This is a complete timeline of events in The Flight of the Heron, compiled from the various references to dates and times throughout the book. Broster is fairly generous with giving precise dates and lengths of time for the events she narrates, and she never contradicts herself; in a few places I’ve arbitrarily decided on a specific date within the plausible range given by canon, but there are no outright guesses. The timeline is followed by a more detailed explanation of how I put it all together.
All dates are given in Old Style, that is, according to the Julian calendar used in Scotland and England at the time the book takes place. These dates are 11 days behind those of the New Style or Gregorian calendar in use now—so, for example, 16 August 1745 would be 27 August in today’s calendar. Britain switched to the Gregorian calendar and New Style dates in 1752, but most other European countries had been using them for some time before then; see here for more details.
| I. | The timeline |
| II. | Explanation of the timeline |
Early 1715: Keith is born.
Mid-to-late June 1719: Ewen is born. Ewen's father John flees the country, and his mother dies.
Autumn 1719: Margaret arrives at Ardroy.
December 1719: John Cameron dies; Ewen becomes Mac 'ic Ailein.
1720: Philip Windham dies.
1734: Keith gets his commission in the Royal Scots.
1739-41: Ewen goes abroad for his education, and meets Alison in Paris.
1741: Ewen and Alison become engaged. Keith discovers Lydia Shelmerdine's duplicity and breaks off his affair with her.
Saturday 27 July 1745: Prologue.
Friday 16 August: Chapters 1.1 and 1.2.
Saturday 17 August: Chapter 1.3.
Sunday 18 August: Chapters 1.4 and 1.5.
Monday 19-Wednesday 21 August: Keith accompanies the Camerons as the Jacobite army assembles. They reach Glenfinnan on the 19th, and Charles's standard is raised; the Jacobites remain at Glenfinnan on the 20th and travel to Kinlochiel on the 21st.
Thursday 22-Friday 23 August: Chapter 1.6; we hear about past events from 19-21 August. Keith and Ewen are at Kinlochiel on the 22nd, and the Jacobites travel to Fassefern on the 23rd; Keith escapes during the evening of the 23rd.
Overnight, Monday 7-Tuesday 8 October 1745: Chapters 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3.
Tuesday 8 October-Friday 1 November: Chapter 2.4. Alison speaks to Ewen on the 8th, and Hector hears the story of Ewen's adventure on the 9th. Ewen leaves Edinburgh with the Cameron guard on the 1st.
Friday 7-Monday 10 March 1746: Chapter 3.1. Ewen arrives at Inverness on the 7th; he and Alison are married on the 8th; Alison boards the ship for France, and Ewen leaves Inverness, on the 10th.
March to Wednesday 16 April: Chapter 3.2. Ewen is injured on 20 March, and returns to the siege at the beginning of April; the siege is abandoned on 3 April, and Ewen arrives at Ardroy on the 4th. Soon afterwards he leaves for Inverness, and the final part of the chapter takes place on 16 April, from the failed night march in the early hours of the morning to just before the battle.
Thursday 1 May: Chapters 3.3 and 3.4.
Overnight, Thursday 1-Friday 2 May: Chapter 3.5.
Friday 2-Saturday 3 May 1746: Ewen is held captive in Guthrie's camp; he is sent to Fort Augustus on the morning of the 3rd.
Wednesday 7 May: Ewen falls asleep at Fort Augustus and gives his account of Lochiel's location.
Thursday 8 May: Chapters 4.1 and 4.2; we hear about the past events taking place from 2-7 May.
Friday 9-Saturday 10 May: Chapter 4.3. Keith is imprisoned overnight at Fort Augustus, and meets Ewen on the evening of the 10th.
Saturday 10 May: Chapter 4.4; we hear again about Ewen's time in captivity from 2-7 May.
Sunday 11 May: Keith is taken to Inverness.
Tuesday 20-Thursday 22 May: Chapter 4.5. Ewen confronts Loudoun on the 20th and is moved to the dungeons on the 21st; Alexander Cameron arrives on the morning of the 22nd.
Thursday 17-Thursday 24 July: Chapter 4.6. Keith goes to Fort Augustus and confronts Cumberland on the 17th, and talks to Albemarle on the 18th; he gets permission to see Ewen on the 24th.
Thursday 24-Friday 25 July: Chapter 4.7. Keith and Ewen's meeting takes place on the 24th; Ewen sets out for Fort William, and Keith receives his orders to go to the west coast, on the 25th.
Friday 25 July 1746: Chapter 5.1.
Friday 25-Sunday 27 July: Chapter 5.2. Ewen is rescued by the Yorkshiremen on the 26th and reaches Ardroy on the 27th.
Sunday 27 July-Thursday 7 August: Chapter 5.3. Ewen leaves his room on 30 July, and his conversation with Aunt Margaret takes place on the evening of the 31st; on 7 August Archie arrives and speaks to Ewen.
Thursday 7-Friday 8 August: Chapter 5.4. Ewen talks to Angus on the 8th, and leaves Ardroy that evening.
Monday 11 August: Chapter 5.5.
Late August 1746: Epilogue.
In several places, historical events were of use for dating events in the novel; my main source for these was Christopher Duffy’s book Fight for a Throne: The Jacobite ’45 Reconsidered.
It's July 1745, and Ewen receives the news from Lochiel that Prince Charles has arrived in Scotland. We're not given a precise date, but I think we can deduce one, as follows:
The easiest part of the book to date: most of the dates are simply given to us, and the rest follow in sequence!
The ambush at High Bridge is historical, and took place on Friday 16 August; the rest of chapters 1.1 and 1.2 take place the same day. Chapter 1.3—Keith's trip up to Slochd nan Eun—takes place the next day. Chapters 1.4 and 1.5 are the day after that, and just in case we'd lost track, Broster reminds us that it's Sunday with Ardroy's Morning Prayer. Chapter 1.6 opens 'four days later', and the narrator immediately confirms that it's now Thursday 22 August; Keith's reminiscences take us back over the events of Monday 19 to Wednesday 21 (the journey to Glenfinnan and raising of the standard on the 19th, at Glenfinnan on the 20th, to Kinlochiel on the 21st, now at Kinlochiel on the 22nd). The Jacobites reach Fassefern 'next afternoon', Friday 23 August; it's now been a week since chapter 1.1 and so Keith's parole runs out, and he escapes that evening.
Chapters 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3 take place over the course of a single night. In 2.1 it's 'early October' and Broster tells us that 'yesterday had come to an end' the affair of the Castle blockade. The blockade was in place during the first week of October, but I've struggled to find a precise date for when it was lifted; Patrick Crichton suggests that it was the 6th, and Duffy's account agrees with this. This puts the ball on the evening of the 7th. There are no precise references to time in these chapters, but with so much happening in one evening it's quite likely that it's after midnight by the end of 2.3.
2.4 opens 'the next day', when Alison speaks to Ewen; 'next day' after that Hector gets the whole story. After that, 'the October days went by', and Ewen's hand has time to heal up. At the end of the chapter it's 'early on the morning of the first of November', and Ewen is preparing to leave Edinburgh. According to Duffy, the main body of the army left the city on 31 October—Broster agrees, with Ewen staying longer 'to bring away the Cameron guard'.
3.1 opens on 'the seventh of March', and the first few pages summarise events from when the Jacobite army left Edinburgh to the present. Ewen and Alison are married 'next day' (8 March), and stay at Inverness the full day and night after that. Two days after the wedding Alison boards the ship for France, and Ewen goes to report to Lochiel and subsequently leaves Inverness.
3.2 is a bit various! It opens with more historical summary, beginning with the surrender of Fort Augustus on 5 March and then moving on to the siege of Fort William. The main action begins during the siege, on 'a fine morning in the latter half of March'; Broster describes the Jacobites firing on the fort from 'one of the little eminences about half a mile away', and suggests that the following action takes place soon after this begins. Comparing this with Duffy's description of the siege suggests the 'eminence' is Sugar Loaf Hill, on which new batteries were opened on 20 and 22 March; I think 20 March is the most likely date for this scene. Ewen is injured that day; he's kept in bed 'longer than he had expected', and has been up again for 'a day or two' when the siege is abandoned 'in the night of 3 April'. Ewen then returns to Ardroy, not more than a day's journey away, so probably he arrives on the 4th. He leaves when Lochiel's orders come; 'Cumberland is moving', and they're to march for Inverness. According to Duffy the Prince sent for Lochiel to Inverness on 4 April, so Ewen's stay at Ardroy probably isn't very long. The rest of the chapter takes place from during the night march on 15/16 April to just before the battle on the 16th.
3.3 returns to Keith, and we're told that it is 'the first of May'; Culloden was 'a couple of weeks ago'. The rest of the chapter takes place the same day, as does 3.4, which follows immediately on from 3.3.
3.5 opens 'a few hours later', and thus That Night in the Hut is the night of 1/2 May; by the end of the chapter 'it was light outside'.
At the beginning of 4.1 'it was six days since he [Keith] had left Guthrie's camp'. That was during the night of the 1st, so depending on exactly how Keith is counting, it might plausibly now be either the 7th or the 8th. The rest of this chapter and 4.2 take place the same day. Meanwhile, Ewen was in Guthrie's custody for 'twenty-four hours', from the morning of 2 May to the 3rd. In chapter 4.2, Paton narrates the events in Guthrie's camp and tells us that Guthrie sent Ewen to Fort Augustus 'next morning', i.e. the 3rd. When Keith arrives at Fort Augustus he hears that Ewen gave the information about Lochiel 'last night'.
4.3 begins the next morning, and continues through that day and the following night. The next day after this, he meets Ewen 'about six o'clock in the evening'.
4.4 follows immediately from 4.3. At the end of the chapter Keith is told he'll be taken to Inverness 'next morning'. Ewen says he talked in his sleep 'the fifth night—two nights ago'. We can use this to resolve the 'six days' ambiguity: the fifth night after Ewen arrived at the fort was the 7th, so Keith must have arrived there on the 8th, he spent the 9th imprisoned, and it's now the 10th. (The night of the 7th might count as 'two nights ago' from the 10th if Ewen begins counting from the previous night).
At the beginning of 4.5, 'ten days had passed' since Ewen's meeting with Keith, so it's now the 20th; Ewen's conversation with Loudoun takes place the same day. The next day Ewen is moved to the dungeons; 'the following morning', i.e. the 22nd, Alexander Cameron arrives with news.
4.6 opens on 'the seventeenth of July'; Keith has been at Inverness all the time since we last saw him, with the threat of a court-martial having been removed by 'the last week in May'. Keith goes to Fort Augustus and confronts Cumberland the same day; he spends the night there and meets Albemarle 'next afternoon'. The end of the chapter skips over 'the next few days', ending 'on the morning of the twenty-fourth', when Keith gets permission to see Ewen.
Ewen and Keith's meeting in 4.7 then takes place the same day, the 24th; the chapter continues to 'next morning', when Ewen is taken away for Fort William, and 'that afternoon', when Keith gets his orders to go and search for the Prince.
5.1 takes place on the same morning as the end of 4.7, 25 July.
5.2 opens that night, with Ewen's rescue by the Yorkshiremen taking place the next day (the 26th); 'twenty-four hours later' he reaches Ardroy, and the rest of the chapter takes place the same day, the 27th.
5.3 summarises events over several days: Ewen leaves his room 'after three days' (the 30th), his conversation with Aunt Margaret is on 'the fifth evening after his return' (the 31st), and Archie arrives and talks to Ewen 'a week later' (7 August). We can match up some of the things Archie says with historical events. The Prince is currently 'in Chisholm's country', while Lochiel is hiding on Ben Alder with Cluny MacPherson; historically, Charles returned to the mainland on 5 July and joined Cluny on Ben Alder on 5 September, so Archie's account is consistent with it currently being somewhere between those dates.
5.4 follows immediately from 5.3; 'next day' Ewen begins preparing for his departure, which takes place that evening, and speaks to Angus before he goes.
5.5 is very difficult to date precisely; Ewen and his party from Ardroy have now reached the coast, so it's probably two or three days after 5.4, but we don't get an exact date. The other possible clue is the presence of a French ship, but the dates don't line up with this being the ship which took Charles off from Scotland on 20 September, or the second one which arrived along with it, and as far as I can find there are no other plausible historical ships (besides those two in September, Duffy only mentions one which arrived in May). I think we have to conclude that this ship is fictional.
The epilogue also contains no specific clues, apart from the likely amount of time it would have taken Ewen to reach France and then Havre-de-Grâce. It took Charles nine days to get to France, but speed when travelling by sea was highly variable depending on the weather; we also don't know where Ewen's fictional ship landed him and hence how far he had to travel to get to Havre-de-Grâce, introducing more uncertainty.
We get fairly detailed information on the events surrounding Ewen's birth: his father flees Scotland after the 1719 Jacobite Rising, leaving the country 'three days' after Ewen is born; when he dies, 'before the year had ended', Ewen is 'six months old'. In the prologue, Ewen is 'just six-and-twenty'. The Battle of Glen Shiel, the decisive battle of the '19, was fought on 10 June 1719. Taken together, these all agree on a date of birth in mid-to-late June 1719. Margaret arrives at Ardroy 'after a while', and before her brother's death. Ewen is 26 at the beginning of the novel, and has his 27th birthday between chapters 4.5 and 4.6, when he's in prison at Fort Augustus.
Ewen spends 'two years' abroad for his education, and meets Alison in Paris during this time. By the time of the prologue, they've been engaged for four years. Thus the engagement began in 1741, and Ewen's two years in France were roughly from 1739-41, when he was 19-22.
We don't get such a precise timeline for Keith's backstory. He's 'thirty' in chapter 1.1; thus his date of birth is somewhere between August 1714 and August 1715, and he has probably turned 31 by the end of the novel.
Keith's betrayal by Lydia Shelmerdine was 'four years ago', in 1741. Keith's father died when he was five, sometime between August 1719 and August 1721. Keith has 'borne his Majesty's commission' for 'twelve years' as of May 1746, in chapter 4.2.