INVERNESS, Scotland -- A one-hour battle on a boggy pasture studded with knobs of heather and grass sent the history of Scotland spinning in an unexpected direction.

The new Culloden Moor Visitor Centre at the site of the Battle of Culloden captures the causes and fallout of the bloody defeat of the Scottish Highlanders supporting Bonnie Prince Charlie's claim to the throne of England, by the government troops of King George II.

Visitors see, hear and touch to learn about Culloden, said Alexander Bennett, project coordinator for the Culloden center, which officially opened on April 16, the 262nd anniversary of the encounter. There are "no books on the walls" at the highly interactive facility, he said.

On entering the 22,000-square-foot center five miles from Inverness, visitors are assigned a character from 1746 who, through interactive stations, leads them through the tumultuous times of the battle and its aftermath.

"They talk only to you because of directional microphones," Bennett said.

The building itself also is designed to speak to visitors. The hall leading chronologically to the battle narrows, ending at a turning point and the entry to an immersion theater where eight projections on the walls of a boxlike room screen a graphic portrayal of the battle that surrounds watchers. Children are discouraged from viewing it.

About 300 professionals and volunteers acted in the movie. The live-action film puts visitors in the midst of the confusion and brutality, Bennett said. The sleet and rain of that day, the troops forming up on opposing walls, the sound of cannon shot flying overhead, the screaming charge of the Highlanders -- they're all there, he said. One of the early groups to screen the movie left "still ... stunned," he said.

In a display case outside the theater is the sword reputed to have been carried by the prince at the battle that ended his Stuart family's claim to England's throne.

The hall then leads uphill, as if to the Scottish highlands whose people were dispersed after Culloden in a period of cruelty and oppression called the "clearances." The irony is that not all Highlanders were Jacobites supporting the Stuart claim, and the government troops included a sizable number of Scots. But virtually all Highlanders were affected. The paternalistic clan system was broken up and punishments ranged from execution or exile to starvation or restrictions that led to immigration, primarily to the American colonies and Canada.

The displays of weapons and other artifacts from the battle include items found by ground-penetrating radar as the new center was being planned and built. Among discoveries are a pewter cross that would have been worn on the neck of a Jacobite soldier, badges from troopers' caps, belt buckles, silver buttons and coins, Bennett said.

The center includes a rooftop observation deck overlooking the battlefield. The moor is marked with flags showing the battle lines: red for government soldiers, blue for Highlanders. Recent efforts aim to correct misperceptions about what happened and where. A cairn in the distance honors the Jacobites, and stones engraved with clan names are reputed to mark the mass graves of slain Highlanders. Walking trails link the sites.

Virtually all of Bonnie Prince Charlie's army -- hungry, exhausted and outnumbered 5,000 to 9,000 -- died on the field or were punished in the track-down that followed.

"It was genocide, by any other name," Bennett said. "What they (government troops) did after the battle was unforgivable."

The unequal price the Highlanders paid for their lost cause is graphically depicted by an exterior wall of the center. Beside rooflines that sweep gracefully upward like the mountains they mirror is a wall of gray Caithness stone from Scotland's north.

Projecting from the surface along one end of the nearly 200-foot length are 1,200 stones, one for each Highlander slain at Culloden. At the other end are 50 representing the government losses.

"We'll leave you with 'what-if' questions," Bennett had said earlier. At this wall, you can count an outcome of the choices.

Culloden Moor Visitor Centre is open year-round; hours vary seasonally. Contact: www.nts.org.uk/Culloden/Home. Bus from Inverness: www.rapsons.co.uk. My Inverness lodging: Ardconnel House bed-and-breakfast, www.ardconnel-inverness.co.uk.