Australia’s Lambros influencers investigated after Ruthven Barracks climbing backlash in Scotland

Australian brothers Stefan and Lachlan Lamble faced backlash online for climbing on a historic Scottish site in a stunt to raise funds for cancer research. Photo / Lambros

A pair of Australian social media influencers have been accused of disrespecting Scotland’s heritage after filming themselves climbing on a historic Scottish Jacobite site.

In August, Stefan and Lachlan Lamble, who are known to their fans online as the Lambros and have 875,000 followers on Instagram, set out on an endurance challenge to run the length of Britain.

The stunt aimed to raise $582,788 (£250,000) for Cancer Research UK.

The brothers, from Melbourne, aimed to complete the challenge, which is equivalent to 36 marathons, in under 31 days.

However, days after starting their trip, they sparked outrage when they uploaded a video showing themselves climbing the ruins of Ruthven Barracks.

The brothers can be seen throwing rocks and running on top of the barracks walls in the now-deleted video.

In the now deleted video, one of the brothers can be seen on top of the walls and throwing rocks.

The site was built by the British Government along with three other garrisons after the first Jacobite rebellion of 1715.

Users on Reddit criticised the pair, with one calling them a “pair of imbeciles”.

Another questioned, “How does anyone see a historic monument anywhere and go ‘yeah I’ll mess with that’.”

“I like their cause, but if they could just leave our sites alone, that’d be nice,” said another commenter, while an Australian user described their actions as “Absolutely disgusting” and they “DO NOT condone this type of behaviour”.

Historic Environment Scotland (HES) opened an investigation into the incident. It told Scottish newspaper the National that it appreciated that the brothers’ “wider fundraising activity is for a good cause”, but Scotland’s “historic sites should be treated respectfully and engaged with safely”.

“This is to avoid irreparable damage to the sites themselves,” HES said, “whether deliberate or accidental, and to avoid endangering the safety and enjoyment of others.”

The investigation finished in early September and HES told the National that no visible damage was found.

“In this instance, the team have visited the site and the incident does not appear to have resulted in any physical damage to the monument,” HES said.