Modern Jacobites Cleared Off Culloden Moor Shock!!
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A bit of both I imagine. NTS have their own guides, volunteers etc and probably were not too happy with this initiative. However, the insurance for NTS is immensely complicated (I know, I used to work for them) and there may well be a clause about weapons, even replicas. I wonder if the couple had asked whether NTS minded - I am sure something could have been arranged if they had gone about it the right way.
shareI had another thought too. Of course I have no idea what the couple were relating but NTS do have their own historic interpretation of Culloden and it may well be that the 'history' this coupld were relating to visitors was at odds with the official version? They sound a very genuine couple but they could have been giving a more 'romanticised' version than NTS would like? Just a thought.
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My thoughts too - a bit of 'quality control' to quash dubious historical interpretation. Although, to be honest, I've found the standard of many official costumed interpreters at these venues to be of very poor quality!!
Still, it's a shame these harmless pensioners have had their fun spoilt! It got them oot the hoose!
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You are perfectly correct bevaremeg that there is some dubious historical interpretation but bear in mind that most of the NTS guides are probably employed on a volunteer basis and very enthusiastic, very often getting a little carried away with their interpretation. They also get very proprietorial about their own property and somehow legends arise. I remember an incident at a property (which shall remain nameless) where a curator was trying to repatriate a piece of furniture which had been 'loaned' to another property. The guides were incensed and asked that he let them see the inventory as it had been their understanding that this piece of furniture had been at their property since the time of Noah's Ark! (slight exaggeration there on my part!).
shareI was actually thinking of costumed interpreters at HS properties. To the best of my knowledge, they are paid. I witnessed one of them, purporting to be Marie of Lorraine (mother of Mary Queen of Scots), a tall French woman of high intelligence. She was being portrayed by a rather short girl with a Glaswegian accent. I cringed with embarrassment when she tried to interact with one of the visitors, who turned out to be French. 'Marie de Lorraine' couldn't manage a single word of French in response. When I compare that with a visit I once made to Plymouth Plantation in US, where properly trained and rehearsed actors (British I think from their accents) portrayed with detailed characterisation the real historic figures who had lived there, keeping totally in character - and adhering to the time period in which they had lived - the whole time. As a visitor, it really transported you back in time to have skilled actors doing the job.