brigade of Hanoverian regulars passed through Badenoch on their way south, burning farms as they went. Of interest is a report that several of the farms were burnt at the instigation of the Reverend William Blair of Kingussie, minister of the Church of Scotland.

      During the respite, Donald Cameron of Locheil who had been badly wounded in the battle became the centre of a desperate attempt to renew the struggle. Several of the Jacobite clan chiefs met at Murlaggan on the north side of Locharkaig in early May and agreed on a plan of action. Cluny was not there but he was duly informed of the tasks that they assigned to him. Before these planned actions could be launched, Cumberland's army moved into Lochaber and Badenoch burning the farms and killing the livestock and imposing a reign of terror until the middle of August when the last of the regular army units withdrew from the Highlands. Their brutal behaviour during their stay there left the population of Badenoch desperate paupers. It is no wonder that William, Duke of Cumberland came to be known by the sobriquet of "Stinking Billy."

      The Earl of Loudoun's militia entered Badenoch from Lochaber on 27th May where they began the seizure of arms and accepted the formal surrender of the remainder of the Badenoch Regiment's enlisted men. They were released to their homes but the officers would have to wait for a general amnesty before giving up. Cluny, in particular, had to evade capture because the British Parliament had placed a price on his head.

      In early June a detachment of 300 MacKays burned Cluny House, described as "a most pretty, regular, well-contrived house as any benorth the river Tay: double built in the new way only about two years before, pavilion roof'd with two pretty pavilions joined to it by colonnades, and consisting of eighteen fire-rooms." One source reported that the perpetrators offered old Lachlan, still the chief of the clan, to save the furniture. However, he refused to allow his servants to remove a "penny's value of it" believing that the Government would reimburse him for his loss in view of the fact that he had not participated in the insurrection. He died about a fortnight later and thus he never knew how vain his belief was. He was 78 years of age.

      Among the few things that survived the burning of Cluny House were the set of keys shown at the left.

      Janet Fraser, Lady Cluny, was living in her father's house in Edinburgh at the time of the burning and thus was spared witnessing the burning of her home by her fellow Scots. However, this loss was a minor inconvenience compared to what lay in store for her -- the loss of her father, Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat who was tried for treason in March 1747, found guilty and executed on 9th April. That misfortune was followed by eight years of raising a daughter and son alone while her husband evaded capture in the Highland wilderness then penury in exile in France for another ten years.