Nearly 280 years ago, as legend goes, a would-be assassin tried to kill Bonnie Prince Charlie, who led a failed rebellion of Scots against the British crown in 1745. Now, the discovery of a musket ball hole that pierced a bedroom wall inside a historic Scottish landmark offers concrete evidence that the assassination attempt really happened.
In April, volunteers doing conservation work at Bannockburn House, a historic home situated between Glasgow and Edinburgh where the Bonnie Price once stayed, received a valuable tip: The relative of a former housekeeper told them about a "secret panel" hidden beneath "delicate plaster work" depicting images of mermaids and multiple layers of "ancient wooden paneling." The volunteers soon found the hole, which offers a "grim reminder of a previously undocumented assassination attempt" against Bonnie Prince Charlie, according to a statement from Bannockburn House.
