The face of Bonnie Prince Charlie at the end of his life has been revealed after a forensic artist created a digital portrait from his death mask.
A romantic hero of art and literature, Prince Charles Edward Stuart, known as the Young Pretender, led the French-backed Jacobite Rising of 1745.
His army, aiming to reclaim his father's throne, was defeated by government forces at the Battle of Culloden, near Inverness, on April 16, 1746, and he died, aged 67, while living in Rome.
He is often depicted as a charming young man in paintings, but the new image is said to be a faithful portrayal of him in his older years.
Forensic artist Hew Morrison created the image using a death mask at the West Highland Museum, Fort William, and a photo of another copy of the mask at Inverness Museum
Prince Charlie's army, aiming to reclaim his father's throne, was defeated by government forces at the Battle of Culloden (pictured), near Inverness, on April 16, 1746, and he died, aged 67, while living in Rome
Forensic artist Hew Morrison explained how he created the image using a death mask at the West Highland Museum, Fort William, and a photo of another copy of the mask at Inverness Museum.
He said: 'I saw the mask in the case, and approached the museum with the idea of doing a digital reconstruction using modern, artistic techniques.
'The inside of the death mask was smooth, perhaps due the plaster of the time and the copying from the original mask so I had to estimate a certain degree of wrinkling, taking into account his age, reputed drink problem and the fact he'd had a stroke.'
Mr Morrison said the aim was to create a 'true likeness' of the prince, particularly his nose, which has been shown as 'crooked' in some copies of the death mask across the UK.
He believes the crookedness was caused by movement during the casting process, but he found an undamaged copy in Fort William.
He said: 'I photographed their mask to scale, and then superimposed the nasal area over the scaled photograph of the Inverness Museum copy.'
This revealed the 'face of a curious, strong, but heavily burdened character'.
Charles Edward Stuart, or 'Bonnie Prince Charlie' (31 December 1720 – 31 January 1788), was the grandson of the deposed Catholic King James II - who fled to France from William of Orange's invading army in 1688.
The supporters of the deposed king and his descendants were called 'Jacobites', the main stronghold of which was the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.
Charles Edward Stuart, or 'Bonnie Prince Charlie', was the grandson of the deposed Catholic King James II
Bonnie Prince Charlie became an iconic figure for Scots after the Jacobite rebellion of 1745, where he attempted to take the throne of England by force.
Aged just 24, he set sail with a modest army for the Outer Hebrides with the aim of marching on London to oust George II.
Stuart had remarkable early success by capturing Scotland and made it as far as Derby before they were ultimately defeated at the Battle
