ONE of the most vertiginous walks in the North-East is up the footpaths which scale the Swale's cliffs in Richmond.

A few puffing strides and you're high among the treetops with the river a distant snake below.

Across the river is a curiosity.

On a hill is a tower dedicated to a battle fought 327 miles away, as the AA website measures it; a tower which is now involved in a battle, albeit a 21st century planning one, and a tower which recently has seen police frogmen hunting at its foot as a murder investigation unfolds.

Culloden Tower was built in 1746 by John Yorke, the Whig MP for Richmond. Originally he called it Cumberland Tower, so his intention was clear: to commemorate the Battle of Culloden in which the king's forces, led by the Duke of Cumberland, defeated the Young Pretender, Bonnie Prince Charlie.

The battle was fought on April 16, 1746, on moorland near Inverness. It is seen as a turning point in British history. It is the last battle to have been fought on mainland soil, and, for Protestant Whigs like Yorke, it ended the threat of the Jacobites, their Catholic religion and their Tory supporters.

In Scotland, it was also the end of a way of life. Bonnie Prince Charlie had been supported by the clans - "gentle" Cameron was the first clan leader to his side accompanied by his clansmen, whom he coerced into battle by gently burning their homes.

Just before the battle began, the Macdonalds fell into a sulk because they found themselves on the left flank rather than on their favoured right and so they didn't charge. Their collective defeat marked the end of this ancient, tribal society. The wearing of tartan, kilts and the playing of bagpipes were all banned.

And for 1,500 Highlanders, Culloden marked the end of their lives, massacred within an hour by the roundshot, grapeshot and musketry of the Royal army. Those who didn't die outright were finished off by pistols after the battlesmoke had drifted away. Cumberland's men found 32 injured Highlanders huddled in a farm building, and burned them alive.

To commemorate the victory of his way of life - and not necessarily the bloody demise of the Scots - Yorke built on the site of a 14th century pele tower which itself had probably been erected to keep out the Scots.

The architecture of Yorke's tower celebrates the victory. It is a victory of Classical styles over the old Gothic in which the Mediaeval Catholics had for centuries been building churches and cathedrals. Gothic patterns are found on the lower floor, but they are hemmed symbolically in by a Classical framework. And the topmost floor is entirely Classical, showing that it was now the toppermost style of the day.

Yorke's tower also framed Richmond. On the one side, there's the frighteningly large castle rearing up out of the cliffs; on the other is the delicate tower rising serenely from a hill.

Yorke lived in the shadow of his tower, in Yorke House by the river. He died in 1757 and his house was demolished in 1823. His tower, though, remains splendid in the middle of nowhere while the 21st century argument rages about what - if anything - should be built in the car park at its foot.

* Culloden Tower is cared for by the Landmark Trust, a building preservation charity. It is let for holidays throughout the year. For details visit www.landmarktrust.org.uk or 01628 825925.

Published: 03/12/2005