Young Roderick MacKenzie was the son of an Edinburgh Jeweller and an ardent supporter of the Jacobite cause. He was one of the bodyguards of Prince Charles Edward Stewart.
Roderick was not unsimilar to his prince in appearance, being of the same stature, colouring and similar in features.
In the terrible aftermath of Culloden, the government troops were searching the highlands looking for Prince Charles with a reward of £30,000 promised to whoever took the Prince..
Charles Edward was at the time, hiding around the hills of Glenmoriston and Roderick was in the same area. One of the Government patrols came across the young Roderick, and on being challenged, Roderick turned to fight. The Redcoats opened fire and Roderick fell, fatally wounded. As the Redcoats rushed in on him, with his last breath, displaying a quick thought and great courage, the dying man called out,
"You have killed your Prince"
The patrol, fooled by Roderick's words and the strong resemblance the man had to Prince Charles, cut the head from the body and carried it proudly back to Fort Augustus. The Duke of Cumberland was there but was unsure as he had never seen the Prince, and ordered the head to be sent to London for identification. No-one there could identify the head so a man named Peter Morrison, the Prince's batman who was lying in Carlisle awating execution was sent for. By this time, decomposition had set in and the head could not be identified. Morrison's sentence was commuted and he was later freed. Cumberland however had convinced himself that the severed head was indeed that of the Prince and he returned to London. Meanwhile, during the time lapse, Prince Charles had made good his escape from Glenmoriston.
The grave of Roderick MacKenzie lies just off the A887, two miles or so past it's junction with the A87 and is marked by a simple wooden cross. There is a memorial to Roderick by the side of the road.