AS Arran Johnston stepped on to the battlefield to play Bonnie Prince Charlie for the 11th time this weekend he looked closer to the real thing than ever.
Hundreds of people had turned out in winter sunshine to watch the annual re-enactment marking when the Jacobite rebel army reached Swarkestone Bridge – the furthest place it got to in England.
The rebellion was the attempt by Charles Edward Stuart – or Bonnie Prince Charlie – to regain the British throne for the exiled House of Stuart from King George II.
Dressed in period uniforms and using replica weapons, nearly 50 re-enactors turned out for Saturday's event.
Arran, 29, started taking part when he was 15 and is now a professional historian so it is his favourite re-enactment event and one he had readied a special piece of clothing for this year.
The Charles Edward Stuart Society member said: "I use portraits of the Prince and written descriptions of the time to work our what I'm going to wear.
"The Prince tended to wear Highland clothing and this time, for the first time, I wore a tartan jacket, red and black with gold lace, and a waistcoat based on a portrait done of him in Edinburgh.
"I feel a bit closer to the man himself each time I do it."
The rebellion began after the Prince sailed to Scotland and raised the Jacobite standard at Glenfinnan in the Scottish Highlands, where he was supported by a gathering of Highland clansmen.
The march south began with an initial victory at Prestonpans, near Edinburgh. When they reached Derby, some British divisions were recalled from the continent to bolster George II's forces.
The Jacobite army retreated north to Inverness. The last battle on Scottish soil took place on a nearby moor at Culloden where the Jacobites were defeated.
Swarkestone Bridge on the River Trent marks the furthest southerly point the Jacobite army reached in 1745.
Arran said: "If it wasn't for what happened during those couple of days in Derby the whole of British history could have gone in a completely different direction.
"It's a moment when all the greatest courts in Europe had their eyes of Derbyshire."
