by R J M Pugh
In the Highlands of Scotland, Charles Edward Stuart is still regarded today with ambivalence; in certain circles, his name is reviled, not only on account of his absurdly romantic adventure but also because he directly brought an end to a way of life which had existed for centuries. The clansmen in the north were not noted for their appreciation of literature nor the arts but they were possessed of a strong sense of place and their role in it. Of course, they loved oratory and music; they loved to dance, enjoyed family gatherings, bonfires, singing – and whisky. Most had little or no education and knew no trade or profession; those who could read rarely strayed beyond the Bible. But they were a strong, independent people, practical and reliable, loyal to their chiefs. They were basically farmers who doubled as warriors rather than soldiers. Many were forced to leave Scotland after the ’Forty-Five, like those of previous Jacobite Risings; many more were evicted during the Highland Clearances to make way for the more profitable sheep. Many ended up in the USA and Canada, dying there and laid to rest in scattered, remote graves in the wildernesses they struggled to tame. They were born fighting. They are remembered in poem and song, their sacrifice in a lost cause almost a distant memory. Almost. As the Nobel laureate American novelist William Faulkner famously wrote of the Deep South after the American Civil War:
The past is not dead; it isn’t even past.
It is often said that history is not the study of the lives of individuals but entire nations and communities; this is true in part. In the context of warfare however, it is individual leaders or generals who create history – men like William Wallace, Robert the Bruce, John Graham of Claverhouse, James, Marquis of Montrose and others who played crucial roles in the history of the nation of Scotland. This is why biographies of such men have grown in popularity over the past century. Individuals do influence the course of history, for good or for ill. Hopefully, this account of the killing fields of Scotland has gone some way to illustrating the point.
Notes
1 The old Bank of Scotland founded in 1695 was suspected of Jacobite sympathies, so a new bank was chartered in 1727 as the Royal Bank of Scotland, Islay being appointed as its first governor. Rivalry between the two banks was intense.
2 Hume Brown, History of Scotland, vol. iii, p.228.
3 Ibid, p.274.
4 Pugh, The White Rose and the Thorn Tree, p.14; Kybett, Bonnie Prince Charlie: A Biography, p.119.
5 Pugh, op. cit. p.22.
6 In point of fact, burghs like Dunbar which had requisitioned a stand of arms during the emergency of 1708 were deprived of the weapons by Cope in 1745 on the eve of Prestonpans (Pugh, Swords, Loaves and Fishes: A History of Dunbar, p.328).
7 The title Duke of Perth was given to the earldom of Drummond by James VII and II at St Germain in 1695, confirmed by Louis XIV in 1701. Perth’s eldest son James, titular 2nd Duke of Perth, was attainted for his part in the ’Fifteen. His son James Drummond, titular 3rd Duke of Perth (1713 – 1746), assumed the title in 1731 (Burke’s Peerage).
8 Brotchie, The Battlefields of Scotland, p.220; Hume Brown op. cit. vol.iii., p.298
9 Pugh, The White Rose and the Thorn Tree, p.195.
10 Kybett, op. cit., p.150.
11 Duffy, Dr C., Victory at Prestonpans, p.8 (booklet prepared for Trustees of the Battle of Prestonpans (1745) Trust, Prestoungrange University Press).
12 Ibid, p.8.
13 Kybett, op. cit., p.150.
14 Gardiner’s remains lie in the west end of Tranent Old Kirk graveyard (Brotchie, op. cit., p.221 footnote).
15 Kybett, op. cit., p.151.
16 Brotchie, op. cit., p.222 footnote (Historical Papers, Jacobite Period, Spalding Club vol. i, pp.279 – 82).
17 Duffy, op. cit., p.10 (150 – 300); Kybett, op. cit., p.153, cites a government army headquarters report listing 500 killed and 1,400 taken prisoner, of which 900 were wounded; Murray of Broughton’s Memoirs gives eight Redcoat officers and 300 privates were killed, 400 to 500 wounded and ‘almost all’ taken prisoner. The official Jacobite report on losses states that four officers and thirty soldiers killed, with seventy or eighty wounded, almost tallying with Maxwell of Kirkconnell’s account Narrative of Charles, Prince of Wales’ Expedition to Scotland in the Year 1745 (Maitland Club, 1841).
18 Brotchie, op. cit., p.223.
19 Robert Burns; Kybett, op. cit., p.155.
20 Brotchie, op. cit. p223 and footnote.
21 Hume Brown, op. cit., vol.iii, p.290.
22 Ibid, p.302.
23 Ibid, p.306.
24 Kybett, op. cit., p.187.
25 Hume Brown, op. cit., vol.iii, p.313.
26 Kybett, op. cit., p.189.
27 Ibid, p.189.
28 Hume Brown, op. cit., vol.iii, p.315.
29 Ibid, pp.315 – 16.
30 Kybett, op. cit., p.190.
31 Especially the entire Clan MacDonald of Glengarry, after Alastair MacDonald’s young brother Aeneas or Angus was accidentally shot by a MacDonald of Keppoch while cleaning his musket (Kybett, op. cit., p.190; Hume Brown, op. cit., vol.iii, p.316).
32 Kybett, op. cit., p.193; Hume Brown, op. cit., vol. iii, p.316.
33 Kybett, op. cit., p.197.
34 Brotchie, op. cit., pp.232 – 4, footnotes give different battle formations for both armies.
35 Kybett, op. cit., p.205.
36 Ibid, p.208.
37 Quoted in Ibid, pp.212 – 13.
38 Brotchie, op. cit., p.235 footnote.
39 Kybett op. cit., p.209.
40 Ibid, pp.196 – 7.
41 Hume Brown, op. cit., vol.iii, p.327.
42 Johnson, Paul, Heroes from Alexander the Great to Mae West, p.172.
43 Kybett, op. cit., p.120.
44 Hume Brown, op. cit., vol.iii, p.328.
45 Ibid, p.329.
46 Kybett, op. cit., p.255.
47 Ibid, pp.275 – 6.
Appendix
Battlefield sites covered in this account. Those marked with a single asterisk are the sites currently (at May 2012) included on the Inventory of Historic Battlefields or proposed for inclusion by Historic Scotland. Those marked with a double asterisk are sites which Historic Scotland have investigated for inclusion but which have not met one or more of the selection criteria at the time of writing, although they may be added in future if new evidence and information comes to light. The sites are listed alphabetically under the counties where the actions occurred.
Aberdeenshire
Aberdeen I (1571)1
* Aberdeen II (1644)
* Alford (1645)
* Barra, also known as Inverurie I (1308)
Corrichie (1562)
Culblean (1335)
Cullen Fields (961)
* Fy vie (1644)
* Harlaw (1411)
Inverurie II (1745)
Lumphanan (1057)
Mortlach or Mortlake (1005)
Argyleshire
Glencoe (1692)2
Pass of Brander (1308/09)
Ayrshire
** Largs (1263)
* Loudon Hill (1307)
Mauchline Moor (1648)
Banffshire
* Glen Livet (1594)
Borders
Melrose (1378)
* Ancrum Moor (1545)
Arkinholm (1455)
Benrig (1380)
Haddonrigg (1542)
Halidon Hill (1333)
* Melrose (Skirmish Hill) (1526)3
Nesbit Moor I (1355)
Nesbit Moor II (1402)
* Philiphaugh (1645)
Piperdean (1435)
Solway Moss (1542)
Clackmannanshire
Dollar (877)
Dumfries and Galloway
Aird’s Moss (1680)
* Glen Trool (1307)
Lochmaben (1458)
Sark (1448)
East Lothian
** Athelstaneford (832)
** Carberry Hill (1567)
* Dunbar I (1296)
* Dunbar II
(1650)
* Pinkie Cleugh (1547)
* Prestonpans (1745)
Fife
** Bordie (1038)
Inverduvat (877)
Inverkeithing I (1371)
* Inverkeithing II (1651)
Forfarshire (Angus)
Stracathro (1130)
Highlands
Lochaber (1929)
* Auldearn (1645)
* Blar-na-Leine (1544)4
* Carbisdale (1650)
* Carrieblair (date uncertain)
* Cromdale (1690)
* Culloden (1746)
Dalnaspidel (1654)
* Glenshiel (1719)
* Inverlochy I (1431)
* Inverlochy II (1645)
* Mulroy (1688)5
Torfness (c.1034 or 1035) 6
Lanarkshire
* Bothwell Brig (1679)
* Drumclog (1679)
Hamilton (1650)
* Kilsyth (1645)
* Langside (1568)
Midlothian
Burghmuir (Edinburgh) (1335)
Leith (1560)
* Roslin
* Rullion Green (1666)
Berwickshire/Northumberland
Carham-on-Tweed (1018)7
Peeblesshire
Happrew (1304)
Perth and Kinross
Aberfoyle (1488)
* Dunkeld (1689)
* Dupplin Moor (1332)
* Killiecrankie (1689)
Luncarty (986)
**Methven (1306)
* Tippermuir (1644)
Renfrewshire
Renfrew (1164)
Stirlingshire
* Bannockburn (1314)
Falkirk I (1298)
* Falkirk II (1746)
* Sauchieburn (1488)
* Sheriffmuir (1715)
* Stirling Bridge (1297)
West Lothian
Blackness (1488)
* Linlithgow Bridge (1526)
Location Unknown
** Dún Nechtáin/Nechtansmere (685)
** Mons Graupius (83)
Notes
1 Not included in this account as it was a clan battle (see Foreword).
2 Glencoe was not a battle, but any account of Scotland’s killing fields would be censured if the ‘massacre’ were excluded.
3 Not included in this account as it was a family or clan battle.
4 Not included in this account as it was a clan battle.
5 Not included in this account as it was a clan battle.
6 Included because, although fought just over the border at Longtown, Cumberland, it led to nearly two decades of English attempts to subjugate Scotland during this period, known as The Rough Wooing and subsequently the establishment of the protestant religion in Scotland, the cause of many subsequent battles.
7 Carham-on-Tweed is included because, although fought on the south (English) bank of the river Tweed, it decided the border between Scotland and England.
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