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 STERLING 
 AND FRANCINE 
 
 CLA1UC 
 ART INSTITUTE 
 L1BRART 
 
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 s 
 
 Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute Library 
 
 http://archive.org/details/historyofscottis001kelt 
 

 
SUPPLIED TO SUBSCRIBERS ONLY. 
 
 PROSPECTUS. 
 A HISTORY OF 
 
 THE SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS, 
 
 HIGHLAND CLANS, AND HIGHLAND REGIMENTS; 
 
 ON THE BASIS OF BROWNE'S " HISTORY OF THE HIGHLANDS AND CLANS," BUT ENTIRELY 
 RE-MODELLED AND TO A LARGE EXTENT RE-WRITTEK. 
 
 WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE GAELIC LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 
 
 WRITTEN FOR THE WORK, 
 
 BY THE EEV. THOMAS MACLAUCHLAN, U.D., F.S.A.S., 
 
 One of the Editors of the " Dean of Lismore's Book," Author of 
 " The Early Scottish Church," &c. ; 
 
 AND AN ESSAY ON HIGHLAND SCENEEY, 
 
 BY THE LATE PROFESSOR JOHN WILSON. 
 EDITED BY JOHN S 'KEITIE, E.S.A.S. 
 
 During the last thirty years, the patriotic labours of the various Scottish book-clubs, 
 — The Abbotsford, The Bannatyne, The Iona, The Maitland, The Spalding Clubs— 
 the works of the various eminent Scottish antiquaries and historians, not to mention 
 many valuable papers and pamphlets, have not only subjected everything connected 
 with the history of the Highlands to an unsparing and searching criticism, but have 
 also brought to light many new facts, and opened up formerly unthought-of tracks of 
 inquiry. Such a flood of light has thus been thrown on all matters connected with the 
 Highlands, that the publishers feel Browne's History of the Highlands and Clans, — 
 the work on which this publication is to a certain extent based, — has fallen behind the 
 age, and that, to keep pace with the advanced state of historical research, a new work 
 is demanded. Therefore, In preparing the work now presented to the public, it has 
 been found necessary to make such extensive alterations and additions, that the 
 publishers feel justified in calling it a NEW work. 
 
2 
 
 The work is divided into three sections: — 
 
 I. The General History of the Highlands, including Eeligion, Literature, 
 and Antiquities. 
 
 II. The History of the Highland Clans. 
 
 III. The History of the Highland Regiments. 
 
 Part I. — The General History of the Highlands. 
 
 The whole of this part has been thoroughly revised, re-modelled, and to a 
 great extent re-written. All the introductory chapters relating to the Primitive 
 History of the Highlands, are new, and in them are treated the much contro- 
 verted questions as to the Picts and Scots, their race and language — the early 
 RACES OF KINGS, all points connected with the early SOCIAL and political condition 
 of the Highlanders, their original religion and the SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 The most recent investigations bearing on the Antiquities of the Highlands, the 
 Ancient Manners and Customs of the people, their peculiar dress, their social 
 and political RELATIONS, their superstitions, and other interesting antiquarian 
 matters, have been taken advantage of. 
 
 As to the rest of this portion of the work, while whatever had no connection 
 with Highland history has been expunged, much new matter has been added in 
 order to make the general narrative complete and authentic. When, at a later 
 period of their history, the Highlanders become a potent element in the settlement of 
 many great disputes, it has been sought to make the reader understand clearly the 
 part they thus took in the stirring and momentous transactions of the times. As 
 examples of these we need only mention here the civil WARS in which Montrose so 
 often led on the Highland army to victory: the Revolution disputes, culminating in 
 Killiecrankie : the unfortunate insurrections of '15 and '45, which, but for the 
 romantic enthusiasm of the Highlanders, would never have been even commenced. 
 
 In writing these chapters ample use has been made of the various club-publications 
 above referred to, the latest of which, The Book of Deer, issued by the Spalding 
 Club, edited by Dr. Stuart, has proved of great service in throwing light on the EARLY 
 social and political condition of the Highlands, as well as on the state and 
 constitution of the early Scottish Church. Among modern Scottish historians 
 and antiquarians whose labours have been taken advantage of in this part of the work, 
 we may mention the names of George Chalmers, W. F. Skene, Joseph Robertson, 
 Daniel Wilson, Mr. Gregory, John Hill Burton, E. W. Robertson, James Logan, Cosmo 
 Innes, George Grub, Dr. Maclauchlan, and Colonel Forbes-Leslie : this last gentleman 
 has been kind enough to place at our disposal some of the cuts which adorn his valu- 
 able work, The Early Races of Scotland. Besides these, books and documents, 
 ancient and modern, too numerous to detail here, have been consulted. 
 
 To the Gaelic Language and Literature, which, in the old work, possibly from 
 lack of material, were treated in rather a summary manner, a prominent place has 
 been given. Since the publication of The Dean of Lismore's Book, and other works 
 on this interesting subject, there can be no complaint of lack of material; and so much 
 importance do the publishers attach to the literature of the Highlands, that they have 
 entered into an arrangement with the Rev. Thomas Maclauchlan, LL.D., F.S.A.S — 
 one of the editors of The Dean of Lismore's Book, and one of the most eminent living 
 
Gaelic scholars — to write an entirely new account of this subject, into which will be 
 introduced copious examples of genuine old Gaelic Poetry. 
 
 In the course of the work will be given the late Professor Wilson's celebrated 
 Essay on Highland Scenery, of which the copyright belongs to the publishers. 
 
 Part II. — The History of the Highland Clans. 
 
 In any history of the Highlands, an account of the Clans ought to occupy a place 
 of the first importance, and in the present work, the GREATER part of the second 
 volume is devoted to this part of the subject. Every point of interest connected 
 with this peculiar social system has been noticed: — the ORIGIN OF the CLAN- 
 SYSTEM, the relation of the chief to the general body of the clan, the various CLAN- 
 dignities and offices and the duties which belonged to each, the peculiar customs 
 to which the system gave rise, the difference between clanship and the FEUDAL 
 SYSTEM, and the influence it had on the progress of the Highlands and on the rest of 
 Scotland. In short, no pains have been spared to enable the reader to form a clear idea 
 of all the ' outs and ins' of this primitive system of social government. 
 
 After this introductory matter, a detailed account is given of EACH separate 
 clan which has any claim to be considered Highland. The origin of each Clan, 
 as far as possible, has been traced back to its founder, and its claim to be considered 
 purely Gaelic discussed; its history is traced through all its branches and offshoots 
 down to the present day; the part it took in the various clan strifes, in the disputes 
 between the Highlands and Lowlands, and in the general wars of Scotland, is set forth. 
 Every link in the genealogical chain has been carefully traced, and those chiefs and 
 other members of a clan who took a more prominent part in the affairs of the time, 
 have their lives given in considerable detail. Appended to the account of each clanare 
 its armorial bearings, a description of its clan-tartan, the name of its badge, its 
 peculiar war-cry or SLOGAN, its estimated strength, and its principal seat. In 
 addition to the authorities above referred to, the works of Smibert, Logan, Stewart, and 
 others, as well as the separate histories of those clans that are fortunate enough to 
 have such, this division of the work is greatly indebted to the original researches 
 of the late Mr. Anderson, author of the Scottish Nation, whose examination of many 
 ANCIENT manuscripts and family records brought to light many facts connected 
 with the history of the Highland clans, never before made public. 
 
 Part III. — History of the Highland Regiments. 
 
 The history of these regiments is to a great extent the history of Britain's 
 BATTLES for more than a century past; and the great military glory which our country 
 has acquired, has been owing, in no small degree, to their unsurpassed bravery, 
 perfect discipline, and high morale. In the part of the work devoted to tlm 
 subject, it has been sought faithfully to record not only the noble services rendered 
 to its country in past times by each regiment in every engagement in which it took 
 part, but also the brave deeds performed by many individual Highland soldiers. 
 
 With regard to the later history of the Highland regiments, it has been sought to 
 render this complete and perfectly reliable by applying, for direct information, to the 
 Colonel of each existing regiment ; and in every case the publishers have met 
 vith the greatest courtesy and willingness to lend all assistance. In addition to this, 
 
of course, every accessible published work on the subject has been consulted, including 
 the host of books called forth by the Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny. 
 
 From the above statements it will be seen that in no other single publication is it 
 possible to obtain such vaeied and valuable information on all points of 
 interest connected with the Scottish Highlands — their History, their Antiquities, 
 their Clans, their Literature, their Military Annals. No pains have been spared 
 to make the work accurate, exhaustive, interesting, and consistent with the 
 MOST recent investigations. 
 
 Illustrations. 
 
 Besides clau-tartans, the work will be richly embellished -with autographs, seals, 
 armorial bearings, objects of antiquarian interest, and many views and portraits on 
 wood and steel, all taken from original or other authentic sources, and executed in the 
 first style of art. 
 
 The publishers have spared no pains to obtain original and genuine portraits, and 
 to have them faithfully and beautifully reproduced; and they owe their sincere thanks 
 to those noblemen and gentlemen connected with the Highlands who have allowed 
 them access to their valuable family collections, in order to obtain copies of such 
 original portraits as were required for the work. Many of these portraits have never 
 before been engraved. The publishers would especially mention here the valuable 
 miniature portrait of Prince Charles Edward Stuart in Highland costume, which has 
 been in possession of the Lochiel family for generations, and which has been kindly 
 placed at their disposal by the present representative of the family, Donald Cameron, 
 Esq., M.P. for Inverness-shire. It has the merit of being a faithful likeness, and will 
 be engraved by Holl of London. 
 
 Many of the views, illustrative both of the events narrated in the history and of the 
 rich and romantic Highland scenery, are from photographs and drawings taken 
 specially for the work. Others, consisting chiefly of views of towns and fortresses 
 taken at or near the time of the events they are intended to illustrate, are copied 
 from the rare and valuable work of John Slezer, entitled Theatrum Scotice, published 
 at the end of the 17th century. The facts that Slezer was a military engineer, and 
 that he was appointed by government to survey the chief towns and strongholds of 
 Scotland, are sufficient guarantees of the faithfulness of these views. 
 
 CONDITIONS. 
 
 This work will be published in Twenty-five parts, price Two Shillings each, size super-imperial 8vo. 
 It will also be issued in Eight Divisions, rich cloth, price 7s. 6d. each. It will form, when completed, 
 Two handsome Volumes, with Thirty specimens of authentic Clan-Tartans, beautifully executed in 
 colour, and Twenty other page plates, including Map of Clan Territories, besides about Two Hundred 
 illustrative wood engravings. 
 
 A. FULLARTON & Co., 
 
 STEAD'S PLACE, LTCITH WALK, EDINBURGH; AND 18 NEWGATE STREET, LONDON. 
 
STUART. 
 

ARGYLE CAMPBELL, 
 
It - 
 
MACLEAN. 
 
VMKS PTUIAKT 
 
 ■.. I nil. ii rmi n i" London fcEdiiitfurdi 
 
FORBES. 
 
PART FIRST. 
 
 GENERAL HISTORY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 B.C. 55 — a.tv 446*. 
 
 Highlands defined — Ancient Scotland — Roman Trans- 
 actions — Agricola — Caledonians — Contest at Loch 
 Ore — Galgacus — Mons Grampius — Battle — Agricola 
 superseded — Lollius Urbicus — Antonine's Wall — 
 Ulpius Marcellus — Severus — Constantius Chlorus — 
 Picts — Scots — Attacots — Attack Koraan Provinces 
 — Romans abandon Britain — Influence of Romans — 
 Roman Remains — Roads — Camps — Ardoch. 
 
 As it is generally acknowledged that the physi- 
 cal character of a country influences in a great 
 degree the moral and physical character of its 
 inhahitants, and thus to a certain extent deter- 
 mines their history, it may not be deemed out 
 of place to define here the application of the 
 term Highlands, so far as Scotland is con- 
 cerned, and briefly to describe the general 
 physical aspect of that part of our native land. 
 If it hold good at all that there subsists a re- 
 lation between a people and the country which 
 they have inhabited for centuries, the follow- 
 ing history will show that this is peculiarly 
 the case with the Scottish Highlanders. 
 
 Most of those who have thought of the 
 matter at all, have doubtless formed to them- 
 selves a general notion of the northern half of 
 Scotland as a 
 
 " Land of brown heath and shaggy wood, 
 Land of the mountain and the flood," 
 
 and of its inhabitants as a brawny, rugged, in- 
 domitable, impulsive race, steadfast in their 
 friendship and loyalty, and relentless but gen- 
 erous in their enmity. Although the popular 
 and poetic notion of the country is on the whole 
 correct, and although the above epithets may 
 L 
 
 express the main features of the character of 
 the people, still it requires a close acquaint- 
 ance with this interesting race, both histori- 
 cally and by personal intercourse, to form an 
 adequate notion of their character in all its 
 aspects. 
 
 To speak roughly, nearly the whole of the 
 country north of a line connecting the heads of 
 the estuaries of the Clyde, Forth, and 'fay, 
 may be included under the designation of the 
 Highlands, and, in fact, popularly is so. In- 
 deed, at the time at which the northern half 
 of Scotland — the ancient and proper Caledonia 
 — emerges from its pristine gloom, and for the 
 first time glimmers in the light of history, the 
 line indicated by the forts of Agricola, and 
 afterwards by the wall of Antonine, marked 
 the southern boundary of the region which was 
 then, and for centuries afterwards, regarded by 
 the Eomans, and also, probably, by the south- 
 ern Britons, as occupying the same position in 
 relation to the rest of the country as the High- 
 lands proper, did at a subsequent period. In 
 course of time the events which fall to be re- 
 corded in the following pages gradually altered 
 this easily perceived boundar} r , so that for cen- 
 turies before the present day, a much more in- 
 tricate but still distinct line has marked the 
 limits of what is now strictly and correctly re- 
 garded as the Highlands of Scotland. 
 
 The definition of this territory which best 
 suits the purposes of history, and in all re- 
 spects most nearly accords with those of poli- 
 tical and social geography, is one which makes 
 it commensurate with the country or locations 
 of the ancient Highland clans. This definition 
 assigns to the Highlands all the continental 
 
■2 
 
 GENERAL HISTORY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 territory north of the Moray frith, and all the 
 territory, "both insular and continental, west- 
 ward of an easily traceable line from that frith 
 to the frith of Clyde. The line commences at 
 the mouth of the river Nairn : thence, with 
 the exception of a slight north-eastward or out- 
 ward curve, the central point of which is on the 
 river Spey, it runs due south-east till it strikes 
 the river Dee at Tullach, nearly on the third 
 degree of longitude west of Greenwich ; it then 
 runs generally south till it falls upon West- 
 water, or the southern large head-water of the 
 North Esk ; thence, over a long stretch, it runs 
 almost due south-west, and with scarcely a de- 
 viation, till it falls upon the Clyde at Ardmore 
 in the parish of Cardross ; and now onward to 
 the Atlantic ocean, it moves along the frith of 
 Clyde, keeping near to the continent, and ex- 
 cluding none of the Clyde islands except the 
 comparatively unimportant Cumbraes. All 
 the Scottish territory west and north-west of 
 this line is properly the Highlands. Yet both 
 for the convenience of topographical descrip- 
 tion, and because, altogether down to the middle 
 of the 13th century, and partially down to the 
 middle of the 16th, the Highlands and the 
 Western Islands were politically and histori- 
 cally distinct regions, the latter are usually 
 viewed apart under the name of the Hebrides. 
 The mainland Highlands, or the Highlands 
 after the Hebrides are deducted, extend in ex- 
 treme length from Duncansby Head, or John 
 o' Groat's on the north, to the Mull of Kintyre 
 on the south, about 250 miles ; but over a dis- 
 tance of 90 miles at the northern end, they have 
 an average breadth of only about 45 miles, — 
 over a distance of 50 or 55 miles at the southern 
 end, they consist mainly of the Clyde islands, 
 and the very narrow peninsula of Kintyre, — 
 and even at their broadest part, from the 
 eastern base of the Grampians to Ardna- 
 niurchan Point on the west, they do not ex- 
 tend to more than 120 miles. The district 
 comprehends the whole of the counties of 
 Caithness, Sutherland, Ross, Cromarty, Inver- 
 ness, and Argyle, large parts of Nairn, Perth, 
 Dumbarton, and Bute, and considerable por- 
 tions of Elgin, Banff, Aberdeen, Forfar, and 
 Stirling. Considerable parts of this district, 
 however, such as Caithness-shire, the island 
 if Bute, and some large tracts of moor or valley 
 
 or flanking plain, do not exhibit the physical 
 features which are strictly Highland. 
 
 A district so extensive can be but faintly 
 pictured in a general and rapid description. 
 Mountains, chiefly covered with heath or ling, 
 but occasionally, on the one hand, displaying 
 sides and summits of naked rock, and on the 
 other, exhibiting a dress of verdure, everywhere 
 rise, at short intervals, in chains, ridges, groups, 
 and even solitary heights. Their forms are of 
 every variety, from the precipitous and pinna- 
 cled acclivity, to the broad-based and round- 
 backed ascent ; but, in general, are sharp in 
 outline, and wild or savagely grand in feature. 
 Both elongated ridges, and chains or series of 
 short parallel ridges, have a prevailing direc- 
 tion from north-east to south-west, and send 
 up summits from 1,000 to upwards of 4,000 
 feet above the level of the sea. Glens, valleys, 
 and expanses of lowland stretch in all direc- 
 tions among the mountains, and abound in 
 voluminous streams, and large elongated lakes 
 of picturesque appearance, — nearly all the in- 
 land lakes extending in stripes either north- 
 eastward and south-westward, or eastward and 
 westward. Along the whole west coast, at re- 
 markably brief intervals, arms of the sea, long, 
 narrow, and sometimes exceedingly rugged in 
 outline, run north-eastward or south-eastward 
 into the interior, and assist the inland fresh 
 water lakes in cleaving it into sections. The 
 rivers of the region are chiefly impetuous tor- 
 rents, careering for a while along mountain- 
 gorges, and afterwards either expanding them- 
 selves into beautiful lakes and flowing athwart 
 delightful meadows, or ploughing long narrow 
 valleys, green and ornate with grasses, trefoils, 
 daisies, ranunculi, and a profuse variety of 
 other herbage and flowers. Native woods, 
 principally of pine and birch, and occasionally 
 clumps and expanses of plantation, climb the 
 acclivities of the gentler heights, or crowd down 
 upon the vallej', and embosom the inland lakes. 
 On the east side, along the coast to the Moray 
 frith, and towards the frontier in the counties 
 of Nairn, Elgin, and Perth, gentle slopes and 
 broad belts of lowland, fertile in soil and fa- 
 vourable in position, are carpeted with agricul- 
 tural luxuriance, and thickly dotted with human 
 dwellings, and successfully vie with the south 
 of Scotland in towns and population, and in 
 
EOMAN TRANSACTIONS. 
 
 the pursuit and display of wealth. But almost 
 everywhere else, except in the fairyland of 
 Loch Fyne, and the southern shore of Loch 
 Etive, the Highlands are sequestered, — sinless 
 of a town, — a semi-wilderness, where a square 
 mile is a more convenient unit of measurement 
 than an acre. 
 
 A district characterized hy such features as 
 we have named necessarily exhibits, within 
 very circumscribed limits, varieties of scenery 
 of the most opposite descriptions ; enabling the 
 admirer of nature to pass abruptly from dwell- 
 ing on the loveliness of an extensive marine 
 or champaign landscape into the deep solitude 
 of an ancient forest, or the dark craggy fast- 
 nesses of an alpine ravine ; or from lingering 
 amid the quiet grassy meadows of a pastoral 
 strath or valley, watered by its softly-flowing 
 stream, to the open heathy mountain-side, 
 whence ' alps o'er alps arise,' whose summits 
 are often shrouded with mists and almost per- 
 ennial snows, and their overhanging precipices 
 furrowed by foaming cataracts. Lakes and 
 long arms of the sea, either fringed with woods 
 or surrounded with rocky barren shores, now 
 studded with islands, and anon extending their 
 silvery arms into distant receding mountains, 
 are met in every district ; while the extreme 
 steepness, ruggedness, and sterility of many of 
 the mountain-chains impart to them as impos- 
 ing and magnificent characters as are to be seen 
 in the much higher and more inaccessible ele- 
 vations of Switzerland. No wonder, then, that 
 this 'land of mountain and of flood' should 
 have given birth to the song of the bard, and 
 afforded material for the theme of the sage, in 
 all ages ; and that its inhabitants should be 
 tinctured with deep romantic feelings, at once 
 tender, melancholy, and wild ; and that the 
 recollection of their own picturesque native 
 dwellings should haunt them to their latest 
 hours. Neither, amid such profusion and di- 
 versity of all that is beautiful and sublime in 
 nature, can the unqualified admiration of 
 strangers, from every part of Europe, of the 
 scenery of the Highlands fail of being easily 
 accounted for ; nor can any hesitate in re- 
 commending them to visit the more remote 
 or unknown solitudes. 1 
 
 1 We are indebted for great part of this description 
 to Fiillarton's Gazetteer of Scotland. 
 
 Such are the main features of the Highlands 
 of Scotland at the present day, and, to a con- 
 siderable extent, the description might have ap- 
 plied to the country at the time of the Eoman 
 invasion. Still, in the graphic words of Stuart, 2 
 " To form an idea of the general aspect of Scot- 
 j land, as it was some eighteen hundred years 
 ago, we must, in imagination, restore to its now 
 varied surface the almost unbroken gloom of 
 the primeval forest; her waving mantle of som- 
 bre hue, within which the genius loci may be 
 supposed to have brooded over the seclusion and 
 the poverty of ' ancient Caledon.' In a bird's- 
 eye view, if such a thought may be indulged, 
 the greatest part of the country presented, in 
 all probability, the appearance of one continu- 
 ous wood ; a mass of cheerless verdure resting 
 on bill and dale — the sameness of its dark ex- 
 tent broken only where some lake or green- 
 clad morass met the view, or where the higher 
 mountains lifted their summits above the line 
 of vegetation. In some districts, considerable 
 tracks of open moorland might, doubtless, be 
 seen clad in the indigenous heather of the 
 North; while, in others, occasional spiots of pas- 
 ture-land would here and there appear ; — but, 
 on the. whole, these must have formed a strik- 
 ing contrast to the wide expanse of the pre- 
 vailing forest." 
 
 As the present work is concerned only with 
 the Highlands of Scotland, it would of course 
 be out of place to give any minute account of 
 the transactions of the Eomans in the other 
 parts of the island. Suffice it to say that from 
 the time, B.C. 55, when Julius Crcsar first land- 
 ed on the coast of South Britain, until a.d. 78, 
 when, under the Emperor Tespasian, Cnaeus 
 Julius Agricola assumed the command in Great 
 Britain, the greater part of midland and 
 south England had been brought under the 
 sway of the Eomans. This able commander 
 set himself with vigour and earnestness to con- 
 firm the conquests which had been already 
 made, to reduce the rest of the country to sub- 
 jection, to conciliate the Britons by mild mea- 
 sures, and to attach them to the Eoman power 
 by introducing among them Eoman manners, 
 literature, luxuries, and dress. 
 
 Agricola was appointed to the command in 
 Britain in the year 78 a.d., but appears not 
 - Caledonia Romana. p. 11. 
 
GENERAL HISTORY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 to have entered Scotland till his third cam- 
 paign in the year 80. He employed himself 
 in the years 80, 81, and 82, in subduing the 
 country south of the friths of Forth and Clyde, 
 — the Bodotria and Glotta of Tacitus, — erect 
 ing, in 81, a series of forts between these two 
 estuaries. Having accomplished this, Agricola 
 made preparations for his next campaign, which 
 he was to open beyond the friths in the sum- 
 mer of 83, be in the meantime having heard 
 that the Caledonians — as Tacitus calls the 
 people north of the Forth — had formed a con- 
 federacy to resist the invader. 
 
 These Caledonians appear to have been 
 divided into a number of tribes or clans, 
 having little or no political connection, and 
 almost constantly at war among themselves. 
 It was only when a foreign foe threatened their 
 much-prized freedom that a sense of danger 
 forced them to unite for a time under the com- 
 
 mand of a military leader. Some writers, on 
 the authority of Ptolemy of Alexandria, but 
 chiefly on that of the pseudo-Richard of Ciren- 
 cester, 3 give a list of the various tribes which, 
 during the Roman period, inhabited North 
 Britain, and define the locality which each 
 occupied with as much exactness as they might 
 do a modern English county. " There was 
 one thing," says Tacitus, " which gave us an 
 advantage over these powerful nations, that 
 they never consulted together for the advantage 
 of the whole. It was rare that even two or 
 three of them united against the common 
 enemy." Their whole means of subsistence 
 consisted in the milk and flesh of their flocks 
 and the produce of the chase. They lived in 
 a state almost approaching to nudity; but 
 whether from necessity or from choice cannot 
 be satisfactorily determined. Dio represents 
 the Caledonians as being naked, but Herodian 
 
 Fig. 1. Sculptured Stone in the Church of Meigle. 
 
 speaks of them as wearing a partial covering. 
 They appear, at all events, if the stone dug up 
 at Blackness in the year 1868 (see p. 11), be 
 taken as an authority, to have gone naked into 
 battle. Their towns, which were few, consisted 
 of huts covered with turf or skins, and for 
 better security they were erected in the centre 
 of some wood or morass. " What the Britons 
 call a town, says Cassar, " is a tract of 
 woody country, surrounded by a vallum and 
 ditch, for the security of themselves and cattle 
 against the incursions of an enemy; for, when 
 
 Fig. 2. From a Sculptured Stone found at St. Andrews. 
 
 they have enclosed a very large circuit with 
 felled trees, they build within it houses for 
 
 3 The Dc Sila Britannicc "professed to be a manu- 
 script of the fourteenth century, written by a monk 
 named Richard of Cirencester, made up by him from 
 certain fragments left by a Roman General. The per- 
 son who stepped forth as the lucky discoverer of so 
 precious a relic was Charles Julius Bertram, English 
 Professor in the Royal Marine Academy at Copen- 
 hagen. His revelation was accepted without hesi- 
 tation, and revolutionized the existing notions about 
 the geography of Roman Britain. After all, the hoax 
 was not absolutely useless; it stimulated'inquiry, and, 
 in itself, what it professed to lay down on authority, 
 were the guesses and theories of a learned and acute 
 man." — Burton's History of Scotland, vol. i. p. 13. 
 
THE CALEDONIANS. 
 
 themselves, and hovels for their cattle." 4 Not- 
 withstanding, perhaps owing to the scantiness 
 of their covering, which left their bodies ex- 
 posed to the rigour of a cold and variable cli- 
 mate, the Caledonians were a remarkably hardy 
 race, capable of enduring fatigue, cold, and 
 hunger to an extent which their descendants 
 of the present day could not encounter without 
 risk of life. They were decidedly a warlike 
 people, and are said, like the heroes of more 
 ancient times, to have been addicted to rob- 
 bery. The weapons of their warfare consisted 
 of small spears, long broadswords, and hand 
 daggers ; and they defended their bodies in 
 combat by a small target or shield, — all much 
 of the same form and construction as those 
 afterwards used by their posterity in more mo- 
 dern tunes. It would appear from the stone 
 above referred to that the shields of the 
 Caledonians were oblong, with a boss in the 
 centre, and their swords short and pointed, — 
 not long and blunt, as represented by Ta- 
 citus. The use of cavalry appears not to 
 have been so well understood among the Cale- 
 donians as among the more southern tribes ; 
 but in battle they often made use of cars, or 
 chariots, which were drawn by small, swift, 
 and spirited horses ; and it is conjectured 
 that, like those used by the southern Brit- 
 ons, they had iron scythes projecting from 
 the axle. It is impossible to say what form 
 of government obtained among these warlike 
 tribes. When history is silent, historians 
 should either maintain a cautious reserve or 
 be sparing in their conjectures ; but analogy 
 may supply materials for well-grounded specu- 
 lations, and it may therefore be asserted, with- 
 out any great stretch of imagination, that, like 
 most of the other uncivilized tribes we read of 
 in history, the Northern Britons or Caledonians 
 were under the government of a leader or chief 
 to whom they yielded a certain degree of obedi- 
 ence. Dio, indeed, insinuates that the govern- 
 ments of these tribes were democratic ; but he 
 should have been aware that it is only when 
 bodies of men assume, in an advanced state of 
 civilization, a compact and united form that de- 
 mocracy can prevail ; and the state of barbar- 
 ism in which he says the inhabitants of North 
 
 4 Da Bello Gallico, ii. 17. 
 
 Britain existed at the period in question seems 
 to exclude such a supposition. We have no 
 certain information from any contemporary, 
 and conjecture is therefore groundless. Later 
 fable-loving historians and chroniclers, indeed, 
 give lists of Kings of Scotland — or, rather, of 
 Pictland — extending back for centuries before 
 the Christian era, but these by general consent 
 are now banished to the realm of myths. It 
 is probable, as we have already said, that the 
 Caledonians were divided into a number of 
 independent tribes, and that each tribe was 
 presided over by a chief, but how he obtained 
 his supremacy it is impossible to say. We have 
 one instance, at least, of a number of tribes 
 uniting under one leader, viz., at the battle of 
 Mons Grampius, when the Caledonians were 
 commanded by a chief or leader called by Ta- 
 citus, Galgacus, " inter plures duces virtute et 
 genere prajstans." 5 " The earliest bond of 
 union may probably be traced to the time 
 when they united under one common leader to 
 resist or assail the Roman legionaries ; and out 
 of the Dux or Toshach elected for the occasion, 
 like Galgacus, and exercising a paramount 
 though temporary authority, arose the Ardrigh 
 or supreme king, after some popular or ambi- 
 tious chieftain had prolonged his power by suc- 
 cessful wars, or procured his election to this 
 prominent station for life." 6 
 
 Whatever may have been the relation of the 
 members of the different tribes, and the relation 
 of the tribes to each other, it is certain, from the 
 general tone of the works of Tacitus and other 
 Roman historians in which those early inhabit- 
 ants of the Scottish Highlands are mentioned, 
 that they offered a far more formidable resist- 
 ance to the Roman arms than had hitherto been 
 done by any other of the British tribes. 
 
 In personal stature, the natives of Caledonia, 
 like those of other parts of Britain, appear to 
 have excelled their Roman invaders, and from 
 Tacitus we learn that those with whom his 
 father-in-law came into contact were distin- 
 guished by ruddy locks and lusty limbs. It 
 is also certain that for the sake of ornament, 
 or for the purpose of making their appearance 
 more terrible in war, they resorted to the bar- 
 
 5 Tacitus, Agricola, xxix. 
 
 6 IC. W. Kobertson's Scotland under Iier Early 
 Kings, vol. i. p. 31. 
 
GENEEAL history oe the highlands. 
 
 barous practice of tattooing their bodies. -In- 
 deed it may be taken as a proof of their never 
 having to any great extent come under the 
 power and influence of Eome and Eoman cus- 
 toms, that they retained this practice for long 
 after the other Britons had abandoned it, and 
 on this account, in all probability, afterwards 
 acquired the name of Picts. 
 
 The people whom Agricola encountered in 
 Scotland cannot have been otherwise than 
 tolerable proficients in the common branches 
 of art ; how else can we suppose them to have 
 been supplied with all that materiel of war 
 with which they are said to have appeared be- 
 fore him 1 Indolent and uninformed as were 
 the bulk of the people, they must have had 
 among them artificers both in wood and in 
 iron, not unskilled in their respective trades — 
 able to construct the body of a car — to provide 
 
 British War-Chariot. 
 
 for it axles of great strength — above all, able 
 to construct the wheels and arm them with 
 those sharp-edged instruments that were des- 
 tined to cut down whatever opposed their 
 course. 7 
 
 Agricola, in the summer of 83, after having 
 obtained information as to the nature of the 
 country and the aspect of its inhabitants from 
 exploring parties and prisoners, transported Ms 
 army across the Frith of Forth to the shores 
 of Fife by means of his fleet, and marched 
 along the coast eastwards, keeping the fleet in 
 sight. It cannot with certainty be ascertained 
 at what part of the Forth this transportation 
 of the forces took place, although some bold 
 
 7 Stuart's Caledonia Ramana, pp 
 
 36. 
 
 antiquarians assert that it must have been not 
 far from Queensferry. The fleet, Tacitus tells 
 us, s now acting, -for the first time, in concert 
 with the land-forces, proceeded in sight of the 
 army, forming a magnificent spectacle, and 
 adding terror to the war. It frequently hap- 
 pened that in the same camp were seen the 
 infantry and cavalry intermixed with the 
 marines, all indulging their joy, full of their 
 adventures, and magnifying the history of their 
 exploits; the soldier describing, in the usual 
 style of military ostentation, the forests which 
 he had passed, the mountains which he climbed, 
 and the barbarians whom he put to the rout; 
 while the sailor had his storms and tempests, 
 the wonders of the deep, and the spirit with 
 which he conquered winds and waves. 
 
 The offensive operations of the sixth cam- 
 paign were commenced by the Caledonian 
 Britons, who, from the higher country, made 
 a furious attack upon the trans-Forthan forti- 
 fications, which so alarmed some of Agri- 
 cola's officers, who were afraid of being cut off 
 from a retreat, that they advised their general 
 to recross the Forth without delay; but Agri- 
 cola resisted this advice, and made preparations 
 for the attack which he expected would soon 
 be made upon his army. As Agricola had 
 received information that the enemy intended 
 to fall upon him from various quarters, he 
 divided his army into three bodies and con- 
 tinued his march. Some antiquarians have 
 attempted to trace the route taken by each 
 division, founding their elaborate theories on 
 the very slender remains of what they sup- 
 pose to have been Eoman fortifications and 
 encampments. As it would serve no good 
 purpose to encumber our pages with these an- 
 tiquarian conjectures, detailed accounts of 
 which will be found in Chalmers, Stuart, Eoy, 
 and others, we shall only say that, with con- 
 siderable plausibility, it is supposed that the 
 Ninth Legion encamped on the north side of 
 Loch Ore, about two miles south of Loch Leven 
 in Kinross-shire. Another legion, it is said, 
 encamped near Dunearn Hill, about a mile 
 distant from Burntisland, near which hill are 
 still to be seen remains of a strength called 
 Atjricolds camp. At all events the divisions 
 
 8 Agricola xxv. 
 
CONTESTS AT LOCH OEE AND MONS GKAMFTUS. 
 
 do not seem to have been, very far apart, as 
 will be seen from the following episode. 
 
 The enemy having watched the proceedings 
 of the Eoman army made the necessary pre- 
 parations for attack, and during the night 
 made a furious assault on the Ninth Legion 
 at Loch Ore. They had acted with such 
 caution that they were actually at the very 
 camp before Agricola was aware of their move- 
 ments; but with great presence of mind he 
 despatched a body of his Eghtest troops to 
 turn their flank and attack the assailants in the 
 rear. After an obstinate engagement, main- 
 tained with varied success in the very gates of 
 the camp, the Britons were at length repulsed 
 by the superior skill of the Eoman veterans. 
 This battle was so far decisive, that Agricola 
 did not find much difficulty afterwards in sub- 
 duing the surrounding country, and, having 
 finished his campaign, he passed the winter of 
 83 in Fife; being supplied with provisions 
 from his fleet in the Forth, and keeping up a 
 constant correspondence with his garrisons on 
 the southern side. 
 
 By this victory, according to Tacitus, so 
 complete and glorious, the Eoman army was 
 inspired with confidence to such a degree, that 
 they now pronounced themselves invincible, 
 and desired to penetrate to the extremity of 
 the island. 
 
 The Caledonians now began to perceive 
 the danger of their situation from the prox- 
 imity of such a powerful enemy, and a 
 sense of this danger impelled them to lay 
 aside the feuds and jealousies which had 
 divided and distracted their tribes, to consult 
 together for their mutual safety and protection, 
 and to combine their scattered strength into a 
 united and energetic mass. The proud spirit 
 of independence which had hitherto kept the 
 Caledonian tribes apart, now made them co- 
 alesce in support of their liberties, which were 
 threatened with utter annihilation. In this 
 eventful crisis, they looked around them for a 
 leader or chief under whom they might fight 
 the battle of freedom, and save their country 
 from the dangers which threatened it. A chief, 
 named Galgacus by Tacitus, was pitched upon 
 to act as generalissimo of the Caledonian army; 
 and, from the praises bestowed upon him by 
 that historian, this warrior appears to have 
 
 well merited the distinction thus bestowed. 
 Freparatory to the struggle they were about to 
 engage in, they sent their wives and children 
 into places of safety, and, in solemn assemblies 
 in which public sacrifices were offered up, rati- 
 fied the confederacy into which they had en- 
 tered against their common enemy. 
 
 Having strengthened his army with some 
 British auxiliaries from the south, Agricola 
 marched through Fife in the summer of 84, 
 making for a spot called by Tacitus Mons 
 Grampius; sending at the same time his fleet 
 round the eastern coast, to support him in his 
 operations, and to distract the attention of the 
 Caledonians. Various conjectures have been 
 broached as to the exact line of Agricola's 
 march and the exact position of the Mons 
 Grampius. The most plausible of these is 
 that of General Boy, 9 who supposes that 
 the march of Agricola was regulated by the 
 course of the Devon; that he turned to the 
 right from Glendevon through the opening of 
 the Ochil hills, along the course of the rivulet 
 which runs along Gleneagles ; leaving the braes 
 of Ogilvie on his left, and passing between 
 Blackford and Auchterarder towards the Gram- 
 pian hills, which he saw at a distance before 
 liim as he debouched from the Ochils. By an 
 easy march he reached the moor of Ardoch, 
 from which he descried the Caledonian army, 
 to the number of 30,000 men, encamped 
 on the declivity of the hill which begins 
 to rise from the north-western border of the 
 moor of Ardoch. Agricola took his station 
 at the great camp which adjoins the fort 
 of Ardoch on the northward. If the Eoman 
 camp at Ardoch does mark the spot where the 
 disastrous engagement about to be noticed took 
 place between these brave and determined 
 Caledonians and the invincible Eoman legions, 
 it is highly probable that Agricola drew out 
 his army on the neighbouring moor, having a 
 large ditch or trench of considerable length in 
 front, the Caledonian host under Galgacus 
 being already disposed in battle array on the 
 heights beyond. The Eoman army is sup- 
 posed to have numbered about 20,000 or 
 30,000, the auxiliary infantry, in number 
 about 8,000^ occupying the centre, the wings 
 
 9 Military Antiquities. 
 
 1 Tac. Agricola xxxv 
 
GENERAL HISTORY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 consisting of 3,000 horse. The legions were 
 stationed in the rear, at the head of the en- 
 trenchments, as a body of reserve to support 
 the ranks, if necessary, hut otherwise to remain 
 inactive, that a victory, obtained without the 
 effusion of Roman blood, might be of higher 
 value. Previous to the commencement of this 
 interesting fight, according to " the fashion of 
 historical literature at that time," a speech is 
 put into the mouth of each general by the his- 
 torian Tacitus. " How much more valuable 
 would it have been to us had Tacitus deigned 
 to tell us something about the tongue in which 
 the leader of the barbarians spoke, or even his 
 name, and the name of the place where he 
 fought, as the natives uttered it ! Yet, for the 
 great interests of its day, the speech of Gal- 
 gacus was far removed from a mere feat of idle 
 pedantry. It was a noble rebuke on the em- 
 pire and the Roman people, who, false to the 
 high destiny assigned to them by Virgil, of 
 protecting the oppressed and striking down the 
 oppressors, had become the common scourge 
 of all mankind, The profligate ambition, the 
 perfidy, the absorbing pride, the egotism, and 
 the cruelty of the dominant people — how 
 could all be so aptly set forth as in the words 
 of a barbarian chief, ruling over the free people 
 who were to be the next victims." 2 
 
 The narrative of the battle we give mainly 
 in the words of the Roman commander's son-in- 
 law, Tacitus, who no doubt had the story from 
 Agricola's own mouth. 3 The battle began, 
 and at first was maintained at a distance. 
 The Britons wanted neither skill nor resolu- 
 tion. With their long swords, and targets of 
 small dimension, they had the address to elude 
 the missive weapons of the Romans, and at 
 the same time to discharge a thick volley of 
 their own. To bring the conflict to a speedy 
 decision, Agricola ordered three Batavian and 
 two Tungrian cohorts to charge the enemy 
 sword in hand. To this mode of attack those 
 troops had been long accustomed, but to the 
 Britons it was every way disadvantageous. 
 Their small targets afforded no protection, and 
 their unwieldy swords, not sharpened to a 
 point, could do but little execution in a close 
 
 5 Burton's Hist, of Scotland, vol. i. p. 9. 
 3 Tao. Agricola xxxvi, &c. We adopt Murphy's 
 translation in the main, here and elsewhere. 
 
 engagement. The Batavians rushed to the 
 attack with impetuous fury; they redoubled 
 then- blows, and with the bosses of their 
 shields bruised the enemy in the face, and, 
 having overpowered all resistance on the plain, 
 began to force their way up the ascent of the 
 hill in regular order of battle. Incited by 
 their example, the other cohorts advanced with 
 a spirit of emulation, and cut then way with 
 terrible slaughter. Eager in pursuit of victory, 
 they pressed forward with determined fury, 
 leaving behind them numbers wounded, but 
 not slain, and others not so much as hurt. 
 
 The Roman cavalry, in the mean time, 
 was forced to give ground. The Caledonians, 
 in their armed chariots, rushed at full speed 
 into the thick of the battle, where the infantry 
 were engaged. Their first impression struck 
 a general terror, but their career was soon 
 checked by the inequalities of the ground, and 
 the close embodied ranks of the Romans. 
 Nothing could less resemble an engagement of 
 the cavalry. Pent up in narrow places, the 
 barbarians crowded upon each other, and were 
 driven or dragged along by their own horses. 
 A scene of confusion followed. Chariots with- 
 out a guide, and horses without a rider, broke 
 from the ranks in wfld disorder, and flying 
 every way, as fear and consternation urged, 
 they overwhelmed their own files, and trampled 
 down all who came in their way. 
 
 Meanwhile the Britons, who had hitherto 
 kept their post on the hills, looking down with 
 contempt on the scanty numbers of the Roman 
 army, began to quit their station. Descending 
 slowly, they hoped, by wheeling round the 
 field of battle, to attack the victors in the rear. 
 To counteract their design, Agricola ordered 
 four squadrons of horse, which he had kept as 
 a body of reserve, to advance to the charge. 
 The Britons poured down with impetuosity, 
 and retired with equal precipitation. At the 
 same time, the cavalry, by the directions of the 
 general, wheeled round from the wings, and 
 fell with great slaughter on the rear of the 
 enemy, who now perceived that their own 
 stratagem was turned against themselves. 
 
 The field presented a dreadful spectacle of 
 carnage and destruction. The Britons fled; 
 the Romans pursued; they wounded, gashed, 
 and mangled the runaways; they seized their 
 
AGEICOLA SUPERSEDED. 
 
 prisoners, and, to be ready for others, butchered 
 them on the spot. Despair and horror ap- 
 peared in various shapes; in one part of the 
 field the Caledonians, sword in hand, fled in 
 crowds from a handful of Romans ; in other 
 places, without a weapon left, the} 7 " faced every 
 danger, and rushed on certain death. Swords 
 and bucklers, mangled lim bs and dead bodies, 
 covered the plain. The field was red with 
 blood. The vanquished Britons had their 
 moments of returning courage, and gave proofs 
 of virtue and of brave despair. They fled to 
 the woods, and, rallying their scattered num- 
 bers, surrounded such of the Bomans as pur- 
 sued with too much eagerness. 
 
 Night coming on, the Bomans, weary of 
 slaughter, desisted from the pursuit. Ten 
 thousand of the Caledonians fell in this en- 
 gagement: on the part of the Bomans, the 
 number of slain did not exceed three hundred 
 and forty. 
 
 The Boman army, elate with success, and 
 enriched with plunder, passed the night in 
 exultation. The Britons, on the other hand, 
 wandered about, uncertain which way to turn, 
 helpless and disconsolate. The mingled cries 
 of men and women filled the air with lamen- 
 tations. Some assisted to carry off the 
 wounded; others called for the assistance of 
 such as escaped unhurt; numbers abandoned 
 their habitations, or, in their frenzy, set 
 them on fire. They fled to obscure retreats, 
 and, in the moment of choice, deserted them; 
 they held consultations, and, having inflamed 
 their hopes, changed their minds in despair; 
 they beheld the pledges of tender affection, 
 and burst into tears ; they viewed them again, 
 and grew fierce with resentment. It is a fact 
 well authenticated, that some laid violent 
 hands upon their wives and children, deter- 
 mined with savage compassion to end their 
 misery. 
 
 After obtaining hostages from the Horestians, 
 who in all probability inhabited what is now 
 the county of Fife, Agricola garrisoned the 
 stations on the isthmus and elsewhere, re- 
 crossed the Forth, and took up his winter- 
 quarters in the north of England, about the 
 Tyne and Solway. In the meantime he gave 
 orders to the fleet, then lying probably in the 
 Frith of Forth or Tay, to proceed on a voyage 
 
 of discovery to the northward. The enterprise 
 appears to have been successfully accomplished 
 by the Boman navy, which proceeded coast- 
 wise as far as the Orkneys, whence it sailed 
 by the "Western Islands and the British Chan- 
 nel ad Portum Trutulensern, Bichborough in 
 Kent, returning to the point from which it 
 started. This is the first voyage on record 
 that determined Britain to be an island. 
 
 The Emperor Domitian now resolved to 
 supersede Agricola in his command in North 
 Britain; and he was accordingly recalled in 
 the year 85, under the pretence of promoting 
 Mm to the government of Syria, but in reality 
 out of envy on account of the glory which he 
 had obtained by the success of his arms. He 
 died on the 23d of August, 93, some say, from 
 poison, while others attribute his death to the 
 effects of chagrin at the unfeeling treatment 
 of Domitian. His countrymen lamented his 
 death, and Tacitus, his son-in-law, preserved 
 the memory of his actions and his worth in 
 the history of his life. 
 
 During the remainder of Domitian's reign, 
 and that of Hadrian his successor, North Britain 
 appears to have enjoyed tranquillity; an infer- 
 ence which may be fairly drawn from the 
 silence of the Boman historians. Yet as 
 Hadrian in the year 121 built a wall between 
 the Solway and the Tyne, some writers have 
 supposed that the Bomans had been driven 
 by the Caledonians out of North Britain, in 
 the reign of that Emperor. But if such was 
 the case, how did Lollius Urbicus, the Boman 
 general, about nineteen years after Hadrian's 
 wall was erected, penetrate without opposition 
 to Agricola's forts between the Clyde and the 
 Forth? May we not rather suppose that the 
 wall of Hadrian was built for the purpose of 
 preventing incursions into the south by the 
 tribes which inhabited the country between 
 that wall and the Friths? But, be this as it 
 may, little is known of the history of North 
 Britain from the time of Agricola's recall till 
 the year 138, when Antoninus Pius assumed 
 the imperial purple. That good and sagacious 
 emperor was distinguished by the care which 
 he took in selecting the fittest officers for the 
 government of the Boman provinces ; and his 
 choice, for that of Britain, fell on Lollius 
 Urbicus. 
 
10 
 
 GENERAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 The positive infomiation concerning the 
 transactions of this general in North Britain 
 is as meagre as could possibly he, the only 
 clearly ascertained fact in connection with his 
 command "being that he built a wall between 
 the Eorth and Clyde, very nearly on a line 
 with the forts established by Agricola. " The 
 meagreness of all ancient record," says Burton, 4 
 " of the achievements of Lollius Urbicus is 
 worthy of emphatic mention and recollection, 
 because his name has got into the ordinary 
 abridged histories which speak of it, and of ' his 
 campaign in the north' as well-known events, 
 of which people naturally expect fuller informa- 
 tion elsewhere. The usual sources for reference 
 regarding him will however be found utterly 
 dumb." The story commonly given is that he 
 proceeded north as far as the Moray Frith, 
 throwing the extensive country between Forth 
 and Clyde and the Moray Frith into the form 
 
 of a regular Eoman province, which, on the 
 worthless authority of the pseudo-Richard, was 
 named Vespasiana. All this may have been 
 the case, and the remains 6 of Eoman stations 
 found throughout the wide tract just men- 
 tioned give some plausibility to the conjecture; 
 but there is only the most slender grounds for 
 connecting them with any northern expedition 
 of Lollius Urbicus. At all events we may 
 very safely conclude, from the general tone of 
 the records which remain of his and of subse 
 quent expeditions, as well as from the fact that 
 they found it necessary to divide the Lowlands 
 from the Highlands by a fortified wall, that 
 the Eomans considered the Caledonians of 
 their time very troublesome, and found it ex 
 ceedingly difficult if not impossible to bring 
 them under their otherwise universal yoke. 
 
 It may not be out of place to give here 
 some account of the wall of Antonine. The 
 
 Map and Profile 
 wall or rampart extended from Camden on 
 the Forth, two miles west from Blackness, and 
 about the same distance east from Bo'ness, to 
 West Kilpatrick on the Clyde. The date, 
 which may be depended on, assigned to the 
 building of the wall is between 138 and 140 
 a. D. Taking the length of this wall from 
 Kilpatrick on the Clyde to Caeridden or 
 Carriden on the Forth, its extent would be 
 39,726 Eoman paces, which exactly agrees 
 with the modern measurement of 36 English 
 miles and 620 yards. This rampart, which 
 was of earth, and rested on a stone foundation, 
 was upwards of twenty feet high and four and 
 
 4 Scotland, vol. i. p. 29. 
 
 of Antonine's Wall. 
 twenty feet thick. Along the whole extent of 
 the wall there was a vast ditch or praderdura 
 on the outward or north side, which was gene- 
 rally twenty feet deep and forty feet wide, and 
 which, there is reason to believe, might be 
 filled with water when occasion required. 6 
 
 5 Wilson says that beyond the Forth and Clyde 
 nearly the sole traces of the presence of the Romans 
 are a few earthworks, with one or two exceptions, of 
 doubtful import, and some chance discoveries of pot- 
 tery and coins, mostly ascribable, it may be presumed, 
 to the fruitless northern expedition of Agricola, after 
 the victory of Mons Grampius, or to the still more 
 ineffectual one of his successor, Severus. — Prehistoric 
 Annals, p. 365. 
 
 6 On the estate of Callender, to the east of Falkirk, 
 distinct remains of this trench are still to be seen, in 
 good preservation, n.easuring a few hundred yards in 
 length and about 12 feet in depth. 
 
ANTONINE'S WALL. 
 
 11 
 
 This ditch and rampart were strengthened at 
 both ends, and throughout its whole extent, by 
 about twenty forts, three being at each extrem- 
 ity, and the remainder placed between at the 
 distance of about two English miles from one 
 another; and it is highly probable that these 
 stations were designedly placed on the previous 
 fortifications of Agricola. The following, going 
 from east to west, are the names and sites of 
 some of the stations which have been iden- 
 tified : — Eough Castle, Castlecary, Westerwood, 
 Bunhill, Auchindinny, Kirkintilloch, Bemulie, 
 East KilpatTick, Castlehill, Duntocher, West 
 Kilpatrick. It will be seen that to a certain ex- 
 tent they are on the bine of the Edinburgh and 
 Glasgow railway, and throughout nearly its 
 whole length that of the Forth and Clyde canal. 
 Its necessary appendage, a military road, ran be- 
 hind the rampart from end to end, for the use 
 of the troops and for keeping up the usual 
 communication between the stations or forts. 
 
 From inscriptions on some of the foundation 
 stones, which have been dug up, it appears that 
 the Second legion, with detachments from the 
 sixth and twentieth legions and some auxili- 
 aries, executed these vast military works, 
 equally creditable to their skill and persever- 
 ance. Dunglas near the western extremity, 
 and Blackness near the eastern extremity of 
 the rampart, afforded the Eomans commodious 
 harbours for their shipping, as also did Cram- 
 ond, about five miles west from Edinburgh. 
 This wall is called in the popular language of 
 the country Grime's or Graham's Dyke. 7 In 
 1868 a large oblong slab, in first-rate preserva- 
 tion, was dug up at Bo'ness, in the parish of 
 Kinneil (Bede's Peanfahel, " the head of the 
 wall"), containing an inscription as distinct as 
 it was on the day when it came from a Eoman 
 chisel. We give here a cut of this remarkable 
 stone, which is now in the Scottish Antiqua- 
 rian Museum. 
 
 Stone from Antonine's Wall. (Copied and engraved specially for the present work.) 
 
 We have no distinct mention of the Caledo- 
 nians again until the reign of Commodus, 
 when, about the year 183, these troublesome 
 barbarians appear to have broken through the 
 northern wall, slain the general in command 
 of the Roman forces, and pillaged the lowland 
 country beyond. They were, however, driven 
 back by Ulpius Marcellus, who succeeded by 
 prudent management in maintaining peace for 
 a number of years. In the beginning of the 
 reign of Severus, however, the Caledonians 
 again broke out, but were kept in check by 
 Virius Lupus, who appears to have bribed 
 rather than beaten the barbarians into con- 
 formity. 
 
 The irrepressible Highlanders again broke 
 out about the year 207, and this time the 
 Emperor Severus himself, notwithstanding his 
 bad health and old age, came from Rome to 
 Britain, determined apparently to " stamp out" 
 the rebellion. On hearing of his arrival the 
 tribes sent deputies to liim to negotiate for 
 peace, but the emperor, who was of a warlike 
 disposition, and fond of military glory, declined 
 to entertain any proposals. 
 
 After making the necessary preparations. 
 
 7 There are several other earthworks in England, 
 according to Chalmers (Caledonia) and Taylor (Words 
 and Places), which go under the appellation of Grime's 
 Dyke or Grime's Ditch. Grime in Cornish is said to 
 signify strong; in Gaelic, war, battle. 
 
12 
 
 GENERAL HISTORY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 Severus began his march to the north in the 
 year 208. He traversed the whole of North 
 Britain, from the Avail of Antoninus to the very 
 extremity of the island, with an immense army. 
 The Caledonians avoided coming to a general 
 engagement with him, but kept up an incesr 
 sant and harassing warfare on all sides. . He, 
 however, brought them to sue for peace ; but 
 the honours of this campaign were dearly 
 earned, for fifty thousand of the Eomans fell a 
 prey to the attacks of the Caledonians, to 
 fatigue, and to the severity of the climate. 
 The Caledonians soon disregarded the treaty 
 which they had entered into with Severus, 
 which conduct so irritated him that he gave 
 orders to renew the war, and to spare neither 
 age nor sex; but his son, Caracalla, to whom 
 the execution of these orders was intrusted, 
 was more intent in plotting against his father 
 and brother than in executing the revengeful 
 mandate of the dying emperor, whose demise 
 took place at York on the 4th February, 211, 
 in the sixty-sixth year of his age, and in the 
 third 3 r ear of his administration in Britain. 
 
 It is in connection with this invasion that 
 we first hear of the Meats or Mreatae, who are 
 mentioned by Dion Cassius, or rather his epi- 
 tomiser Xiphiline, and who are supposed by 
 some to have inhabited the country between 
 the two walls, while others think it more 
 likely that they were a part of the Caledonians, 
 and inhabited the district between the Gram- 
 pians and the wall of Antonine. We shall 
 not, however, enter into this question here, but 
 endeavour, as briefly as possible, to record all 
 that is known of the remaining transactions of 
 the Eomans in the north of Scotland, reserving 
 other matters for the next chapter. 
 
 It was not consistent with the policy by 
 which Caracalla was actuated, to continue a 
 war with the Caledonians ; for the scene of his 
 ambition lay in Rome, to which he made hasty 
 preparations to depart on the death of his father. 
 He therefore entered into a treaty with the Cale- 
 donians by which he gave up the territories sur- 
 rendered by them to his father, and abandoned 
 the forts erected by him in their fastnesses. 
 The whole country north of the wall of Anto- 
 nine appears in fact to have been given up to 
 the undisputed possession of the Caledonians, 
 and we hear of no more incursions by them 
 
 till the reign of the emperor Constantiua 
 Chlorus, who came to Britain in the year 306, 
 to repel the Caledonians and other Picts. s 
 Their incursions were repelled by the Roman 
 legions under Constantius, and they remained 
 quiet till about the year 345, when they again 
 entered the territories of the provincial Brit- 
 ons j but they were compelled, it is said, again 
 to retreat by Constans, son of Constantine the 
 Great. 
 
 Although these successive inroads had been 
 always repelled by the superior power and dis- 
 cipline of the Romans, the Caledonians of the 
 fourth century no longer regarded them in the 
 formidable light in which they had been 
 viewed by their ancestors, and their genius for 
 war improving every time they came in hostile 
 contact with their enemies, they meditated 
 the design of expelling the intruders altogether 
 from the soil of North Britain. The wars 
 which the Romans had to sustain against the 
 Persians in the East, and against the Germans 
 on the frontiers of Gaul, favoured the plan of 
 the Caledonians ; and having formed a treaty 
 with the Scots, whose name is mentioned for 
 the first time in history in this connection by 
 Animianus Marcellinus, they, in conjunction 
 with their new allies, about the year 360 in- 
 vaded the Roman territories and committed 
 many depredations. Julian, who commanded 
 the Roman army on the Rhine, despatched 
 Eupicinus, an able military commander, to de- 
 fend the province against the Scots and Picts, 
 but he was recalled before he had done much 
 to repel them. 
 
 The Picts — who on this occasion are men- 
 tioned by Ammianus Marcellinus 9 as being di- 
 vided into two nations, the Dicaledonos and 
 Veduriones — and Scots, being joined by the 
 Attacots, " a warlike race of men," and the 
 Saxons, numbers of whom appear at this early 
 period to have settled in Britain, made another 
 attack on the Roman provinces in the year 
 
 8 The first writer who mentions the Picts is Eumen- 
 iuSj the orator, who was a Professor at Autun, and who, 
 in a panegyric pronounced by him in the year 297, 
 mentions the Picts along with the Irish, and again, in 
 308, in a panegyric pronounced by him on Constans, 
 speaks of the Caledonians and other Picts. This is 
 one of the passages mainly relied on by those who 
 consider the Caledonians and Picts to have been tho 
 same people. 
 
 a Aim. Mar., xxvii., 8. 
 
THE EOMANS ABANDON BBITATN. 
 
 13 
 
 364, on the accession of Valentinian. These 
 appear to have made their way as far south as 
 London, and it required all the valour and 
 skill of Theodosius the Elder, father of the em- 
 peror of that name, who was sent to Britain in 
 the year 367, to repel this aggression, and to 
 repair the great ravages committed by the bar- 
 barians. The next outbreak occurred about 
 the year 398, when the Eicts and Scots again 
 broke loose and ravaged the provinces, being 
 repelled by a legion sent over by the great 
 Stilicho, in answer to the petition of the help- 
 less provincials for assistance. 
 
 In the beginning of the fifth century the 
 enervated Eomanized Britons again appear to 
 have been subjected to the tender mercies of 
 their wicked northern neighbours ; and in re- 
 ply to their cry for help, Honorius, in 416, sent 
 over to their relief a single legion, which drove 
 back the intruders. The Eomans, as is well 
 known, engrossed by overwhelming troubles 
 nearer home, finally abandoned Britain about 
 the year 446, advising the inhabitants, who 
 were suffering from the ravages of the Eicts 
 and Scotc, to protect themselves by retiring 
 behind and keeping in repair the wall of Se- 
 verus. 
 
 Such is a brief account of the transactions of 
 the Eomans in Britain so far as these were con- 
 nected with the Highlands of Scotland. That 
 energetic and insatiable people doubtless left 
 their mark on the country and its inhabitants 
 south of the Forth and Clyde, as the many 
 Eoman remains which exist there at the pres. 
 ent day testify. The British provincials, in- 
 deed, appear in the end to have been utterly 
 enervated, and, in the worst sense, Eoman- 
 ized, so that they became an easy prey to their 
 Saxon helpers. It is quite evident, however, 
 that the inhabitants of Caledonia proper, the 
 district beyond the wall of Antonine, were to 
 a very slight extent, if at all, influenced by the 
 Eoman invasion. Whether it was from the 
 nature of the people, or from the nature of the 
 country which they inhabited, or from both 
 combined, they appear to have been equally 
 impervious to Eoman force and Eoman cul- 
 ture. The best services that their enemies 
 rendered to the Caledonians or Eicts were that 
 they forced them to unite against the common 
 foe thus contributing towards the foundation 
 
 of a future kingdom ; and that they gave them 
 a training in arms such as the Caledonians 
 could never have obtained, had they not been 
 brought into collision with the best-trained 
 soldiers of the world in their time. 
 
 We have in what precedes mainly followed 
 only one thread in the very intricate web 
 formed by the early history of the Highlands, 
 which, to a certain extent at this period, is the 
 history of Scotland; but, as will have been 
 seen, there are various other threads which 
 join in from time to time, and which, after 
 giving a short account of the traces of the Eo- 
 man invasion still existing in the Highlands, 
 Ave shall endeavour to catch up and follow out 
 as far as possible. 
 
 It is not necessary in a history of the High- 
 lands of Scotland, as we have defined that term, 
 that much space should be given to an ac- 
 count of Eoman remains ; for, as we have al- 
 ready said, these Italian invaders appear never 
 to have obtained anything like a firm footing 
 in that rugged district, or made any definite or 
 characteristic impression on its inhabitants. 
 " The vestiges whence it is inf erred that the 
 Empire for a time had so far established itself 
 in Scotland as to bring the natives over to the 
 habits of peaceful citizens, belong almost ex- 
 clusively to the country south of Antonine's 
 wall, between the Forth and Clyde. Coins 
 and weapons have been found farther north, 
 but scarcely any vestige of regular settlement. 
 None of the pieces of Eoman sculpture found 
 in Scotland belong to the districts north of the 
 wall. It is almost more significant still, that 
 of the very considerable number of Scottish 
 Eoman inscriptions in the various collections, 
 only one was found north of the wall, and that 
 in the strongly-fortified station of Ardoch, 
 where it commemorated that it was dedicated 
 to the memory of a certain Ammonius Damio- 
 nis. 1 On the other hand, it is in that unsub- 
 dued district that the memorials of Eoman con- 
 quest chiefly abound." 2 
 
 The whole of Britain was intersected by Eo- 
 man ways, and as, wherever a Eoman army 
 went, it was preceded by pioneers who cleared 
 and made a durable road to facilitate its march, 
 there can be no doubt that the north of Scot- 
 
 1 Wilson's Prehist. Annals. 
 
 - Burton's Scotland, vol. i. p. 74. 
 
H 
 
 GENEBAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 land was to a considerable extent intersected 
 by highways during the invasion of Agricola, 
 Lollius Urbicus, and Severus. One road at 
 least can be traced as far north as Aberdeen- 
 shire, and is popularly known in some districts 
 as the Lang Causeioay. This road appears to 
 have issued from the wall of Antonine, passed 
 through Camelon, the Eonian port on the Car- 
 ron, and pushing straight forward, according to 
 the Eoman custom, across the Canon, it pur- 
 sued its course in a general north-east direction 
 through Stirling, Eerth, by Ardoch, through 
 Forfar and Kincardine, to about Stonehaven. 
 
 It would appear that there are traces of Eo- 
 man roads even farther north. Between the 
 rivers Don and Urie in Aberdeenshire, on the 
 eastern side of Bennachee, there exists an an- 
 cient road known in the country by the name 
 of the Maiden Causeioay, a name by which 
 some of the Eoman roads in the north of Eng- 
 land are distinguished. This proceeds from 
 Bennachee whereon there is said to have been 
 a hill-fort, more than the distance of a mile 
 into the woods of Fitodrie, when it disappears : 
 it is paved with stones, and is about fourteen 
 feet wide. Still farther north, from Forres to 
 the ford of Cromdale on the Spey, there has 
 been long known a road of very ancient con- 
 struction, pointing to Cromdale, where the 
 Eomans may have forded the Spey. Various 
 traces of very ancient roads are still to be seen 
 by Corgarf and through Braemar : the tradition 
 of the people in Strathdee and Braemar, sup- 
 ports the idea that there are remains of Eoman 
 roads which traverse the country between the 
 Don and the Dee. Certain it is, that there are 
 obvious traces of ancient roads which cross the 
 wild districts between Strathdon and Strath- 
 dee, though it is impossible to ascertain when 
 or by whom these ancient roads were con- 
 structed, in such directions, throughout such a 
 country. 
 
 Along these roads there were without doubt 
 many camps and stations, as it is well known 
 that the Eomans never halted even for a single 
 night, without entrenching themselves behind 
 secure fortifications. There are many remains 
 of what are supposed to have been Eoman 
 camps still pointed out in various places north 
 of the line occupied by Antonine's wall. These 
 are well known even to the peasantry, and are 
 
 generally treated with respect. The line of 
 these camps reaches as far as the counties of 
 Aberdeen and Inverness, the most important 
 of them, however, being found in Strathallan, 
 Strathearn, and Strathmore. Besides the most 
 important of these camps, that at Ardoch, 
 traces of many others have been found. There 
 was one on the river Earn, about six miles east 
 of Ardoch, which would command the middle 
 part of Strathearn lying between the Ochil 
 hills on the south and the river Almond on 
 the north. Another important station is sup- 
 posed to have been established near Callander, 
 where, on a tongue of land formed by the junc- 
 tion of the rivers Strathgartney and Strathyre, 
 the two sources of the Teith, aTe seen the em- 
 bankments referred to by Scott 3 as 
 
 . . . . " The mouldering lines 
 Where Rome, the empress of the world, 
 Of yore her eagle wings unfurled." 4 
 
 Another camp is placed at Dalgenross, near 
 the confluence of the Euchel and the Earn, 
 which, with Bochastle, would command the 
 western district of Strathearn. Another im- 
 portant station was the East Findoch, at the 
 south side of the Almond ; it guarded the only 
 practicable passage through the mountains 
 northward, to an extent of thirty miles from 
 east to west. The Eoman camp here was placed 
 on a high ground, defended by water on two 
 sides, and by a morass with a steep bank on 
 the other two sides. It was about one hundred 
 and eighty paces long, and eighty broad, and 
 was surrounded by a strong earthen wall nearly 
 twelve feet thick, part of which still remains. 
 The trenehes are still entire, and in some places 
 six feet deep. 
 
 On the eastern side of Strathearn, and be- 
 tween it and the Forth, are the remains of Eo- 
 man posts ; and at Ardargie a Eoman camp 
 was established with the design, it is supposed, 
 of guarding the passage through the Ochil hills, 
 by the valley of May water. Another camp 
 at Gleneagles secured the passage of the same 
 hills through Glendevon. With the design of 
 guarding the narrow, but useful passage from 
 
 3 Lady of the Lake. 
 
 4 According to Burton, however, these are by some 
 geologists set down as a geological phenomenon. — 
 Hist, of Scot. i. 75. 
 
EOMAN EEMAINS— ARDOCH. 
 
 15 
 
 the middle Highlands, westward through Glen- 
 lyon to Argyle, the Eomans fixed a post at 
 Fortingal, about sixteen miles north-west from 
 the station at East-Findoch. 
 
 A different line of posts became necessary 
 to secure Angus and the Mearns. At Coupar 
 Angus, on the east side of the Isla, about seven 
 miles east from Inchtuthel, stood a Eoman 
 earnp, of a square form, of twenty acres within 
 the ramparts. This camp commanded the pas- 
 sage down Strathmore, between the Siedlaw 
 bills on the south-east, and the Isla on the 
 north-west. On Campmoor, little more than 
 a mile south from Coupar Angus, appear the re- 
 mains of another Eoman fort. The great camp 
 of Battledyke stood about eighteen miles north- 
 east from Coupar Angus, being obviously placed 
 there to guard the passage from the Highlands 
 through Glen Esk and Glen Prosen. About 
 eleven and a-half miles north-east of the camp 
 at Battledykes was another Eoman camp, the 
 remains of which may still be traced near the 
 mansion-house of Keithock. This camp is 
 known by the name of Wardikes. The coun- 
 try below the Siedlaw hills, on the north side 
 of the estuary of Tay, was guarded by a Eoman 
 camp near Invergowrie, which had a communi- 
 cation on the north-east with the camp at 
 Harefaulds. This camp, which was about two 
 hundred yards square, and fortified with a high 
 rampart and a spacious ditch, stood about two 
 miles west from Dundee. 
 
 Traces of a number of others have been 
 found, but we need not go farther into detail. 
 This account of the Eoman transactions in 
 Scotland would, however, be incomplete with- 
 
 Roman Camp at Ardoch as it appeared in 1755. 
 [Stuart's Caledonia Romania. ] 
 
 out a more particular notice of the well-known 
 camp at Ardoch. Ardoch village, in Perth- 
 shire, lies on the east side of Knaigwater, ten 
 miles north from Stirling, and is about two 
 miles from the Greenloaning station of the 
 Caledonian railway, the site of the camp be- 
 ing a little distance to the north-west of the 
 village. As this station guarded the principal 
 inlet into the interior of Caledonia, the Eomans 
 were particularly anxious to fortify so advan- 
 tageous a position. " The situation of it," says 
 the writer of the Old Statistical Account of 
 Muthill, " gave it many advantages ; being on 
 the north-west side of a deep moss that runs 
 a long way eastward. On the west side, it is 
 partly defended by the steep bank of the water 
 of Knaik ; which bank rises perpendicularly 
 between forty and fifty feet. The north and 
 east sides were most exposed ; and there we 
 find very particular care was taken to secure 
 them. The ground on the east is pretty regu- 
 lar, and descends by a gentle slope from the 
 lines of fortification, which, on that side, con- 
 sists of five rows of ditches, perfectly entire, 
 and running parallel to one another. These 
 altogether are about fifty-five yards in breadth 
 On the north side, there is an equal number of 
 lines and ditches, but twenty yards broader 
 than the former. On the west, besides the 
 steep precipices above mentioned, it was de- 
 fended by at least two ditches. One is still 
 visible ; the others have probably been filled 
 up, in making the great military road from 
 Stirling to the north. The side of thw camp, 
 lying to the southward, exhibits to the anti- 
 quary a less pleasing prospect. Here the pea- 
 sant's rugged hand has laid in ruins a great 
 part of the lines ; so that it may be with pro- 
 priety said, in the words of a Latin poet, ' Jam 
 seges est, ubi Troja fuit.' The area of the 
 camp is an oblong of 140 yards, by 125 within 
 the lines. The general's quarter rises above 
 the level of the camp, but is not in the centre. 
 It is a regular square, each side being exactly 
 twenty yards. At present it exhibits evident 
 marks of having been enclosed with a stone 
 wall, and contains the foundation of a house, ten 
 yards by seven." There are two other encamp- 
 ments adjoining, having a communication 
 with one another, and containing about 130 
 acres of ground. A subterranean passage is 
 
16 
 
 GENEEAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 said to have extended from the pratorium 
 under the hed of the Knaik. Not far north of 
 this station, on the way to Crieff, may he traced 
 three temporary Eoman camps of different sizes. 
 Portions of the ramparts of these camps still 
 exist. A mile west of Aidoch, an immense 
 cairn lately existed, 182 feet long, 45 broad at 
 the base, and 30 feet in sloping height. A 
 human skeleton, 7 feet long, in a stone coffin, 
 was found in it. ° 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 Early Inhabitants — Eoman Writers — Aristotle — Taci- 
 tus — Dion Cassius — Caledonians and Mseatse — Eu- 
 menius — Picts — DicaledonesandVecturiones — Clau- 
 dian — Inferences — Ecclesiastical Chroniclers — Their 
 value — Gildas — Adamnan — Northern and Southern 
 Picts — Columba's "Interpreter" — Bede's Account 
 of Picts — Pictish Language — Peanfahel — Northern 
 and Southern Picts — Welsh Triads — Irish Annals — 
 Evidence from Language — Cymric and Gaelic Theo- 
 ries — Inver and Aba — Inues's Theory — Conclusion. 
 
 The preceding chapter has been occupied almost 
 entirely with an account of the transactions of 
 the Eomans in the north of Scotland, and it is 
 now our duty to go back and narrate what is 
 known of the internal history of the Highlands 
 during the time of the Eomans. In doing so we 
 are brought face to face with certain much agi- 
 tated questions which have for centuries engaged 
 the attention of antiquaries, and in the discus- 
 sion of which many bulky tomes have been 
 written and incredible acrimony displayed. 
 To enter with anything like minuteness into 
 this discussion would occupy more space than 
 can be devoted to the entire history, and, more- 
 over, would be out of place in a popular work 
 like the present, and distasteful to most of its 
 readers. The following are some of the much- 
 discussed questions referred to : — "Who were 
 the original inhabitants of Caledonia 1 To what 
 race did they belong — were they Gothic or 
 Celtic? and if Celtic, were they Cymric or Gae- 
 lic ? When did they enter Scotland, and whence 
 did they come — from the opposite continent, or 
 
 5 For more minute descriptions of this camp, as well 
 as for further details concerning the Roman transac- 
 tions in Scotland, consult Hoy's Military Antiquities, 
 Gough's Camden (under Strathearn), Stuart's Cale- 
 donia R&mana, Burton's History of Scotland. 
 
 from the south of Britain ? Was the whole of 
 Scotland, in the time of Agricola, occupied by 
 one people, or by a mixed race, or by various 
 races? Were the Picts and Caledonians the 
 same people ? What is the meaning and origin 
 of Pict, and was Caledonia a native appellation? 
 What were the localities of the Northern and 
 Southern Picts ? Who were the Scots ? What 
 was the nature of the union of the Scots and 
 Picts under Kenneth MacAlpin ? 
 
 The notices of the early inhabitants of the 
 Highlands in the contemporary Eoman his- 
 torians are so few, the information given so 
 meagre and indefinite, and the ecclesiastical 
 historians of a later time are so full of miracle, 
 myth, and hearsay, and so little to be depended 
 on, that it appears to us almost impossible, with 
 the materials at present within the historian's 
 reach, to arrive at anything like a satisfactory 
 answer to the above questions. The impression 
 left after reading much that has been written 
 on various sides, is one of dissatisfaction and 
 bewilderment, — dissatisfaction with the far- 
 fetched and irrelevant arguments frequently 
 adduced, and the unreliable authorities quoted, 
 and bewilderment amid the dust-cloud of words 
 with which any one who enters this debatable 
 land is sure to be enveloped. "It is scarcely 
 necessary to observe, that there are few points 
 of ethnology on which historians and antiqua- 
 ries have been more at variance with each 
 other, than respecting the real race of those 
 inhabitants of a portion of Caledonia popularly 
 known by the designation of Picts. The diffi- 
 culty arising from tliis discrepancy of opinion 
 is increased by the scanty and unsatisfactory 
 nature of the materials now available to those 
 who wish to form an independent judgment. 
 No connected specimen of the Pictish language 
 has been preserved ; nor has any ancient au- 
 thor who knew them from personal observa- 
 tion, stated in direct terms that they approxi- 
 mated to one adjoining tribe more than another. 
 They are indeed associated with the Scots or 
 Irish as joint plunderers of the colonial Bri- 
 tons ; and the expression of Gildas that they 
 differed in some degree from the Scots in their 
 customs, might seem to imply that they did 
 bear an analogy to that nation in certain re- 
 spects. Of course, where there is such a lack 
 of direct evidence, there is more scope for con- 
 
EAELY INHABITANTS. 
 
 17 
 
 jectuie; and the Picts are pronounced by dif- 
 ferent investigators of their history to have 
 been Germans, Scandinavians, Welsh, Gael, or 
 something distinct from all the four. The ad- 
 vocates of the German hypothesis rest chiefty 
 on Tacitus's description of their physical con- 
 formation. Dr. Jamieson, assuming that the 
 present Lowland Scotch dialect was derived 
 from them, sets them down as Scandinavians; 
 Bishop Lloyd and Camden conceive them to 
 have been of Celtic race, probably related to 
 the Britons ; Chalmers, the author of ' Caledo- 
 nia,' regards them as nothing more than a 
 tribe of Cambrians or Welsh; while Skene, 
 one of the latest authors on the subject, thinks 
 he has proved that they were the ancestors of 
 the present race of Scottish Highlanders." 13 
 
 The earliest known name applied to Britain 
 is found in a treatise on the World ascribed to 
 Aristotle, in which the larger island is called 
 Albinn, and Ireland referred to as lerne; and 
 it is worthy of notice that at the present day 
 the former is the name applied to Scotland by 
 the Highlanders, who call themselves the Gael 
 Albinnich. The first author, however, who 
 gives us any information about the early in- 
 habitants of the north part of Scotland is 
 Tacitus, who, in his Life of Agricola, devotes 
 a few lines, in a parenthetical way, to charac- 
 terising each of the great divisions of the 
 people who, in the time of that general, in- 
 habited Britain. Tacitus tells us that in his 
 time the inhabitants of Britain differed in the 
 habit and make of their bodies, and from the 
 ruddy locks and large limbs of the Caledonians 
 he inferred that they were of German origin. 7 
 This glimpse is clear enough, but tantalizing 
 in its meagreness and generality. What does 
 Tacitus mean by German — does he use it in 
 the same sense as we do at the present day? 
 Does he mean by Caledonia the whole of the 
 country north of the Forth and Clyde, or does 
 it apply only to that district — Fife, Forfar, the 
 east of Perth, &c. — with the inhabitants of 
 which his father-in-law came in contact? We 
 find Ptolemy the geographer, who flourished 
 about the middle of the 2d century a. d., men- 
 tioning the Caledonians as one of the many 
 tribes which in his time inhabited the north of 
 
 G Garnett's Philological Essays, p. 196. 
 7 Agricola xi. 
 
 Scotland. The term Caledonians is supposed 
 by some authorities to have been derived from 
 a native word signifying " men of the woods," 
 or the inhabitants of the woody country ; this, 
 however, is mere conjecture. 
 
 The nest writer who gives any definite in- 
 formation as to the inhabitants of Caledonia is 
 Dion Cassius, who flourished in the early part 
 of the 3d century, and who wrote a history of 
 Rome which has come down to us in a very 
 imperfect state. Of the latter part, containing 
 an account of Britain, we possess only an epi- 
 tome made by Xiphilinus, an ecclesiastic of 
 the 11th century, and which of course is very 
 meagre in its details. The following are the 
 particulars given by this writer concerning the 
 early inhabitants of north Britain. " Of the 
 Britons the two most ample nations are the 
 Caledonians and the Ma?atae; for the names of 
 the rest refer for the most part to these. The 
 Mseatae inhabit very near the wall 8 which 
 divides the island into two parts; the Caledo- 
 nians are after these. Each of them inhabit 
 mountains, very rugged and wanting water, 
 and also desert fields, full of marshes: they 
 have neither castles nor cities, nor dwell in 
 any: they live on milk and by hunting, and 
 maintain themselves by the fruits of the trees : 
 for fishes, of which there is a very great and 
 numberless quantity, they never taste: they 
 dwell naked in tents and without shoes : they 
 use wives in common, and whatever is born to 
 them they bring up. In the popular state 
 they are governed, as for the most part : they 
 rob on the highway most willingly : they war 
 in chariots: horses they have, small and fleet; 
 their infantry, also, are as well most swift at 
 running, as most brave in pitched battle. 
 Their arms are a shield and a short spear, in 
 the upper part whereof is an apple of brass, 
 that, while it is shaken, it may terrify the 
 enemies with the sound: they have likewise 
 daggers. They are able to bear hunger, cold, 
 and all afflictions ; for they merge themselves 
 in marshes, and there remain manj r days, hav- 
 ing only their head out of water : and in woods 
 are nourished by the bark and roots of trees. 
 But a certain kind of food they prepare for all 
 occasions, of which if they take as much as ' the 
 
 8 The wall of Autoniue. 
 
IS 
 
 GENERAL HISTORY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 size' of a single bean, they are in nowise ever 
 wont to hunger or thirst." 9 
 
 Erom this we learn that in the 3d century 
 there were two divisions of the inhabitants of 
 the Highlands, known to the Romans as the 
 Caledonians and Mseats or Masatae, the latter 
 very probably inhabiting the southern part of 
 that territory, next to the wall of Antonine, 
 and the former the district to the north of this. 
 As to whether these were Latinized forms of 
 native names, or names imposed by the Ro- 
 mans themselves, we have no means of judg- 
 ing. The best writers on this subject think 
 that the Caledonians and Masats were two 
 divisions of the same people, both living to the 
 north of the Forth and Clyde, although Innes, 1 
 and one or two minor writers, are of opinion 
 that the Mteats were provincial Britons who 
 inhabited the country between the wall of 
 Hadrian and that of Antonine, known as the 
 province of Valentia. However, with Skene, 2 
 Mr. Joseph Robertson, and other able authori- 
 ties, we are inclined to think that the evidence 
 is in favour of their being the inhabitants of 
 the southern portion of Caledonia proper. 
 
 Herodian, 3 who wrote about a. d. 240, 
 tells us that the Caledonians were in the habit 
 of marking or painting their bodies with figures 
 of animals, and that they wore no clothes in 
 order that these figures might be preserved and 
 exhibited. 
 
 The next reference made by a Roman writer 
 to the inhabitants of Caledonia we find in a 
 panegyric pronounced in his presence on the 
 Emperor Constant'ius Chlorus, by Eumenius, a 
 professor of rhetoric at Augustodunum (Autun) 
 in Gaul, in the year 296 or 297, who speaks of 
 the Britons, in the time of Caesar, having been 
 attacked by the half-naked Picts and Irish. 
 To what people the orator meant to apply the 
 term Picts, around which there has clustered 
 so much acrimonious disputation, we learn from 
 another oration pronounced by him on the same 
 emperor, before his son Constantine, in the 
 year 309, in which, recording the actions of 
 Constantius, he speaks of the woods and 
 marshes of the Caledonians and other Picts. 
 
 '■' Dio L. 76, c. 12, as quoted in Ritson's Annals, 
 p. 11. 
 
 1 Critical Essay, cli. ii. 
 - Highlanders. 
 3 Boole iii. 
 
 After this no further mention is made of the 
 Caledonians by any Roman writer, but towards 
 the end of the 4th century Ammianus Mareel- 
 linus, in his account of the Roman transactions 
 in Britain, speaks of the Picts in conjunction 
 with the Saxons, Scots, and Attacots harassing 
 the provincial Britons about the year 364. 
 Further on he informs us that at this time the 
 Picts were divided into two tribes or nations, 
 the Dicaledones and Vecturiones, remarking, 
 at the same time, that " the Attacots were a 
 warlike race of men, and the Scots a people 
 much given to wandering, and in the habit of 
 ravaging or laying waste the districts into 
 which they came." 1 
 
 Claudian the poet, writing, about 397, in 
 praise of Honorius, mentions, among other ac- 
 tions of Theodosius, the grandfather of that 
 emperor, his having subdued the Picts, who 
 were fitly so named, 5 and makes various other 
 references to this people and the Scots, which 
 show that these two in combination were 
 troubling the Roman provincials not a little. 
 
 Such are most of the scanty details given by 
 the only contemporary historians who take any 
 notice of the inhabitants of North Britain ; and 
 the unprejudiced reader will see that the foun- 
 dation thus afforded upon which to construct 
 any elaborate theory is so narrow that every 
 such theory must resemble a pyramid standing 
 on its apex, liable at the slightest touch to 
 topple over and be shattered to pieces. It ap- 
 pears to us that all the conclusions which it is 
 safe to draw from the few facts stated by the 
 contemporary Roman historians are, that at the 
 commencement of the Christian era Caledonia 
 proper, or the Highlands, was inhabited by a 
 people or peoples apparently considerable in 
 number, and who in all probability had been 
 settled there for a considerable time, part of 
 whom at least were known to the Romans by 
 the name of Caledonians. That these Cale- 
 
 4 " Scotti per diversa vagantes, multa popula- 
 bantur." Am. Mar. xxvii. 8. 
 
 s " Nee falso nomine Pictos 
 
 Kdomuit." 
 " Venit et extremis legio preetenta Britannis 
 Quce Scoto dat frana truci, ferroque notatas 
 Perlegit exaugues Seoto moriente figuras."— 
 
 Debetto Getico, v. -116. 
 Thus rendered by Ritson : — 
 
 The legion came, o'er distant Britains placed, 
 Which bridles the tierce Scot, and bloodless figures 
 With iron marked, views in the dying Pict. 
 
EARLY INHABITANTS. 
 
 19 
 
 donians, tliose of tliem at any rate with, whom 
 Agricola came in contact in the first century, 
 were red or fair haired and large limbed, from 
 which Tacitus inferred that they were of Ger- 
 man extraction. In the beginning of the third 
 century there were at least two divisions of the 
 inhabitants of Caledonia, — the Caledonians and 
 Maeats, — the former inhabiting the country to 
 the north of the Grampians, and the latter, in 
 all probability, that to the south, and south- 
 east of these mountains. They appear to have 
 been in many respects in a condition little re- 
 moved from that of savages, although they 
 must have made wonderful attainments in the 
 manufacture of implements of war. 
 
 In the latter part of the third century we 
 found the Highlanders spoken of under a new 
 name, Picti, which the Eoman historians at 
 least, undoubtedly understood to be the Latin 
 word meaning ' painted,' 7 and which all the 
 best modern writers believe to have been im- 
 posed by the Romans themselves, from the fact 
 that the indomitable Caledonians had retained 
 the custom of self-painting after all the Roman- 
 ized Britons had given it up. There is the 
 strongest probability that the Caledonians 
 spoken of as Picts by Eumenius were the same 
 as the Caledonians of Tacitus, or that the 
 Caledonians and Picts were the same people 
 under different names. The immediate cause 
 for this change of name we have no means of 
 ascertaining. It is in every way improbable 
 that the Picts were a new people, who had 
 come in upon the Caledonians, and supplanted 
 them some time after Agricola's invasion. The 
 Romans were constantly coming into contact 
 with the Caledonians from the time of Agri- 
 cola till they abandoned Britain entirely, and 
 had such a supplantation taken place, it cer- 
 tainly could not have been done quietly, and 
 without the cognizance of the Romans. But 
 we find no mention in any contemporary his- 
 torian of any such commotion, and we know 
 that the inhabitants of the Highlands never 
 ceased to harass the British provincials, show- 
 ing that they were not much taken up with 
 any internal disturbance. Indeed, writers who 
 adopt the most diverse opinions on other 
 points in connection with the Pictish question 
 
 7 The namegiven by the Irish Annalists to the Picts 
 is Cruithne, said by some to mean "variegated." 
 
 are all agreed as to this, that the Caledonians 
 and Picts were the same people. 8 
 
 "We learn further from our authorities, that 
 towards the end of the fourth century the in- 
 habitants of Caledonia were known to the 
 Romans under the names of Dicaledones and 
 Vecturiones, it being conjectured that these 
 correspond to the Caledonians and Maeats of 
 Dio, and the Northern and Southern Picts of a 
 later period. The connection of the latter 
 part of the word Di-caledones with Caledonii is 
 evident, although the significance of the first 
 syllable is doubtful, — some authorities conjec- 
 turing that it is the Gaelic word du, meaning 
 '•' genuine." It appears at all events to be es- 
 tablished that during the early history of the 
 Highlands, whatever other divisions may have 
 existed among the inhabitants, those dwelling 
 to the north and those dwelling to the south 
 of the Grampians were two separate confeder- 
 acies, and were known by distinct names. 
 
 Another not unimportant fact to be learned 
 from the Roman historians in relation to the 
 Picts or Caledonians is, that about the middle 
 of the 4th century they were assisted by the 
 Attacots, Saxons, and Scots. As to who the 
 Attacots were it is now impossible to conjec- 
 ture with anything like certainty, there being no 
 sufficient reason for believing that they were 
 allied to the Irish Scots. It is well enough 
 known who the Saxons were, but how they 
 came at this early period to be acting in concert 
 with the Picts it is difficult to say. It is pos- 
 sible that numbers of them may have effected 
 a settlement, even at this early period, in North 
 Britain, although it is more likely that they 
 were roving adventurers, who had left their 
 homes, from choice or on compulsion, to try 
 their fortune in Britain. They were probably 
 the first droppings of the abundant shower 
 that overwhelmed South Britain a century 
 later. The Romans at this period had an offi- 
 cer with the title of "Comes litoris Saxonici 
 per Britanniani ;" and Claudian, in his praises 
 of Stilicho, introduces Britain, saying — 
 
 " Illius effectum cvjris, ne bella timerem 
 Scotica, De Pictitm tremerem, ne littore toto 
 Prospieerem dubiis venturum Saxona ventis. " 
 
 8 The only important exception is Ritson, whose 
 arguments, like those of Ms opponent Pinkerton, con- 
 sist mostly of virulent language and vehement assertion. 
 
20 
 
 GENERAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 It is interesting to notice that this 9 is the 
 first mention made of the Scots in connection 
 with what is now Scotland ; but whether there 
 were settlements of them at this time among 
 the Picts, or whether they had come over from 
 Ireland for the purpose of assisting the latter 
 to harass the Eomans, it is difficult to say. 
 Probably, as was the case with the Saxons, 
 these were the harbingers of the great migra- 
 tion that reached its culmination about a cen- 
 tury and a half later. They appear, from what 
 Ammianus says, to have been at this time a 
 set of destructive vagabonds. We shall have 
 more to say about them further on. 
 
 Erom the general tone of these contemporary 
 Eoman historians we learn that, whether Celtic 
 or Gothic, these Picts or Caledonians were a 
 hardy, indomitable, determined race, with a 
 strong love of liberty and of the country in 
 which they dwelt, and a resolution never to be 
 subject to the greedy Roman. Comparatively 
 few and barbarous as they were, they caused 
 the Eomans far more trouble than all the rest 
 of Britain together ; to conquer the latter and 
 Bomanize it appears to have been compara- 
 tively smooth work, but the ItaHans acknow- 
 ledged the Highlanders invincible by building 
 walls and other fortifications, and maintaining 
 extra garrisons to protect the provincials from 
 their fierce and wasting inroads. Whether the 
 present Highlanders are the descendants of 
 these or not, they certainly possess many 
 of their qualities. 
 
 It will have bepn seen that the Eoman his- 
 torians give us almost no clue to what we now 
 deem of most interest and importance, the 
 place of the early inhabitants among the fami- 
 lies of men, the time and manner of their 
 arrival, the language they spoke, and their 
 internal history generally. Of course the re- 
 cords of contemporaries stand in the first place 
 of importance as evidences, and although we 
 have other sources, historical, linguistic, and 
 antiquarian, which shed a little light upon the 
 subject, these, for various reasons, must be used 
 with great caution. The only statement ap- 
 proaching to anything like a hint as to the 
 origin of the Caledonians is that of Tacitus, 
 referring to their ruddy locks and large limbs 
 
 9 In Amm. Mar. 
 
 as an evidence of their German origin. There 
 is no reason to doubt that those with whom 
 Agricola came in contact were of this make and 
 complexion, which, at the present day, are 
 generally held to be indicative of a Teutonic 
 origin ; whereas the true Celt is popularly be- 
 lieved to be of a small make and dark com- 
 plexion. x It may have been, that in Agricola's 
 time the part of the country into which he 
 penetrated was occupied by considerable num- 
 bers of Teutons, who had effected a settlement 
 either by force, or by favour of the prior in- 
 habitants. The statement of Tacitus, however, 
 those who uphold the Celtic theory endeavour 
 to explain away. 
 
 We may safely say then, that with regard to 
 all the most important points that have ex- 
 cited the curiosity of modern enquirers, the 
 only contemporary historians to whom we can 
 appeal, leave us almost entirely in the dark. 
 
 The writers, next in order of importance to 
 whom an appeal is made as witnesses in this 
 perplexing case, are the ecclesiastical chroni- 
 clers, the chief of whom are Gildas, Adamnan, 
 Bede, Nennius. "Much of the error into 
 which former writers have been led, has arisen 
 from an improper use of these authors ; they 
 should be consulted exclusively as contempor- 
 ary historians — whatever they assert as exist- 
 ing or occurring in their own time, or shortly 
 before it, we may receive as true ; but when 
 we consider the perverted learning of that 
 period, and the little information which they 
 appear to have possessed of the traditions of 
 the people around them, we ought to reject 
 their fables or fanciful origins as altogether un- 
 deserving of credit." 2 Though this dictum 
 may perhaps be too sweeping, still any one who 
 examines the authors referred to for himself, 
 must admit that it is in the main 'just. It is 
 well known that these writers exercise little or 
 no discrimination in the composition of their 
 narratives, that tradition, mbacle, and observed 
 fact are placed side by side, as all equally worthy 
 of belief. Even Bede, the most reliable and 
 
 1 It is a curious fact that these latter are, among the 
 peasantry of Scotland, the distinctive characteristics of 
 the Picts or Pechts, who, however, it is not unlikely, 
 may be popularly confounded with the Brownies, 
 especially as, in Perthshire at any rate, they are said 
 always to have done their work while others were 
 asleep. 
 
 2 Skene's Highlanders, vol i. p. 2. 
 
PICTS. 
 
 21 
 
 cautious of these early chroniclers, lived as long 
 after some of the events of which he professes 
 to give an account, as ¥e of the present day do 
 after the time of the Crusades ; almost his sole 
 authority being tradition or hearsay. More- 
 over, the knowledge which these writers had 
 of the distinction between the various races of 
 mankind was so very hazy, the terms they use 
 are to us so comparatively unintelligible, and 
 the information they do contain on the points 
 in dispute so brief, vague, and parenthetical, 
 that their value as authorities is reduced almost 
 to a Tninim iTm 
 
 Whoever was the author of the work De 
 Excidio Britannia, one of the latest and most 
 acute writers 3 on ethnology has shown that he 
 is almost totally unworthy of credit, the sources 
 of his information being exceedingly suspicious, 
 and his statements proved to be false by com- 
 parison with trustworthy contemporary Eoman 
 historians. There is every reason to believe 
 that the so-called Gildas — for by Mr. "Wright 4 
 he has been reduced to a nominis umbra — 
 lived and wrote about the middle of the 6th cen- 
 tury a.d., so that, had he used ordinary dili- 
 gence and discrimination, he might have been of 
 considerable assistance in enabling us to solve 
 the perplexing mystery of the Pietish question. 
 But indeed we have no right to look for much 
 liistory in the work of Gildas, as it professes 
 to be merely a complaint " on the general de- 
 struction of every thing that is good, and the 
 general growth of evil throughout the land ;" 
 it is his purpose, he says, " to relate the deeds 
 of an indolent and slothful race, rather than 
 the exploits of those who have been valiant in 
 the field." 3 So far as the origin and early 
 history of the Picts is concerned, Gildas is of 
 almost no value whatever, the only time he 
 mentions the Picts being incidentally to notice 
 an invasion they had made into the Eoman 
 provinces. 6 If we can trust him, the Picts 
 and their allies, the Scots, must have been 
 very fierce enemies to deal with They went 
 about, he tells us, almost entirely destitute of 
 clothes, having their faces covered with bushy 
 hair, and were in the habit of dragging the 
 poor enervated Britons from the top of their 
 
 " h. 0. Pike, The English "iid their Origin, ch. i. 
 1 BiorfrajMa Britannica Literaria, voL i. 
 ! Gildas, 1. 6 Id., 19. 
 
 protecting wall with hooked weapons, slaughter- 
 ing them without mercy. Some writers infer 
 from this narrative that, during the Eoman oc- 
 cupation, no permanent settlement of Scots had 
 been effected in present Scotland, but that the 
 Scots who assisted the Picts came over from 
 their native Scotland (Ireland) for that pur- 
 pose; he tells us that the Scots came from the 
 north-west, and the Picts from the north 7 
 (i North-west " here, however, would applv 
 quite as well to Argyle as to Ireland. 
 
 The writer next in chronological order from 
 whom we derive, any information of conse- 
 quence concerning the Picts is Adamnan, a 
 member of the early Irish Church, who was 
 born in the county of Donegal about the 
 year 625, elected abbot of Iona in 679, and 
 who died in the year 704. Adamnan wrote 
 a life of his great predecessor St. Columba, 
 in which is contained much information con- 
 cerning that great missionary's labours among 
 the Northern Picts ; and although he narrates 
 many stories which are palpably incredible, 
 still the book contains much which may 
 with confidence be accepted as fact. In con- 
 nection with the questions under consideration, 
 we learn that, in the time of Columba and 
 Adamnan, there were — as formerly, in the time 
 of the Eoman writers — two divisions of the 
 Picts, known in the 7th century and afterwards 
 as the Northern and Southern Picts. Adam- 
 nan informs us that Coluniba's mission was to 
 the Northern Picts alone, — the southern divi- 
 sion having been converted by St. Xinian in 
 the 5th century. There has been much dispu- 
 tation as to the precise district inhabited by 
 each of these two divisions of the Picts, — some 
 maintaining that the southern division occupied 
 the country to the south of the Forth and Clyde, 
 while the Northern Picts occupied the whole 
 district to the north of these estuaries. The 
 best authorities, however, are of opinion that 
 both divisions dwelt to the north of Antonine's 
 wall, and were divided from each other by the 
 Grampians. 
 
 What more immediately concerns our pres- 
 ent purpose is a passage in Adamnan's work in 
 which he speaks of Columba preaching to the 
 Picts through an interpreter. Now Columba 
 
22 
 
 GENEEAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 was an Irish Scot, whose native tongue was 
 Gaelic, and it is from this argued that the Picts 
 to whom he preached must have spoken a differ- 
 ent language, or at least dialect, and belonged 
 to a different race or tribe from the saint him- 
 self. Mr. Skene, 8 who ably advocates the 
 Gaelic origin of the Picts, perceiving this diffi- 
 culty, endeavours to explain away the force of 
 the passage by making it mean that Columba 
 " interpreted or explained the word of God, 
 that is, the Bible, which, being written in 
 Latin, would doubtless require to be interpreted 
 to them." The passage as quoted by Skene is, 
 " Verbo Dei per interpretorem recepto." Gar- 
 nett, however, one of the most competent and 
 candid writers on this question in its philologi- 
 cal aspect, and who maintains, with the great- 
 est clearness and ability, the Cymric origin of 
 the Picts, looks at the passage in a different 
 light. The entire passage, he says, 9 as it 
 stands in Colganus, is as follows : — " Alio in 
 tempore quo sanctus Columba in Pictorum 
 provincia per aliquot demorabatur dies, quidam 
 cum tota plebeius familia, verbum vitce per in- 
 terpretorem, Saneto prcedicante vivo, audiens 
 credidit, credensque baptizatus est." 1 "Here 
 it will be observed," continues Garnett, "Adam- 
 nan does not say, ' verbuin Dei,' which might 
 have been construed to mean the Scripture, 
 but ' verbum vitce, Saneto prcedicante viro,' 
 which, can hardly mean anything but ' the 
 word of life, as it was preached by the Saint.'" 
 Certainly, we think, the unprejudiced reader 
 must admit that, sp far as this point is con- 
 cerned, Mr. Garnett has the best of it. Al- 
 though at that time the Gaelic and Cymric 
 dialects may have had much more in common 
 than they have at the present day, nevertheless 
 it appears to be beyond a doubt that the differ- 
 ence between the two was so great that a Gael 
 would be unintelligible to a speaker of Cymric. 2 
 
 B Highlanders, vol. i. p. 72. 
 
 11 Garnett's Philological Essays, p. 199. 
 
 1 Adam. ap. Colganwm, 1. ii. c. 32. 
 
 - On the subject in question the recently published 
 Book of Deer cannot be said to afford us any informa- 
 tion. It gives a short account of the landing of 
 Columba and a companion at Aherdour in the north 
 of Aberdeenshire, and the founding of a monastery at 
 Deer. But although the entries are in Gaelic, they do 
 not tell us what language Columba spoke, nor whether 
 ' Bede the Pict,' the mormaer of Buchan, understood 
 him without an interpreter. The name of the saint 
 — Drostan — whom Columba left behind him to prose- 
 
 The next and most important authority of 
 this class on this qucestio vexata is the Vener- 
 able Bede, who, considering the age in which he 
 lived, exercised so much caution and discrimina- 
 tion, that he deserves to be listened to with re- 
 spect. Bede was born about 673. He was 
 educated in the Monastery of Wearmouth, 
 whence he removed to Jarrow, where he was 
 ordained deacon in his nineteenth year, and 
 priest in his thirtieth, and where he spent the 
 rest of his days, dying in 735. He wrote many 
 w r orks, but the most important is the Historia 
 Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, the materials 
 for which he obtained chiefly from native 
 chronicles and biographies, records and public 
 documents, and oral and written communica- 
 tions from contemporaries. 
 
 We shall transcribe most of the passage in 
 which Bede speaks of the ancient inhabitants 
 of Britain; so that our readers may be able to 
 judge for themselves of the nature and value 
 of the testimony borne by this venerable au- 
 thor. It must, however, be kept in mind that 
 Bede does not pretend to give any but the ec- 
 clesiastical history of the English nation, every- 
 thing else being subsidiary to this. 
 
 " This island at present, following the num- 
 ber of the books in which the Divine law was 
 written, contains five nations, the English, 
 Britons, Scots, Picts, and Latins, each in its 
 own peculiar dialect cultivating the sublime 
 study of Divine truth. The Latin tongue is, 
 by the stud}' of the Scriptures, become common 
 to all the rest. At first this island had no 
 other inhabitants but the Britons, from whom 
 it derived its name, and who coming over into 
 Britain, as is reported, from Armorica, pos- 
 sessed themselves of the southern parts thereof. 
 When they, beginning at the south, had made 
 themselves master of the greatest part of the 
 island, it happened, that the nation of the 
 
 ente the work, is Pictish, at any rate not Irish, so 
 that nothing can be inferred from this. Since much 
 of the first part of this book was written, Mr. Skene 
 has advanced the theory, founded partly on four 
 new Pictish words he has managed to discover, that 
 the language of the Picts was neither pure Gaelic 
 nor Cymric, 'but a sort of low Gaelic dialect par- 
 taking largely of Welsh forms.' This theory is not 
 new, but was distinctly put forth by Dr. Maclauchlan 
 some years ago in his able and learned work, The 
 Early Scottish Church, p. 29 : if true, it would cer- 
 tainly satisfy a great many of the demands which anv 
 hypothesis on the subject must do. 
 
BEDE ON THE PICTS. 
 
 Tl 
 
 Picts coming into the ocean from Scythia, as 
 is reported, in a few tall ships, were driven 
 by the winds beyond the shores of Britain 
 and arrived oif Ireland, on the northern 
 coasts, where, rinding the nation of the Scots, 
 they requested to be allowed to settle among 
 them, but could not succeed in obtaining 
 their request. The Scots answered, that 
 the island could not contain them both; 
 but ' we can give you good advice,' said they, 
 ' what to do ; we know there is another island, 
 not far from ours, to the eastward, which we 
 often see at a distance, when the days are clear. 
 If you will repair thither, you may be able to 
 obtain settlements ; or if they should oppose 
 you, you may make use of us as auxiliaries.' 
 The Picts accordingly sailing over into Britain, 
 began to inhabit the northern parts thereof, for 
 the Britons were possessed of the southern. 
 Now the Picts having no wives, and asking 
 them of the Scots, they would not consent to 
 grant them upon any other terms, than that 
 when any difficulty should arise, they should 
 rather choose themselves a king from the fe- 
 male royal race than from the male ; which 
 custom, as is well known, has been observed 
 among the Picts to this day. In process of 
 time, Britain, besides the Britons and the Picts, 
 received a third nation, the Scots, who, de- 
 parting out of Ireland under their leader Beuda, 
 either by fair means, or by force of arms, se- 
 cured to themselves those settlements among 
 the Picts which they still possess. From the 
 name of their commander, they are to this day 
 called Dalreudins ; for in their language Dal 
 
 signifies a part It is properly the 
 
 country of the Scots, who, migrating from 
 thence, as has been said, added a third nation 
 in Britain to the Britons and the Picts. There 
 is a very large gulf of the sea, which formerly 
 divided the nation of the Picts from the Bri- 
 tons ; which gulf runs from the west very far 
 into the land, where, to this day, stands the 
 strong city of the Britons, called Alcluith. 
 The Scots arriving on the north side of this 
 bay, settled themselves there." 2 
 
 Here then Bede informs us that in his time 
 the common report was that the Picts came 
 into Scotland from Scythia, which, like the 
 
 ■ Bede's Ecclcs. IlisL, Book I.e. i. 
 
 Germania of Tacitus, may be taken to mean 
 the northern countries of Europe generally. 
 This is substantially the same statement as that 
 of the author of the Historia Britonum, com- 
 monly called Nennius, who lived in the 9th 
 century, and who informs us that the Picts 
 coming to Scotland about 300 B.C., occupied 
 the Orkney Islands, whence issuing, they 
 laid waste many regions, and seized those 
 on the left-hand side, i. e. the north of 
 Britain, where they still remained in the writer's 
 time, keeping possession of a third part of 
 Britain. 3 
 
 Supposing that Bede's report was quite in 
 accordance with truth, still it gives us but 
 small help in coming to a conclusion as to the 
 place of these Picts among the families of men. 
 It. is certain that by far the greater part of 
 Europe had at one time a Celtic population who 
 preceded, but ultimately gave way to another 
 wave of emigrants from the east. Now, if we 
 knew the date at which this so-called migra- 
 tion of the Picts took place it might be of con- 
 siderable assistance to us ; but as we cannot 
 now find out whether these emigrants pro- 
 ceeded from a Celtic or a Teutonic stock, the 
 statement of Bede, even if reliable, helps us 
 not at all towards a solution of the question 
 as to the race of the Picts. Lanes 4 remarks 
 very justly on this point — " Now, supposing 
 that there were any good ground for the opin- 
 ion of these two writers, which they themselves 
 give only as a conjecture or hearsay, and that 
 we had any certainty of the Caledonians, or 
 Picts, having had their origin from the more 
 northern parts of the European continent, it 
 were an useless, as well as an endless discus- 
 sion, to examine in particular from which of 
 all the northern nations of the continent the 
 first colony came to Caledonia ; because that 
 these nations of the north were almost in per- 
 petual motion, and changing habitations, as 
 Strabo remarks ; and he assigns for it two rea- 
 sons : the one, because of the barrenness of the 
 soil, they tilled not the ground, and built habi- 
 tations only for a day ; the other, because be- 
 ing often overpowered by their neighbours, 
 they were forced to remove. Another reason 
 why it is impossible to know from which of 
 
 s Nennius 12, Vatican MS. 
 * Critical Essay on Scotland, 
 
 :o\. i. p. 63. 
 
2-t 
 
 GENERAL HISTORY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 those nations the northern parts of Britain, 
 (supposing they came from thence) were at 
 first peopled, is because we have but very lame 
 accounts of these northern nations from the 
 Greek or Roman writers, (from whom alone we 
 can look for any thing certain in those early 
 times) especially of those of Scandia, to the 
 north of the Baltic sea, as the same Strabo ob- 
 serves. Besides, it appears that Caledonia was 
 peopled long before the inhabitants of these 
 northern parts of the continent were men- 
 tioned, or even known by the most ancient 
 writers we have ; and perhaps before the first 
 nations mentioned by them were settled in 
 those parts." 
 
 There is, however, another statement made 
 by Bede in the passage quoted, upon which, 
 as it refers to his own time, much more reli- 
 ance can be placed ; it is, that in his time 
 Britain contained five nations, each having its 
 own peculiar dialect, viz., the English, Britons, 
 Scots, Picts, and Latins. We know that the 
 English spoke in the main Saxon ; the Britons, 
 i. e., the inhabitants of Wales, Cumbria, &c, 
 Welsh ; the Scots, Gaelic ; the Latins, we sup- 
 Dose, being the Romanized Britons and eccle- 
 siastics. What language then did the Picts 
 speak 1 As we know that Bede never travelled, 
 he must have got his information from an in- 
 formant or by hearsay, which circumstance 
 rather detracts from its value. But supposing 
 we take the passage literally as it stands, we 
 learn that in Bede's time there were five dis- 
 tinct peoples or nations, whose names he gives, 
 sharing among them the island. He does not 
 say there were five distinct tongues, which 
 would have been quite a different statement ; 
 he speaks of them not so much in respect of 
 their language as in respect of their being the 
 separate items which composed the inhabitants 
 of Britain. In his time they were all quite 
 distinct, in a measure independent of and at 
 enmity with each other. He does not classify 
 them in respect of the race to which they be- 
 longed, but with reference to the particular 
 districts which they inhabited, and perhaps 
 with regard to the time and means of their 
 conversion to Christianity, each having been 
 converted at a different time and by a different 
 saint. The substance then of what he says 
 appears to be, that there were in his time 
 
 five distinct tribes or congregations of people 
 in Britain, each converted to Christianity, and 
 each having the gospel preached in its own 
 tongue. Supposing that the Picts and Scots, 
 or Picts and Britons, or Picts and English did 
 speak exactly the same tongue, it is not at all 
 likely that Bede, in the present case, would 
 have classed them together as both being one 
 nation. Moreover, suppose we allow that Bede 
 did mean that each of these nations spoke a 
 language quite distinct from all the others, then 
 his statement cuts equally at the Gothic and 
 Celtic theory. The conclusion we are forced 
 to is, that from this passage nothing can be 
 gained to help us out of our difficulty. 
 
 There is a statement at the end of the 
 passage quoted to which we would draw the 
 reader's attention, as being Bede's way, and no 
 doubt the universal way in his time, of ac- 
 counting for a peculiar law which appears to 
 have regulated the succession to the Pictish 
 throne, and which ultimately, according to 
 some, was the means of placing on that throne 
 a Scottish monarch ; thus accounting to some 
 extent for the sudden disappearance and ap- 
 parent destruction of the Pictish people and 
 language. 
 
 We shall here refer to one other passage 
 in the same historian, which has perhaps 
 given rise to greater and more acrimonious 
 contention than any other point in connec- 
 tion with this wordy discussion. The only 
 word that has come down to us, which, with 
 the exception of the names of the Pictish 
 kings, we can be sure is a remnant of the Pic- 
 tish language, is the name said by Bede to 
 have been given to the eastern termination of 
 the wall of Antonine. Bede, 6 in speaking of 
 the turf wall built by the Britons of Valentia 
 in the beginning of the 5th century, says, " it 
 begins at about two miles distance from the 
 monastery of Abercorn on the west, at a place 
 called in the Pictish language Peanfahel, but 
 in the English tongue Penneltum." This state- 
 ment of Bede's is straightforward and clear 
 enough, and has never been disputed by any 
 writer on any one of the three sides of the 
 question. Nevertheless it has been used by the 
 advocates respectively of the Gothic, Gaelic, and 
 
 5 Book i., c. 12. 
 
PEANTAHEL "— XOBTH AXD SOUTH PICTS. 
 
 25 
 
 Cymric origin of the Picts, as an undoubted 
 proof of the correctness of each of these theo- 
 ries. Pinkerton, whose dishonesty and acri- 
 moniousness are well known, and must detract 
 considerably from the force of his arguments, 
 claims it as being entirely Gothic or Teutonic. 
 "The Pictish word," he says, 6 "is broad Go- 
 thic; Paena 'to extend,' Hire; and Valid, a 
 broad sound of veal, the Gothic for ' wall,' or 
 of the Latin vallum, contracted vol ; hence it 
 means ' the extent or end of the wall.' " This 
 statement of Pinkerton s may be dismissed as 
 too far-fetched and awkward to merit much 
 consideration, and we may safely regard the 
 word as capable of satisfactory explanation only 
 in Celtic. Innes, who upholds the British, 
 i. e. the Cymric, origin of the Picts, says, 7 
 " we nowhere find a clearer proof of the Pictish 
 language being the same as the British [Welsh], 
 than in Bede, where he cells us that Penuahel 
 in Pictish signifies the head of the wall, which 
 is just the signification that the same two 
 words Pen and Uahel have in the British." 
 In this opinion Chalmers and other advocates 
 of the Cymric theory coincide. Mr. Gar- 
 nett, who essentially agrees with Innes and 
 Charmers as to the Cymric origin of the Picts. 
 lays little stress upon this word as furnisliing 
 an argument in support of his theory. " Al- 
 most the only Pictish word given us by an an- 
 cient writer is the well-known Pen vol (or as 
 it appears in the oldest MSS. of Bede (Peann 
 fahel), the name given by the Picts to the 
 Wall's End, or eastern termination of the 
 Vallum of Antoninus. It is scarcely necessary 
 to say the first part of the word is decidedly 
 Cymric ; pen, head, being contrary to all Gaelic 
 analogy. The latter half might be plausibly 
 claimed as the Gaelic fal; gwall being the 
 more common termination in Welsh for a 
 wall or rampart. Fal, however, does occur in 
 Welsh in the sense of indosure, a signification 
 not very remote. " s 
 
 The two most recent and able supporters 9 
 of the Gaelic theory are of much the same 
 
 6 Inquiry into the Hist, of Scot., vol. i. p. 357, ed. 
 1814. 
 
 7 Crit. Essay, vol. i. p. 75. 
 
 Garnett's Phil. Essays, p. 198. 
 
 9 Robertson's Scotland under her Ear!;/ Kinr/s, vol. 
 ii. p. 380. Forbes-Leslie's Early Races of Scotland, 
 vol. i. p 35. 
 
 mind as Garnett, and appear to regard this 
 tantalizing word as affording no support to 
 either side. Burton 1 cannot admit that any- 
 thing has been made out of this leading to a 
 historical conclusion. 
 
 We may safely conclude, then, that this so 
 called Pictish word, or, indeed, any informa- 
 tion which we find in Bede, affords us no key to 
 the perplexing question of the origin and race 
 of the Picts. 
 
 We learn, however, one fact from Bede 2 
 wliich is so far satisfactory, viz., that in his 
 time there were two divisions of the Picts, 
 known as the Northern and Southern Picts, 
 which were separated from each other by steep 
 and rugged mountains. On reading the pas- 
 sage in Bede, one very naturally supposes that 
 the steep and rugged mountains must be the 
 Grampians, to which the expression applies 
 more aptly than to any other mountain-chain 
 in Scotland. Even this, however, has been 
 made matter of dispute, it being contended by 
 some that the locality of the Southern Picts 
 was in the south-west and south of Scotland, 
 where some writers set up a powerful Pictish 
 kingdom. Mr. Grub, 3 however, has clearly 
 shown that the locality of the Southern Picts 
 was to the north of the Forth and Clyde, and 
 to the south of the Grampians. " The mistake 
 formerly so common in regard to the country 
 of the Southern Picts converted by St. Xinian, 
 was in part owing to the situation of Candida 
 Casa. It was supposed that his see must havo 
 been in the country of those whom he eon- 
 verted." He clearly proves that it was not so 
 in reality, and that there was nothing so un- 
 usual in the situation as to justify the conclu- 
 sion which was drawn from it. " It was, no 
 doubt, the case that the teachers by whom the 
 chief Celtic and Teutonic nations were con- 
 verted generally fixed their seat among those 
 whom they instructed in the faith. But there 
 was no necessity for this, especially when the 
 residence of the teacher was in the neighbour- 
 hood of his converts. St. Ooluniba was pri- 
 mate of all the churches of the Xorthern Picts. 
 but he did not permanently reside among that 
 nation. St. Ninian had ready access to his 
 
 1 Hist, of Scot., vol. 
 - Book iii. ch. 4. 
 3 Eccl. Hist, of Sot. 
 
 i. p. 1S7. 
 
26 
 
 GENERAL HTSTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 Pictish converts, and could govern them as 
 easily from his White Church on the Solway, 
 as Columba could instruct and rule the North- 
 ern Picts from his monastery in Iona." 4 
 
 Other authorities appealed to by the uphold- 
 ers of each of the Celtic theories are the Welsh 
 traditions, the Irish Annals, the Chronicles 
 of the Piets and Scots, and various legend- 
 ary documents of more or less value and 
 authenticity. As these are of no greater au- 
 thority than the writers with whom we have 
 been dealing, and as the partisans of each 
 theory claim the various passages as either 
 confirming, or, at any rate, not contradicting 
 their views, we shall not further trouble the 
 reader with specimens of the manner in 
 which they are dealt with. There is one 
 passage, however, in the Welsh Triads, which 
 the advocates of the Gaelic lrypothesis claim 
 as strongly confirmatory of their theory. After 
 referring to the coming in of the Cymry, the 
 Britons, etc., the Triads 5 go on to say, "Three 
 tribes came, under protection, into the Island 
 of Britain, and by the consent and permission 
 of the nation of the Cymry, without weapon, 
 without assault. The first was the tribe of the 
 Caledonians in the north. The second was 
 the Gwyddelian Race, which are now in Alban 
 (Scotland). The third were the men of Gale- 
 din, who came into the Isle of Wight. Three 
 usurping tribes came into the Island of Britain 
 and never derjarted out of it. The first were 
 the Coranied, who came from the land of Pwyl. 
 The second were the Gwyddelian Efichti, who 
 came into Alban over the sea of Llychlyn (Den- 
 mark). The third were the Saxons." " The 
 Triads," says Skene 6 in connection with this, 
 " appear distinctly to have been written pre- 
 vious to the Scottish conquest in the ninth cen- 
 tury, and they mention among the three usurp- 
 ing tribes of Britain the ' Gwyddyl Ffichti,' 
 and add immediately afterwards, ' and these 
 Gwyddyl Ffichti are in Alban, along the shore 
 of the sea of Llychlyn.' In another place, 
 among the treacherous tribes of Britain, the 
 same Triads mention the ' Gwyddyl coch o'r 
 Werddon a ddaethant in Alban,' that is ' the 
 Red Gwyddyl from Ireland, who camo into 
 
 * Eccl. Hist, of Scot., vol. i. p. 17. 
 
 5 Davies' Celtic Researches, p. 155. 
 
 6 Highlanders of Scotland, vol. i. p. 60. 
 
 Alban,' plainly alluding to the Dalriads, who 
 were an Irish colony, and who have been ac- 
 knowledged by all to have been a Gaelic race. 
 It will be observed from these passages that 
 the Welsh Triads, certainly the oldest and 
 most unexceptionable authority on the subject, 
 apply the same term of Gwyddyl to the Picts 
 and to the Dalriads, and consequently they 
 must have been of the same race, and the 
 Picts a Gaelic people. Farther, the Welsh 
 word ' Gwyddyl,' by which they distinguish 
 that race, has been declared by all the best au- 
 thorities to be exactly synonymous with the 
 word Gael, the name by which the Highlanders 
 have at all times been distinguished, and the 
 Welsh words ' Gwyddyl Ffichti ' cannot be 
 interpreted to mean any tiling else than ' The 
 Gaelic Picts,' or ' Pictish Gael.' " 
 
 The following is the substance of the infor- 
 mation given by the Irish writers as to the 
 origin, race, and early history of the Picts. 
 The greater part of it is, of course, mere tradi- 
 tion, accumulating as it grew older, and height- 
 ened by the imagination of the writers them- 
 selves. 7 The Picts were called by the Irish 
 writers CruitJmidh, which O'Brien considers to 
 be the same as Britneigh, or Britons ; but ac- 
 cording to others the name was derived from 
 Cruthen, who founded the kingdom of the Picts 
 in North Britain, in the first century ; others 
 derive the name from Cruit, a harp, hence Cruit- 
 neach, the Irish for Pict, also signifies a harper, 
 as they are said to have been celebrated harp- 
 ers. The ancient Britons are mentioned by 
 Cajsar, and other Roman writers, to have 
 painted their bodies of a blue colour, with the 
 juice of a plant called woad, hence the painted 
 Britons were called by the Romans Pitfi. The 
 Picts or Cruthneans, according to the Psalter 
 of Cashel, and other ancient annals, came from 
 Thrace, in the reign of the Milesian monarch 
 Heremon, nearly a thousand years before the 
 Christian era, and landed at Inver Slainge, 
 now the Bay of Wexford, under two chief 
 commanders named Gud and Cathluan, but 
 not being permitted to settle in Ireland, they 
 sailed to Albain, or that part of North Britain, 
 now Scotland, their chiefs having been kindly 
 
 7 We are indebted for most of the following account 
 to Connellan's A nnaU of the Four Masters, p. 367 
 (note). 
 
EVIDENCE FROM LANGUAGE. 
 
 supplied with wives of Irish, birth. The 
 Cruthneans became possessed of North Brit- 
 ain, and founded there the kingdom of the 
 Picts. A colony of the Cruthneans, or 
 Picts, from North Britain, settled in Ulster 
 in early times, and are often mentioned from 
 the first to the ninth century; they resided 
 chiefly in Dalaradia and Tir Eogain, or parts 
 of Down, Antrim, and Derry, and became 
 mixed by intermarriages with the old Irish of 
 the Irian race, and were ruled over by their 
 own princes and chiefs; and some of those 
 Picts, also settled in Connaught, in the county 
 of Roscommon. According to the Irish writ- 
 ers, the Picts, in their first progress to Ireland 
 from Thrace, settled a colony in Gaul, and the 
 tribes called Pictones and Pictavi, in that 
 country, were descended from them, and they 
 gave name to Pictavia, or the city of Poictiers. 
 and the province of Poitou; and from these 
 Picts were descended the Yendeans of France. 
 The Caledonians, or first inhabitants of Scot- 
 land, are considered to have been the same as 
 the Picts, and mixed with Cimbrians or Britons, 
 and some of the Milesian Scots from Ireland. 
 
 The advocates of the various theories, appa- 
 rently aware of how little can be made of the 
 meagre and suspicious information afforded by 
 these early histories and chronicles, have lat- 
 terly made language the principal battle-ground 
 on which to fight out this endless and profit- 
 less strife. Most of them take for granted 
 that if the language spoken by any people can 
 be found out, a sure indication is afforded of 
 the race to which that people belonged; and 
 that the topography of a country must neces- 
 sarily have been imposed by the earliest inha- 
 bitants of whom we have record; and that, if 
 so, the limits of their territory must have been 
 co-extensive with the limits of such topography. 
 This, however, is going too far. All the length 
 to which we are permitted in fairness to go, 
 when we find in any district or country an 
 abundance of names of natural objects, as 
 rivers and mountains, which can with certainty 
 be traced to any particular language, is, that 
 at one time or other, a race of people speaking 
 this language must have passed over and dwelt 
 for some time in that particular district or 
 country. We find Celtic names of rivers and 
 mountains scattered all over Europe, in the 
 
 midst of peoples who are admitted on all hands 
 to have little or none of the Celtic element in 
 them. s So that an unprejudiced judge must 
 admit that the fact of Cymric and Gaelic words 
 being found in certain districts of the north of 
 Scotland argues only that at one time people 
 speaking these dialects must have dwelt in 
 these districts. It affords no proof by itself 
 that the people whom we first meet with in 
 these districts are the people who spoke these 
 dialects, and who imposed these names ; nor in- 
 i deed, if we could be sure that the people whom 
 ; we first meet with as inhabitants also spoke the 
 j dialect to which such names belong, does it 
 | prove that they were the imposers of these 
 ! names, that the dialect was their native and ori- 
 i ginal tongue, and that they had not acquired it 
 either as conquerors or conquered. Nor can it 
 be adduced as a proof of sameness of race, that 
 the present inhabitants of any particular dis- 
 trict speak the same language as those who in- 
 habited that district 1800 years ago or less. 
 " He who trusts to language, and especially to 
 written language, alone, as an index to race, 
 must be prepared to maintain that the Gallic 
 nation emigrated from the seven bills of Rome, 
 and that the Franks came with them ; that the 
 Romans extirpated the Celts and Iberians of 
 Spain, and that the Goths and Moors spoke 
 nearly the same language as the Romans ; that 
 the Negroes of the United States and Jamaica 
 were exported from England when in their in- 
 fancy. So would Philology, if left to herself, 
 interpret phenomena, of which we know, from 
 other sources of information, that the causes 
 are totally different." 9 "The clearest proof 
 that a mountain or river has a Celtic name, 
 only shows that at some time or other Celts 
 had been there; it does not tell us when they 
 were there. Names, as the experience of the 
 world amply shows, live after the people who 
 bestowed them hove long disappeared, and that 
 through successive races of occupants. M1 
 
 The materials which have been wrought up 
 into a linguistic argument by the upholders of 
 each of the three Pictish theories, Gothic, 
 Gaelic, and Cymric, are chiefly a list of Pictish 
 
 s See Taylor's Words and Places, ch. is. 
 
 9 Pike's English and their Origin, ell. ii., which 
 contains some shrewd and valuable remarks on the 
 subject of language. 
 
 1 Burton, vol. i. p. 192. 
 
28 
 
 GENERAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 kings which., we believe, may be depended on 
 as authentic, and the topography of the country 
 to the east and south-east of the Grampians, 
 together with the single so-called Pictish word 
 Peanfahel, which we have already considered. 
 The theorists differ as much in their interpre- 
 tation of the significance of what remains of 
 the Pictish language, as we have seen they do 
 in their interpretation of any references to the 
 subject in dispute in ancient chronicles. The 
 names of the kings, and the names of places 
 have been traced by the disputants to Gothic, 
 Gaelic and Cymric roots. As an amusing 
 specimen of the ingenuity displayed in this 
 hunt after roots, we give below a small table 
 from Burton, comparing the different etymo- 
 logies of names of kings given by Pinkerton, 
 Chalmers, and Jamieson. 2 
 
 It is, however, generally admitted at the 
 present day, that so far as language is con- 
 cerned, the Gothic theory has not the remotest 
 chance ; that names of places and of kings are 
 most satisfactorily and straightforwardly ex- 
 plained by Cymric roots. As the Gothic 
 or Teutonic theory cannot stand the test 
 of modern criticism, we shall content our- 
 selves with giving specimens of the manner 
 in which the linguistic, or, more strictly, 
 topographical argument is used by the advo- 
 cates of the Cymric and Gaelic hypotheses 
 respectively. 
 
 The CjTuric argument is clearly, ably, and 
 succinctly stated by Mr. Garnett in his essay 
 on "The Eelation of the Pict and Gael;" he, 
 however, it must be remembered, looked at 
 the whole question mainly in its philological 
 aspect. In stating the argument we shall use 
 chiefly his own words. 3 " That the Picts 
 
 were actually Celts, and not of Teutonic race, 
 is proved to a demonstration by the names of 
 their kings; of whom a list, undoubtedly gen- 
 uine from the fifth century downwards, was 
 published by Innes, from a manuscript in the 
 Colbertine library. Some of those appellations 
 are, as far as we know at present, confined to 
 the Pictish sovereigns ; but others are well- 
 known Welsh and Gaelic names. They differ, 
 however, slightly in their forms, from their 
 Cymric equivalents ; and more decidedly so 
 from the Gaelic ones ; and, as far as they go, 
 lead to the supposition that those who bore 
 them spoke a language bearing a remote ana- 
 logy to the Irish with its cognates, but a pretty 
 close one to the Welsh. 
 
 " In the list furnished by Innes the names 
 Maelcon, Elpin, Taran (i.e. thunder), Uvea 
 (Owen), Bargoit, are those of personages well 
 known in British history or tradition. Wrgust, 
 which appears as Fergus in the Irish annals, is 
 the Welsh Gwrgust. Talorg, Talorgan, evi- 
 dently contain the British word Tdl, forehead, 
 a common element in proper names ; ex. gr. 
 Talhaiarn, Iron Forehead ; Taliesiri, splendid 
 forehead, &c. Talewrgain would signify in 
 Welsh golden or splendid front. Three kings 
 are represented as sons of Wid, in the Irish 
 annals of Foit or Foith. In Welsh ortho- 
 graphy it would be Gwydd, wild ; a common 
 name in Brittany at the present day, under the 
 form of Gwez. The names Drust, Drostan, 
 Wrad, Necton (in Bede Naitan), closely re- 
 semble the Welsh Trwst, Trwstan, Gwriad, 
 Nwython. It will be sufficient to compare the 
 entire list with the Irish or Highland gene- 
 alogies, to be convinced that there must have 
 been a material distinction between the two 
 
 Brudi or 
 Bridei 
 
 Chalmers for Celtic, 
 
 Probably the British 
 name Trwst, which 
 signifies din. 
 
 Brudw, which is pro- 
 nounced Bridw or 
 Bradw, is in the 
 British treacherous. 
 
 Pinkerton for Gothic, 
 
 Drust, a common Pikish name, is 
 also Persian, and signifies sin- 
 cents. . . The Persians were 
 the old Syth.Ee or Goths, from 
 whom the rest sprung. 
 
 Brudi is the real Gothic name; 
 Bout is the wounded (Bott 
 ictus Wachter). 
 
 Jamieson, " Teutonic Etymo 
 
 Su. Goth, trocst, dristig. Germ.. 
 clrcist. Alcm. gidrosl, during. 
 
 Island. , Biiddi cmiuebat. vercl: 
 breida, to extend ; and Sueo- 
 Goth, e, law; 2. one who ex- 
 tends the. law. who publishes it. 
 
 For other instances see Burton's Scotland, i. p. 196. 
 3 Garnett's Phil. Essays, pp. 197, 198. 
 
EVIDENCE FEOM LANGUAGE. 
 
 branches. Most of the Pictish names are 
 totally unknown in Irish or Highland history, 
 and the few that are equivalent, such as Angus 
 and Fergus, generally differ in form. The Irish 
 annalists have rather obscured the matter, hy 
 transforming those names according to their 
 national system of orthography ; but it is re- 
 markable that a list in the 'Book of Bally- 
 mote,' partly given by Lynch in his ' Cam- 
 brensis Eversus,' agrees closely with limes, 
 even preserving the initial w or u where the 
 Gaelic would require /. The philological in- 
 ferences to be deduced from this document may 
 be thus briefly summed up : — 1. The names of 
 the Pictish kings are not Gaelic, the majority 
 of them being totally unknown both in the 
 Irish and Highland dialects, while the few 
 which have Gaelic equivalents decidedly differ 
 from them in form. Cineod (Kenneth) and 
 Do mhu all or Donnel, appear to be the only ex- 
 ceptions. 2. Some of them cannot be identi- 
 fied as Welsh ; but the greater number are 
 either identical with or resemble known Cym- 
 ric names ; or approach more nearly to Welsh 
 in structure and orthography than to any other 
 known language. 3. There appears neverthe- 
 less to have been a distinction, amounting, at 
 all events, to a difference in dialect. The Pict- 
 ish names beginning with w would in Welsh 
 have gw, as Gwrgust for Wrgust, and so of the 
 rest. There may have been other differences 
 sufficient to justify Bede's statement that the 
 Pictish language was distinct from the British, 
 which it might very well be without any im- 
 peachment of its claim to be reckoned as closely 
 cognate." | 
 
 We have already referred to the use made of 
 the Pictish word Peannfahel, preserved by 
 Bede, and to the phrase in Adamnan concerning 
 Corumba's preaching by means of an interpreter. 
 It is contended by the upholders of the Cymric 
 theory that the ancient topographical appella- 
 tions of the Pictish territory can in general 
 only be explained by the Cymric dialects, one 
 strong point being the number of local names 
 beginning with the Welsh prefix aber, which, 
 according to Chalmers, was in several instances 
 subsequently changed by the Gael into inver. 
 Skene, 4 who felt the force of this argument, 
 
 4 Highlanders. 
 
 tried to get rid of it by contending that aber is 
 essentially a Gaelic word, being compounded 
 of ath, ford, and bior, water. Garnett thinks 
 this explanation utterly gratuitous, and observes 
 that the term may be much more satisfactorily 
 accounted for by a different process. " There 
 are," he observes, 5 " three words in Welsh de- 
 noting a meeting of waters — aber, cynver, and 
 ynver, — respectively compounded of the par- 
 ticles a, denoting juxtaposition, ayn (Lat. con), 
 and yn, with the root ber, flowing, preserved 
 in the Breton verb beri, to flow, and all virtu- 
 ally equivalent to our word confluence. Inver 
 is the only term known in any Gaelic dialect, 
 either as an appellative or in proper names ; 
 and not a single local appellation with the pre- 
 fix aber occurs either in Ireland or the He 
 brides, or on the west coast of Scotland. In- 
 deed, the fact that inver was substituted for it 
 after the Gaelic occupation of the Pictish terri- 
 tories, is decisive evidence on the point ; for, 
 if aber was a term familiar to the Gael, why 
 should they change it ? " 
 
 " In Scotland," says Isaac Taylor, 6 who up- 
 holds the Cymric hypothesis, "the invers and 
 abers are distributed in a curious and instruc- 
 tive manner. If we draw a line across the map 
 from a point a little south of Inverary, to one 
 a little north of Aberdeen, we shall find that 
 (with very few exceptions) the invers lie to the 
 north west of the line, and the abers to the 
 south-east of it. This line nearly coincides with 
 the present southern limit of the Gaelic tongue, 
 and probably also with the ancient division be- 
 tween the Picts and Scots. Hence we may con- 
 clude that the Picts, a people belonging to the 
 Cymric branch of the Celtic stock, and whose 
 language has now ceased to be anywhere verna- 
 cular, occupied the central and eastern districts 
 of Scotland, as far as the Grampians ; while 
 the Gadhelic Scots have retained their language, 
 and have given their name to the whole coun- 
 try. The local names prove, moreover, that in 
 Scotland the Cymry did not encroach on the 
 Gael, but the Gael on the Cymry. The in- 
 trusive names are invers, which invaded the 
 land of the abers. Thus on the shore of eth 
 Frith of Forth we find a few invers among the 
 abers. The Welsh word uchel, high, may also 
 
 5 Phil. Essaii' p. 20f>. 
 
 Words and Places, p. 246. 
 
30 
 
 GENERAL HISTOEY OE THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 be adduced to prove the Cymric affinities of 
 the Picts. This word does not exist in either 
 the Erse or the Gaelic languages, and yet it ap- 
 pears in the name of the Ochil Hills, in Perth- 
 shire. Again, the Erse tally, a town, occurs 
 in 2,000 names in Ireland ; and, on the other 
 hand, is entirely ahsent in Wales and Brittany. 
 In Scotland this most characteristic test-word is 
 found frequently in the inver district, while it 
 never appears among the abers. The evidence 
 of these names makes it impossible to deny 
 that the Celts of the Scottish Lowlands must 
 have belonged to the Cymric branch of the 
 Celtic stock." 
 
 We infer from what Mr. Taylor says, that 
 he is of opinion that at one time the language 
 of the whole of the north of Scotland was 
 Cymric, but that the district in which the 
 Scots obtained a settlement afterwards under- 
 went a change of topography. But it is ad- 
 mitted on all hands that the Scottish Dalriada 
 comprehended no more than the modern Ar- 
 gyleshire, extending no farther north than 
 Loch Leven and Loch Linnlie ; and that the 
 Irish Scots had little influence on the people or 
 their language to the north-west of the Gram- 
 pians. Indeed, Skene 7 maintains that this dis- 
 trict, in which he places the Northern Picts, 
 was never subjected to the Scots, and that it 
 was only the Southern Picts who latterly came 
 under their sway. Yet we find that the abers 
 here are few and far between, or, indeed, any 
 indications of Cymric possession such as we 
 find in the southern district. Is it possible 
 that the Northern and Southern Picts were re- 
 presentatives of the two great divisions of the 
 Celts, — the former claiming a Gaelic origin, 
 and the latter a Cymric ? Perhaps after all 
 the Welsh Triads may in course of time be of 
 some help in the solution of this dark prob- 
 lem, as, according to them, there was more 
 than one Celtic settlement in Scotland before 
 the migration of the Scots. The passages 
 above quoted are, to all appearance, much 
 more favourable to the Gaelic than to the 
 Cymric hypothesis, and have been made much 
 of by Skene and other supporters of that side 
 of the question. 
 
 The Cymric origin of the Picts, besides 
 
 7 Highlanders. 
 
 Garnett and Taylor, is supported by such 
 names as Innes, Chalmers, Eitson, Whittaker, 
 Grub, and others. 
 
 Pinkerton, it is well known, is the great and 
 unscrupulous upholder of the Gothic origin of 
 the Picts ; while . the Gaelic theory has for its 
 supporters such writers, of undoubted ability 
 and acuteness, as Skene, E. W. Eobertson, 
 Forbes-Leslie, &c. Burton s is of opinion that 
 the Highlanders of the present day are the 
 true representatives of the Dalriadic Scots of 
 the West. 
 
 We shall, as we have done in the case of the 
 other side, allow the upholders of the Gaelic 
 hypothesis to state for themselves the Gaelic 
 topographical argument. We shall use the 
 words of Colonel Forbes-Leslie, who, in his 
 invaluable work on the " Early Eaces of Scot- 
 land," 9 says, "The Celtic words Inver and 
 Aber have nearly the same meaning ; and the 
 relative position in which they occur in names 
 of places has been employed as if it were a suf- 
 ficient argument for defining the presence or 
 preponderance of the British or Gaelic Celts in 
 certain districts. In this way Aber, prefixed 
 to names of places, has been urged as adequate 
 proof that the Picts of Caledonia were Celts of 
 the British branch. The value of these and 
 some other words requires examination. In- 
 ver is to be found in names of places in Wales. 
 It may possibly be a British word. It cer- 
 tainly is a Gaelic one. Aber, although un- 
 doubtedly British, is also Gaelic — compounded 
 of the two words Ath and Bior — and signifying 
 the same as Inver, viz., the confluence of two 
 streams, or the entrance to a river. If the 
 word Aber had been unknown to the Gaelic 
 scholars of modern days, its former existence in 
 that language might have been presumed from 
 the ancient names of places in the districts of 
 Caledonia, where it occurs most frequently, 
 being generally Gaelic and not British. 
 
 "Beyond the limits of Caledonia on the south 
 of the Forth and Clyde, but within the boun- 
 dary of modern Scotland, the word Inver, 
 generally pronounced Inner, is of common oc- 
 currence, and bears witness to a Gaelic nomen- 
 clature. Thus, Inner or Inverkip, in the county 
 of Eenfrew ; Innerwell, in the county of Wig- 
 
 8 Scotland, vol i. p. 207. 
 '■> Vol. i. p. 26. 
 
EVIDEXCE FEOM LANGUAGE— IXYEE AND ABEE. 
 
 31 
 
 ton ; Innerwick, in the county of Haddington ; 
 Lnnerleithen, in the county of Peebles ; Inver- 
 leith and Inveresk, in the county of Edin- 
 burgh, derive their names from their situation 
 in regard to the rivers Kip, Leithen, Esk, &c. 
 &c. 
 
 " From the Moray Frith to the Forth, in the 
 eastern counties of Caledonia, the prefix Inver 
 or Aber is used incuscrinrinately in contiguous 
 places. At the confluence of lesser streams 
 with the river Dee, in Aberdeenshire, we 
 find Lnverey, Abergeldie, Invercauld, Inver- 
 canny, Aberdeen. Yet in those counties — 
 viz., Aberdeen, Kincardine, Forfar, Perth, and 
 Fife, in 'which were situated the capitals, 
 and which were the richest provinces of the 
 southern Picts — the number of names of 
 places beginning with Inver is three times as 
 numerous as those commencing with Aber ; 
 there being, in a list taken from land-regis- 
 ters, which do not go farther back than the 
 middle of the sixteenth eentwy, seventy-eight 
 with Liver to twenty-four with Aber. It 
 may, however, be admitted that, although 
 Aber is Gaelic, its use is far more general by 
 Celts of the British tribes ; and that the pre- 
 dominance of Inver in the districts north of 
 the Spey, and the intermixture of places the 
 names of which commence with Inver or Aber, 
 not unfrequently used in records of nearly the 
 same date for the same place in the country ly- 
 ing between the Moray and the Solway Friths, 
 is, to a certain extent, evidence of a British 
 element of population extending into Caledonia, 
 The Britons, in earlier times, may have been 
 pressing on to the north by gradual intrusion, 
 ami were probably afterwards increased hx 
 bodies of exiles escaping from the severity of 
 Eoman bondage and the punishment of unsuc- 
 cessful revolt. 
 
 " That names of places containing the words 
 Bal, from Bail, a place or residence, and Ard, 
 a height or rising ground, are so common in 
 Ireland, and comparatively rare, so it is alleged, 
 in Caledonia, has also been used as an argu- 
 ment to prove that the language of the Picts 
 and other Caledonians of the southern and 
 eastern districts was British, not Gaelic. But 
 the foundation of the argument has been as- 
 sumed, and is easily disproved. It is true that 
 of large towns and places that appear in gazet- 
 
 teers, names commencing with Bal and Ard are 
 not numerous. But in fact such names are 
 extremely common. In the lowlands of Aber- 
 deenshire — that is, in the portion of one county, 
 and in the part of Caledonia farthest removed 
 from the settlements of the intrusive Gaels, viz., 
 the Scots from Ireland — registers of land show 
 upwards of fifty places the names of which com 
 mence with Bal, and forty which commence 
 with Ard. In the Pietish territory, from the 
 Moray Frith to the Forth, I soon collected up- 
 wards of four hundred names of places begin- 
 ning with Bal, and upwards of one hundred 
 with Ard; and the number might easily be 
 doubled." 
 
 Mr. E. W. Eobertson, one of the latest and 
 ablest upholders of this theory, thinks 1 there 
 is scarcely sufficient evidence to justify any 
 very decided conclusion as to the pre-existence 
 of a Cymric population; and that, whilst it 
 would be unquestionably erroneous to ascribe 
 a Cymric origin to the Picts, the existence of 
 a Celtic element akin to the Cymri, amongst 
 the population of Alban before the arrival of 
 the Gwijddel Fflchti, must remain to a certain 
 extent an open question. 
 
 Of all a priori theories that have hitherto 
 been advanced as to how Scotland was likely 
 to have been at first peopled, that of Father 
 Innes, the first writer who investigated the 
 subject thoroughly and critically, appears to 
 us to be the most plausible and natural, al- 
 though even it is beset with many difficulties. 
 It appears to him more natural and probable 
 that the Caledonian Britons, or Picts, were of 
 the same origin as the Britons of the south; 
 that as these came in originally from the near- 
 est coast of Gaul, as they multiplied in the 
 island, they advanced to the north and settled 
 there, carrying with them the customs and 
 language of the South Britons. 2 
 
 We have thus endeavoured to lay before 
 the reader, as fully as space permits, and as 
 clearh r and unprejudicedly as possible, the 
 materials at present existing by means of 
 which to form an opinion on the Pietish ques- 
 tion, and the arguments pro and con, mainly 
 in their own words, urged by the partisans of 
 the different theories. It appears to us that 
 
 1 Vol. ii. p. 
 
 Essay on Scotland, vol. i. p. 70. 
 
32 
 
 GENEEAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 the data within reach are far too scanty to 
 justify any one in coming to a settled conclu- 
 sion, and that we must wait for more light 
 hefore we can be justified in finally making up 
 our minds on this perplexing subject. l 
 
 At the present day we find that nearly the 
 whole of the territory said to have been ori- 
 ginally occupied by the Picts, is inhabited, 
 and has been for centuries, by a population 
 which in appearance is far more Teutonic than 
 Celtic, and which undoubtedly speaks a broad 
 Teutonic dialect. 2 And even in the district 
 where the Gaelic language has been triumphant 
 for ages, it is acknowledged even by the most 
 devoted partisans of the Gaelic theory, that 
 among the population there is a very consider- 
 able intermixture of the Teutonic element. 
 Burton thinks, from a general view of the 
 whole question, that the proportion of the Teu- 
 tonic race that came into the use of the Gaelic, 
 was much greater than the proportion of the 
 Gaelic that came into the use of the Teutonic 
 or Saxon, and that this may account for the 
 contrasts of physical appearance to be seen in 
 the Highlands. 
 
 We certainly have not exhausted the statement 
 of the question, have not stated fully and com- 
 pletely all the points in dispute ; nor do we pretend 
 to have given with fulness all the arguments pro 
 and con on the various sides. We have, how- 
 ever, given as much as will enable any ordinary 
 
 1 We have already (p. 22) referred to the Gaelo- 
 Cymric theory broached by Dr. Maelauchlan in his 
 Early Scottish Church, and recently adopted by Dr 
 Skene. Speaking of the distribution of the topo- 
 graphical nomenclature in the Highlands, Dr. Mae- 
 lauchlan says it indicates one of two things; "either 
 that the one race overpowered the other in the east, 
 and superinduced a new nomenclature over the old 
 throughout the country, — that we have in fact two 
 successive strata of Celtic names, the Gaelic under- 
 lying the British, which is by no means impossible; 
 or, what is more likely, that the Pictish people were 
 a people lying midway between the Gael and the 
 Cymri — more Gaelic than the Cymri, and more Cymric 
 than the Gael. This is precisely the character of the 
 old Pictish topography ; it is a mixture of Gaelic and 
 Cymric ; and if the language of the people was like 
 their topography, it too was a language neither Gaelic 
 nor Cymric, but occupying a middle space between 
 them, indicating the identity of the races at some dis- 
 tant period, although they afterwards became rivals 
 for the possession of the land. " This we think on the 
 whole the most satisfactory theory yet propounded. 
 
 2 We would infer from the recently published Book of 
 Dear, that down at least to the time of David II., the 
 inhabitants were still a Gaelic speaking population ; all 
 the entries in that book as to land are in that language. 
 
 reader to form for himself a fair idea of the 
 present state of the Pictish question, and indi- 
 cated the sources whence more information 
 may be derived, should any one wish to pur- 
 sue the subject farther. In the words of the 
 latest and greatest Scottish historian " this 
 brief survey of the great Pictish controversy 
 leaves nothing but a melancholy record of 
 wasted labour and defeated ambition. It has 
 been more fruitless than a polemical or a politi- 
 cal dispute, for these leave behind them, either 
 for good or evil, their marks upon the conduct 
 and character of the populations among whom 
 they have raged; while here a vast outlay of 
 learning, ingenuity, enthusiasm, and, it must 
 be added, temper, have left no visible monu- 
 ment but a pile of forbidding volumes, in 
 which should any one who has not studied the 
 matter fundamentally expect to find instructive 
 information, he will assuredly be led into a 
 tangled maze of unintelligible pedantry, from 
 which he will come forth with no impression 
 but a nightmare feeling of hopeless struggle 
 with difficulties." 3 
 
 UHAPTEE III. 
 
 4. d. 446—843. 
 
 Early History — Scottish Settlement — Origin of Scots 
 — Dalriada — Conversion of Picts — Druidism — ("'t. 
 Columba — Iona — Spread of Christianity — Brude 
 and his Successors — Dun-Nechtan — Pictish Wars — 
 Ungus— Contests -Norsemen — Union of Picts and 
 Scots — Scoto - Irish or Dalriads — Lorn, Fergus, 
 Angus and their Successors — Aidan — Contest at 
 Degsastan — Donal Breac — Wars with Irish and 
 Picts — Conal II. and Successors — Ferchar Fada — 
 Selvach and Duncha Beg — Eocha III. unites Dal- 
 riada — Muredach — Contests with Picts — Aodh-fin 
 — F.ocha IV. or Achains — Alpiu — Kenneth — Union 
 of Picts ami Scots — Dalriadic Government — Tanist 
 — Brehon — Laws — Fosterage — Lists of Kings. 
 
 As we have already said, the materials for the 
 internal history of the Highlands during the 
 Eoman occupation are of the scantiest, nearly 
 all that can he recorded being the struggles of 
 the northern tribes with the Eoman invaders, 
 and the incursions of the former and their 
 allies into the territories of the Eomanized 
 Britons. Doubtless many events as worthy of 
 record as these, an account of which has been 
 
 Burton, 
 
 200. 
 
SETTLEMENT OF THE SCOTS IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 33 
 
 preserved, were during this period being 
 transacted in the northern part of Scotland, 
 and we have seen that many additions, from 
 various quarters, must have loeen made to the 
 population. However, there are no records 
 extant which enable us to form any distinct 
 notion of the nature of these events, and his- 
 tory cannot be manufactured. 
 
 After the departure of the Komans, the pro- 
 vincial Britons of the south of Scotland were 
 completely at the mercy of the Picts as well 
 as the Saxons, who had been invited over by 
 the South Britons to assist them against the 
 northern barbarians. These Saxons, we know, 
 very soon entered into alliance with those 
 whom they came to repel, and between them 
 the Britons south of the friths were eventually 
 driven into the West, where for centuries they 
 appear to have maintained an independent 
 kingdom under the name of Strathclyde, until 
 ultimately they were incorporated with the 
 Scots. 4 
 
 Although both the external and internal 
 history of the Highlands during this period is 
 much better known than in the case of the 
 Boman period, still the materials are exceed- 
 ingly scanty. Scottish historians, from Fordun 
 and Boece downwards, made it their business 
 to fill up from their own imaginations what is 
 wanting, so that, until the simple-minded but 
 acute Innes put it in its true light, the early 
 liistory of Scotland was a mass of fable. 
 
 Undoubtedly the two most momentous 
 events of this period are the firm settlement in 
 Argyle of a colony of Scots from Ireland and 
 some of the neighbouring isles in 503, 5 and 
 the conversion of the Northern Picts to Chris- 
 tianity by Columba about 563. 
 
 At the time of the Boman abandonment of 
 Britain the Picts were under the sway of a 
 king or chieftain named Drust, son of Erp, 
 concerning whom the only record remaining is, 
 that he lived a hundred years and fought a 
 hundred battles. In fact, little is known with 
 certainty of the Pictish history for upwards of 
 one hundred years after the departure of the 
 Bomans, although some ancient chronicles af- 
 
 4 See Innes's Essay, vol. i. 
 
 5 This is the date commonly given, although Mr. 
 R W. Robertson makes it 502 on the authority of 
 Tighernach, while O'Donovan (Annals of the Four 
 Masters, vol. i. p. 160) makes it 506. 
 
 ford us lists of Pictish kings or princes, a 
 chronological table of whom, from Drust down- 
 wards, will be found at the end of this chap- 
 ter. The Pictish chronicle contains the names 
 of thirty-six others who are said to have 
 reigned before Drust, but these are generally 
 regarded as almost entirely spurious. 
 
 Before proceeding farther with the Pictish 
 history, it may be proper to give a brief ac- 
 count of the settlement of the Irish Scots or 
 Dalriads, as they are frequently called, in the 
 Pictish territory. 
 
 The time of the settlement of the Scots in 
 present Scotland was for long a subject of dis- 
 putation, the early Scottish historians, from a 
 false and unscrupulous patriotism, having 
 pushed it back for many centuries before its 
 actual occurrence. This dispute is now, how- 
 ever, fairly set at rest, there being no founda- 
 tion for believing that the Scots found their 
 way from Ireland to Scotland earlier than a cen- 
 tury or two before the birth of Christ. As we 
 have already seen, we find the first mention of 
 the Scots in Ammianus Marcellinus about the 
 year 360 a.d. ; and their name occurs in the 
 same connection frequently afterwards, during 
 the Boman occupation of Scotland. Burton 
 is of opinion that the migration did not take 
 place at any particular time or under any par- 
 ticular leader, but that it was gradual, that the 
 Scots " oozed " out of Ireland upon the western 
 coast of Scotland. 
 
 It belongs to the history of Ireland to trace 
 the origin and fix the race of the Scots, to 
 settle the time of their coming into Ireland, 
 and discover whence they came. Some sup- 
 pose that they migrated originally from Britain 
 to Ireland, while Innes and others bring them 
 either from Scandinavia or Spain, and connect 
 them with the Scyths, asserting that Scot is a 
 mere corruption of Scyth, anddating the settle- 
 ment at about the commencement of the Chris- 
 tian era. The Irish traditions connect them 
 with a certain Scota, daughter of Pharaoh, and 
 date their coming to Ireland upwards of 1,000 
 years B.C. E. W. Bobertson T and others con- 
 sider them to have been Irish Picts or Cruithne. 
 
 "Wherever the Scots came from and to what- 
 ever race they belong, whether Teutonic or 
 
 'Vol. i. p. 212. 
 
 ' Early Kinr/s, vol. i. p. 
 
34 
 
 GENERAL HISTORY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 Celtic, they certainly appear not to have been 
 the first settlers in Ireland, and at the time at 
 which they first appear in authentic history 
 occupied a district in Ireland corresponding to 
 Connaught, Leinster, and part of Munster. 
 They were also one of the most powerful of the 
 Irish tribes, seeing that for many centuries 
 Ireland was, after them, called Scotia or Scot- 
 land. It is usually said that a particular corner 
 in the north-east of Ireland, about 30 miles in 
 extent, corresponding to the modern county of 
 Antrim, was the kingdom of the particular band 
 of Scots who migrated to Scotland ; and that 
 it received its name, Dal-Riada ('the portion of 
 Riada'), from Carbre-Riada, a leader of the 
 Scots who conquered this particular part, pre- 
 viously inhabited by Cruithne or Irish Picts. 
 Robertson, s however, considers all this fable 
 and the kingdom of Dalriada as mythical, 
 Tighernach and the early Irish annalists neveT 
 applying the name to any other locality than 
 British Dalriada. At all events, this particu- 
 lar district was spoken of by the later chroni- 
 clers under the name of Dalriada, there being 
 thus a Dalriada both in Scotland and Ireland. 9 
 At the time of the migration of the Scots from 
 Ireland to Scotland, they were to all intents 
 and purposes a Celtic race, speaking Trish Gae- 
 lic, and had already been converted to Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 The account of the Scottish migration usu- 
 ally given is, that in the year 503 a.d., 1 a new 
 colony of Dalriads or Dalriaclic Scots, under 
 the leadership of Fergus son of Ere, a descend- 
 ant of Carbre-Riada, along with his brothers 
 Lorn and Angus, left Ireland and settled on 
 the western coast of Argyle and the adjacent 
 islands. " The territories which constituted 
 the petty kingdoms of Dalriada can be pretty 
 well defined. They were bounded on the 
 south by the Frith of Clyde, and they were 
 separated on the east from the Pictish king- 
 dom by the ridge of the great mountain chain 
 
 8 Early Kings, vol. ii. p. 305. 
 
 9 At this time, and up at least to the 1 lth century, 
 present Scotland was known as Albania, Alban, or 
 Alba, the term Scotland or Scotia being generally 
 applied to Ireland, unless where there is some quali- 
 fying term, as Nova. Burton thinks it not safe to 
 consider that the word Scot must mean a native of 
 present Scotland, when the period dealt with is ear- 
 lier than the middle of the 12th century. 
 
 1 Skene in his Chronicles of the Picts and Scots, 
 p. ex., makes the date to be about 495 or 498. 
 
 called Drumalban. They consisted of foui 
 tribes, — the genus or Cinel Lorn, descended 
 from Lorn, the elder of the three brothers ; 
 the Cinel Gabran and Cinel Comgall, de- 
 scended from two sons of Domangart, son of 
 Fergus, the second of the brothers ; and the 
 Cinel Angus, descended from the third brother, 
 Angus. The Cinel Comgall inhabited the dis- 
 trict formerly called Comgall, now corrupted 
 into Cowall. The Cinel Gabran inhabited what 
 was called the Airgiallas, or the district of Ar- 
 gyle proper, and Kintyre. The Cinel Angus 
 inhabited the islands of Islay and Jura, and 
 the Cinel Lorn, the district of Lorn. Beyond 
 this, on the north, the districts between Lorn 
 and the promontory of Ardnamurchan, i.e., 
 the island of Mull, the district of Morven, 
 Ardgower, and probably part of Lochaber, 
 seem to have formed a sort of debatable ground, 
 the population of which was Pictish, while the 
 Scots had settlements among them. In the 
 centre of the possessions of the Cinel Gabran, 
 at the head of the well-sheltered loch of Crinan , 
 lies the great Moss of Crinan, with the river 
 Add flowing through it. In the centre of the 
 moss, and on the side of the river, rises an 
 isolated rocky hill called Dunadd, the top of 
 which is strongly fortified. This was the 
 capital of Dalriada, and many a stone obelisk 
 in the moss around it bears silent testimony to 
 the contests of which it was the centre. The 
 picturesque position of Dunolly Castle, on a 
 rock at the entrance of the equally sheltered 
 bay of Oban, afforded another fortified sum- 
 mit, which was the chief stronghold of the 
 tribe of Lorn. Of Dunstaffnage, as a royal 
 seat, history knows nothing." 2 
 
 It would appear that Lorn and Fergus at 
 first reigned jointly, the latter becoming sole 
 monarch on the decease of the former. The 
 succession appears not to have been confined 
 to any particular line, and a disputed succes- 
 sion not unfrequently involved the Scots in 
 civil war. 
 
 There is no portion of history so obscure or 
 so perplexing as that of the Scoto-Irish kings, 
 and their tribes, from their first settlement, in 
 the year 503, to their accession to the Pictish 
 throne in 843. Unfortunately no contem- 
 
 '- Skene's Chronicles of the Picts and Scots, p. cxiii. 
 
RELIGION OF THE PICTS. 
 
 35 
 
 poraneous written records appear ever to have 
 existed of that dark period of our annals, and 
 the efforts which the Scotch and Irish anti- 
 quaries have made to extricate the truth from 
 the mass of contradictions in which it lies 
 buried, have rather been displays of national 
 prejudice than calm researches by reasonable 
 inquirers. The annals, however, of Tigernach, 
 and of Ulster, along with the brief chronicles 
 and historical documents first brought to light 
 by the industrious Innes, in his Critical Essay, 
 have thrown some glimpses of light on a sub- 
 ject which had long remained in almost total 
 darkness. 3 
 
 The next authentic event of importance that 
 falls to be recorded in connection with the 
 history of the Highlands, is the conversion of 
 the Northern Picts to Christianity, about the 
 year 563. The Southern Picts, i. e. those 
 living to the south and east of the Grampians, 
 were converted by St. Ninian (360 — 432) about 
 the beginning of the 5th century; but the 
 Northern Picts, until the date above-men- 
 tioned, continued Pagans. That there were 
 no Christians among them till that time ap- 
 pears very improbable, considering their close 
 neighbourhood and constant intercourse with 
 the Southern Picts and the Scots of Dalriada ; 
 but there can be no doubt that the court and 
 the great bulk of the people adhered to their 
 ancient superstitions. 
 
 The religion of the Picts before their con- 
 version is supposed by the majority of writers 
 on this subject to have been that which pre- 
 vailed hi the rest of Britain and in Celtic Gaul, 
 Druidism. The incredulous Burton, however, 
 if we may judge from his History of Scotland, 4 
 as well as from an article of his in the Edin- 
 burgh Eeview, seems to believe that the whole 
 system of Druidism has been elaborated by the 
 imaginations of modern historians. That the 
 Picts previous to their conversion had a religion, 
 and a religion with what may be called priests 
 and religious services, cannot be doubted, if we 
 may trust Tacitus and Adamnan, the biographer 
 of Columba; the former of whom tells us that, 
 previous to the battle of the Grampians, the 
 
 3 More recently the invaluable labours of E. "W. 
 Robertson, Burton, Forbes- Leslie, Joseph Robertson, 
 Grub, Skene, and Maclauchlan, have been the means of 
 putting the history of this period on its proper footing. 
 
 4 Vol. i. eh. vi. 
 
 union of the various tribes was ratified by 
 solemn rites and sacrifices, and the latter, that 
 Columbia's efforts at conversion were strenuously 
 opposed by the diabolical arts and incantations 
 of the Magi. It appears from Adamnan that 
 fountains were particularly objects of venera- 
 tion ; the superstitious awe with which many 
 fountains and wells are regarded at the present 
 clay, being doubtless a remnant of the ancient 
 Pictish religion. Trees, rivers, and lakes, as 
 well as the heavenly bodies, appear also to have 
 been objects of religious regard, and not a few 
 of the customs which exist in Scotland at the 
 present day have been inherited from our Pict- 
 ish ancestors. Such are many of the rites 
 performed on Hallowe'en, Beltane, Midsummer, 
 &c, and many every-day superstitions still 
 prevalent in the country districts of Scotland. 
 " Druidism is said to have acknowledged a 
 Supreme Being, whose name was synonymous 
 with the Eastern Baal, and if so, was visibly 
 represented by the sun; and such remnants of 
 the ancient worship as are still traceable in the 
 language of the people, would indicate its having 
 been a species of sun-worship. To this day 
 the four leading points of the compass bear, in 
 the terms which designate them among the 
 Gael, marks of this. The east is ear, like the 
 Latin oriens, from the Gaelic eiridh, 'to rise;' 
 the west is iar, 'after,' used also as a preposi- 
 tion ; the south is deas, and the north tuath ; 
 and it is in the use of these terms that 
 the reverence for the solar luminary chiefly 
 appears. Deas, 'the south,' is in all circum- 
 stances right ; it is the right hand, which is 
 easily intelligible, from the relation of that 
 hand to the south when the face looks east- 
 ward ; and it is expressive of whatever is other- 
 wise right, Deas also means complete, trim, 
 ready; whatever is deas, or southerly, is just 
 as it should be. Tuath, ' north,' is the very 
 opposite. Tuathaisd is a 'stupid fellow;' 
 Tuathail is 'wrong' in every sense: south and 
 north, then, as expressed in the words deiseal 
 and tuathail, are, in the Gaelic language, the 
 representatives of right and wrong. Thus 
 everything that is to move prosperously among 
 many of the Celts, must move sunwise : a boat 
 going to sea must turn sunwise ; a man or woman 
 immediately after marriage, must make a turn 
 sunwise. There are relics of fire-worship too; 
 
3G 
 
 GENEEAL HISTOEY OK THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 certain days are named from fire -lighting; 
 Beallteine, or ' the first day of summer,' and 
 paimhtheine, 'the first day of winter,' — the 
 former supposed to mean the fire of Baal or 
 Bel, the latter closing the saimhre, or summer 
 period of the year, and bringing in the geamhre, 
 or winter period, are sufficient evidence of this. 
 There are places in Scotland where within the 
 memory of living men the teine eigin, or ' forced 
 tire,' was lighted once every year by the rubbing 
 of two pieces of wood together, while every 
 
 fire in the neighbourhood was extinguished in 
 order that they might be lighted anew from 
 this sacred source." 7 
 
 Many of the antiquities which are scattered 
 over the north of Scotland, such as stone circles, 
 monoliths, sculptured stones, rocking stones, 
 &c, are very generally supposed to have been 
 connected with religion. From the resem- 
 blance of the circles especially, to those which 
 exist in South Britain and in France, it has 
 been supposed that one religion prevailed over 
 
 Stonehenge.— Copied by permission from Col. Forbes-Leslie's Early Races of Scotland. 
 
 these countries. As Druidism is so commonly 
 believed to have prevailed among the Ficts as 
 well as among the other inhabitants of Britain, 
 we shall here give a very brief account of that 
 system, chiefly as we find it given in Caesar. 8 
 The following is the account given by Caesar of 
 the character and functions of the Druids: — 
 " They attend to divine worship, perform pub- 
 lic and private sacrifices, and expound matters 
 of religion. A great number of youths are 
 gathered round them for the sake of education, 
 and they enjoy the highest honour in that 
 nation; for nearly all public and private 
 quarrels come under their jurisdiction; and 
 when any crime has been committed, when a 
 murder has been perpetrated, when a contro- 
 versy arises about a legacy, or about land- 
 marks, they are the judges too. They fix re- 
 wards and punishments; and should any one, 
 
 7 Dr. MaolaucWan's Early Scottish Church, pp. 32, 33. 
 
 8 Druid is said to be derived from a word meaning 
 ' oak,' common to many of the Indo-European tongues. 
 
 whether a private individual or a public man, 
 disobey their decrees, then they exclude him 
 from the sacrifices. All these Druids have 
 one chief, who enjoys the highest authority 
 amongst them. When he dies, he is succeeded 
 by the member of the order who is most pro- 
 minent amongst the others, if there be any 
 such single individual; if, however, there are 
 several men equally distinguished, the successoi 
 is elected by the Druids. Sometimes they 
 even go to war about this supremacy. 
 
 "The Druids take no part in warfare; nor 
 do they pay taxes like the rest of the people ; 
 they are exempt from military service, and 
 from all public burdens. Attracted by such 
 rewards, many come to be instructed by their 
 own choice, while others are sent by their 
 parents. They are reported to learn in the 
 school a great number of verses, so that some 
 remain there twenty years. They think it an 
 unhallowed tiling to commit their lore to writ- 
 ing, though in the other public and private 
 
PBTJIDISM. 
 
 affairs of life they frequently make use of the 
 Greek alphabet. . . . Beyond all tilings, 
 they are desirous to inspire a belief that men's 
 souls do not perish, hut transmigrate after 
 death from one individual to another; and 
 besides, they hold discourses about the stars, 
 about the size of the world and of various 
 countries, about the nature of things, and about 
 the power and might of the immortal gods." 
 
 Among the objects of druidical veneration 
 the oak is said to have been particularly dis- 
 tinguished; for the Druids imagined that there 
 was a supernatural virtue in the wood, in the 
 leaves, in the fruit, and above all in the mistle- 
 
 toe. Hence the oak woods were the first places 
 of their devotion ; and the offices of their reli- 
 gion were there performed without any covering 
 but the broad canopy of heaven. The part 
 appropriated for worship was inclosed in a 
 circle, within which was placed a pillar of 
 stone set up under an oak, and sacrifices were 
 offered thereon. The pillars which mark the 
 sites of these places of worship are still to be 
 seen; and so great is the superstitious venera- 
 tion paid by the country people to these sacred 
 stones, as they are considered, that few persons 
 have ventured to remove them. 
 
 Besides the immunities before-mentioned en- 
 
 JL .lL-^- 
 
 Circle of Callernish in Lewis. — Copied by permission from Col. Forbes-Leslie's Early Races of Scotland. 
 
 joyed by the Druids, they also possessed both 
 civil and criminal jurisdiction, they decided all 
 controversies among states as well as among 
 private persons ; and whoever refused to sub- 
 mit to their awards was exposed to the most 
 severe penalties. The sentence of excommuni- 
 cation was pronounced against him ; he was de- 
 barred all intercourse with his fellow-citizens ; 
 his company was universally shunned as pro- 
 fane and dangerous ; he was refused the pro- 
 tection of law ; and death itself became an 
 acceptable relief from the misery and infamy 
 to which he was exposed. 
 
 St. Columba was born in the county of 
 Donegal, in Ireland, in the year 521, and was 
 connected both on his father's and mother's 
 side with the Irish royal family. He was care- 
 fully educated for the priesthood, and, after hav- 
 ing finished Ins ecclesiastical studies, founded 
 monasteries in various parts of Ireland. The 
 year of his departure from Ireland is, on good 
 authority, ascertained to have been 563, and it 
 is generally said that he fled to save his life, 
 which was in jeopardy on account of a feud 
 in which his relations were involved. Mr. 
 
 Grub 9 believes that " the love of God and of 
 his brethren was to him a sufficient motive for 
 entering on the great work to which he was 
 called. His immediate objects were the in- 
 struction of the subjects of Conal, king of the 
 British Scots, and the conversion of their 
 neighbours the heathen Picts of the 5~orth." 
 In the year 563, when Columba was 42 years 
 of age, he arrived among his kindred on the 
 shores of Argyle, and immediately set himseli 
 to fix on a suitable site for a monaster}' which 
 he meant to erect, from which were to issue 
 forth the apostolic missionaries destined to 
 assist him in the work of conversion, and in 
 which also the youth set apart for the office of 
 the holy ministry were to be educated. St. 
 Columba espied a solitary isle lying apart from 
 the rest of the Hebridean group, near the 
 south-west angle of Mull, then known by the 
 simple name I, whose etymology is doubtful, 
 afterwards changed by Bede into Hy, latin- 
 ized by the monks into Iova or Iona, and 
 again honoured with the name of I-columb-cil, 
 
 s Eccles. ITist., vol. i. p. 49. 
 
38 
 
 GENEBAL HISTOEY OE THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 the island of St. Colnmba of the church. This 
 island, Conal, who was then king of the 
 Christian Scots of Argyle, presented to Co- 
 lumba, in order that he might erect thereon a 
 monastery for the residence of himself and Ms 
 disciples. No better station could have been 
 selected than this islet during such barbarous 
 times. 
 
 In pursuance of his plan, St. Columba 
 settled with twelve disciples in Hy. " They 
 
 now," says Bede, " neither sought, nor loved, 
 anything of this world," — true traits in the 
 missionary character. For two years did they 
 labour with their own hands erecting huts and 
 building a church of logs and reeds. " The 
 monastery of Iona, like those previously founded 
 by Columba in Ireland, was not a retreat for 
 solitaries whose chief object was to work out 
 their own salvation ; it was a great school of 
 Christian education, and was specially designed 
 
 Ruins on Iona. 
 
 to prepare and send forth a body of clergy 
 trained to the task* of preaching the Gospel 
 among the heathen.'' 1 Having established his 
 missionary institution, and having occupied 
 himself for some time in the instruction of his 
 countrymen the Scots of Argyle, the pious 
 Columba set out on his apostolic tour among 
 the Picts, probably in the year 565. At this 
 time Bridei or Brude, whose reign extended 
 from 536 to 586, the son of Mailcon, a power- 
 ful and influential prince, reigned over the 
 Northern Picts, and appears also to have had 
 dominion over those of the south. Judging 
 well that if he could succeed in converting 
 Brude, who, when Columba visited him was 
 staying at one of his residences on the banks 
 of the Ness, the arduous task he had undertaken 
 
 1 Grub's Ecc. /list., vol. i. p. 51. 
 
 of bringing over the whole nation to the wor- 
 ship of the true God would be more easily 
 accomplished, he first began with the king, 
 and by great patience and perseverance suc- 
 ceeded in converting him. 
 
 The first Gaelic entry in the Book of Deer 
 lets us see the great missionary on one of his 
 tours, and describes the founding of an im- 
 portant mission-station which became the centre 
 of instruction for all the surrounding country. 
 The following is the translation given of the 
 Gaelic original : — " Columcille, and Drostan 
 son of Cosgrach, his pupil, came from Hi, as God 
 had shown to them, unto Abbordoboir, and 
 Bede the Pict was mormaer of Buchan before 
 them, and it was he that gave them that town 
 in freedom for ever from mormaer and toisech. 
 They came after that to the other town, and 
 it was pleasing to Columcille because it was 
 
SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 39 
 
 full of God's grace, and he asked of the mor- 
 niaer, to wit Bede, that he should give it to 
 him ; and he did not give it, and a son of his 
 took an illness after [or in consequence of] 
 refusing the clerics, and he was nearly dead 
 [lit. he was dead but if it were a little]. After 
 this the mormaer went to entreat the clerics 
 that they should make prayer for the son, 
 that health should come to him ; and he gave 
 iu offering to them from Cloch in tiprat to 
 Clock pette meic Garnait. They made the 
 prayer, and health came to him. After that 
 Columcille gave to Drostan that town, and 
 blessed it, and left as (his) word, ' Whosoever 
 should come against it, let him not be many- 
 yeared [or] victorious.' Drostan's tears came 
 on parting from Columcille. Said Columcille, 
 ' Let Dear be its name henceforward.' " 
 
 The Abbordoboir here spoken of is Aberdour 
 on the north coast of Aberdeenshire, and Dear 
 probably occupied the site of what is now Old 
 Deer, about twelve miles inland from Aber- 
 dour. There is every reason for believing in 
 the substantial truth of the narrative. The 
 two saints, probably from the banks of the 
 Mess, came to Aberdour and "tarried there for 
 a time and founded a monastery on the land 
 which had been granted them. In later times 
 the parish church of Aberdour was dedicated 
 to St. Drostan." One would almost be inclined 
 to suppose, from the manner in which the 
 missionaries were apparently received, that 
 Christianity had been heard of there before ; 
 possibly Bede the Pictish mormaer had been 
 converted at the court of King Bra.de, and had 
 invited Columba to pay him a visit in Buchan 
 and plant the gospel among the inhabitants. 
 Possibly St. Ninian, the apostle of the southern 
 Picts, may, during his mission among them, 
 have penetrated as far north as Buchan. 
 On the side of the choir of the old parish 
 church of Turriff, a few miles west of Deer, 
 was found painted the figure of St. Nmian, 
 which was probably as old as the 16th cen- 
 tury. At all events, Columba and his com- 
 panion appear to have been made most welcome 
 in Buchan, and were afforded every facility for 
 prosecuting their sacred work. The above 
 record doubtless gives us a fair notion of 
 Colnmba's mode of procedure in prosecuting 
 his self-imposed task of converting the in- 
 
 habitants of Alba. As was the case in Buchan, 
 he appears to have gone from district to dis- 
 trict along with his missionary companions, 
 seen the work of conversion fairly begun, 
 planted a monastery in a suitable place, and 
 left one or more of his disciples as resident 
 missionaries to pursue the work of conversion 
 and keep Christianity alive in the district. 2 
 
 Columba soon had the happiness of seeing 
 the blessings of Christianity diffusing them- 
 selves among a people who had hitherto sat 
 in the darkness of paganism. Attended by his 
 disciples he traversed the whole of the Pictish 
 territories, spreading everywhere the light of 
 faith by instructing the people in the truths of 
 the Gospel. To keep up a succession of the 
 teachers of religion, he established, as we have 
 seen, monasteries in every district, and from 
 these issued, for many ages, men of apostolic 
 earnestness, who watered and tended the good 
 seed planted by Columba, and carried it to the 
 remotest parts of the north of Scotland and its 
 islands, so that, in a generation or two after 
 Columba, Christianity became the universal 
 religion. These monasteries or cells were long 
 subject to the Abbey of Iona, and the system 
 of church government which proceeded from 
 that centre was in many respects peculiar, and 
 has given rise to much controversy between 
 presbyterians and episcopalians. 
 
 St. Columba died on the 9th of June, 597, 
 after a glorious and well-spent life, thirty-four 
 years of which he had devoted to the instruc- 
 tion of the nation he had converted. His in- 
 fluence was very great with the neighbouring 
 princes, and they often applied to him for ad- 
 vice, and submitted to him their differences, 
 which he frequently settled by his authority. 
 His memory was long held in reverence by the 
 Scots and Caledonians. 
 
 Conal, the fifth king of the Scots in Argyle, 
 the kinsman of St. Columba, and under whose 
 auspices he entered on the work of conver 
 sion, and to whom it is said he was indebted 
 for Hy, died in 571. His successor Aidan 
 went over to Iona in 574, and was there 
 ordained and inaugurated by the Abbot ac- 
 cording to the ceremonial of the liber vitreus, 
 
 " Book of Deer, Preface. Further details concern- 
 ing the early Scottish church will be given at the enn 
 of this volume. 
 
40 
 
 GENERAL HISTORY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 the cover of which is supposed to have been 
 encrusted with crystal. 
 
 To return to the history of the Picts, we 
 have already observed that little is known of 
 Pictish history for more than a hundred years 
 after the Roman abdication; and even up to 
 the union of the Picts and Scots, the materials 
 for the history of both are about as scarce as 
 they could possibly be, consisting mostly of 
 meagre chronicles containing the names of 
 kings, the dates of their accession and death, 
 and occasionally the names of battles and of 
 the contending nations. Scotland during this 
 period appears to have been the scene of un- 
 ceasing war between the Scots, Picts, Britons 
 of Strathclyde, English, and Danes, the two 
 first being continually at strife not only with 
 each other but among themselves. We shall 
 endeavour to give, as clearly and as faithfully 
 as possible, the main reliable facts in the his- 
 tory of the Scots and Picts until the union of 
 these two nations. 
 
 The reign of Brude was distinguished by 
 many warlike exploits, but above all, as we 
 have seen, by his conversion and that of his 
 people to Christianity, which indeed formed 
 his greatest glory. His chief contests were 
 with the Scoto-Irish or Dalriads, whom he de- 
 feated in 557, and slew Gauran their king. 
 Brude died hi 586, and for several ages his suc- 
 cessors carried on a petty system of warfare, 
 partly foreign and partly domestic. Passing 
 over a domestic conflict, at Lindores in 621, 
 under Kenneth, son of Luthrin, we must notice 
 the important battle of Dun-Nechtan, fought 
 in 685, between the Picts under Brude, the son 
 of Bili, 1 and the Saxons, under the Northum- 
 brian Egfrid. The Saxon king, it is said, greedy 
 of conquest, attacked the Picts without provoca- 
 tion, and against the advice of his court. Cross- 
 ing the EorthfromLothian,heenteredStrathearn 
 and penetrated through the defiles of the Pictish 
 kingdom, leaving fire and desolation in his train. 
 His career was stopt at Dun-Nechtan, the hill 
 of Nechtan, a hill in the parish of Dunnichen, 
 about the centre of Forfarshire ; and by a 
 neighbouring lake, long known by the name of 
 Neehtan's mere, a short distance east from the 
 
 town of Forfar, did Egfrid and his Saxons fall 
 before Brude and his exasperated Picts. This 
 was a sad blow to the Northumbrian power; 
 yet the Northumbrians, in 699, under Berht, 
 an able leader, again ventured to try their 
 strength with the Picts, when they were once 
 more defeated by Brude, the son of Dereli, 
 who had recently mounted the Pictish throne. 
 
 The wars between the Picts and Northum- 
 brians were succeeded by various contests for 
 power among the Pictish princes, which gave 
 rise to a civil war. Ungus, honoured by the 
 Irish Annalists with the title of great, and 
 Elpin, at the head of their respective partisans, 
 tried their strength at Monaerib, supposed by 
 some to be Moncrieff in Strathearn, in the 
 year 727, when the latter was defeated: and 
 the conflict was renewed at Duncrei (Crieff,, 
 when victory declared a second time against 
 Elpin, who was obliged to flee from the hostil- 
 ity of Ungus. Nechtan next tried his strength 
 with Ungus, in 728, at a place called Mona- 
 curna by the Annalists — possibly Moncur hi 
 the Carse of Gowrie — but he was defeated, and 
 many of his followers perished. Talorgan, the 
 son of Congus, was defeated by Brude, the son 
 of Ungus, in 730, and in the same year the 
 Picts appear to have entered into a treaty of 
 peace with the English nation. 
 
 The victorious Ungus commenced hostilities 
 against the Dalriads, or Scoto-Irish, in the 
 year 736, and appears to have got the better 
 of the latter. The Scots were again worsted 
 in another battle in 740 by Ungus, who in the 
 same year repulsed an attack of the Northum- 
 brians under Eadbert. In the year 750 he 
 defeated the Britons of the Cumbrian kingdom 
 in the battle of Cato or Cath-O, in which his 
 brother Talorgan was killed. Ungus, who ap- 
 pears to have been a powerful and able mon- 
 arch, but whom Bede 2 characterizes as having 
 conducted himself " with bloody wickedness, 
 a tyrant and an executioner," died about 760. 
 A doubtful victory was gained by Ciniod, or 
 Kenneth, the Pictish king, over Aodh-fin, the 
 Scottish king, in 767. Constantine, having 
 overcome Conall, the son of Tarla, in 789, 
 succeeded him in the throne. 3 
 
 1 There is some confusion here ; Dr. Machtuchlan 
 places this conflict in the reign of Brude son of Derile, 
 who, according to our list, did not succeed till 699. 
 
 2 Book V. c. 24. 
 
 3 See the Ulster Annals, where an account is given 
 of all these conflicts. 
 
NORSEMEN— SCOTO-IRISH. 
 
 Up to this period the Norsemen from Scan- 
 dinavia, or the Vikingr, i. e. men of the voes 
 or bays, as they were termed, had confined 
 their ravages to the Baltic; but, in the year 
 787 they for the first time appeared on the 
 east coast of England. Some years afterwards 
 they found their way to the Caledonian shores, 
 and in 795 made their first attack on Iona, 
 which frequently afterwards, along with the 
 rest of the Hebrides, suffered grievously from 
 their ravages. In 839 the Vikingr entered 
 the Pictish territories. A murderous conflict 
 ensued between them and the Picts under Uen 
 their king, in which both he and his only 
 brother Bran, as well as many of the Pictish 
 chiefs, fell. This event, no doubt, hastened 
 the downfall of the Pictish monarchy; and as 
 the Picts were unable to resist the arms of 
 Kenneth, the Scottish king, he carried into 
 execution, in the year 843, a project he had 
 long entertained, of uniting the Scots and 
 Picts, and placing both crowns on his head. 
 That anything like a total extermination of the 
 Picts took place is now generally discredited, 
 although doubtless there was great slaughter 
 both of princes and people. Skene 4 asserts 
 indeed that it was only the Southern Picts 
 who became subject to Kenneth, the Northern 
 Picts remaining for long afterwards indepen- 
 dent of, but sometimes in alliance with, the 
 Scots. This is substantially the opinion of 
 Mr. E. "W. Robertson, 5 who says, " the modern 
 shires of Perth, Eife, Stirling, and Dumbarton, 
 with the greater part of the county of Argyle, 
 may be said to have formed the actual Scottish 
 kingdom to which Kenneth succeeded." The 
 Picts were recognised as a distinct people even 
 in the tenth century, but before the twelfth 
 they lost their characteristic nominal distinc- 
 tion by being amalgamated with the Scots, 
 their conquerors. 
 
 The Scoto-Irish after their arrival in Argyle 
 did not long continue under the separate autho- 
 rity of the three brothers, Lorn, Fergus, and 
 Angus. They were said to have been very far 
 advanced in life before leaving Ireland, and 
 the Irish chroniclers assert that St. Patrick 
 gave them his benediction before his death, in 
 the year 493. The statement as to their ad- 
 
 J Highlanders, vol. i p. 65. 
 5 Early Kings, vol. i. p. 39. 
 
 vanced age derives some support from then- 
 speedy demise after they had laid the founda- 
 tions of their settlements, and of a new dynasty 
 of lungs destined to rule over the kingdom of 
 Scotland. Angus was the first who died, 
 leaving a son, Muredach, who succeeded him 
 in the small government of Ha. After the 
 death of Lorn the eldest brother, Fergus, th..' 
 last survivor, became sole monarch of the 
 Scoto-Irish; but he did not long enjoy the 
 sovereignty, for he died in 506. 
 
 Fergus was succeeded by his son Domangart, 
 or Dongardus, who died in 511, after a short 
 but troubled reign of about five years. His 
 two sons Comgal and Gabhran or Gauran, suc- 
 cessively enjoyed his authority. Comgal had 
 a peaceful reign of four and twenty years, dur- 
 ing which he extended his settlements. He 
 left a son named Conal, but Gauran his brother, 
 notwithstanding, ascended the throne in the 
 year 535 without opposition. Gauran reigned 
 two and twenty years, and, as we have already 
 observed, was slain in a battle with the Picts 
 under Bridei their king. 
 
 Conal, the son of Comgal, then succeeded 
 in 557, and closed a reign of fourteen years in 
 571. It was during his reign that Columba's 
 mission to the Picts took place. A civil war 
 ensued between Aodhan or Aidan, the son of 
 Gauran, and Duncha or Duncan, the son of 
 Conal, for the vacant crown, the claim to which 
 was decided on the bloody field of Loro or Loco 
 in Kintyre in 575, where Duncha was slain. 
 Aidaii, the son of Gauran, had been formally 
 inaugurated by St. Columba in Iona, in 574. 
 In the time of Aidan there were frequent wars 
 between the Dabiads and the English Saxons. 
 Many battles were fought in which the Scots 
 were generally defeated, the principal being 
 that of Degsastan or Dalston near Carlisle, in 
 GO 3, in which nearly the whole of the Scottish 
 army was defeated. The wars with the Saxons 
 weakened the power of the Dabiads very con- 
 siderably, and it was not till after a long period 
 of time that they again ventured to meet the 
 Saxons in the field. 
 
 During a short season of repose, Aidan, at- 
 tended by St. Columba, went to the celebrated 
 council of Drum-keat in Ulster, in the year 
 590. In this council he claimed the princi- 
 pality of Dalriada, the land of his fathers, and 
 
4 2 
 
 GENEBAL HISTOEY OE THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 obtained an exemption from doing homage to 
 the kings of Ireland, which his ancestors, it 
 would appear, had been accustomed to pay. 
 Aidan died in 605 or 608, at the advanced age 
 of eighty, and was buried in the church of 
 Kil-keran, the ruins of which are still to be 
 seen in the midst of Campbelton. 
 
 Aidan was succeeded in the throne by his 
 son Eocha-bui, or the " yellow," who reigned six- 
 teen years. He carried on war with the Cruithne 
 of Ulster. After him came his brother Kenneth- 
 Cear, or the " left-handed," who was followed 
 by Ferchar, son of Eogan, of the race of Lorn. 
 
 Donal, surnamed breac or freckled, the son 
 of Eocha'-bui, of the race of Gauran, succeeded 
 Ferchar about 637. He was a warlike prince 
 and had, distinguished himself in the wars 
 against the Cruithne of Ireland. Congal-Claon, 
 the son of Scanlan, the king of the Cruithne 
 in Ulster, having slain Suibne-Mean, a power- 
 ful king of Ireland, was attacked by Domnal 
 II., supreme king of Ireland, who succeeded 
 Suibne, and was defeated in the battle of 
 Duncetheren, in 629. Congal sought refuge 
 in Cantyre, and having persuaded Donal-breac, 
 the kinsman of Domnal, to join Mm in a war 
 against the latter, they invaded Ireland with a 
 heterogeneous mass of Scoto-Irish, Picts, Brit- 
 ons, and Saxons, commanded by Donal and 
 his brothers. Cealach, the son of Maelcomh, 
 the nephew of the reigning king, and as tanist 
 or heir-apparent, the leader of Ms army, at- 
 tacked Donal-breac in the plain of Magh Eath 
 or Moyra in Down, in 637, and completely de- 
 feated him after an obstinate and bloody en- 
 gagement. Congal, the murderer of his sov- 
 ereign, met Ms merited fate, and Donal-breac 
 was obliged to secure Ms own and Ms army's 
 safety by a speedy return to Cantyre. St. Co- 
 lumba had always endeavoured to preserve an 
 amicable understanding between the Cruithne 
 of Ulster and the Scoto-Irish, and his injunc- 
 tions were, that they should live in constant 
 peace; but Donal disregarded the wise advice 
 of the saint, and paid dearly for so doing. He 
 was not more successful M an enterprise against 
 the Picts, having been defeated by them in the 
 battle of GIMne Mairison, Glenmairison, or 
 Glenmoreson, probably in West Lothian/' 
 
 6 Skene's Chron. of Picts and Scots, p. cxv. 
 
 during the year 638. He ended Ms days at 
 Straith-cairmaic or Strathcarron, possibly in the 
 neighbourhood of Falkirk, by the sword of 
 Hoan or Owen, one of the reguli of Strathcluyd, 
 in the year 642. His son Cathasuidh fell by 
 the same hand M 649. 
 
 Conal II., the grandson of Conal I., who 
 was also of the Fergusian race of Congal, next 
 ruled over the tribes of Cantyre and Argyle; 
 but Dungal, of the race of Lorn, having ob- 
 tained the government of the tribe of Lorn, 
 questioned the right of Conal. He did not, 
 however, carry his pretensions far, for Conal 
 died, in undisturbed possession of Ms domin- 
 ions, in 652, after a reign of ten years. To 
 Donal-duin, or the brown, son of Conal,- who 
 reigned thirteen years, succeeded Maolduin, his 
 brother, in 665. The family feuds which had 
 long existed between the Fergusian races of 
 Comgal and Tauran, existed in their bitterest 
 state durMg the reign of MaolduM. Doman- 
 gart, the son of Donal-breac, was murdered in 
 672, and Conal, the son of Maolduin, was as- 
 sassinated in 675. 
 
 Ferchar-fada, or the tall, apparently of the 
 race of Lorn, and either the son or grandson of 
 Ferchar, who died in 637, seized the reins of 
 government upon the death of Maolduin. On 
 the death of Ferchar, in 702, the sceptre passed 
 again to the Fergusian race in the person of 
 Eocha'-rineval, remarkable for Ms Eoman nose, 
 the son of Domangart. The reign of this 
 prince was short and unfortunate. His scep- 
 tre was seized by Ainbheealach, the son of 
 Ferchar-fada, who succeeded Eocha' in 705. 
 He was of an excellent disposition, but after 
 reigning one year, was detMoned by his 
 brother, Selvach, and obliged, in 706, to take 
 refuge m Ireland. Selvach attacked the 
 Britons of Strathcluyd, and gamed two succes- 
 sive victories over them, the one at Longecoleth 
 m 710, and the other at the rock of Mionuirc 
 in 716. At the end of twelve years, Ainbheeal- 
 ach returned from Ireland, to regain a sceptre 
 which his brother had by his cruelties shown 
 Mmself unworthy to wield, but he perished in 
 the battle cf Finglein, perhaps Glen Fyne at 
 the head of Loch Fyne, in 719. Selvach met a 
 more formidable rival M Duncha-beg, who was 
 descended from Fergus, by the line of Congal ; 
 he assumed the government of Cantyre and 
 
DALEIADIC KINGS. 
 
 43 
 
 Argail, and confined Selvach to his family 
 settlement of Lorn. These two princes ap- 
 pear to have been fairly matched in disposi- 
 tion and valour, and both exerted themselves 
 for the destruction of one another, thus bring- 
 ing many miseries upon their tribes. In an 
 attempt which they made to invade the ter- 
 ritories of each other in 719 by means of cur- 
 raehs, a naval combat ensued off Airdeanesbi, 
 (probably Axdaness on the coast of Argyle,) in 
 which Selvach was overcome by Duncha ; but 
 Selvach was not subdued. The death of 
 Duncha in 721 put an end to his designs; but 
 Eocha' III., the son of Eocha'-Tineval, the suc- 
 cessor of Duncha, being as bent on the over- 
 throw of Selvach as his predecessor, continued 
 the war. The rival chiefs met at Irroisfoichne 
 in 727, where a battle was fought, which pro- 
 duced nothing but irritation and distress. 
 This lamentable state of things was put an end 
 to by the death of Selvach in 729. This 
 event enabled Eocha to assume the govern- 
 ment of Lorn, and thus the Dalriadan kingdom 
 which had been alternately ruled by chiefs of 
 the houses of Fergus and Lorn became again 
 united under Eocha. He died in 733, after a 
 reign of thirteen years, during nine of which 
 he ruled over Cantyre and Argyle, and four 
 over all the Dalriadic tribes. 
 
 Eocha was succeeded in the kingdom by 
 Muredach, the son of Ainbhceallach, of the 
 race of Lorn. His reign was short and unfor- 
 tunate. In revenge for an act of perfidy com- 
 mitted by Dungal, the son of Selvach, who 
 had carried off Forai or Torai, the daughter of 
 I trade, and the niece of Ungus, the great Pictish 
 king, the latter, in the year 736, led his army 
 from Strathearn, through the passes of the 
 mountains into Lorn, which he wasted with 
 fire arid sword. He seized Dunad, in Mid-Lorn, 
 and burned Creie, another fortress in the Eoss 
 of Mull, taking Dungal and Feradach, the two 
 sons of Selvach, prisoners. Muredach went in 
 pursuit of his enemy, and having overtaken 
 him at Knock Cairpre, at Calatros, on the shores 
 of the Linne, G a battle ensued, in which the 
 Scots were repulsed with great slaughter. 
 Talorgan, the brother of Ungus, commanded 
 
 11 Dr. Reeves supposes this to be Cuirass in Perth- 
 shire. — Maclaiichlan. 
 
 the Picts on this occasion, and pursued the 
 flying Scots. In this pursuit Muredach is 
 supposed to have perished, after a reign of 
 three }-ears. 
 
 Eogban or Ewan, the son of Muredach, took 
 up the fallen succession in 73C, and died in 
 739, in which year the Dalriadic sceptre was 
 assumed by Aodh-fin, the son of Eocha' LIT., 
 and grandson of Eocha'-rineval, descended 
 from the Fergusian race of Gauran. In 740 
 he measured his strength with the celebrated 
 Ungus; but victory declared for neither, and 
 during the remainder of Ungus' reign, he did 
 not attempt to renew hostilities. After the 
 death of Ungus, in 761, Aodh-fin declared war 
 against the Picts, whose territories he entered 
 from Upper Lorn, penetrating through the 
 passes of Glenorehy and Breadalbane. In 767 
 he reached Forte viot, the Pictish capital in 
 Strathearn, where he fought a doubtful battle 
 with Ciniod the Pictish king. Aodh-fin died 
 in 769, after a splendid reign of thirty years." 
 
 Fergus II., son of Aodh-fin, succeeded to 
 the sceptre on the demise of his father, and 
 died after an unimportant reign of three years 
 Selvach II., the son of Eogan, assumed the 
 government in 772. His reign, which lasted 
 twenty-four years, presents nothing very re- 
 markable in history. 
 
 A new sovereign of a different lineage, now 
 mounted the throne of the Scots in 796, in the 
 person of Eocha or Auchy, the son of Aodh-fin 
 
 7 Dr. Skene, in Lis preface to tie CLronieles of tlie 
 Hots and Sects, endeavours to prove, by very plausi- 
 ble reasoning, and by comparison of various lists of 
 kings, that for a century previous to the accession of 
 Kenneth to tbe Pictish throne, Dalriada was under 
 subjection to tbe Anglian monarchy, and was ruled 
 by Pictish sovereigns. In an able paper, however, 
 read recently by Dr. Archibald Smith before tbe Anti- 
 quarian Society of Scotland, he shows that Argylesbire 
 was invaded but not subdued by Ungus, king of the 
 Picts, in 736 and 741. Dr. Smith supported his con- 
 clusion by reference to passages in the annals of Tiger- 
 nach, of Ulster, and the Albanic Duau, which seemed 
 to him to give an intelligible and continuous account 
 of regal succession in Dalriada, but afforded no coun- 
 tenance to the theory of Pinkerton of tbe entire eon- 
 quest of the Scots in Britain by Ungus, nor to the 
 conclusion Dr. Skene has come to, viz., the complete 
 supremacy of the Picts in the Scottish Dalriada, and 
 the extinction of Dalriada as a Scottish nation from 
 the vear 741 to the era of a new Scottish kingdom 
 founded by Kenneth Maealpin in the year 843. On 
 the contrary, he was convinced that Aodh-lionn was 
 the restorer of its full liberty to the crushed section of 
 Lorn, and that he was. at the close of his career, tbe 
 independent ruler of Dalriada as a Scottish nation. 
 
H 
 
 GENERAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 of the Gauran race. Eocha' IV. is known also 
 by the latinized appellation of Achaius. The 
 story of the alliance "between Achaius and 
 Charlemagne has been shown to be a fable; 
 although it is by no means improbable that he 
 entered into an important treaty with the 
 Picts, by marrying Urgusia, the daughter of 
 Urguis, an alliance which, it is said, enabled 
 his grandson Kenneth afterwards to claim and 
 acquire the Pictish sceptre, in right of Urgusia 
 his grandmother. Eocha died in 826, after a 
 happy and prosperous reign of thirty years. 
 He was succeeded by Dungal, the son of Sel- 
 vach II., of the race of Lorn, being the last of 
 that powerful family who swayed the Dalri- 
 adic sceptre. After a feeble but stormy reign 
 of seven years, he died in 833. 
 
 Alpin, the last of the Scoto-Irish kings, and 
 the son of Eocha TV. and of Urgusia, now 
 mounted the throne. He was killed in 836, 
 near the site of Laicht castle, on the ridge 
 which separates Kyle from Galloway. The 
 fiction that Alpin fell in a battle with the 
 Picts, when asserting his right to the Pictish 
 throne, has long been exploded. 
 
 In 836 Kenneth, the son of Alpin, succeeded 
 his father. He was a prince of a warlike dis- 
 position, and of great vigour of mind and body. 
 He avenged the death of his father by frequent 
 inroads among the people dwelling to the 
 south of the Clyde ; but the great glory of liis 
 reign consists in his achievements against the 
 Picts, which secured for him and his posterity 
 the Pictish sceptre. The Pictish power had, 
 previous to the period of Kenneth's accession, 
 been gTeatly enfeebled by the inroads of the 
 Danish Vikingr; but it was not till after the 
 death of Uven, the Pictish king, in 839, after 
 a distracted reign of three years, that Kenneth 
 made any serious attempt to seize the Pictish 
 diadem. On the accession of Wred, Kenneth, 
 in accordance with the principle of succession 
 said by Bede to have prevailed among the 
 Picts, claimed the Pictish throne in right of 
 Urgusia, his grandmother; Wred died in 842, 
 and after an arduous struggle, Kenneth wrested 
 the sceptre from Ered,his successor, in 843, after 
 he had reigned over the Scots seven years. 
 
 Burton 8 thinks there can be no doubt that 
 
 8 Scotland, vol. i. p. 329. 
 
 the two countries were prepared for a fusion 
 whenever a proper opportunity offered, but 
 that this was on account of a matrimonial alli- 
 ance between the two royal houses cannot with 
 certainty be ascertained. 9 As we have said 
 already, it is extremely improbable that Ken- 
 neth gained his supremacy by extermination. 
 The Picts certainly appear to have suffered 
 severe defeat, but the likelihood is that after 
 Kenneth succeeded to the throne, a gradual 
 fusion of the two people took place, so that in 
 course of time they became essentially one, 
 speaking one language, obeying the same laws, 
 and following the same manners and customs. 
 If we knew for certain to what race the Picts 
 belonged, and what language they spoke, it 
 might help us not a little to understand the 
 nature and extent of the amalgamation ; but as 
 we know so little about these, and as the 
 chroniclers, in speaking of this event, are so 
 enigmatical and meagre, we are left almost en- 
 tirely to conjecture. We are certain, at any 
 rate, that from some cause or other, the kings 
 of the Dalriadic Scots, about the middle of the 
 9 th century, obtained supremacy over at least 
 the Southern Picts, who from that time forward 
 ceased to be a separate nation. J 
 
 9 See Skene's preface to Chronicle of Picts and Scott, 
 p. xcviii. et seq. , for some curious and ingenious spe- 
 culation on this point. 
 
 1 We shall take the liberty of quoting here an ex- 
 tract from an able and ingenious paper read by Dr. 
 Skene before the Soc. of Ant., in June 1861, and 
 quoted in Dr. Gordon's Scoticlironicon, p. 83. It 
 will help, we think, to throw a little light on this 
 dark subject, and assist the reader somewhat to under- 
 stand the nature and extent of the so-called Scottish 
 conquest. " The next legend which bears upon the 
 history of St. Andrews is that of St. Adrian, at 4th 
 March. The best edition of this legend is in the Aber- 
 deen Breviary, and it is as follows: — Adrian was a na- 
 tive of Hungary, and after preaching there for some 
 time, was seized with a desire to preach to other peo- 
 ple; and having gathered together a company, he set 
 out ' ad orientales Scotia partes que tunc a Pictis oc- 
 eupabantur,' i.e., 'to the eastern parts of Scotland, 
 which were then occupied by the Picts,' — and landed 
 there with 6,606 confessors, clergy, and people, among 
 whom were Glodianus, Gayus, Miuanus, Scobrandus, 
 and others, chief priests. These men, with their bish- 
 op, Adrian, 'deleto regno Pictorum, i.e., ' the Pictish 
 kingdom being destroyed,' — did many signs, but after- 
 wards desired to have a residence on the Isle of May. 
 The Danes, who then devastated the whole of Britain, 
 came to the Island, and there slew them. Their mar- 
 tyrdom is said to have taken place in the year 875 
 It will be observed that they are here said to have 
 settled in the east part of Scotland, opposite the Isle 
 of May, that is in Fife, while the Picts still occupied 
 it; that the Pictish kingdom is then said to have been 
 destroyed; and that their martyrdom took place in 875, 
 
The history of the Seoto-Ixish kings affords 
 few materials either amusing or instructive: 
 but it was impossible, from the connexion be- 
 tween that history and the events that will 
 follow in detail, to pass it over in silence. 
 The Scoto-Irish tribes appear to have adopted 
 much the same form of government as existed 
 in Ireland at the time of their departure from 
 that kingdom : the sovereignty of which, though 
 nominally under one head, was in reality a 
 pentarchjj, which allowed four provincial kings 
 to dispute the monarchy of the fifth This 
 system was the prolific source of anarchy, 
 assassinations, and civil wars. The Dalriads 
 were constantly kept in a state of intestine 
 commotion and mutual hostility by the preten- 
 sions of their rival chiefs, or princes of the 
 three races, who contended with the common 
 sovereign for pre-eminence or exemption. The 
 (Uighe-tanaiste, or law of tanistry. which ap- 
 pears to have been generally followed as in 
 Ireland, as well in the succession of kings as 
 in that of chieftains, rather increased than 
 
 thirty years after the Scottish conquest under Kenneth 
 M'Alpin. Their arrival was therefore almost coinci- 
 dent with the Scottish conquest; and the large num- 
 ber said to have come, not the modest twenty-one who 
 arrived with Eegulus, but 6,606 confessors, clergy, and 
 people, shows that the traditionary history was really 
 one of an invasion, and leads to the suspicion at once 
 that it was in reality a part of the Scottish occupation 
 of the Pictish kingdom. This suspicion is much 
 strengthened by two corroborative circumstances: 1st, 
 the year 875, when they are said to have been slain by 
 the Danes, falls in the reign of Constantine, the son of 
 Kenneth Macalpin, in his fourteenth year, and in this 
 year the Pictish chronicle records a battle between the 
 Danes and the Scots, and adds, that after it, ' occasi 
 sunt Scotti in Coaehcoehlum,' which seems to refer to 
 this very slaughter. 2d. Hector Boeee preserves a 
 different tradition regarding their origin. He says — 
 ' Son desunt qui scribant sanetissimos Christi mar- 
 tyros Hungaros fuisse. Alii ex Seotis Anglisque gre- 
 garie collccios' — i.e., ' Some write that the most holy 
 martyrs of Christ were Hungarians. Others (say) 
 that they were collected from the Scots and English. ' 
 There was therefore a tradition that the clergy slain 
 were not Hungarians, but a body composed of Scotti 
 and AnglL But Hadrian was a bishop; he landed in 
 the east of Fife, within the parochia of S. Eegulus, and 
 he is placed at the head of some of the lists of bish- 
 ops of St. Andrews as first bishop. It was there- 
 fore the Church of St. Andrews that then consisted of 
 clergy collected from among the Scotti and the Augli. 
 The Angli probably represented the Church of Acca, 
 and the Scotti those brought in by Adrian. The real 
 signification of this occupation of St. Andrews by 
 Scottish clergy will be apparent when we recollect 
 that the Columban clergy, who had formerly pos- 
 sessed the chief ecclesiastical seats among the Picts, 
 had been expelled in 717, and Anglic clergy intro- 
 duced — the cause of quarrel being the difference of 
 their usages. Sow, the Pictish chronicle states as the 
 
 mitigated these disorders; for the claim to rule 
 not being regulated by any fixed law of hered- 
 itary succession, but depending upon the 
 capricious will of the tribe, rivals were not 
 found wanting to dispute the rights so con- 
 ferred. There was always, both in Ireland and 
 in Argyle, an heir presumptive to the Crown 
 chosen, under the name of tanist, who com- 
 manded the army during the life of the reign- 
 ing sovereign, and who succeeded to him after 
 his demise. Budgets, and committees of sup- 
 ply, and taxes, were wholly unknown in those 
 times among the Scots, and the monarch was 
 obliged to support his dignity by voluntary 
 contributions of clothes, cattle, furniture, and 
 other necessaries. . 
 
 There is reason to believe that tradition sup- 
 plied the place of written records for many 
 ages after the extinction of the Druidical super- 
 stition. Hence among the Scots, traditionary 
 usages and local customs long supplied the 
 place of positive or written laws. It is a mis- 
 take to suppose, as some writers have done, 
 
 main cause of the overthrow of the Pictish kingdom, 
 a century and a half later, this very cause. It says — 
 'Dens enim eos pro merito suse malitije alienos ac 
 otiosos haareditate dignatus est facere, quia illi non 
 solum Deum, missanx, ac prseceptnm spreverunt sed et 
 in jure aequalitatis aliis aequi pariter noluerunt.' I.e., 
 ' For God, on account of their wickedness, deemed 
 them worthy to be made hereditary strangers and 
 idlers; because they contemned not only God, the mass, 
 and the precept (of the Church), but besides refused 
 to be regarded as on the same equality with others ' 
 They were overthrown, not only because they despised 
 ' Deum missam et pneceptum,' but because they would 
 not tolerate the other party. And this great griev- 
 vance was removed, when St. Andrews appears at the 
 head of the Scottish Church in a solemn Concordat 
 with the king Constantine, when, as the Pictish 
 Chronicle tells us, ' Constantinus Eex et Cellachus 
 Episcopus leges disciplinasque fidei atque jura ecclesi- 
 arum evangeliorum que pariter cum Scottis devoverunt 
 custodiri.' I.e., ' King Constantine and Bishop Kel- 
 lach vowed to preserve the laws and discipline of the 
 faith and the rights of the churches and gospels, 
 equally with the Scots. ' Observe the parallel language 
 of the two passages. In the one, the ' Picti in jure 
 tequalitatis aliis,' that is, the Scottish clergy, 'aequi 
 pariter noluerunt,' and in the other the King and the 
 Bishop of St. Andrews ' vowed to preserve the laws 
 and discipline of the faith' 'pariter cum Scottis,' the 
 thing the Picts would not do. It seems plain, there- 
 fore, that the ecclesiastical element entered largely into 
 the Scottish conquest; and a main cause and feature 
 of it was a determination on the part of the Scottish 
 clergy to recover the benefices they had been deprived 
 of. The exact coincidence of this great clerical inva- 
 sion of the parochia of St. Andrews by ecclesiastics, 
 said by one tradition to have been Scots, and the sub- 
 sequent position of St Andrews as the head of the 
 Scottish Church, points strongly to this as the tme 
 historic basis of the legend of S. Adrian." 
 
4G 
 
 GENEBAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 that the law consisted in the mere will of the 
 Brehon or judge. The office of Breitheamhuin 
 or Brehon was hereditary, and it is quite 
 natural to infer, that under such a system of 
 jurisprudence, the dictum of the judge might 
 not always comport with what was understood 
 to he the common law or practice; but from 
 thence, to argue that the will of the judge was 
 to be regarded as the law itself, is absurd, and 
 contrary to every idea of justice. As the prin- 
 ciple of the rude jurisprudence of the Celtic 
 tribes had for its object the reparation, rather 
 than the prevention of crim es, almost every crime, 
 even of the blackest kind, was commuted by 
 a mulct or payment. Tacitus observes in allu- 
 sion to this practice, that it was " a temper 
 wholesome to the commonwealth, that homi- 
 cide and lighter transgressions were settled by 
 the payment of horses or cattle, part to the 
 king or community, part to him or his friends 
 who had been wronged." The law of Scotland 
 long recognised this system of compensation. 
 The fine was termed, under the Brehon law, 
 eric, which not only signifies a reparation, but 
 also a fine, a ransom, a forfeit. Among the 
 Albanian Scots it was called cro, a term pre- 
 served in the Regiam Majestatern, which has 
 a whole chapter showing " the cro of ilk man, 
 how mikil it is." 2 This law of reparation, 
 according to O'Connor, was first promulgated 
 in Ireland, in the year 164. s According to 
 the Regiam Majestatern, the cro of a villain 
 was sixteen cows; of an earl's son or thane, one 
 hundred; of an earl, one hundred and forty; 
 and that of the king of Scots, one thousand 
 cows, or three thousand oras, that is to say, 
 three oras for every cow. 
 
 Besides a share of the fines imposed, the 
 Brehon or judge obtained a piece of arable 
 land for his support. When he administered 
 justice, he used to sit sometimes on the top of 
 a hillock or heap of stones, sometimes on turf, 
 and sometimes even on the middle of a bridge, 
 surrounded by the suitors, who, of course, 
 pleaded their own cause. We have already 
 seen that, under the system of the Druids, the 
 offices of religion, the instruction of youth, and 
 the administration of the laws, were conducted 
 in the open air; and hence the prevalence of 
 
 2 Lib. iv c. xxiv. J O'Connor's Dissert 
 
 the practice alluded to. But this practice was 
 not peculiar to the Druids ; for all nations, in 
 the early stages of society, have followed a 
 similar custom. The Tings of the Scandina- 
 vians, which consisted of circular enclosures of 
 stone, without any covering, and within which 
 both the judicial and legislative powers were 
 exercised, afford a striking instance of this. 
 According to Pliny, 4 even the Eoman Senate 
 first met in the open air, and the sittings of 
 the Court of the Areopagus, at Athens, were so 
 held. The present custom of holding courts of 
 justice in halls is not of very remote antiquity 
 in Scotland, and among the Scoto-Irish, the 
 baron bailie long continued to dispense justice 
 to the baron's vassals from a mootliill or emi- 
 nence, which was generally on the bank of a 
 river, and near to a religious edifice. 
 
 Of the various customs and peculiarities 
 which distinguished the ancient Irish, as well 
 as the Scoto-Irish, none has given rise to 
 greater speculation than that of fosterage; 
 which consisted in the mutual exchange, by 
 different families, of their children for the pur- 
 pose of being nursed and bred. Even the son 
 of the chief was so entrusted during pupilarity 
 with an inferior member of the clan. An ade- 
 quate reward was either given or accepted in 
 every case, and the lower orders, to whom the 
 trust was committed, regarded it as an honour 
 rather than a service. " Five hundred kyne 
 and better," says Campion, " were sometimes 
 given by the Irish to procure the nursing of a 
 great man's child." A firm and indissoluble 
 attachment always took place among foster- 
 brothers, and it continues in consequence to be 
 a saying among Highlanders, that " affectionate 
 to a man is a friend, but a foster-brother is as 
 the life-blood of his heart." Camden observes, 
 that no love in the world is comparable by 
 many degrees to that of foster-brethren in Ire- 
 land. 5 The close connexion which the practice 
 of fosterage created between families, while it 
 frequently prevented civil feuds, often led to 
 them. But the strong attachment thus created 
 was not confined to foster-brothers, it also 
 extended to their parents. Spenser relates oi 
 the foster-mother to Murrough O'Brien, that, 
 at his execution, she sucked the blood from his 
 
 4 Lib. viii. c. 45. 
 •' Holland's Camden, Ireland, p. 1 1 1>. 
 
LIST OF PICTISH KINGS. 
 
 head, and bathed her face and breast with it, 
 saying that it was too precious to fall to the 
 earth. 
 
 It is unnecessary, at this stage of our labours, 
 to enter upon the subject of clanship ; we 
 mean to reserve our observations thereon till 
 we come to the history of the clans, when we 
 
 shall also notice some peculiarities or traits of totally untrustworthy, we shall omit them. 
 
 the Highlanders not hitherto mentioned. We 
 shall conclude this chapter by giving lists of 
 the Pictish and Scoto-Irish Kings, which are 
 generally regarded as authentic. A great many 
 other names are given by the ancient chroniclers 
 previous to the points at which the following 
 lists commence, but as these are considered as 
 
 A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF THE PICTISH KINGS, CHIEFLY ACCORDING 
 TO THE PICTISH CHRONICLE. 
 
 
 
 Date of 
 
 Duration of 
 
 Date 
 
 Series. 
 
 NAMES AND FILIATIONS. 
 
 Accession. 
 
 Reigns. 
 
 of 
 Death. 
 
 1 
 
 Drust, the son of Erp, ..... 
 
 
 
 451 
 
 2 
 
 Talorc, the son of Aniel, 
 
 
 
 451 
 
 4 years. 
 
 455 
 
 3 
 
 Necton Morbet, the son of Erp, 
 
 
 
 455 
 
 25 ... 
 
 480 
 
 4 
 
 Drest Gurthinmoch, 
 
 
 
 480 
 
 30 ... 
 
 510 
 
 5 
 
 Galanau Etelich, or Galanan Ereleuh. 
 
 
 
 510 
 
 12 ... 
 
 522 
 
 6 
 
 Dadrest, .... 
 
 
 
 522 
 
 1 ... 
 
 523 
 
 7 
 
 Drest, the son of Girora, 
 
 
 
 523 
 
 1 ... 
 
 524 
 
 
 Drest, the son of Wdrest, with the former, 
 
 
 
 524 
 
 5 
 
 529 
 
 
 Drest, the son of Girom, alone, 
 
 
 
 529 
 
 5 "] 
 
 534 
 
 8 
 
 Gartnach, the son of Girom, . . 
 
 
 
 534 
 
 7 
 
 541 
 
 9 
 
 Gealtraim, or Cailtraim, the son of Girom, 
 
 
 
 541 
 
 1 ''' 
 
 542 
 
 10 
 
 Talorg, the son of Muircholaich, 
 
 
 
 542 
 
 11 ... 
 
 553 
 
 11 
 
 Drest, the son of Munait, 
 
 
 
 553 
 
 1 ... 
 
 554 
 
 12 
 
 Galam, with Aleph, 
 
 
 
 554 
 
 1 ... 
 
 555 
 
 
 Galam, with Bridei, 
 
 
 
 555 
 
 1 ... 
 
 556 
 
 13 
 
 Bridei, the son of Mailcon, 
 
 
 
 556 
 
 30 ... 
 
 586 
 
 14 
 
 Gartnaich, the son of Domelch, or Donald, 
 
 
 
 586 
 
 11 ... 
 
 597 
 
 15 
 
 Nectu, or Neohtan, the nephew of Verb, 
 
 
 
 597 
 
 20 ... 
 
 617 
 
 16 
 
 Cineooh, or Kenneth, the sou of Luthrin, 
 
 
 
 617 
 
 19 ... 
 
 636 
 
 17 
 
 Garnard, the son of Wid, 
 
 
 
 636 
 
 4 ... 
 
 640 
 
 18 
 
 Bridei, the son of Wid, 
 
 
 
 640 
 
 5 ... 
 
 645 
 
 19 
 
 Talorc, their brother, . 
 
 
 
 645 
 
 12 ... 
 
 657 
 
 20 
 
 Talloroan, the son of Enf ret, . 
 
 
 
 657 
 
 4 ... 
 
 661 
 
 21 
 
 Gartnait, the son of Donnel. . 
 
 
 
 661 
 
 6.i ... 
 
 667 
 
 22 
 
 Drest, his brother, 
 
 
 
 667 
 
 7 
 
 674 
 
 23 
 
 Bridei, the son of Bili, 
 
 
 
 674 
 
 21 '.'.'. 
 
 695 
 
 24 
 
 Tauan, the son of Entifidich, . 
 
 
 
 695 
 
 4 ... 
 
 699 
 
 25 
 
 Bridei, the son of Dereli, 
 
 
 
 699 
 
 11 ... 
 
 710 
 
 26 
 
 Nechton, the son of Dereli, 
 
 
 
 710 
 
 15 ... 
 
 725 
 
 27 
 
 Drest, and Elpin, 
 
 
 
 725 
 
 5 ... 
 
 730 
 
 28 
 
 Ungd"S, or Onnust, the son of Urguist, 
 
 
 
 730 
 
 31 ... 
 
 761 
 
 29 
 
 Bridei, the son of Wirguist, 
 
 
 
 761 
 
 2 ... 
 
 763 
 
 30 
 
 Ciniooh, or Kenneth, the son of Wredech, 
 
 
 
 763 
 
 12 ... 
 
 775 
 
 31 
 
 Elpin, the son of Wroid, 
 
 
 
 775 
 
 3i ... 
 
 779 
 
 32 
 
 Drest, the son of Talorgan, 
 
 
 
 779 
 
 5" ... 
 
 784 
 
 33 
 
 Talorgan, the son of Ungus or Angus, 
 
 
 
 784 
 
 n ... 
 
 7S6 
 
 34 
 
 Canaul, the son of Tarla, 
 
 
 l 786 
 
 5" .,, 
 
 791 
 
 35 
 
 Constantine, the son of Urguist, 
 
 
 791 
 
 30 ... 
 
 821 
 
 36 
 
 Ungus, the son of Urguist, 
 
 
 
 S21 
 
 12 ... 
 
 833 
 
 37 
 
 Drest, the son of Constantine, and Talorgan, th 
 Wthoil, .... 
 
 e son of ( 
 
 833 
 
 3 ... 
 
 836 
 
 38 
 
 Uuen, or Uven, the son of Ungus, 
 
 
 836 
 
 3 ... 
 
 839 
 
 39 
 
 Wrad, the son of Bargoit, 
 
 
 839 
 
 3 ... 
 
 842 
 
 40 
 
 Bred, or Biuddi, 
 
 
 S42 
 
 1 ... 
 
 843 
 
GENEEAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF THE SCOTO-IRISH KINGS, 
 FROM THE YEAR 503 TO 843. 
 
 Series. 
 
 NAMES AND FILIATIONS. 
 
 Date of 
 Accession. 
 
 Duration of 
 Reigns. 
 
 Date 
 
 of 
 
 Death. 
 
 
 A. D. 
 
 Years. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 1 
 
 Fekgds, the son of Ere. .... 
 
 503 
 
 3 
 
 506 
 
 2 
 
 Domangart. the son of Fergus. 
 
 
 
 506 
 
 5 
 
 511 
 
 3 
 
 Comqal, the son of Domangart, 
 
 
 
 511 
 
 24 
 
 535 
 
 4 
 
 Gavran, the son of Domangart. 
 
 
 
 535 
 
 22 
 
 557 
 
 D 
 
 Conal, the son of Comgal, 
 
 
 
 557 
 
 14 
 
 571 
 
 6 
 
 Aidan, the son of Gavran, 
 
 
 
 571 
 
 34 
 
 605 
 
 7 
 
 EoACHA'-Bui, the son of Aidan, 
 
 
 
 605 
 
 16 
 
 621 
 
 S 
 
 KENNETH-Cear, the son of Eoacha'-Bui, 
 
 
 
 621 
 
 i 
 
 621 
 
 9 
 
 Ferchak, the son of Eogan, the first of the 
 Lorn, .... 
 
 race of 1 
 
 621 
 
 16 
 
 637 
 
 10 
 
 Donal-Breac, the son of Eoacha'-Bui, . 
 
 
 637 
 
 5 
 
 642 
 
 11 
 
 Conal II., the grandson of Conal I. 
 
 t 
 
 642 
 
 10 
 
 652 
 
 12 
 
 Dungal reigned some years with Conal, 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 
 13 
 
 DoNAL-Duin, the son of Conal, . 
 
 
 652 
 
 13 
 
 665 
 
 14 
 
 MAOL-Duin, the son of Conal, . 
 
 
 665 
 
 16 
 
 6S1 
 
 15 
 
 FERCHAR-Fada, the grandson of Ferchar 1., 
 
 
 681 
 
 21 
 
 702 
 
 16 
 
 EoACHA'-Rinevel, the son of Domangart, and th 
 
 e grand- ) 
 
 702 
 
 3 
 
 705 
 
 
 son of Donal-hreac, . 
 
 17 
 
 Ainbhcealach, the son of Ferchar-fada, 
 
 
 705 
 
 1 
 
 706 
 
 I 18 
 
 Selvach, the son of Ferchar-fada, reigned over Lorn") 
 from 706 to 729, .... 
 
 
 
 
 19 
 
 Duncha Beg reigned over Cantyre and Argaill till 720, 1 
 
 706 
 
 27 
 
 733 
 
 20 
 
 Eocha' III., the son of Eoacha'-rinevel, over Cantyre / 
 and Argaill, from 720 to 729; and also over Lorn 
 from 729 to 733, .... 
 
 
 
 
 21 
 
 Muredach, the son of Ainbhcealach, . 
 
 
 733 
 
 3 
 
 736 
 
 22 
 
 Eogan, the son of Muredach, 
 
 
 
 736 
 
 3 
 
 739 
 
 23 
 
 AoDH-Fiu, the son of Eoacha' III. , 
 
 
 
 739 
 
 30 
 
 769 
 
 24 
 
 Fergus, the son of Aodh-fin, 
 
 
 
 769 
 
 3 
 
 772 
 
 25 
 
 Selvach II., the son of Eogan. 
 
 
 
 772 
 
 24 
 
 796 
 
 26 
 
 EoACHA'-Annuine IV., the son of Aodh-fin, 
 
 
 
 796 
 
 30 
 
 826 
 
 27 
 
 Dungal. the son of Selvach II., 
 
 
 
 826 
 
 7 
 
 833 
 
 2S 
 
 Alpin, the son of Eoacha'-Annuine IV. . 
 
 
 
 833 
 
 3 
 
 S36 
 
 29 
 
 Kenneth, the son of Alpin, 
 
 
 836 
 
 7 
 
 843 
 
 It is riglit to mention that the Albanic Duan 
 omits the names between Ainbhcealach and 
 Dungal (17 — 27), most of which, however, are 
 contained in the St. Andrews' list. 
 
 GHAPTEE IV. 
 
 A. D. 843—1107. 
 
 The Norse Invasions — Kenneth— Constantine — Aodh 
 — Grig and Eocha — Donald IV. — Constantine III. 
 — Danes — Battle of Brunanburg— Malcolm I. — In- 
 dulph— Dnff— Culen— Kenneth III.— Battle of Lun- 
 carty — Malcolm II. — Danes — Duncan — Thorfinn, 
 Jarl of Orkney — Macbeth — Battle with Siwanl — Lu- 
 lach — Malcolm III. (Ceanmore) — Queen Margaret — 
 Effect of Norwegian Conquest — Donal-bane — Edgar 
 — Norsemen — Influx of Anglo-Saxons — Isolation of 
 Highlands — Table of Kings. 
 
 For about two centuries after the union of the 
 two kingdoms, the principal facts to be re- 
 corded are the extension of the Scottish do- 
 minion southwards beyond the Forth and 
 
 Clyde, towards the present border, and north- 
 wards beyond Inverness, and the fierce con- 
 tests that took place with the " hardy Norse- 
 men " of Scandinavia and Denmark, who dur- 
 ing this period continued not only to pour 
 down upon the coasts and islands of Scotland, 
 but to sway the destinies of the whole of Eu- 
 rope. During this time the history of the 
 Highlands is still to a great extent the history 
 of Scotland, and it was not till about the 12th 
 century that the Highlanders became, strictly 
 speaking, a peculiar people, confined to the 
 territory whose boundaries were indicated in 
 the first chapter, having for their neighbours 
 on the east and south a population of undoubt- 
 edly Teutonic origin. The Norse invasions not 
 only kept Scotland in continual commotion at 
 the time, but must have exercised an impor- 
 tant influence on its whole history, and contri- 
 buted a new and vigorous element to its popu- 
 lation. These Vikingr. about the end of the 
 
KENNETH— CONSTANTINE. 
 
 10 
 
 9th. century, became so powerful as to be able 
 to establish a separate and independent king- 
 dom in Orkney and the Western Islands, which 
 proved formidable not only to the Icing of 
 Scotland, but also to the powerful king of 
 Norway. " It is difficult to give them dis- 
 tinctness without risk of error, and it is even 
 hard to decide how far the mark left by these 
 visitors is, on the one hand, the brand of the 
 devastating conqueror; or, on the other hand, 
 the planting among the people then inhabiting 
 Scotland of a high-conditioned race — a race 
 uniting freedom and honesty in spirit with a 
 strong and healthy physical organization. It 
 was in the north that the inroad preserved its 
 most distinctive character, probably from its 
 weight, as most completely overwhelming the 
 original population, whatever they might be ; 
 and though, in the histories, the king of Scots 
 appears to rule the northern end of Britain, the 
 territory beyond Inverness and Fort- William 
 had aggregated in some way round a local 
 magnate, who afterwards appears as a Maormor. 
 He was not a viceroy of the king of Norway: 
 and if he was in any way at the order of the 
 King of Scotland, he was not an obedient subor- 
 dinate." 6 
 
 Up to the time of Maebeda or Macbeth, the 
 principle of hereditary succession to the throne, 
 from father to son, appears not to have been 
 recognised; the only principle, except force, 
 which seems to have been acted upon being 
 that of collateral succession, brother succeeding 
 to brother, and nephew to uncle. After the 
 time of Macbeth, however, the hereditary 
 principle appears to have come into full force, 
 to have been recognised as that by which alone 
 succession to the throne was to be regulated. 
 
 The consolidation of the Scottish and Pict- 
 ish power under one supreme chief, enabled 
 these nations not only to repel foreign aggres- 
 sion, but afterwards to enlarge their territories 
 beyond the Forth, which had hitherto formed, 
 for many ages, the Pictish boundary on the 
 south. 
 
 Although the power of the tribes to the 
 north of the Forth was greatly augmented by 
 the union which had taken place, yet all the 
 genius and warlike energy of Kenneth were 
 
 6 Burton's Scotland, vol. i. p. 354. 
 
 necessary to protect him and his people from 
 insult. Eagnor Lodbrog (i. e., Pbagnor of the 
 Shaggy Bones,) with his fierce Danes infested 
 the country round the Tay on the one side, and 
 the Strathclyde Britons on the other, wasted 
 the adjo in ing territories, and burnt Dunblane. 
 Yet Kenneth overcame these embarrassments, 
 and made frequent incursions into the Saxon 
 territories in Lothian, and caused his foes to 
 tremble. After a brilliant and successful reign, 
 Kenneth died at Forteviot, the Pictish. capital, 
 7 miles S.W. of Perth, on the 6th of February, 
 859, after a reign of twenty-three years. Ken- 
 neth, it is said, removed the famous stone 
 which now sustains the coronation chair at 
 Westminster Abbey, from the ancient seat of 
 the Scottish monarchy in Argyle, to Scone. 
 Kenneth (but according to some Constantine, 
 the Pictish king, in 820), built a church at 
 Dunkeld, to which, in 850, he removed the 
 relics of St. Columba from Iona, which at this 
 time was frequently subjected to the ravages 
 of the Norsemen. He is celebrated also as a 
 legislator, but no authentic traces of his laws 
 now appear, the Macalpine laws attributed 
 to the son of Alpin being clearly apocryphal. 
 
 The sceptre was assumed by Donald III., 
 son of Alpin. He died in the year 863, after 
 a short reign of four years. It is said he re- 
 stored the laws of Aodh-fin, the son of Eocha 
 III. They were probably similar to the an- 
 cient Brehon laws of Ireland. 
 
 Constantine, the son of Kenneth, succeeded 
 his uncle Donald, and soon found himself in- 
 volved in a dreadful conflict with the Danish 
 pirates. Having, after a contest which lasted 
 half a century, established themselves in Ire- 
 land, and obtained secure possession of Dublin, 
 the Vikingr directed their views towards the 
 western coasts of Scotland, which they laid 
 waste. These ravages were afterwards ex- 
 tended to the whole of the eastern coast, and 
 particularly to the shores of the Frith of Forth ; 
 but although the invaders were often repulsed, 
 they never ceased to Tenew their attacks. In 
 the year 881, Constantine, in repelling an at- 
 tack of the pirates, was slain at a place called 
 Merdo-fatha, or Werdo, probably the present 
 Perth, according to Maclauchlan. 
 
 AocLh. or Hugh, the fair-haired, succeeded 
 his brother Constantine. His reign was un- 
 
50 
 
 GENERAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 fortunate, short, and troublesome. Grig, who 
 was Maormor, or chief, of the country between 
 the Dee and the Spey, having become a com- 
 petitor for the crown, Aodh endeavoured to 
 put him down, but did not succeed; and having 
 been wounded in a battle fought at Strath- 
 allan, (or possibly Strathdon,) he was carried 
 to Inverurie, where he died, after lingering two 
 months, having held the sceptre only one year. 
 
 Grig now assumed the crown, and, either to 
 secure his possession, or from some other 
 motive, he associated with him in the govern- 
 ment Eocha, son of Ku, the British king of 
 Strathclyde, and the grandson, by a daughter, 
 of Kenneth Macalpin. After a reign of eleven 
 years, both Eocha and Grig were forced to ab- 
 dicate, and gave way to 
 
 Donald IV., who succeeded them in S93. 
 During his reign the kingdom was infested by 
 the piratical incursions of the Danes. Al- 
 though they were defeated by Donald in a 
 bloody action at Collin, said to be on the Tay, 
 near Scone, they returned under Ivar O'lvar, 
 from Ireland, in the year 904, but were gallantly 
 repulsed, and their leader killed in a threat- 
 ened attack on Forteviot, by Donald, who un- 
 fortunately also perished, after a reign of eleven 
 years. In his reign the kings of present Scot- 
 land are no longer called reges Pictorum by the 
 Irish Annalists, but Hi Alban, or kings of 
 Alban ; and in the Pictish Chronicle Pictavia 
 gives place to Albania. 
 
 Constantine III. , the son of Aodh, a prince 
 of a warlike and enterprising character, next 
 followed. He had to sustain, during an un- 
 usually long reign, the repeated attacks of the 
 Danes. In one invasion they plundered Dun- 
 keld, and in 908, they attempted to obtain the 
 grand object of their designs, the possession of 
 Forteviot in Strathearn, the Pictish capital ; 
 but in this design they were again defeated, 
 and forced to abandon the country. The Danes 
 remained quiet for a few years, but in 918 their 
 fleet entered the Clyde, from Ireland, under 
 the command of Reginald, where they were 
 attacked by the Scots in conjunction with the 
 Northern Saxons, whom the ties of common 
 safety had now united for mutual defence. 
 Reginald is said to have drawn up his Danes 
 in four divisions ; the first headed by Godfrey 
 O'lvar ; the second by Earls ; the third by 
 
 Chieftains ; and the fourth by Reginald himself, 
 as a reserve. The Scots, with Constantine at 
 their head, made a furious attack on the first 
 three divisions, which they forced to retire. 
 Reginald's reserve not being available to turn 
 the scale of victory against the Scots, the Danes 
 retreated during the night, and embarked on 
 board their fleet. 
 
 After this defeat of the Danes, Constantine 
 enjoyed many years' repose. A long grudge 
 had existed between him and iEthelstane, son 
 of Edward, the elder, which at last came to an 
 open rupture. Having formed an alliance with 
 several princes, and particularly with Anlof. 
 king of Dublin as well as of Northumberland, 
 and son-in-law of Constantine, the latter col- 
 lected a large fleet in the year 937, with which 
 he entered the Humber. The hope of plunder 
 had attracted many of the Vikingr to Constan- 
 tine's standard, and the sceptre of iEthelstanc- 
 seemed now to tremble in his hand. But that 
 monarch was fully prepared for the dangers 
 with which he was threatened, and resolved to 
 meet his enemies in battle. After a long, 
 bloody, and obstinate contest at Brunanburg, 
 near the southern shore of the Humber, victory 
 declared for IEthelstane. Prodigies of valour 
 were displayed on both sides, especially by 
 Turketel, the Chancellor of England ; by Anlof, 
 and by the son of Constantine, who lost his 
 life. The confederates, after sustaining a heavy 
 loss, sought for safety in their ships. This, 
 and after misfortunes, possibly disgusted Con- 
 stantine with the vanities of this world, for, 
 in the fortieth year of his reign, he put into 
 practice a resolution which he had formed of 
 resigning his crown and embracing a monastic 
 life. He became Abbot of the Monastery of 
 St. Andrews in 943, and thus ended a long 
 and chequered, but vigorous, and, on the whole, 
 successful reign in a cloister, like Charles V. 
 Towards the end of this reign the term Scot- 
 land was applied to this kingdom by the 
 Saxons, a term which before had been given 
 by them to Ireland. Constantine died in 952. 
 Malcolm I., the son of Donald IV., obtained 
 the abdicated throne. He was a prince of 
 great abilities and prudence, and Edmund of 
 England courted his alliance by ceding Cum- 
 bria, then consisting of Cumberland and part 
 of Westmoreland, to him, in the year 945, on 
 
CONTESTS WITH DANES. 
 
 51 
 
 condition that lie would defend that northern 
 county, and become the ally of Edmund. Ed- 
 red, the brother and successor of Edmund, ac- 
 cordingly applied for, and obtained the aid of 
 Malcolm against Anlaf, king of Northumber- 
 land, whose country, according to the barbarous 
 practice of the times, he wasted, and carried 
 off the people with then - cattle. Malcolm, 
 after putting down an insurrection of the 
 Moray-men under Cellach, their Maormor, or 
 chief, whom he slew, was sometime thereafter 
 slain, as is supposed, at Ulurn or Auldearn in 
 Moray, by one of these men, in revenge for 
 the death of his chief. 
 
 Indulph, the son of Constantine III., suc- 
 ceeded the murdered monarch in the year 953. 
 He sustained many severe co nfli cts with the 
 Danes, and ultimately lost his life in 961, after 
 a reign of eight years, in a successful action 
 with these pirates, on the moor which lies to 
 the westward of Cullen. 
 
 Duff, the son of Malcolm I., now mounted 
 the throne ; but Culen, the son of Indulf, laid 
 claim to the sceptre which his father had 
 wielded. The parties met at Drum Crup (pro- 
 bably Crieff), and, after a doubtful struggle, 
 in which Doncha, the Abbot of Dunkeld, and 
 Dubdou, the Maormor of Athole, the partisans 
 of Culen, lost their lives, victory declared for 
 Duff. But this triumph was of short duration, 
 for Duff was afterwards obliged to retreat from 
 Forteviot into the north, and was assassinated 
 at Forres in the year 965, after a brief and un- 
 happy reign of four years and a half. 
 
 Culen, the son of Indulf, succeeded, as a 
 matter of course, to the crown of Duff, which 
 he stained by his vices. He and his brother 
 Eocha were slain in Lothian, in an action with 
 the Britons of Strathclyde in 970, after an in- 
 glorious reign of four years and a half. Dur- 
 ing his reign Edinburgh was captured from 
 the English, this being the first known step 
 in the progress of the gradual extension of the 
 Scottish kingdom between the Forth and the 
 Tweed. 7 
 
 Kenneth III., son of Malcolm I., and brother 
 of Duff, succeeded Culen the same year. He 
 waged a successful war against the Britons of 
 Strathclyde, and annexed their territories to 
 
 7 Robertson's Early Kings, vol. i. p. 76. 
 
 his kingdom. During his reign the Danes 
 meditated an attack upon Forteviot, or Dun- 
 keld, for the purposes of plunder, and, with 
 this view, they sailed up the Tay with a nu- 
 merous fleet. Kenneth does not appear to 
 have been fully prepared, being probably not 
 aware of the intentions of the enemy ; but col- 
 lecting as many of his chiefs and their followers 
 as the spur of the occasion would allow, he 
 met the Danes at Luncarty, in the vicinity of 
 Perth. Malcolm, the Tanist, prince of Cum- 
 berland, it is said, commanded the right wing 
 of the Scottish army; Duncan, the Maormor 
 of Athole, had the charge of the left: and 
 Kenneth, the king, commanded the centre. 
 The Danes with their battle-axes made dread- 
 ful havoc, and compelled the Scottish army 
 to give way; but the latter was rallied hy 
 the famous Hay, the traditional ancestor of 
 the Kinnoul family, and finally repulsed the 
 Danes, who, as usual, fled to their ships. Bur- 
 ton thinks the battle of Luncarty " a recent 
 invention." 
 
 The defeat of the Danes enabled Kenneth 
 to turn his attention to the domestic concerns 
 of his kingdom. He appears to have directed 
 his thoughts to bring about a complete change 
 in the mode of succession to the crown, in or- 
 der to perpetuate in and confine the crown to 
 his own descendants. This alteration could 
 not be well accomplished as long as Malcolm, 
 the son of Duff, the Tanist of the kingdom, 
 and prince of Cumberland, stood in the way; 
 and, accordingly, it has been said that Kenneth 
 was the cause of the untimely death of prince 
 Malcolm, who is stated to have been poisoned. 
 It is said that Kenneth got an act passed, 
 that in future the son, or nearest male heir, of 
 the king, should always succeed to the throne ; 
 and that in case that son or heir were not of 
 age at the time of the king's demise, that a 
 person of rank should be chosen Regent of the 
 kingdom, until the minor attained his four- 
 teenth year, when he should assume the reins 
 of government; but whether such a law was 
 really passed on the moot-hill of Scone or not, 
 of which we have no evidence, certain it is 
 that two other princes succeeded to the crown 
 before Malcolm the son of Kenneth. Ken- 
 neth, after a reign of twenty-four years, was, it 
 is said, in 994 assassinated at Fettercairn by 
 
r>2 
 
 GENEKAL H1ST0EY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 Finella, 8 the wife of the Maormor of the 
 Mearns, and the daughter of Cunechat, the 
 Maormor of Angus, in revenge for having put 
 her only son to death. It has been thought 
 that till this time the Maormorship of Angus 
 was in some measure independent of the Scot- 
 tish crown, never having thoroughly yielded 
 to its supremacy, that the death of the young 
 chief took place in course of an effort on the 
 part of Kenneth for its reduction, and that 
 Kenneth himself was on a visit to the quarter 
 at the time of his death, for exacting the usual 
 royal privileges of cam and cuairt, or a certain 
 tax and certain provision for the king and his 
 followers when on a journey, due by the chiefs 
 or landholders of the kingdom. 9 
 
 Constantine IV., son of Culen, succeeded; 
 but his right was disputed by Kenneth, the 
 Grim, i. e. strong, son of Duff. The dis- 
 pute was decided at Eathveramon, i. e. the 
 castle at the mouth of the Almond, near 
 Perth, where Constantine lost his life in the 
 year 995. 
 
 Kenneth IV., the son of Duff, now obtained 
 the sceptre which he had coveted ; but he was 
 disturbed in the possession thereof by Malcolm, 
 the son of Kenneth III., heir presumptive to 
 the crown. Malcolm took the held in 1003, 
 and decided his claim to the crown in a bloody 
 battle at Monivaird, in Strathearn, in which 
 Kenneth, after a noble resistance, received a 
 mortal wound. 
 
 Malcolm II. now ascended the vacant throne, 
 but was not destined to enjoy repose. At the 
 very beginning of his reign he was defeated at 
 Durham by the army of the Earl of Northum- 
 berland, under his son Uchtred, who ordered 
 a selection of good-looking Scotch heads to he 
 stuck on the walls of Durham. 
 
 The Danes, who had now obtained a firm 
 footing in England, directed their attention in 
 an especial manner to Scotland, which they were 
 in. hopes of subduing. Sigurd, the Earl of 
 Orkney, carried on a harassing and predatory 
 warfare on the shores of the Moray Frith, 
 which he continued even after a matrimonial 
 alliance he formed with Malcolm, by marrying 
 
 8 According to Skene, Finella is a corruption of 
 Finuelc or Finole Cunchar, Earl of Angus. — Skene's 
 Annals of the Picts and Scots, p. cxliv. 
 
 9 Maclauchlan's Early Scottish Church, p. 306. 
 Robertson's Scot, under her Early Kings, vol. i. p. 88. 
 
 his daughter ; but this was no singular trait in 
 the character of a Vikingr, who plundered 
 friends and foes with equal pleasure. The 
 scene of Sigurd's operations was chosen by 
 his brother northmen for making a descent, 
 which they effected near Speyniouth. They 
 carried fire and sword through Moray, and 
 laid siege to the fortress of Nairn, one of 
 the strongest in the north. The Danes were 
 forced to raise the siege for a time, by Mal- 
 colm, who encamped his army in a plain near 
 Kilflos or Kinloss. In this position he was 
 attacked by the invaders, and, after a severe 
 action, was forced to retreat, after being seri- 
 ously wounded. 
 
 Malcolm, in 1010, marched north with his 
 army, and encamped at Mortlach. The Danes 
 advanced to meet the Scots, and a dreadful 
 and fierce conflict ensued, the result of which 
 was long dubious. At length the northmen 
 gave way and victory declared for Malcolm. 
 Had the Danes succeeded they would in all 
 probability have obtained as permanent a foot- 
 ing in North Britain as they did in England ; 
 but the Scottish kings were determined, at all 
 hazards, never to suffer them to pollute the soil 
 of Scotland by allowing them even the smallest 
 settlement in their dominions. In gratitude 
 to God for his victory, Malcolm endowed a 
 religious house at Mortlach, with its church 
 erected near the scene of action. Maclauchlan, 
 however, maintains that this church was 
 planted by Malcolm Ceanmore. 
 
 Many other conflicts are narrated with mi- 
 nute detail by the later chroniclers as having 
 taken place between Malcolm and the Danes, 
 but it is very doubtful how far these are wor- 
 thy of credit. That Malcolm had enough to 
 do to prevent the Danes from overrunning 
 Scotland and subduing the inhabitants can 
 readily be believed ; but as we have few au- 
 thentic particulars concerning the conflicts 
 which took place, it would serve no purpose 
 to give the imaginary details invented by com- 
 paratively recent historians. 
 
 Some time after this Malcolm was engaged 
 in a war with the Northumbrians, and, having 
 led his army, in 1018, to Carham, near Werk, 
 on the southern bank of the Tweed, where he 
 was met by Uchtred, the Earl of Northumber- 
 land, a desperate battle took place, which was 
 
MALCOLM— DUNCAN. 
 
 53 
 
 contested with, great valour on both sides. 1 
 The success was doubtful on either side, though 
 Uchtred claimed a victory; hut he did not 
 long enjoy the fruits of it, as he was soon 
 thereafter assassinated when on his road to 
 pay obeisance to the great Canute. Endulf, 
 the brother and successor of Uchtred, justly 
 dreading the power of the Scots, was induced 
 to cede Lothian to Malcolm for ever, who, on 
 this occasion, gave oblations to the churches 
 and gifts to the clergy, and they in return 
 transmitted his name to posterity. He was 
 designed, par excellence, by the Latin chroni- 
 clers, rex victoriosissimus ; by St. Berchan, the 
 Forranach or destroyer. 
 
 The last struggle with which Malcolm was 
 threatened, was with, the celebrated Canute, 
 who, for some cause or other not properly ex- 
 plained, entered Scotland in the year 1031 ; 
 but these powerful parties appear not to have 
 come to action. Canute's expedition appears, 
 from what followed, to have been fitted out to 
 compel Malcolm to do homage for Cumber- 
 land, for it is certain that Malcolm engaged to 
 fulfil the conditions on which his predecessors 
 had held that country, and that Canute there- 
 after returned to England. 
 
 But the reign of Malcolm was not only dis- 
 tinguished by foreign wars, but by civil con- 
 tests between rival chiefs. Finlegh, the Maor- 
 mor of Boss, and the father of Macbeth, was 
 assassinated in 1020, and about twelve years 
 thereafter, Maolbride, the Maormor of Moray, 
 grandfather of Lulach, was, in revenge for 
 Finlegh's murder, burnt within his castle, with 
 fifty of his men. 
 
 At length, after a splendid reign of thirty 
 years, Malcolm slept with his fathers, and his 
 body was transferred to Iona, and interred 
 with due solemnity among the remains of his 
 predecessors. By some authorities he is said 
 to have been assassinated at Glammis. 
 
 Malcolm was undoubtedly a prince of great 
 acquirements. He made many changes and 
 some improvements in the internal policy of his 
 kingdom, and in him religion always found a 
 guardian and protector. But although Mal- 
 
 1 The last we hear of any king or ruler of Strath- 
 clyde was one that fought on Malcolm's side in this 
 battle ; and presently afterwards the attenuated state 
 is found, without auy conflict, absorbed in the Scots 
 king's dominions. — Burton, vol. i. p. 367. 
 
 cohn is justly entitled to this praise, he by no 
 means came up to the standard of perfection 
 assigned him by fiction. In his reign Scot- 
 land appears to have reached its present bound- 
 ary on the south, the Tweed, and Strathclyde 
 was incorporated with the rest of the kingdom. 
 Malcolm was the first who was called Rex 
 Scotice, and might justly claim to be so desig- 
 nated, seeing that he was the first to hold 
 sway over nearly the whole of present Scot- 
 land, — the only portions where his authority 
 appears to have been seriously disputed being 
 those in which the Danes had established 
 themselves. 
 
 Duncan, son of Bethoc or Beatrice, daughter 
 of Malcolm II., succeeded his grandfather in 
 the year 1033. " In the extreme north, do- 
 minions more extensive than any Jarl of the 
 Orkneys had hitherto acquired, were united 
 under the rule of Thorfinn, Sigurd's son, whose 
 character and appearance have been thus de- 
 scribed : — ' He was stout and strong, but very 
 ugly, severe and cruel, but a very clever man.' 
 The extensive districts then dependant upon 
 the Moray Maormors were in the possession of 
 the celebrated Macbeth." 2 Duncan, in 1033, 
 desiring to extend his dominions southwards, 
 attacked Durham, but was forced to retire 
 with considerable loss. His principal strug- 
 gles, however, were with his powerful kins- 
 man, Thorfinn, whose success was so great that 
 he extended his conquests as far as the Tay. 
 " His men spread over the whole conquered 
 country," says the Orlmeyinga Saga, 3 " and 
 burnt every hamlet and farm, so that not a cot 
 remained. Every man that they found they 
 slew ; but the old men and women fled to the 
 deserts and woods, and filled the country with 
 lamentation. Some were driven before the 
 Norwegians and made slaves. After this Earl 
 Thorfinn returned to his ships, subjugating the 
 country everywhere in his progress," Duncan's 
 last battle, in which he was defeated, was in 
 the neighbourhood of Burghead, near the 
 Moray Frith ; and shortly after this, on the 
 14th August, 1040, he was assassinated in 
 Bothgowanan, — which, in Gaelic, is said to 
 mean " the smith's hut," — by his kinsman the 
 
 2 Robertson's Early Kings, vol. i. p. 113. 
 
 J As quoted by Skene, Highlanders, vol. i. p. 11:?. 
 
54 
 
 GENERAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 Maornior Macbeda or Macbeth. Duncan had 
 reigned only five years when he was assassi- 
 nated by Macbeth, leaving two infant sons, 
 Malcolm and Donal, by a sister of Siward, the 
 Earl of Northumberland. The former fled to 
 Cumberland, and the latter took refuge in the 
 Hebrides, on the death of their father. 
 
 Macbeth, " snorting with the indigested 
 fumes of the blood of his sovereign," imme- 
 diately seized the gory sceptre. As several 
 fictions have been propagated concerning the 
 history and genealogy of Macbeth, we may 
 mention that, according to the most authentic 
 authorities, he was by birth Thane of Eoss, and 
 by his marriage with the Lady Gruoch, — who 
 had a claim to the throne, as granddaughter of 
 Kenneth, — became also Thane of Moray, dur- 
 ing the minority of Lulacli, the infant son of 
 that lady, by her former marriage with Gilcom- 
 gain, the Maormor or Thane of Moray. Lady 
 Gruoch was the daughter of Boedhe, son of 
 Kenneth IV. ; and thus Macbeth united in his 
 own person many powerful interests which en- 
 abled him to take quiet possession of the 
 throne of the murdered sovereign. He, of 
 course, found no difficulty in getting himself 
 inaugurated at Scone, under the protection of 
 the clans of Moray and Eoss, and the aid of 
 those who favoured the pretensions of the de- 
 scendants of Kenneth IV. 
 
 Various attempts were made on the part of 
 the partisans of Malcolm, son of Duncan, to 
 dispossess Macbeth of the throne. The most 
 formidable was that of Siward, the powerful 
 Earl of Northumberland, and the relation of 
 Malcolm, who, at the instigation or command 
 of Edward the Confessor, led a numerous army 
 into Scotland in the year 1054. They marched 
 as far north as Divnsinnan, where they were met 
 by Macbeth, who commanded his troops in 
 person. A furious battle ensued, but Macbeth 
 fled from the field after many displays of cour- 
 age. The Scots lost 3,000 men, and the Sax- 
 ons 1,500, including Osbert, the son of Siward. 
 Macbeth retired to his fastnesses in the north, 
 and Siward returned to Northumberland; but 
 Malcolm continued the war till the death of 
 Macbeth, who was slain by Macduff, Thane of 
 Fife, in revenge for the cruelties he had in- 
 flicted on his family, at Lumphanan, in Aber- 
 deenshire, in the year 1056, although, accord- 
 
 ing to Skene (Chronicles), it was in August, 
 1057. 
 
 Macbeth was unquestionably a man of 
 great vigour, and well fitted to govern in the 
 age in which he lived ; and had it not been 
 for the indelible character bestowed upon him 
 by Shakespere (who probably followed the 
 chronicle of Holinshed), his character might 
 have stood well with posterity. " The deeds 
 which raised Macbeth and his wife to power 
 were not in appearance much worse than others 
 of their day done for similar ends. However 
 he may have gained his power, he exercised it 
 with good repute, according to the reports 
 nearest to his time." 4 Macbeth, " in a manner 
 sacred to splendid infamy," is the first Icing of 
 Scotland whose name appears in the ecclesias- 
 tical records as a benefactor of the church, and, 
 it would appear, the first who offered his ser- 
 vices to the Bishop of Borne. According to 
 the records of St. Andrews, he made a gift of 
 certain lands to the monastery of Lochleven, 
 and certainly sent money to the poor of Borne, 
 if, indeed, he did not himself make a pilgrim- 
 age to the holy city. 
 
 After the reign of Macbeth, the former irre- 
 gular and confusing mode of succession ceased, 
 and the hereditary principle was adopted and 
 acted upon. 
 
 Lulach, the great-grandson of Kenneth IV., 
 being supported by the powerful influence of 
 his own family, and that of the deceased 
 monarch, ascended the throne at the age of 
 twenty-five or twenty-six ; but his reign lasted 
 only a few months, he having fallen in battle 
 at Essie, in Strathbogie, in defending his crown 
 against Malcolm. The body of Lulach was in- 
 terred along with that of Macbeth, in Iona, the 
 common sepulchre, for many centuries, of tho 
 Scottish kings. 
 
 Malcolm ITT., better known in history by 
 the name of Malcolm Ceanmore, or great head, 
 vindicated his claim to the vacant throne, and 
 was crowned at Scone, 25th April, 1057. His 
 first care was to recompense those who had 
 assisted him in obtaining the sovereignty, 
 and it is said that he created new titles of 
 honour, by substituting earls for thanes ; but 
 this has been disputed, and there are really no 
 
 4 Burton's Scotland, vol. i. p. 372. 
 
 
MALCOLM— POPULATION. 
 
 55 
 
 data from which a certain conclusion can be 
 drawn. 
 
 In the year 1059 Malcolm paid a visit to 
 Edward the Confessor, during whose reign he 
 lived on amicable terms with the English ; but 
 after the death of that monarch he made a 
 hostile incursion into Northumberland, and 
 wasted the country.- He even violated the 
 peace of St. Cuthbert in Holy Island. 
 
 "William, Duke of Normandy, having over- 
 come Harold in the battle of Hastings, on the 
 14th October, 1066, Edgar .ZEtheling saw no 
 hopes of obtaining the crown, and left Eng- 
 land along with his mother and sisters, and 
 sought refuge in Scotland. Malcolm, on hear- 
 ing of the distress of the illustrious strangers, 
 left his royal palace at Dunfermline to meet 
 them, and invited them to Dunfermline, where 
 they were hospitably entertained. Margaret, 
 one of Edgar's sisters, was a princess of great 
 virtues and accomplishments ; and she at once 
 won the heart of Malcolm. 
 
 The offer of his hand was accepted, and their 
 nuptials were celebrated with great solemnity 
 and splendour. This queen was a blessing to 
 the king and to the nation, and appears to 
 have well merited the appellation of Saint. 
 There are few females in history who can be 
 compared with Queen Margaret. 
 
 It is quite unnecessary, and apart from the 
 object of the present work, to enter into any 
 details of the wars between Malcolm and Wil- 
 liam the Conqueror, and William Eufus. Suf- 
 fice it to say that both Malcolm and his eldest 
 son Edward were slain in a battle on the Alne, 
 on the 13th November, 1093, after a reign of 
 thirty-six years. Queen Margaret, who was on 
 her death-bed when this catastrophe occurred, 
 died shortly after she received the intelligence 
 with great composure and resignation to the 
 will of God. Malcolm had six sons, viz., Ed- 
 ward, who was killed along with his father, 
 Edmund, Edgar, Ethelred, Alexander, and Da- 
 vid, and two daughters, Maud, who was mar- 
 ried to Henry I. of England, and Mary, who 
 married Eustache, Count of Boulogne. Of the 
 sons, Edgar, Alexander, and David, successively 
 came to the crown. 
 
 Thorfinn, Earl of Orkney, died in 1064, and 
 his extensive possessions in Scotland did not 
 revert to his descendants, but to the native 
 
 chiefs, who had had the original right to pos- 
 sess them. These chiefs appear to have been 
 independent of the Scottish sovereign, and to 
 have caused him no small amount of trouble- 
 A considerable part of Malcolm's reign was 
 spent in endeavouring to bring them into sub- 
 jection, and before his death he had the satis- 
 faction of seeing the whole of Scotland, with 
 perhaps the exception of Orkney, acknowledg- 
 ing him as sole monarch. The Norwegian 
 conquest appears to have effected a most im- 
 portant change in the character of the popu- 
 lation and language of the eastern lowlands of 
 the north of Scotland. The original po- 
 pulation must in some way have given way 
 to a Norwegian one, and, whatever may 
 have been the original language, we find 
 after this one of a decidedly Teutonic char- 
 acter prevailing in this district, probably in- 
 troduced along with the Norse population. 
 " In the more mountainous and Highland dis- 
 tricts, however, we are warranted in conclud- 
 ing that the effect must have been very differ- 
 ent, and that the possession of the country by 
 the Norwegians for thirty years could have ex- 
 ercised as little permanent influence on the 
 population itself, as we are assured by the Saga 
 it did upon the race of their chiefs. 
 
 " Previously to this conquest the northern 
 Gaelic race possessed the whole of the north of 
 Scotland, from the western to the eastern sea, 
 and the general change produced by the con- 
 quest must have been, that the Gael were for 
 the first time confined within those limits which 
 they have never since exceeded, and that the 
 eastern districts became inhabited by that 
 Gothic race, who have also ever since possessed 
 them." 5 
 
 On the demise of Malcolm, Donal-bane Iris 
 brother assumed the government ; but Duncan, 
 the son of Malcolm, who had lived many years 
 in England, and held a high military rank un- 
 der William Eufus, invaded Scotland with a 
 large army of English and Normans, and forced 
 Donal to retire for safety to the Hebrides. 
 Duncan, whom some writers suppose to have 
 been a bastard, and others a legitimate son of 
 Malcolm by a former wife, enjoj r ed the crown 
 only six months, having been assassinated by 
 
 s Skene's Highlanders, vol. i. p. 123. 
 
5G 
 
 GENEEAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 Maolpeder, the Maormor of the Mearns, at 
 Menteith, at the instigation, it is believed, 
 of Donal. Duncan left, by his wife Ethreda, 
 daughter of Gospatriok, a son, "William, some- 
 times surnamed Fitz-Duncan. 
 
 Donal-bane again seized the sceptre, but 
 he survived Duncan only two years. Edgar 
 iEtheling having assembled an army in Eng- 
 land, entered Scotland, and made Donal pri- 
 soner in an action which took place in Septem- 
 ber 1097. He was imprisoned by orders of 
 Edgar, and died at Eoscobie in Forfarshire, 
 after having been deprived of his eyesight, ac- 
 cording to the usual practice of the age. The 
 series of the pure Scoto-Irish longs may be said 
 to have ended with Donal-bane. 
 
 The reign of Edgar, who appears to have 
 been of a gentle and peaceful disposition, is 
 almost devoid of incident, the principal events 
 being the marriage of his sister Matilda to the 
 English Henry, and the wasting and conquest 
 of the Western Islands by Magnus Olaveson 
 and his Norwegians. This last event had but 
 little effect on Scotland proper, as these Islands 
 at that time can hardly be said to have belonged 
 to it. These Norsemen appear to have settled 
 
 Seal of Edgar. 
 
 among and mixed with the native inhabitants, 
 and thus to have formed a population, spoken 
 of by the Irish Annalists under the name of 
 
 Gallgael, " a horde of pirates, plundering on 
 their owti account, and under their own leaders, 
 when they were not following the banner of 
 any of the greater sea-kings, whose fleets were 
 powerful enough to sweep the western seas, and 
 exact tribute from the lesser island chieftains." 6 
 Edgar died in 1107, and was succeeded by his 
 brother Alexander, whom . he enjoined to be- 
 stow upon his younger brother David the dis- 
 trict of Cumbria. 
 
 We have now arrived at an era in our his- 
 tory, when the line of demarcation between the 
 inhabitants of the Lowlands and Highlands of 
 Scotland begins to appear, and when, by the 
 influx of a Gothic race into the former, the 
 language of that part of North Britain is com- 
 pletely revolutionized, when a new dynasty or 
 race of sovereigns ascends the throne, and when 
 a great change takes places in the laws and 
 constitution of the kingdom. 
 
 Although the Anglo-Saxon colonization of 
 the Lowlands of Scotland does not come exactly 
 within the design of the present work; yet, as 
 forming an important feature in the history of 
 the Lowlands of Scotland, as contradistin- 
 guished from the Highlands, a slight notice of 
 it may not be uninteresting. 
 
 Shortly after the Eoman abdication of North 
 Britain in the year 446, which was soon suc- 
 ceeded by the final departure of the Eomans 
 from the British shores, the Saxons, a people 
 of Gothic origin, established themselves upon 
 the Tweed, and afterwards extended their set- 
 tlements to the Frith of Forth, and to the 
 banks of the Solway and the Clyde. About 
 the beginning of the sixth century the Dalriads, 
 as we have seen, landed in Kintyre and Ar- 
 gyle from the opposite coast of Ireland, 
 and colonized these districts, whence, in the 
 course of little more than two centuries, they 
 overspread the Highlands and western islands, 
 which their descendants have ever since con- 
 tinued to possess. Towards the end of the 
 eighth century, a fresh colony of Scots from 
 Ireland settled in Galloway among the Britons 
 and Saxons, and having overspread the whole 
 of that country, were afterwards joined by de- 
 tachments of the Scots of Kintyre and Argyle, 
 in connection with, whom they peopled that 
 
 Early Kings, vol. i. p. 1 60. 
 
CHANGES IN POPULATION" AND LANGUAGE. 
 
 57 
 
 peninsula. Besides these three races, who 
 made permanent settlements in Scotland, the 
 Scandinavians colonized the Orkney and Shet- 
 land islands, and also established themselves 
 on the coasts of Caithness and Sutherland, and 
 in the eastern part of the country north of the 
 Firth of Tay. 
 
 But notwithstanding these early settlements 
 of the Gothic race, the era of the Saxon colon- 
 ization of the Lowlands of Scotland is, with 
 more propriety, placed in the reign of Malcolm 
 Ceamnore, who, hy his marriage with a Saxon 
 princess, and the protection he gave to the 
 Anglo-Saxon fugitives who sought an asy- 
 lum in his dominions from the persecutions of 
 William the Conqueror and his Normans, laid 
 the foundations of those great changes which 
 took place in the reigns of his successors. 
 Malcolm, in his warlike incursions into North- 
 umberland and Durham, carried off immense 
 numbers of young men and women, who were 
 to be seen in the reign of David I. in almost 
 every village and house in Scotland. The 
 Gaelic population were quite averse to the set- 
 tlement of these strangers among them, and it 
 is said that the extravagant mode of living in- 
 troduced by the Saxon followers of Queen 
 Margaret, was one of the reasons which led to 
 their expulsion from Scotland, in the reign of 
 Donal-bane, who rendered himself popular with 
 his people by this unfriendly act. 
 
 This expulsion was, however, soon rendered 
 nugatory, for on the accession of Edgar, the 
 first sovereign of the Scoto-Saxon dynasty, 
 many distinguished Saxon fa mili es with their 
 followers settled in Scotland, to the heads of 
 which families the king made grants of land of 
 considerable extent. Pew of these foreigners 
 appear to have come into Scotland during the 
 reign of Alexander I., the brother and suc- 
 cessor of Edgar ; but vast numbers of Anglo- 
 Saxons, Anglo-Normans, and Flemings, estab- 
 lished themselves in Scotland in the reign of 
 David I. That prince had received his educa- 
 tion at the court of Henry I., and had married 
 Maud or Matilda, the only child of Waltheof, 
 Earl of Northumberland and Huntingdon, by 
 Judith, niece to William the Conqueror on the 
 mother's side. This lady had many vassals, 
 and when David came to the throne, in the 
 year 1124, he was followed by a thousand 
 
 Anglo-Normans, to whom he distributed lands, 
 on which they and their followers settled. 
 Many of the illustrious fa mili es in Scotland 
 originated from this source. 
 
 Malcolm Ceanmore had, before his accession 
 to the throne, resided for some time in Eng- 
 land as a fugitive, under the protection of Ed- 
 ward the Confessor, where he acquired a know- 
 ledge of the Saxon language ; which language, 
 after his marriage with the princess Margaret, 
 became that of the Scottish court. This cir- 
 cumstance made that language fashionable 
 among the Scottish nobility, in consequence of 
 which and of the Anglo-Saxon colonization un- 
 der David I., the Gaelic language was altogether 
 superseded in the Lowlands of Scotland in 
 little more than two centuries after the death 
 of Malcolm. A topographical line of demar- 
 cation was then fixed as the boundary between 
 the two languages, which has ever since been 
 kept up, and presents one of the most singular 
 phenomena ever observed in the history of 
 philology. 
 
 The change of the seat of government by 
 Kenneth, on ascending the Pictish throne, to 
 Abernethy, also followed by the removal of 
 the marble chair, the emblem of sovereignty, 
 from Dunstaffhage to Scone, appears to have 
 occasioned no detriment to the Gaelic popula- 
 tion of the Highlands ; but when Malcolm 
 Ceanmore transferred his court, about the year 
 1066, to Dunfermline, — which also became, in 
 place of Iona, the sepulchre of the Scottish 
 kings, — the rays of royal bounty, which had 
 hitherto diffused their protecting and benign in- 
 fluence over the inhabitants of the Highlands, 
 were withdrawn, and left them a prey to an- 
 archy and poverty. " The people," says Gen- 
 eral David Stewart, " now beyond the reach of 
 the laws, became turbulent and fierce, revenging 
 in person those wrongs for which the adminis- 
 trators of the laws were too distant and too 
 feeble to afford redress. Thence arose the 
 institution of chiefs, who naturally became the 
 judges and arbiters in the quarrels of their 
 clansmen and followers, and who were sur- 
 rounded by men devoted to the defence of 
 their rights, their property, and then- power : 
 and accordingly the chiefs established within 
 their own territories a jurisdiction almost 
 wholly independent of their liege lord." 
 
58 
 
 GENERAL HISTORY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 The connection which Malcolm and his suc- 
 cessors maintained with England, estranged 
 still farther the Highlanders from the dominion 
 of the sovereign and the laws ; and their his- 
 tory, after the population of the Lowlands had 
 merged into and adopted the language of the 
 Anglo-Saxons, presents, with the exception of 
 the wars between rival clans which will he no- 
 ticed afterwards, nothing remarkable till their 
 first appearance on the military theatre of our 
 national history in the campaigns of Montrose, 
 Dundee, and others. 
 
 On the accession of Alexander I., then, 
 Scotland was divided between the Celt and 
 the Saxon, or more strictly speaking, Teuton, 
 pretty much as it is at the present day, the 
 Gaelic population having become gradually 
 confined very nearly to the limits indicated in 
 the first chapter. They never appear, at least 
 until quite recently, to have taken kindly to 
 Teutonic customs and the Teutonic tongue, and 
 resented much the defection of their king in 
 
 court, in submitting to Saxon innovations. 
 Previous to this the history of the Highlands 
 has been, to a very great extent, the history of 
 Scotland, and even for a considerable time after 
 this, Scotia was applied strictly to the country 
 north of the Forth and Clyde, the district south 
 of that being known by various other names. 
 During and after Edgar's time, the whole of 
 the country north of the Tweed became more 
 and more a counterpart of England, with its 
 thanes, its earls, and its sheriffs ; and even the 
 Highland rnaormors assumed the title of earl, 
 in deference to the new customs. The High- 
 landers, however, it is well known, for cen- 
 turies warred against these Saxon innovations, 
 becoming more and more a peculiar people, 
 being, up till the end of the last century, a 
 perpetual thorn in the flesh of their Saxon 
 rulers and their Saxon fellow-subjects. They 
 have a history of their own, which we deem 
 worthy of narration. 1 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF THE SCOTTISH KINGS, FROM 843 
 TO 1097, ADJUSTED FROM THE BEST AUTHORITIES. 
 
 NAMES OF THE KINGS. 
 
 Date of 
 Accession. 
 
 Duration of 
 Reign. 
 
 " 1 
 Death. 
 
 
 A.D. 
 
 Years. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 Kenneth Macalpine over the Scots and Picts, 
 
 843 
 
 16 
 
 859 
 
 DoNAL MACALPIN, 
 
 
 859 
 
 4 
 
 863 
 
 Oonstantine II., son of Kenneth, 
 
 
 
 863 
 
 18 
 
 8S1 
 
 Aodh, or Hugh, the son of Kenneth, 
 
 
 
 881 
 
 1 
 
 882 
 
 Eocha, or Achy, or Grig, jointly, 
 
 
 
 882 
 
 11 
 
 893 
 
 Donal IV., the son of Constantine, 
 
 
 
 893 
 
 11 
 
 904 
 
 Constantine III., the son of Aodh, 
 
 
 
 904 
 
 40 
 
 944* 
 
 Malcolm I., son of Donal IV., 
 
 
 
 944 
 
 9 
 
 953 
 
 Indulf, the son of Constantine III., 
 
 
 
 953 
 
 8 
 
 961 
 
 Duf, the son of Malcolm I., 
 
 
 
 961 
 
 H 
 
 965 
 
 Culen, the son of Indulf, 
 
 
 
 965 
 
 4* 
 
 970 
 
 Kenneth III., son of Malcolm I., 
 
 
 
 970 
 
 24 
 
 994 
 
 Constantine IV., son of Culen, 
 
 
 
 994 
 
 li 
 
 995 
 
 Kenneth IV., son of Duf, 
 
 
 
 995 
 
 8 
 
 1003 
 
 Malcolm II., son of Kenneth III., 
 
 
 
 1003 
 
 30 
 
 1033 
 
 Duncan, grandson of Malcolm II., 
 
 
 
 1033 
 
 6 
 
 1039 
 
 Macbeth, son of Finlegh, 
 
 
 
 1039 
 
 17 
 
 1056 
 
 Lulach, son of Gruoch and Gilcomgain, 
 
 
 1056 
 
 4i 
 
 1057 
 
 Malcolm III., Ceanmore, son of Duncan, 
 
 
 1057 
 
 36* 
 
 1093 
 
 Donald Bane, son of Duncan, 
 
 
 1093 
 
 I 
 
 1094 
 
 Duncan II., son of Malcolm III., 
 
 
 1094 
 
 i 
 
 1094 
 
 Donald Bane again, 
 
 
 1094 
 
 3 
 
 1097 
 
 Edgar, son of Malcolm III., 
 
 
 1097 
 
 9 
 
 1106 
 
 1 Since the above was written, the Book of Deer has been published ; what further information is to be 
 gained from it will be found at the end of this volume. * Abdicated ; died 952. 
 
IXSUBBECTIOXS IX THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 59 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 i.D. 1107—1111. 
 
 KLNCS OF SCOTLAND DURING THE PERIOD : — 
 
 Alexander I.. 1107—1124. 
 David L, 1124—1153. 
 Malcolm IV., 1153—1165. 
 William the Lion. 1165—1214. 
 Alexander II., 1214—1249. 
 Alexander HI., 1249—1285. 
 Regency. 12S6— 1290. 
 Interresmim. 1290—1292. 
 John BalinL 1292—1306. 
 
 Kohert Bruce. 1306—1329. 
 David n., 1329—1332. 
 Edward Baliol. 1332—1341. 
 Dai id II. restored, 1341—1370. 
 Robert II. (Stewart), 1370— 
 
 1390. 
 Robert in.. 1390—1406. 
 James I., 1406 — 1436. 
 
 Alexander I. — David I. — Insurrections in Highlands — 
 Somerled — Moravmen and Malcolm IV. — William 
 The Lion — Disturbances in the Highlands — Ross- 
 shire — Orkney — Alexander II. — Argyle — Caithness 
 — Alexander III. — Disturbances in Ross — Expedi- 
 tion of Haco — Battle of Largs — Robert Brnce — Ex- 
 pedition into Lorn — Subdues Western Isles — Isles 
 revolt under David II. and again submit — Contest 
 between the Monroes and Clan Chattan — The Clan 
 Chattan and the Camerons — Battle on Xorth Inch — 
 Wolf of Badenoch — His son Alexander Stewart — 
 Disturbances in Sutherland — Lord of the Isles in- 
 vades Scotland — Battle of Harlaw. 
 
 The reign of Alexander I. was disturbed, about 
 the year 1116, by an attempt made by the 
 men of Moray and Heme to surprise the king 
 while enjoying himself at his favourite resi- 
 dence at LnvergowTie, on the north bank of 
 the Tay, not far from its mouth The king, 
 however, showed himself more than a match 
 for his enemies, as he not only defeated their 
 immediate purpose, but, pursuing them with his 
 army across the Moray Frith, chastised them 
 so effectually as to keep them quiet for the re- 
 mainder of his reign, which ended by his 
 death, in April, 1124. In 1130, six years 
 after the accession of King David I. to the 
 Scottish throne, while he was in England, the 
 Moravmen again rose against the semi- Saxon 
 king, but were defeated at Strickathrow, in 
 Forfarshire, by Edward the Constable, son of 
 Siward Beorn, Angus the Earl of Mora} T being 
 left among the dead, Malcolm his brother es- 
 caping to carry on the conflict. In 1134 
 David himself took the field against these 
 Highlanders, and, with the assistance of the 
 barons of Northumberland, headed by Walter 
 L'Espec, completely subdued the Moravmen, 
 confiscated the whole district, and bestowed it 
 upon knights in whose fidelity he could place 
 confidence, some of these being Normans. 
 
 This was manifestly, according to Dr. Mac- 
 lauchlan, the period of the dispersion of the 
 
 ancient Moravienses. Never till then was 
 the power of the Moray chiefs thoroughly 
 broken, and only then were the inhabitants 
 proscribed, and many of them expelled. The 
 Murrays, afterwards so powerful, found their 
 way to the south, carrying with them the name 
 of their ancient country, and some of the present 
 tribes of Sutherland, as well as of Inverness- 
 shire, who, there is reason to believe, belonged to 
 the Scoto-Pictish inhabitants of Moray, removed 
 their dwellings to those portions of the countrv 
 which they have occupied ever since. The 
 race of Mac Heth may appear among the Mac 
 Heths or Mac Aoidhs, the Maekays of Suther- 
 land, nor is this rendered less probable by the 
 Morganaich or sons of Morgan, the ancient 
 name of the Maekays, appearing in the Book 
 of Deer as owning possessions and power in 
 Buchan in the 10th or 11th century. - 
 
 The next enterprise of any note was under- 
 taken by Somerled, thane of Argyle and the 
 Isles, against the authority of Malcolm TV., 
 who, after various conflicts, was repulsed, 
 though not subdued, by Gilchrist, Earl of An- 
 gus. A peace, concluded with this powerful 
 chieftain in 1153, was considered of such im- 
 portance as to form an epoch in the dating of 
 Scottish charters. A still more formidable in- 
 surrection broke out among the Moraynien, 
 under Gildominick, on account of an attempt, 
 on the part of the Government, to intrude the 
 Anglo-Norman jurisdiction, introduced into the 
 Lowlands, upon their Celtic customs, and the 
 settling of Anglo-Belgic colonists among them. 
 These insurgents laid waste the neighbouring 
 counties ; and so regardless were they of the 
 royal authority, that they actually hanged the 
 heralds who were sent to summon them to lay 
 down their arms. Malcolm despatched the 
 gallant Earl Gilchrist with an army to subdue 
 them, but he was defeated, and forced to ie- 
 cross the Grampians. 
 
 This defeat aroused Malcolm, who was natu- 
 rally of an indolent disposition. About the 
 year 1160 he marched north with a powerful 
 army, and found the enemy on the moor of 
 ITrquhart, near the Spey, ready to give him 
 battle. After passing the Spey, the noblemen 
 in the king's army reconnoitred the enemy; 
 
 '- Maclauchlan's Early Scottish Church, pp. 346-7. 
 
60 
 
 GENERAL HISTORY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 but they found theni so well prepared for ac- 
 tion, and so flushed ■with, their late success, 
 that they considered the issue of a battle 
 rather doubtful. On this account, the com- 
 manders advised the king to enter into a nego- 
 tiation with the rebels, and to promise, that in 
 the event of a submission their lives would he 
 spared. The offer was accepted, and the king 
 kept his word. According to Fordun, 7 the king, 
 by the advice of his nobles, ordained that every 
 family in Moray which had been engaged in 
 the rebellion should, within a limited time, re- 
 move out of Moray to other parts of the king- 
 dom, where lands would be assigned to them, 
 and that their places should be supplied with 
 people from other parts of the kingdom. For 
 the performance of this order, they gave hos- 
 tages, it is said, s and at the time appointed 
 transplanted themselves, some into the north- 
 ern, but the greater number into the southern 
 counties. Chalmers considers this removal of 
 the Moraymen as " an egregious improba- 
 bility," because " the dispossessing of a whole 
 people is so difficult an operation, that the re- 
 cital of it cannot be believed without strong 
 evidence;" 9 it is very probable that only the 
 ringleaders and their families were trans- 
 ported. The older historians say that the 
 Moraymen were almost totally cut off in an 
 obstinate battle, and strangers brought into 
 their place. 1 
 
 About this time Somerled, the ambitious and 
 powerful lord of the Isles, made another and a 
 
 7 Book viii. eh. 6. 
 
 8 Shaw's Hist, of Moray, new ed., pp. 259-60. 
 
 9 Caledonia, vol. i. p. 627. 
 
 1 " Whilst the lowlands and the coast of Moray, 
 which had already been partitioned out among the 
 followers of David, would have presented compara- 
 tively few obstacles to such a project, it is hardly pos- 
 sible to conceive how it could ever have been success- 
 fully put into execution amidst the wild and inaccessible 
 mountains of the interior. It appears, therefore, most 
 reasonable to conclude, that Malcolm only carried out 
 the policy pursued by his grandfather ever since the 
 first forfeiture of the earldom; and that any changes 
 that may have been brought about in the population 
 of this part of Scotland — and which scarcely extended 
 below the class of the lesser Duchasach, or small pro- 
 prietors — are not to be attributed to one sweeping and 
 compulsatory measure, but to the grants of David and 
 his successors ; which must have had the effect of either 
 reducing the earlier proprietary to a dependant posi- 
 tion, or of driving into the remoter Highlands all who 
 were inclined to contest the authority of the sovereign, 
 or to dispute the validity of the royal ordinances which 
 reduced them to the condition of subordinates." — 
 Robertson's Early Kings, vol. i. n. 361. 
 
 last attempt upon the Icing's authority, Hav- 
 ing collected a large force, chiefly in Ireland, 
 he landed, in 1164, near Renfrew ; but he was 
 defeated by the brave inhabitants and the 
 king's troops in a decisive battle, in which he 
 and his son Gillecolum were slain. 
 
 The reign of William the Lion, who suc- 
 ceeded his brother in 1165, was marked by 
 many disturbances in the Highlands. The 
 Gaelic population could not endure the new 
 settlers whom the Saxon colonization had intro- 
 duced among them, and every opportunity was 
 taken to vex and annoy them. An open insur- 
 rection broke out in Ross-shire, headed by Don- 
 ald Bane, known also as Mac William, which 
 obliged William, in the year 1181, to march 
 into the north, where he built the two castles 
 of Eddirton and Dunscath to keep the people in 
 check. He restored quiet for a few years ; but, 
 in 1187, Donald Bane again renewed his pre- 
 tensions to the crown, and raised the standard 
 of revolt in the north. He took possession of 
 Ross, and wasted Moray. William lost no 
 time in leading an army against him. While 
 the king lay at Inverness with his army, a 
 party of 3,000 faithful men, under the com- 
 mand of Roland, the brave lord of Galloway, 
 and future Constable of Scotland, fell in with 
 Donald Bane and his army upon the Mam- 
 garvy moor, on the borders of Moray. A con- 
 flict ensued in which Donald and five hundred 
 of his followers were killed. Roland carried 
 the head of Donald to William, " as a savage 
 sign of returning quiet." After this compara- 
 tive quietness prevailed in the north till the 
 year 1196, when Harold, the powerful Earl of 
 Orkney and Caithness, disturbed its peace. 
 William dispersed the insurgents at once ; but 
 they again appeared the following year near 
 Inverness, under the command of Torphin, the 
 son of Harold. The rebels were again, over- 
 powered. The king seized Harold, and obliged 
 him to deliver up his son, Torphin, as an hos- 
 tage. Harold was allowed to retain the north- 
 ern part of Caithness, but the king gave the 
 southern part of it, called Sutherland, to Hugh 
 Fresldn, the progenitor of the Earls of Suther- 
 land. Harold died in 1206; but as he had 
 often rebelled, his son suffered a cruel and 
 lingering death in the castle of Roxburgh, 
 where he had been confined. 
 
U1STUEBANCES IN MOEAY AND CAITHNESS. 
 
 61 
 
 During the year 1211 a new insurrection 
 broke out in Eoss, headed by Guthred or God- 
 frey, the son of Donald Bane or Mac William, 
 as he was called. Great depredations were 
 committed by the insurgents, who were chiefly 
 freebooters from Ireland, the Hebrides, and 
 Lochaber. Eor a long time they baffled the 
 king's troops ; and although the king built two 
 forts to keep them in check, and took many 
 prisoners, they maintained for a considerable 
 period a desultory and predatory warfare. Guth- 
 red even forced one of the garrisons to capitu- 
 late, and burnt the castle ; but being betrayed 
 by his followers into the hands of William 
 Coniyn, Earl of Buchan, the Justiciary of Scot- 
 land, he was executed in the year 1212. 
 
 Shortly after the accession of Alexander II. 
 in 1214, the peace of the north was attempted 
 to be disturbed by Donald Mac William, who 
 made an inroad from Ireland into Moray ; but 
 lie was repulsed by the tribes of that country, 
 led by M'Intagart, the Earl of Eoss. In 1222, 
 notwithstanding the formidable obstacles which 
 presented themselves from the nature of the 
 country, Alexander carried an army into Ar- 
 gyle, for the purpose of enforcing the homage 
 of the western chiefs. His presence so alarmed 
 the men of Argyle, that they immediately made 
 their submission. Several of the chiefs fled 
 for safety, and to punish them, the king distri- 
 buted their lands among his officers and their 
 followers. After this invasion Argyle was 
 brought under the direct jurisdiction of the 
 Scottish king, although the descendants of the 
 race of Sonierled, Lord of the Isles, still con- 
 tinued to be the chief magnates. 
 
 During the same year a tumult took place in 
 Caithness, on account of the severity with 
 which the tithes were exacted by Adam, the 
 bishop, who, with his adviser, Serlo, was mur- 
 dered by the bonders. The king, who was at 
 the time at Jedburgh, hearing of this murder, 
 immediately hastened to the north with a mili- 
 tary force, and inflicted the punishment of death 
 upon the principal actors in this tragedy, who 
 amounted, it is said, to four hundred persons ; 
 and that their race might become extinct, their 
 children were emasculated, a practice very com- 
 mon in these barbarous times. The Earl of 
 Caithness, vho was supposed to have been privy 
 to the murder, was deprived of half of his 
 
 estate, wliich was afterwards restored to him on 
 payment of a heavy fine. The Earl is said to 
 have been murdered by his own servants in the 
 year 1231, and in order to prevent discovery, 
 they laid his body into his bed and set fire to 
 the house. 
 
 In 1228 the country of Moray became the 
 theatre of a new insurrection, headed by a Eoss- 
 shire freebooter, named Gillespoc M'Scolane. 
 He committed great devastations by burning 
 some wooden castles in Moray, and spo ilin g 
 the crown lands. He even attacked and set 
 fire to Inverness. A large army of horse and 
 foot, under the command of John Comyn, Earl 
 of Buchan, Justiciary of Scotland, was, in 1 229, 
 sent against this daring rebel, who was cap- 
 tured, with his two sons, and their heads sent 
 to the king. 
 
 The lords of Argyle usually paid homage to 
 the king of Norway for some of the Hebrides 
 which belonged to that monarch, but Ewen, 
 on succeeding Ms father Duncan of Argyle in 
 
 1248, refused his homage to the Scottish king, 
 who wished to possess the whole of the Western 
 Isles. Though Ewen was perfectly loyal, and 
 indeed was one of the most honourable men of 
 his time, Alexander marched an army against 
 him to enforce obedience, but his Majesty died 
 on his journey in Kerrera, a small island near 
 the coast of Argyle opposite Oban, on July 8, 
 
 1249, in the fifty-first year of his age, and the 
 thirty-fifth of his reign. 
 
 According to the custom of the times, his 
 son, Alexander III., then a boy only in his 
 eighth year, was seated on the royal chair, or 
 sacred stone of Scone, which was placed before 
 the cross that stood within the burying-ground. 
 Immediately before his inauguration, the bishop 
 of St. Andrews girded him with the sword of 
 state, and explained to him, first in Latin and 
 aiterwards in Norman French, the nature of 
 the compact he and his subjects were about to 
 enter into. The crown, after the king had 
 been seated, was placed on his head, and the 
 sceptre put into his hand. He was then covered 
 with the royal mantle, and received the homage 
 of the nobles on their knees, who, in token of 
 submission, threw their robes beneath his feet. 
 On this occasion, agreeably to ancient practice, 
 a Gaelic sennachy, or bard, clothed in a red 
 mantle, and venerable for his great age and 
 
62 
 
 GENERAL HTSTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 ?C6 
 
 
 Teq> 
 
 Alexander III. — From Pinkerton's Scottish Gallery. 
 
 hoary locks, approached the king, and in a 
 bended and reverential attitude, recited, from 
 memory, in his native language, the genealogy 
 of all the Scottish kings, deducing the descent 
 of the youthful monarch from Gathetus, the 
 fabulous founder of the nation. 2 The reign of 
 this prince was distinguished by the entire sub- 
 jugation of the western islands to the power 
 of the Scottish crown. The Scandinavian set- 
 tlers were allowed to leave the islands, if in- 
 clined, and such of them as remained were 
 bound to observe the Scottish laws. 
 
 Shortly after the accession of Alexander III. , 
 an insurrection broke out against the Earl of 
 Ross, of some of the people of that province. 
 The Earl apprehended their leader or captain, 
 whom he imprisoned at Dingwall. In revenge, 
 the Highlanders seized upon the Earl's second 
 
 2 Almost the same ceremonial of inauguration was 
 observed at the coronation of Macdonald, king of the 
 Isles. Martin says, that "there was a big stone of 
 seven feet square, in which there was a deep impres- 
 sion made to receive the feet of Mack-Donald, for he 
 was crowned king of the Isles standing in this stone ; 
 and swore that he would continue his vassals in the 
 possession of their lands, and do exact justice to all 
 his subjects ; and then his father's sword was put into 
 his hands. The bishop of Argyle and seven priests 
 anointed him king, in presence of all the heads of the 
 tribes in the isles and continent, and were his vassals ; 
 at which time the orator rehearsed a catalogue of his 
 ancestors." — Western Islands, p. 241. 
 
 son at Balnagown, took him prisoner, and 
 detained liim as a hostage till their captain 
 should be released. The Monroes and the 
 Dingwalls immediately took up arms, and hav- 
 ing pursued the insurgents, overtook them at a 
 place called Bealligh-ne-Broig, between Ferran- 
 donald and Loch Broom, where a bloody con- 
 flict ensued. " The Clan Iver, Clan-Talvich, 
 and Clan-Laiwe," says Sir Robert Gordon, 
 " wer almost uterlie extinguished and slain." 
 The Monroes and Dingwalls lost a great many 
 men. Dingwall of Kildun, and seven score of 
 the surname of Dingwall, were killed. No 
 less than eleven Monroes of the house of Foulis, 
 who were to succeed one after another, fell, so 
 that the succession of Foulis opened to an in- 
 fant then lying in his cradle. The Earl's son 
 was rescued, and to requite the service per- 
 formed, he made various grants of lands to the 
 Monroes and Dingwalls. 3 
 
 In 1263, Haco, the aged king of Norway, 
 sailed with a large and powerful fleet, deter- 
 mined to enforce acknowledgment of his 
 claims as superior of the Western Islands on 
 their chiefs, as well as upon the king of Scot- 
 land. Sailing southwards among the islands, 
 one chief after another acknowledged his su- 
 premacy, and helped to swell his force, the 
 only honourable exception being the standi 
 Ewen of Argyle. Meantime Haco brought 
 his fleet to anchor in the Frith of Clyde, be- 
 tween Arran and the Ayrshire coast, his men 
 committing ravages on the neighbouring coun- 
 try, as, indeed, they appear to have done dur- 
 ing the whole of his progress. Negotiations 
 entered into between Haco and Alexander III. 
 came to nothing, and as winter was approach- 
 ing, and his fleet had suffered much from 
 several severe storms which caught it, the for- 
 mer was fain to make his way homewards. A 
 number of his men, however, contrived to ef- 
 fect a landing near Largs, where they were met 
 by a miscellaneous Scottish host, consisting of 
 cavalry and country people, and finally com- 
 pletely routed. The date of this skirmish, 
 which is known as the battle of Largs, is Oc- 
 tober 2d, 1263. Haco died in the end of the 
 same year in Orkney, and in 1266 Magnus 
 TV., his successor, ceded the whole of the 
 
 3 Sir R. Gordon's History of the Earldom of Suther- 
 land, p. 36. 
 
BEUCE'S EXPEDITIONS INTO LORN AND THE ISLES. 
 
 63 
 
 Scottish Islands held by Norway, except Ork- 
 ney and Shetland, the Scottish king paying a 
 small annual rent. Those of the islesmen who 
 had proved unfaithful to the Scottish king 
 were most severely and cruelly punished. 
 
 No event of any importance appears to have 
 occurred in the Highlands till the time of King 
 Robert Bruce, who was attacked, after his defeat 
 at Methven, by Macdougall of Lorn, and de- 
 feated in Strathfillan. But Bruce was deter- 
 mined that Macdougall should not long enjoy 
 Lis petty triumph. Having been joined by his 
 able partisan, Sir James Douglas, he entered the 
 territory of Lorn. On arriving at the narrow 
 pass of Ben Cruachan, beween Loch Awe and 
 Loch Etive, Bruce was informed that Mac- 
 dougall had laid an ambuscade for him. Bruce 
 divided his army into two parts. One of these 
 divisions, consisting entirely of archers who 
 were lightly armed, was placed under the com- 
 mand of Douglas, who was directed to make a 
 circuit round the mountain, and to attack the 
 Highlanders in the rear. As soon as Douglas 
 had gained possession of the ground above the 
 Highlanders, Bruce entered the pass, and, as 
 soon as he had advanced into its narrow gorge, 
 he was attacked by the men of Lorn, who, from 
 the surrounding heights, hurled down stones 
 upon him accompanied with loud shouts. 
 They then commenced a closer attack, but, 
 being instantly assailed in the rear by Douglas's 
 division, and assaulted by the king with great 
 fury in front, they were thrown into complete 
 disorder, and defeated with great slaughter. 
 Macdougall, who was, during the action, on 
 board a small vessel in Loch Etive, waiting the 
 result, took refuge in his castle of Dunstafi'nage. 
 After ravaging the territory of Lorn, and giving 
 it up to indiscriminate plunder, Bruce laid siege 
 to the castle, which, after a slight resistance, 
 was surrendered by the lord of Lorn, who 
 swore homage to the king ; but John, the son 
 of the chief, refused to submit, and took refuge 
 in England. 
 
 During the civil wars among the competi- 
 tors for the Scottish crown, and those under 
 "Wallace and Bruce for the independence of 
 Scotland, the Highlanders scarcely ever appear 
 as participators in those stirring scenes which 
 developed the resources, and called forth the 
 chivalry of Scotland ; but we are not to infer 
 
 from the silence of history that they were less 
 alive than their southern countrymen to the 
 honour and glory of their country, or that 
 they did not contribute to secure its indepen- 
 dence. General Stewart says that eighteen 
 Highland chiefs 4 fought under Bobert Bruce at 
 Bannockburn; and as these chiefs would be ac- 
 companied by their vassals, it is fair to suppose 
 that Highland prowess lent its powerful aid to 
 obtain that memorable victory which secured 
 Scotland from the dominion of a foreign 
 yoke. 
 
 After Bobert Bruce had asserted the inde- 
 pendence of his country by the decisive battle 
 of Bannockburn, the whole kingdom, with the 
 exception of some of the western islands, under 
 John of Argyle, the ally of England, submitted 
 to his authority. He, therefore, undertook an 
 expedition against those isles, in which he was 
 accompanied by Walter, the hereditary high- 
 steward of Scotland, his son-in-law, who, by 
 his marriage with Marjory, King Bobert's 
 daughter, laid the foundation of the Stewart 
 dynasty. To avoid the necessity of doubling 
 the Mull of Kintyre, which was a dangerous 
 attempt for the small vessels then in use, 
 Robert sailed up Loch-Fyne to Tarbert with his 
 fleet, which he dragged across the narrow isth- 
 mus between the lochs of East and West Tar- 
 bert, by means of a slide of smooth planks of 
 trees laid parallel to each other. It had long 
 been a superstitious belief amongst the inha- 
 bitants of the Western Islands, that they 
 should never be subdued till their invaders 
 sailed across this neck of land, and it is 
 said that Robert was thereby partly induced 
 to follow the course he did to impress upon the 
 minds of the islanders a conviction that the 
 time of their subjugation had arrived. The 
 islanders were quickly subdued, and John of 
 Lorn, who, for his services to Edward of Eng- 
 land, had been invested with the title of Ad- 
 miral of the Western fleet of England, was 
 captured and imprisoned first in Dumbarton 
 
 4 The chiefs at Bannockburn were Mackay, Mackin- 
 tosh, Macpherson, Cameron, Sinclair, Campbell, 
 Menzies, Maclean, Sutherland, Robertson, Grant, 
 Fraser, Macfarlane, Ross, Macgvegor, Mnnro, Mac- 
 kenzie, and Macquarrie. After the lapse of live 
 hundred years since the battle of Bannockburn was 
 fought, it is truly astonishing to find such a number 
 of direct descendants who are now in existence, and 
 still possessed of their paternal estates. 
 
G4 
 
 GENEEAL H1ST0EY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 castle, and after-wards in the castle of Loch 
 Leven, where he died. 
 
 The feeble and effeminate reign of David II. 
 was disturbed by another revolt by the Lord 
 of the Isles, who was backed in his attempt to 
 throw off his dependence by a great number of 
 the Highland chiefs. David, with "an un- 
 wonted energy of character, commanded the 
 attendance of the steward, with the prelates 
 and barons of the realm, and surrounded by 
 this formidable body of vassals and retainers, 
 proceeded against the rebels in person. The 
 expedition was completely successful. The 
 rebel prince, John of the Isles, with a numer- 
 ous train of those wild Highland chieftains 
 who followed his banner, and had supported 
 him in his attempt to throw off his dependence, 
 met the king at Inverness, and submitted to 
 his authority. He engaged in the most solemn 
 manner, for himself and his vassals, that they 
 should yield themselves faithful and obedient 
 subjects to David, their liege lord ; and not 
 only give due and prompt obedience to the 
 min isters and officers of the king in suit and 
 service, as well as in the payment of taxes and 
 public burdens, but that they would coerce and 
 put down all others, of whatever rank or de- 
 gree, who dared to raise themselves in opposi- 
 tion to the royal authority, and would compel 
 them either to submit, or would pursue and 
 banish them from their territories : for the ful- 
 filment of which obligation the Lord of the 
 Isles not only gave his own oath, under the 
 penalty of forfeiting his whole principality if 
 it was broken, but offered the high-steward, his 
 father-in-law, as his security, and delivered his 
 lawful son, Donald, his grandson, Angus, and 
 his natural son, also named Donald, as hostages 
 for the strict performance of the articles of the 
 treaty." 5 The deed by which John of the 
 Isles bound himself to the performance of these 
 stipulations is dated 15th November, 1309. 6 
 
 To enable him the better to succeed in re- 
 ducing the inhabitants of the Highlands and 
 islands to the obedience of the laws, it is stated 
 by an old historian, 7 that David used artifice 
 by dividing the chiefs, and promising high re- 
 
 6 Tytler's Hist, of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 185. Robert- 
 son's Parliamentary Records, p. 115. 
 
 6 Vide the Deed printed in the Appendix to Tytler's 
 History, vol. ii. 
 
 7 Fordun a Goodal, vol. ii. p. 380. 
 
 wards to those who should slay or capture then 
 brother chiefs. The writer says that this dia 
 bolical plan, by implanting the seeds of dis- 
 union and war amongst the chiefs, succeeded ; 
 and that they gradually destroyed one another, 
 a statement, to say the least of it, highly im- 
 probable. Certain it is, however, that it was 
 in this reign that the practice of paying manrent 
 began, when the powerful wished for followers, 
 and the weak wanted protection, a circumstance 
 which shows that the government was too 
 weak to afford protection to the oppressed, or 
 to quell the disputes of rival clans. 
 
 In the year 1333, s John Monroe, the tutor 
 of Foulis, in travelling homeward, on his jour- 
 ney from Edinburgh to Eoss, stopped on a 
 meadow in Stratherdale that he and his ser- 
 vants might get some repose. While they 
 were asleep, the owner of the meadow cut off 
 the tails of their horses. Being resolved to 
 wipe off this insult, he immediately, on his 
 return home to Eoss, summoned his whole 
 kinsmen and followers, and, after inform- 
 ing them how he had been used, craved their 
 aid to revenge the injury. The clan, of 
 course, complied ; and, having selected 350 
 of the best and ablest men among them, 
 he returned to Stratherdale, which he wasted 
 and spoiled ; killed some of the inhabitants, 
 and carried off their cattle. In passing by the 
 isle of Moy, on bis return home, Macintosh, 
 the chief of the clan Chattan, being urged by 
 some person who bore Monroe a grudge, sent 
 a message to him demanding a share of the 
 spoil. This was customary among the High- 
 landers when a party drove cattle which had 
 been so taken through a gentleman's land, and 
 the part so exacted was called a Staoig Rathaid, 
 or Staoig Creieh, that is, a Eoad Collop. Mon- 
 roe, not being disposed to quarrel, offered Mac- 
 intosh a reasonable share, but this he was 
 advised not to accept, and demanded the half 
 of the booty. Monroe refused to comply with 
 such an unreasonable demand, and proceeded 
 on his journey. Macintosh, determined to en- 
 force compliance, immediately collected his 
 clansmen, and went in pursuit of Monroe, 
 whom he overtook at Clach-na-Haire, near In- 
 
 8 This is the date assigned by Sir Robert Gordon, 
 but Shaw makes it more than a century later, viz., in 
 1454. 
 
FEUD BETWEEN THE CLAN CHATTAN AND THE CAMERONS. 
 
 65 
 
 verness. As soon as Monroe saw Macintosh 
 approaching, he sent home five of his men to 
 Ferrindonald with the cattle, and prepared for 
 action. But Macintosh paid dearly for his ra- 
 pacity and rashness, for he and the greater part 
 of his men were killed in the conflict. Several 
 of the Monroes also were slain, and John Mon- 
 roe himself was left for dead in the field of 
 hattle, and might have died if the predecessor 
 of Lord Lovat had not carried him to his house 
 in the neighbourhood, where he was cured of 
 his wounds. One of his hands was so muti- 
 lated, that he lost the use of it the remainder 
 of his life, on which account he was afterwards 
 called John Bac-laimh, or Ciotach. 9 
 
 Besides the feuds of the clans in the reign of 
 David II., the Highlands appear to have been 
 disturbed by a formidable insurrection against 
 the government, for, in a parliament which 
 was held at Scone, in the year 1366, a resolu- 
 tion was entered into to seize the rebels in Ar- 
 gyle, Athole, Badenoch, Lochaber, and Boss, 
 and all others who had risen up against the 
 royal authority, and to compel them to submit 
 to the laws. The chief leaders in this commo- 
 tion (of which the bare mention in the parlia- 
 mentary record is the only account which has 
 reached us,) were the Earl of Boss, Hugh de 
 Ross, John of the Isles, John of Lorn, and 
 John de Haye, who were all summoned to at- 
 tend the parliament and give in their submis- 
 sion, but they all refused to do so in the most 
 decided manner; and as the government was 
 too weak to compel them, they were suffered 
 to remain independent. 
 
 In the year 1386, a feud having taken place 
 between the clan Chattan and the Camerons, a 
 battle took place in which a great number of 
 the clan Chattan were killed, and the Camerons 
 were nearly cut off to a man. The occasion of 
 the quarrel was as follows. The lands of Macin- 
 tosh 1 in Lochaber, were possessed by the Ca- 
 
 9 Sir E. Gordon, p. 47.— Shaw, p. 264. 
 
 1 According to that eminent antiquary, the Rev. 
 Donald Macintosh, non-juring episcopal clergyman, 
 in his historical illustrations of his Collections of Gaelic 
 Proverbs, published in 1785, the ancestor of Macin- 
 tosh became head of the clan Chattan in this way. 
 During these contests for the Scottish crown, which 
 succeeded the death of King Alexander III., and fa- 
 voured the pretensions of the King of the Isles, the 
 latter styling himself " King," had, in 1291, sent his 
 nephew Angus Macintosh of Macintosh to Dougall 
 Dall (Blind) MaeGillichattan, chief of the clan Chat- 
 
 merons, who were so tardy in the payment of 
 their rents that Macintosh was frequently 
 obliged to levy them by force by carrying off 
 his tenants' cattle. The Camerons were so 
 irritated at having their cattle poinded and 
 taken away, that they resolved to make repri- 
 sals, preparatory to which they marched into 
 Badenoch to the number of about 400 men, 
 under the command of Charles Macgilony. 
 As soon as Macintosh became acquainted 
 with this movement he called his clan and 
 friends, the Macphersons and Davidsons, to- 
 gether. His force was superior to that of the 
 Camerons, but a dispute arose among the chiefs 
 which almost proved fatal to them. To Mac- 
 intosh, as captain of the clan Chattan, the 
 command of the centre of the army was as- 
 signed with the consent of all parties; but a 
 difference took place between Cluny and In- 
 vernahavon, each claiming the command of the 
 right whig. Cluny demanded it as the chief 
 of the ancient clan Chattan, of which the Da- 
 vidsons of Invernahavon were only a branch ; 
 but Invernahavon contended that to him, as 
 the oldest branch, the command of the right 
 wing belonged, according to the custom of the 
 clans. The Camerons came up during this 
 quarrel about precedency, on which Macin- 
 tosh, as. umpire, decided against the claim of 
 Cluny. This was a most imprudent award, as 
 the Macphersons exceeded both the Macin- 
 toshes and Davidsons in numbers, and they 
 were, besides, in the country of the Macpher- 
 sons. These last were so offended at the deci- 
 sion of Macintosh that they withdrew from 
 the field, and became, for a time, spectators of 
 the action. The battle soon commenced, and 
 was fought with great obstinacy. Many of the 
 Macintoshes, and almost all. the Davidsons, 
 were cut off by the superior number of the Ca- 
 
 tan, or Macphersons, to acquaint him that " tlie Icing" 
 was to pay him a visit. Macpherson, or MaeGillichat- 
 tan, as he was named, in honour of the founder of the 
 family Gilliehattan* Mor, having an only child, a 
 daughter, who, he dreaded, might attract an incon- 
 venient degree of royal notice, offered her in marriage 
 to Macintosh along with his lands, and the station of 
 the chief of the clan Chattan. Macintosh accepted 
 the offer, and was received as chief of the lady's clan. 
 
 * " A votary or servant of St. Kattan," a most popular 
 Scottish saint, we have tints <i'illichatlin>i, meaning a " vo- 
 tary of Columba," and of which another form is Malcolm 
 or Molcalm, the prefix Mol being corrupted into Mai, 
 signifying the same as Gilly. Thus G'illii-Bhia is the 
 etymon of Culdce, signifying ''servant of God," — Gilli- 
 christ means "servant of Christ." 
 
66 
 
 GENEEAL histoky of the highlands. 
 
 merons. The Macphersons seeing their friends 
 and neighbours almost overpowered, could no 
 longer restrain themselves, and friendship got 
 the better of their -wounded pride. They, 
 therefore, at this perilous crisis, rushed in 
 upon the Camerons, who, from exhaustion and 
 the loss they had sustained, were easily de- 
 feated. The few that uscaped, with their 
 leader, were pursued from Invernahavon, the 
 place of battle, three miles above Euthven, to 
 Badenoch. Charles Macgilony was killed on a 
 hill in Glenbenchir, which was long called 
 Torr-Thearlaich, i. a., Charles'-hill. 2 
 
 In the opinion of Shaw this quarrel about 
 precedency was the origin of the celebrated ju- 
 dicial conflict, which took place on the North 
 Inch of Perth, before Eobert III., his queen, 
 Annabella Drunmiond, and the Scottish no- 
 bility, and some foreigners of distinction, in 
 the year 1396, and of which a variety of ac- 
 counts have been given by our ancient histor- 
 ians. The parties to this combat were the 
 Macphersons, properly the clan Chattan, and 
 the Davidsons of Invernahavon, called in the 
 Gaelic Clann-Dhaibhidh. The Davidsons were 
 not, as some writers have supposed, a separate 
 clan, but a branch of the clan Chattan. These 
 rival tribes had for a long period kept up a 
 deadly enmity with one another, wliich was 
 difficult to be restrained ; but after the award 
 by Macintosh against the Macphersons, that 
 enmity broke out into open strife, and for ten 
 years the Macphersons and the Davidsons car- 
 ried on a war of extermination, and kept the 
 country in an uproar. 
 
 To put an end to these disorders, it is said 
 that Eobert III. sent Dunbar, Earl of Moray, 
 and Lindsay of Glenesk, afterwards Earl of 
 Crawford, two of the leading men of the king- 
 dom, to endeavour to effect an amicable ar- 
 rangement between the contending pa7 ties ; 
 but having failed in their attempt, they pro- 
 posed that the differences should be decided in 
 open combat before the king. Tytler 3 is of 
 opinion that, the notions of the Norman knights 
 having by this time become familiar to the 
 fierce mountaineers, they adopted the singular 
 idea of deciding their quarrel by a combat of 
 30 against 30. Burton, however, with his 
 
 2 Shaw's History of Moray, pp. 260, 261. 
 
 3 Vol. iii. [>p- 76, 77. 
 
 usual sagacity, remarks that, "for a whole 
 race to submit to the ordeal of battle would im- 
 ply the very highest devotion to those rules of 
 chivalry which were an extravagant fashion in 
 all the countries under the Norman influence, 
 but were utterly unknown to the Highlanders, 
 who submitted when they must submit, and 
 retaliated when they could. That such an ad- 
 justment could be effected among them is about 
 as incredible as a story about a parliamentary 
 debate in Persia, or a jury trial in Timbuctoo." 4 
 The beautiful and perfectly level meadow on 
 the banks of the Tay at Perth, known as the 
 North Inch, was fixed on, and the Monday 
 before Michaelmas was the day appointed for 
 the combat. According to Sir Eobert Gordon, 
 who is followed by Sir Eobert Douglas and 
 Mr. Mackintosh, it was agreed that no weapon 
 but the broad sword was to be employed, but 
 Wyntoun, who lived about the time, adds 
 bows, battle-axes, and daggers. 
 "All thai entrit in Barrens, 
 With Bow and Axe, Knyf and Swerd, 
 To deal aniang them thair last Werd. ' 
 
 The numbers on each side have been variously 
 reported. By mistaking the word triceni, used 
 b3 r Boece and Buchanan, for treceni, some 
 writers have multiplied them to 300. Bower, 
 the continuator of Fordun and Wyntoun, how- 
 ever, mentions expressly 60 in all, or 30 on 
 either side. 
 
 On the appointed da) r the combatants made 
 their appearance on the North Inch of Perth, 
 to decide, in presence of the king, his queen, 
 and a large concourse of the nobility, their re- 
 spective claims to superiority. Barriers had 
 been erected on the ground to prevent the 
 spectators from encroaching, and the king and 
 his party took their stations upon a platform 
 from which they could easily view the combat. 
 At length the warriors, armed with sword and 
 target, bows and arrows, short knives and 
 battle-axes, advanced within the barriers, and 
 eyed one another with looks of deadly revenge. 
 When about to engage, a circumstance occurred 
 which postponed the battle, and had well-nigh 
 prevented it altogether. According to some 
 accounts, one of the Macphersons fell sick; 
 but Bower says, that when the troops had been 
 
 4 Vol. in. p. 72. 
 
BATTLE OF THE NOKTH INCH. 
 
 67 
 
 marshalled, one of the Macphersons, panic- 
 struek, slipped through the crowd, plunged 
 into the Tay and swam across, and, though 
 pursued by thousands, effected his escape. 
 Sir Kobert Gordon merely observes, that, " at 
 their entrie into the feild, the clan Chattan 
 lacked one of their number, who wes privilie 
 stolne away, not willing to be pertaker of so 
 deir a bargane." A man being now wanting 
 on one side, a pause ensued, and a proposal 
 was made that one of the Davidsons should 
 retire, that the number on both sides might be 
 equal, but they refused. As the combat could 
 not proceed from this inequality of numbers, 
 the king was about to break up the assembly, 
 when a diminutive and crooked, but fierce 
 man, named Henry Wynd, a burgher of Perth, 
 better known to readers of Scott as Hal o' the 
 Wynd, and an armourer by trade, sprung with- 
 in the barriers, and, as lelated by Bower, thus 
 addressed the assembly: "Here am I. Will 
 any one fee me to engage with these hirelings 
 in this stage play? For half a mark will I try 
 the game, provided, if I escape alive, I have 
 my board of one of you so long as I live. 
 Greater love, as it is said, hath no man than 
 this, that a man lay down his life for his 
 friends. What, then, shall be my reward, 
 who stake my life for the foes of the common- 
 wealth and realm?" This demand of Goto 
 Crom, " Crooked Smith," as Henry was fami- 
 liarly styled, adds Bower, was granted by the 
 king and nobles. A murderous conflict now 
 began. The armourer, bending his bow, and 
 sending the first arrow among the opposite 
 party, killed one of them. After showers of 
 arrows had been discharged on both sides, the 
 combatants, with fury in their looks, and re- 
 venge in their hearts, rushed upon one another, 
 and a terrific scene ensued, which appalled the 
 heart of many a valorous knight who witnessed 
 the bloody tragedy. The violent thrusts of 
 the daggers, and the tremendous gashes in- 
 flicted by the two-handed swords and battle- 
 axes, hastened the work of butchery and death. 
 " Heads were cloven asunder, limbs were 
 lopped from the trunk. The meadow was 
 soon flooded with blood, and covered with 
 dead and wounded men." 5 
 
 s Tales uf a Grandfather, vol. li. 
 
 After the crooked armourer had killed his 
 man, as already related from Bower, it is said 
 that he either sat down or drew aside, which 
 being observed by the leader of Cluny's band, 
 he asked his reason for thus stopping; on 
 which Wynd said, " Because I have fulfilled 
 my bargain, and earned my wages." — " The 
 man," exclaimed the other, " who keeps no 
 reckoning of his good deeds, without reckoning 
 shall be repaid," an observation which tempted 
 the armourer to earn, in the multiplied deaths 
 of his opponents, a sum exceeding by as many 
 times the original stipulation. This speech of 
 the leader has been formed into the Gaelic 
 
 " Am fear nach amntadh rium 
 Cha chimntainn ris, " 
 
 which Macintosh thus renders, 
 
 "The man that reckons not with me 
 I will not reckon with him." 
 
 Victory at last declared for the Macphersons, 
 but not until 29 of the Davidsons had fallen 
 prostrate in the arms of death. Nineteen of 
 Cluny's men also bit the dust, and the remain- 
 ing 11, with the exception of Henry Wynd, 
 who by his excellence as a swordsman had 
 mainly contributed to gain the day, were all 
 grievously wounded. The survivor of the 
 clan Davidson escaped unhurt. Mackintosh 
 following Buchanan, relates that this man, 
 after all his companions had fallen, threw him- 
 self into the Tay, and making the opposite 
 bank, escaped ; but this is most likely a new ver- 
 sion of Bower's account of the affrighted cham- 
 pion before the commencement of the action. 
 
 The leader of the clan Kay or Davidsons is 
 called by Bower Schea-beg, and by Wyntoun. 
 Scha-Ferqvharis son, Boece calls Mm Strat- 
 berge. Who Christ i- Mac- Iain, or Christi-Jon- 
 sun was genealogically, we are not informed ; 
 but one thing is pretty clear, that he, not 
 Schea-beg, or Shaw Oig, — for these are obvi- 
 ously one and the same, — commanded the clan 
 Chattan, or " Clann-a-Chait." e Both the prin- 
 cipals seem to have been absent, or spectators 
 merely of the battle ; and as few of the lead- 
 ing men of the clan, it is believed, were parties 
 
 6 For a more thorough discussion of this fight, see 
 the account of the Clan Mackintosh in Vol. 11. 
 
GENEEAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 in the combat, the savage policy of the govern- 
 ment, which, it is said, had taken this method 
 to rid itself of the chief men of the clan, by 
 making them destroy one another, was com- 
 pletely defeated. This affair seems to have 
 produced a good effect, as the Highlanders re- 
 mained quiet for a considerable time thereafter. 
 The disorders in the Highlands occasioned 
 by the feuds of the clans were, about the period 
 in question, greatly augmented by Alexander 
 of Badenoch, fourth son of Eobert II., whom 
 he had constituted Lieutenant or governor from 
 the limits of Moray to the Eentland Frith. 
 This person, from the ferocity of his disposi- 
 Uon, obtained the appropriate appellation of 
 " the Wolf of liadenoch." Avaricious as well 
 
 Effigy of "the Wolf of Badenoch "in Dunkekl Cathedral. 
 
 as cruel, the Wolf seized upon the lands of 
 Alexander Barr. bishop of Moray, and as lie 
 persisted in keeping violent possession of them, 
 he was excommunicated. The sentence of ex- 
 communication not only proved unavailing, but 
 tended to exasperate the Lord of Badenoch to 
 such a degree of fury that, in the month of 
 May, 1 390, he descended from his heights and 
 burnt the town of Forres, with the choir of the 
 church and the manse of the archdeacon. And 
 in June following, he burnt the town of Elgin, 
 the church of Saint Giles, the hospital of Mai- 
 son-Dieu, and the cathedral, with eighteen 
 houses of the canons and chaplains in the 
 college of Elgin. He also plundered these 
 churches of their sacred utensils and vestments, 
 which he carried off. For this horrible sacri- 
 lege the Lord of Badenoch was prosecuted, and 
 obliged to make due reparation. Upon making 
 his submission he was absolved by Walter Trail, 
 
 bishop of St. Andrews, in the church of the 
 Black Friars, in Perth. He was first received 
 at the door, and afterwards before the high 
 altar, in presence of the king (Eobert III. his 
 brother,) and many of the nobility, on condi- 
 tion that he should make full satisfaction to 
 the bishop of Moray, and obtain absolution 
 from the pope. 6 
 
 The Lord of Badenoch had a natural son, 
 named Alexander Stewart, afterwards Earl of 
 Mar, who inherited the vices of his father. 
 Bent upon spoliation and bloodshed, and re- 
 solved to imitate his father's barbarous exploits, 
 he collected, in 1 392, a vast number of caterans, 
 armed only with the sword and target, and 
 with these he descended from the range of hills 
 which divides the county of Aberdeen and 
 Forfar, devastated the country, and murdered 
 the inhabitants indiscriminately. A force was 
 instantly collected by Sir Walter Ogilvy, sheriff 
 of Angus, Sir Patrick Gray, and Sir David Lind 
 say of Glenesk, to oppose him, and although 
 inferior in numbers, they attacked Stewart and 
 his party of freebooters at Gasklune, near the 
 water of Ila. A desperate conflict took place, 
 which was of short duration. The caterans 
 fought with determined bravery, and soon over- 
 powered their assailants. The sheriff, his bro- 
 ther, Wat of Lichtoune, Young of Ouchterlony, 
 the lairds of Cairncross, Forfar, and Guthry, 
 and 60 of their followers, were slain. Sir 
 Patrick Gray and Sir David Lindsay were 
 severely wounded, and escaped with diffieulty. 
 Winton has preserved an anecdote illustrative 
 of the fierceness of the Highlanders. Lindsay 
 had run one of them, a strong and brawny 
 man, through the body with a spear, and 
 brought him to the earth ; but although in the 
 agonies of death, he writhed himself up, and 
 with the spear sticking in his body, struck 
 Lindsay a desperate blow with his sword, which 
 cut him through the stirrup and boot into the 
 bone, on which he instantly fell and expired. 7 
 
 Mcolas, Earl of Sutherland, had a feud with 
 Y-Mackay of Far, in Strathnaver, chief of the 
 Clanwig-worgm, and his son Donald Mackay. 
 in which many lives were lost, and great de- 
 predations committed on both sides. In crdcr 
 
 r > Shaw's Moray, pp. 31 -4-15. — Wiuton, vol. ii. p. 
 3C3.— Keith's Catalogue, p. S3. 
 7 Winton, vol. ii. p. 369. 
 
DISTURBANCES IX SUTHERLAND— EAELDOM OF EOSS. 
 
 69 
 
 to put an end to this difference, the Earl pro- 
 posed a meeting of the parties at Dingwall, to 
 he held in presence of the Eord of the Isles, 
 his father-in-law, and some of the neighbouring 
 gentry, the friends of the two famdies. The 
 meeting having been agreed to, the parties met 
 at the appointed time, in the year 1395, and 
 took up their residence in the castle of Ding- 
 wall in apartments allotted for them. A dis- 
 cussion then took place between the Earl and 
 Mackay, regarding the points in controversy, 
 in which high and reproachful words were ex- 
 changed, which so incensed the Earl, that he 
 killed Mackay and his son with lus own hands. 
 Having with some difficulty effected his escape 
 from the followers and servants of the Mac- 
 kays, he immediately returned home and pre- 
 pared for defence, but the Mackays were too 
 weak to take revenge. The matter was in 
 some degree reconciled between Eobert, the 
 successor of Nicolas, and Angus Mackay, the 
 eldest son of Donald. s 
 
 Some years after this event a serious conflict 
 took place between the inhabitants of Suther- 
 land and Strathnaver, and Malcolm Macleod 
 of the Lewis, which arose out of the following 
 circumstances. Angus Mackay above men- 
 tioned, had married a sister of Malcolm Mac- 
 leod, by whom he had two sons, Angus 
 Dow, and Eoriegald. On the death of Angus, 
 Houcheon Dow Mackay, a younger brother, be- 
 came tutor to his nephews, and entered upon 
 the management of their lands. Malcolm Mac- 
 leod, understanding that his sister, the widow 
 of Angus, was ill treated by Houcheon Dow, 
 went on a visit to her, accompanied by a num- 
 ber of the choicest men of his country, with the 
 determination of vindicating her cause either 
 by entreaty or by force. He appears not to 
 have succeeded in his object, for he returned 
 homeward greatly discontented, and in revenge 
 laid waste Strathnaver and a great part of the 
 Breachat in Sutherland, and carried off booty 
 along with him. As soon as Houcheon Dow 
 and his brother Xeill Mackay learnt this in- 
 telligence, they acquainted Eobert, Earl of 
 Sutherland, between whom and Angus Mackay 
 a reconciliation had been effected, who imme- 
 diately despatched Alexander Xe-Slirem-Gorme 
 
 (Alexander Murray of Cubin,) with a number 
 of stout and resolute men, to assist the Mac- 
 kays. They followed Macleod with great haste, 
 and overtook him at Tittim-Turwigh, upon the 
 marches between Eoss and Sutherland. The 
 pursuing party at first attempted to recover the 
 goods and cattle which had been carried off, 
 but tlds being opposed by Macleod and his 
 men, a desperate conflict ensued, in which 
 great valour was displayed on both sides. It 
 " was long, furious, cruel, and doubtful," says 
 Sir Eobert Gordon, and was " rather desperate 
 than resolute." At last the Lewismen, with 
 their commander, Malcolm Macleod, nick- 
 named Odealm Beg M'Bowen, were slain, and 
 the goods and cattle were recovered. One 
 man alone of Macleod's party, who was sorely 
 wounded, escaped to bring home the sorrowful 
 news to the Lewis, which he had scarcely de- 
 livered when he expired 9 
 
 These feuds were followed by a formidable in- 
 surrection, or more correctly, invasion, in 1411, 
 by Donald, Lord of the Isles, of such a serious 
 nature as to threaten a dismemberment of the 
 kingdom of Scotland. The male succession to 
 the earldom of Eoss having become extinct, 
 the honours of the peerage devolved upon a 
 female, Euphemia Eoss, wife of Sir Walter 
 Lesley. Of this marriage there were two chd- 
 dren, Alexander, afterwards Earl of Eoss, and 
 Margaret, afterwards married to the Lord of the 
 Isles. Earl Alexander married a daughter of 
 the Duke of Albany. Euphemia, Countess of 
 Eoss, was the only issue of this marriage, but 
 becoming a nun she resigned the earldom of 
 Ross in favour of her uncle John Stewart, Earl 
 of Buchan. The Lord of the Isles conceiving 
 that the countess, by renouncing the world, 
 had forfeited her title and estate, and, more- 
 over, that she had no right to dispose thereof, 
 claimed both in right of Margaret his wife. 
 The Duke of Albany, governor of Scotland, at 
 whose instigation the countess had made the 
 renunciation, of course refused to sustain the 
 claim of the prince of the islands. The Lord 
 of the Isles having formed an alliance with 
 England, whence he was to be supplied 
 with a fleet far superior to the Scottish, at 
 the head of an armv of 10,000 men, fullv 
 
 •Sir Robert Gordon's History, p. 60. 
 
 Sir Robert Gordon, pp. 6], 62. 
 
70 
 
 GENEEAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 equipped and armed after the fashion of the 
 islands with hows and arrows, pole-axes, knives, 
 and swords, in 1411 hurst like a torrent upon 
 the earldom, and carried everything before him. 
 He, however, received a temporary check at 
 Dingwall, where he was attacked with great 
 impetuosity by Angus Dubh Mackay of Earr, 
 or Black Angus, as he was called ; but Angus 
 was taken prisoner, and his brother Eoderic 
 Gald and many of his men were lulled. 
 
 Flushed with the progress he had made, 
 Donald now resolved to carry into execution 
 a threat he had often made to burn the town 
 of Aberdeen. For this purpose he ordered his 
 army to assemble at Inverness, and summoned 
 all the men capable of bearing arms in the 
 Boyne and the Enzie, to join his standard on 
 his way south. This order being complied 
 with, the Lord of the Isles marched through 
 Moray without opposition. He committed 
 great excesses in Strathbogie and in the dis- 
 trict of Garioch, which belonged to the Earl of 
 Mar. The inhabitants of Aberdeen were in 
 dreadful alarm at the near approach of this 
 marauder and his fierce hordes; but their fears 
 were allayed by the speedy appearance of a 
 well-equipped army, commanded by the Earl 
 of Mar, who bore a high military character, 
 assisted by many brave knights and gentlemen 
 in Angus and the Mearns. Among these were 
 Sir Alexander Ogilvy, sheriff of Angus, Sir 
 James Scrymgeour, constable of Dundee and 
 hereditary standard-bearer of Scotland, Sir 
 William de Abernethy of Salton, nephew to 
 the Duke of Albany, Sir Bobert Maule of Paii- 
 mure, Sir Alexander Irving of Drum, and Sir 
 Bobert Melville. The Earl was also joined by 
 Sir Bobert Davidson, the Provost of Aberdeen, 
 and a party of the burgesses. 
 
 Advancing from Aberdeen, Mar marched by 
 Inverury, and descried the Highlanders sta- 
 tioned at the village of Harlaw, on the water of 
 Ury,near its junction with the Don. Mar soon 
 saw that he had to contend with tremendous 
 odds ; but although his forces were, it is said, 
 only a tenth of those opposed to him, he 
 resolved, from the confidence he had in his 
 steel-clad knights, to risk a battle. Having 
 placed a small but select body of knights and 
 men-at-arms in front, under the command of 
 the constable of Dundee and the sheriff of 
 
 Angus, the Earl drew up the main strength of 
 his army in the rear, including the Murrays, 
 the Straitons, the Maules, the Irvings, the 
 Lesleys, the Lovels, the Stirlings, headed by 
 their respective chiefs. The Earl then placed 
 himself at the head of this body. At the head 
 of the Islesmen and Highlanders was the Lord 
 of the Isles, subordinate to whom were Mac- 
 intosh and Maclean and other Highland chiefs, 
 all bearing the most deadly hatred to their 
 Saxon foes, and panting for revenge- 
 On a signal being given, the Highlanders 
 and Islesmen, setting up those terrific shouts 
 and yells which they were accustomed to raise 
 on entering into battle, rushed forward upon 
 their opponents ; but they were received with 
 great firmness and bravery by the knights, 
 who, with their spears levelled, and battle-axes 
 raised, cut down many of their impetuous but 
 badly armed adversaries. After the Low- 
 landers had recovered themselves from the 
 shock which the furious onset of the High- 
 landers had produced, Sir James Scrymgeour, 
 at the head of the knights and bannerets who 
 fought under him, cut his way through the 
 thick columns of the Islesmen, carrying death 
 everywhere around him; but the slaughter of 
 hundreds by this brave party did not intimi- 
 date the Highlanders, who kept pouring in by 
 thousands to supply the place of those who 
 had fallen. Surrounded on all sides, no alterna- 
 tive remained for Sir James and his valorous 
 companions but victory or death, and the latter 
 was their lot. The constable of Dundee was 
 amongst the first who suffered, and his fall so en- 
 couraged the Highlanders, that seizing and stab- 
 bing the horses, they thus unhorsed their riders, 
 whom they despatched with their daggers. In 
 the meantime the Earl of Mar, who had pene- 
 trated with his main army into the very heart 
 of the enemy, kept up the unequal contest 
 with great bravery, and, although he lost dur- 
 ing the action almost the whole of his army, 
 he continued the fatal struggle with a handful 
 of men till nightfall. The disastrous result 
 of this battle was one of the greatest mis- 
 fortunes which had ever happened to the 
 numerous respectable families in Angus and 
 the Mearns. Many of these families lost 
 not only their head, but every male in the 
 house. Lesley of Balquhain is said to have 
 
BATTLE OF HAKLAW. 
 
 71 
 
 fallen with six of liis sons. Besides Kir James 
 Scrymgeour, Sir Alexander Ogilvy the sheriff 
 of Angus, with his eldest son George Ogilvy, 
 Sir Thomas Murray, Sir Eohert Maule of Pan- 
 mure, Sir Alexander Irving of Drum, Sir Wil- 
 liam Abernethy of Salton, Sir Alexander Strai- 
 ten of Laui'iston, James Lovel, and Alexander 
 Stirling, and Sir Eohert Davidson, Provost of 
 Aberdeen, with 500 men-at-arms, including 
 the principal gentry of Buchan, and the greater 
 part of the burgesses of Aberdeen who fol- 
 lowed their Provost, were among the slain. 
 The Highlanders left 900 men dead on the 
 field of battle, including the chiefs Maclean 
 and Mackintosh. This memorable battle was 
 fought on the eve of the feast of St. James the 
 Apostle, July 25th, 1411. It was the final 
 contest for supremacy between the Celt and 
 the Teuton, and appears to have made at the 
 time an inconceivably deep impression on the 
 national mind. For more than a hundred 
 years, it is said, the battle of Harlaw continued 
 to be fought over again by schoolboys in their 
 play. "It fixed itself in the music and the 
 poetry of Scotland ; a march, called the ' Battle 
 of Harlaw,' continued to be a popular air down 
 to the time of Drummond of Hawthornden, 
 and a spirited ballad, on the same event, is 
 still repeated in our age, describing the meeting 
 of the armies, and the deaths of the chiefs, in 
 no ignoble strain." 1 
 
 Mar and the few brave companions in arms 
 who survived the battle, passed the night on 
 the field; when morning dawned, they found 
 that the Lord of the Isles had retreated during 
 the night, by Inverury and the hill of Benochy. 
 To pursue him was impossible, and he was 
 
 1 Tytler, vol. iii. p. 177. The ballad of the Battle 
 concludes thus: — 
 
 There was not. sin' King Kenneth's days, 
 
 Sic strange intestine cruel strife 
 In Scotlande seen, as ilk man says. 
 
 Where monie likelie lost their life; 
 
 Whilk made divorce tween man and wife, 
 And monie children fatherless, 
 
 Whilk in this realm has been full rife; 
 Lord help these lands ! our wrangs redress ! 
 
 In July, on Saint James his evin. 
 
 That four-and-twenty dismal day, 
 Twelve hundred, ten score, and eleven 
 
 Of years sin' Christ, the soothe to say ; 
 
 Men will remember, as they may, 
 When thus the veritie they knaw ; 
 
 And monie a ane will mourne for aye 
 The brim battle of the Harlaw. 
 
 therefore allowed to retire without molestation, 
 and to recruit his exhausted strength. 2 
 
 As soon as the news of the disaster at Hai- 
 law reached the ears of the Duke of Albany, 
 then regent of Scotland, he set about collecting 
 an army, with which he marched in person to 
 the north in autumn, with a determination to 
 bring the Lord of the Isles to obedience. Hav- 
 ing taken possession of the castle of Dingwall, 
 lie appointed a governor, and from thence pro- 
 ceeded to recover the whole of Boss, Donald 
 retreated before him, and took up his winter- 
 quarters 'in the islands. Hostilities were re- 
 newed next summer, but the contest was not 
 long or doubtful — notwithstanding some little 
 advantages obtained by the King of the Isles — 
 for he was compelled to give up his claim to 
 the earldom of Eoss, to become a vassal to the 
 Scottish crown, and to deliver hostages to se- 
 cure his future good behaviour. A treaty to 
 this effect was entered into at Pilgilbe or Pol- 
 gillip, the modern Loch-Gilp, in Argyle. 
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 A. D. 1424-1512. 
 
 KINGS OF SCOTLAND : — 
 
 James I. — State of Country — Policy of the King to the 
 Highland Chiefs — Lord of the Isles — Disturbances in 
 Sutherland — Barbarity of a Bobber — James's High- 
 land Expedition — Disturbances in Caithness — In- 
 surrection in the West under Donald Balloon — Lord 
 of the Isles invades Sutherland — Allan of Lorn — 
 Machinations of Edward IV. with Island Chiefs — 
 Rebellion of Earl of Eoss — Lord of the Isles sub- 
 mits — Disturbances in Eoss and Sutherland — Wise 
 Policy of James IV. — Visits Highlands — Feuds in 
 Sutherland — Highlanders at Flodden. 
 
 On the return of James I., in 1424, from his 
 captivity in England, he found Scotland, and 
 
 3 " So ended one of Scotland's most memorable bat- 
 tles. The contest between the Lowlanders and Don- 
 ald's host was a contest between foes, of whom their 
 contemporaries would have said that their ever being 
 in harmony with each other, or having a feeling of 
 common interests and common nationality, was not 
 
 within the range of rational expectations 
 
 It will be difficult to ma-ke those not familiar with the 
 tone of feeling in Lowland Scotland at that time be- 
 lieve that the defeat of Donald of the Isles was felt as 
 a more memorable deliverance even than that of Ban- 
 nockburn." — Burton, vol. iii. pp. 101, 102. 
 
72 
 
 GENERAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 particularly the Highlands, in a state of the 
 most fearful insubordination. Rapine, rob- 
 bery, and an utter contempt of the laws pre- 
 vailed to an alarming extent, which required 
 all the energy of a wise and prudent prince, 
 like James, to repress. When these excesses 
 were first reported to James, by one of his 
 nobles, on entering the kingdom, he thus ex- 
 pressed himself : — " Let God but grant me life, 
 and there shall not be a spot in my dominions 
 where the key shall not keep the castle, and 
 the furze-bush the cow, though I myself should 
 lead the life of a dog to accomplish it." 3 "At 
 this period, the condition of the Highlands, so 
 far as is discoverable from the few authentic 
 documents which have reached our times, ap- 
 pears to have been in the highest degree rude 
 and uncivilized. There existed a singular com- 
 bination of Celtic and of feudal manners. 
 Powerful chiefs, of Norman name and Norman 
 blood, had penetrated into the remotest dis- 
 tricts, and ruled over multitudes of vassals and 
 serfs, whose strange and uncouth appellatives 
 proclaim their difference of race in the most 
 convincing mariner. 4 The tenure of lands by 
 charter and seisin, the feudal services due by 
 the vassal to his lord, the bands of friendship 
 or of manrent which indissolubly united certain 
 chiefs aud nobles to each other, the baronial 
 courts, and the complicated official pomp of 
 feudal life, were all to be found in full strength 
 and operation in the northern coimties ; but 
 the dependence of the barons, who had taken 
 up their residence in these wild districts, upon 
 the king, and their allegiance and subordina- 
 tion to the laws, were less intimate and influ- 
 ential than in the Lowland divisions of the 
 country ; and as they experienced less protec- 
 tion, we have already seen, that in great public 
 emergencies, when the captivity of the sover- 
 eign, or the payment of his ransom, called for 
 the imposition of a tax upon property through- 
 out the kingdom, these great northern chiefs 
 thought themselves at liberty to resist the col- 
 lection within their mountainous principalities. 
 " Besides such Scoto-Norman barons, how- 
 ever, there were to be found in the Highlands 
 and Isles, those fierce aboriginal chiefs, who 
 
 3 ForJun a Goodal, vol. ii. p. 511. 
 
 4 MS. Adv. Lib. Coll. Diplom. a Macfarlane, vol. 
 i. p. 245.— MS. Cart. Moray, 263. 
 
 hated the Saxon and the Norman race, and 
 offered a mortal opposition to the settlement of 
 all intruders within a country which they con 
 sidered their own. They exercised the same 
 authority over the various clans or septs of 
 which they were the chosen heads or leaders, 
 which the baron possessed over his vassals 
 and military followers ; and the dreadful dis- 
 putes and collisions which perpetually occurred 
 between these distinct ranks of potentates, 
 were accompanied by spoliations, ravages, im- 
 prisonments, and murders, which had at last 
 become so frequent and so far extended, that 
 the whole country be} r ond the Grampian range 
 was likely to be cut off, by these abuses, from 
 all regular communication with the more pacific 
 parts of the kingdom." 5 
 
 Having, by a firm and salutary, but perhaps 
 severe, course of policy, restored the empire of 
 the laws in the Lowlands, and. obtained the 
 enactment of new statutes for the future wel- 
 fare and prosperity of the kingdom, James 
 next turned his attention to his Highland do- 
 minions, which, as we have seen, were in a de- 
 plorable state of insubordination, that made 
 both property and life insecure. The king 
 determined to visit in person the disturbed 
 districts, and by punishing the refractory chiefs, 
 put an end to those tumults and enormities 
 which, had, during his minority, triumphed 
 over the laws. James, in the year 1427, ar- 
 rived at Inverness, attended by his parliament, 
 and immediately summoned the principal chiefs 
 there to appear before him. From whatever 
 motives — whether from hopes of effecting a 
 reconciliation by a ready compliance with the 
 mandate of the king, or from a dread, in case 
 of refusal, of the fate of the powerful barons 
 of the south who had fallen victims to James's 
 severity— the order of the king was obeyed, and 
 the chiefs repaired to Inverness. No sooner, 
 however, had they entered the hall where the 
 parliament was sitting, than they were by 
 order of the king arrested, ironed, and im- 
 prisoned in different apartments, and debarred 
 all communication with each other, or with 
 their followers. It has been supposed that 
 these chiefs may have been entrapped by some 
 fair promises on the part of James, and the joy 
 
 5 Tytlcr, vol. iii. pp. 250, 251. 
 
VIGOROUS POLICY OF JAMES I. 
 
 73 
 
 James I. 
 
 which, according to Fordim, lie manifested at 
 seeing these turbulent and haughty spirits 
 caught in the toils which he had prepared for 
 them, favours this conjecture. The number of 
 chiefs seized on this occasion is stated to have 
 amounted to about foriy ; but the names of 
 the principal ones only have been preserved. 
 These were Alaster or Alexander Macdonald, 
 Lord of the Isles ; Angus Dubh Mackay, with 
 liis four sons, who could bring into the field 
 4,000 fighting men ; Kenneth More and his 
 son-in-law, Angus of Moray, and Maemathan, 
 who could muster 2,000 men ; Alexander Mac- 
 reiny of Garmoran and John Macarthur, each of 
 whom could bring into the field 1,000 followers. 
 Besides these were John Ross, James Campbell, 
 and "William Lesley. The Countess of Ross, 
 the mother of Alexander, the Lord of the Isles, 
 and heiress of Sir Walter Lesley, was also 
 apprehended and imprisoned at the same time. 6 
 The king now determined to inflict summary 
 vengeance upon his captives. Those who were 
 most conspicuous for their crimes were imme- 
 diately executed; among whom were James 
 Campbell, who was tried, convicted, and hanged 
 
 6 Fordnu a Heanie, vol. iv. pp. 1283—4. 
 
 for the murder of Jolm of the Isles ; and Alex- 
 ander Macreiny and John Macarthur, who were 
 beheaded. Alexander of the Isles and Angus 
 Dubh, after a short confinement, were both 
 pardoned ; but the latter was obliged to deliver 
 up, as a hostage for his good behaviour, his 
 son Neill, who was confined on the Bass rock, 
 and, from that circumstance, was afterwards 
 named Xeill-Wasse-Mackay. 7 Besides these, 
 many others who were kept in prison in differ- 
 ent parts of the kingdom, were afterwards con- 
 demned and executed. 
 
 The Toyal clemency, which had been extended 
 so graciously to the Lord of the Isles, met with 
 an ungrateful return ; for shortly after the king 
 "had returned to his lowland dominions, Alex- 
 ander collected a force of ten thousand men in 
 Ross and the Isles, and with this formidable 
 body laid waste the country ; plundered and 
 devastated the crown lands, against which his 
 vengeance was chiefly directed, and razed the 
 royal burgh of Inverness to the ground. On 
 hearing of these distressing events, James, with 
 a rapidity rarely equalled, collected a force, the 
 extent of which has not been ascertained, and 
 marched with great speed into Lochaber, where 
 he found the eneiny, who, from the celerity of 
 his movements, was taken almost by surprise. 
 Alexander prepared for battle ; but, before its 
 commencement, he had the misfortune to wit- 
 ness the desertion of the clan Chattan, and 
 the clan Cameron, who, to a man, went over 
 to the royal standard. The king, thereupon, 
 attacked Alexander's army, which he com- 
 pletely routed, and the latter sought safety in 
 flight. 
 
 Reduced to the utmost distress, and seeing 
 the impossibility of evading the active vigi- 
 lance of Ms pursuers, who hunted him from 
 place to place, this haughty lord, who con- 
 sidered him self on a par with kings, resolved 
 to throw himself entirely on the mercy of the 
 king, by an act of the most abject submission. 
 Having arrived in Edinburgh, to which he had 
 travelled in the most private manner, the hum- 
 bled chief suddenly presented himself before 
 the king, on Easter-Sunday, in the church of 
 Holyrood, when he and his queen, surrounded 
 by the nobles of the court, were employed in 
 
 7 Sir R. Gov<lon, p. 04. 
 
GENERAL HISTORY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 their devotions before the high altar. The 
 extraordinary appearance of the fallen prince 
 denoted the inward workings of his troubled 
 mind. "Without bonnet, arms, or ornament 
 of any kind, his legs and arms quite bare, his 
 body covered with only a plaid, and holding 
 a naked sword in his hand by the point, he fell 
 down on Ms knees before the king, imploring 
 mercy and forgiveness, and, in token of his un- 
 reserved submission, offered the hilt of his 
 sword to his majesty. At the solicitation of 
 the queen and nobles, James spared his life, 
 but committed hiin immediately to Tantallan 
 castle, under the charge of "William Earl of 
 Angus, his nephew. This took place in the 
 year 1429. The Countess of Ross was kept in 
 close confinement in the ancient monastery of 
 Inchcolm, on the small island of that name, in 
 the Frith of Forth. 8 The king, however, re- 
 lented, and released the Lord of the Isles and 
 his mother, after about a year's imprisonment. 
 About this period happened another of those 
 bloody frays, which destroyed the internal 
 peace of the Highlands, and brought ruin and 
 desolation upon many families. Thomas Mac- 
 neill, son of Neill Mackay, who was engaged 
 in the battle of Tuttum Turwigh, possessed the 
 lands of Creigh, Spaniziedaill, and Palrossie, in 
 Sutherland. Having conceived some displea- 
 sure at Mowat, the laird of Freshwick, the 
 latter, with his party, in order to avoid his ven- 
 geance, took refuge in the chapel of St. Duffus, 
 near the town of Tain, as a sanctuary. Thither 
 they were followed by Thomas, who not only 
 slew Mowat and his people, but also burnt the 
 chapel to the ground. This outrage upon re- 
 ligion and humanity exasperated the king, 
 who immediately ordered a proclamation to bo 
 issued, denouncing Thomas Macneill as a rebel, 
 and promising his lands and possessions as a 
 reward to any one that would kill or appre- 
 hend him. Angus Murray, son of Alexander 
 Murray of Cubin, immediately set about the 
 apprehension of Thomas Macneill. To accom- 
 plish his purpose, he held a secret conference 
 with Morgan and Neill Macneill, the brothers 
 of Thomas, at which he offered, provided 
 they would assist him in apprehending their 
 brother, his two daughters in marriage, and 
 
 8 Fordun, vol. iv. p. 1286. 
 
 promised to aid them in getting peaceable pos- 
 session of such lauds in Strathnaver as they 
 claimed. This, he showed them, might be 
 easily accomplished, with little or no resistance, 
 as Neill Mackay, son of Angus Dubh, from 
 whom the chief opposition might have been 
 expected, was then a prisoner in the Bass, and 
 Angus Dubh, the father, was unable, from 
 age and infirmit}^ to defend his pretensions. 
 Angus Murray also promised to request the 
 assistance of the Earl of Sutherland. As these 
 two brothers pretended a right to the posses- 
 sions of Angus Dubh in Strathnaver, they were 
 easily allured by these promises ; they imme- 
 diately apprehended their brother Thomas at 
 Spaniziedaill in Sutherland, and delivered him 
 up to Murray, by whom he was presented to 
 the king. Macneill was immediately executed 
 at Inverness, and Angus Murray obtained, in 
 terms of the royal proclamation, a grant of the 
 lands of Palrossie and Spaniziedaill from the 
 king. The lands of Creigh fell into the hands 
 of the Lord of the Isles, as superior, by the 
 death and felony of Macneill. 9 
 
 In pursuance of his promise, Murray gave his 
 daughters in marriage respectively to Neill and 
 Morgan Macneill, and with the consent and 
 approbation of Robert Earl of Sutherland, he 
 invaded Strathnaver with a party of Suther- 
 land men, to take possession of the lands of 
 Angus Dubh Mackay. Angus immediately 
 collected his men, and gave the command of 
 them to John Aberigh, his natural son, as he 
 was unable to lead them in person. Both par- 
 ties met about two miles from Toung, at a place 
 called Drum-ne-Coub ; but, before they came 
 to blows, Angus Dubh Mackay sent a message 
 to Neill and Morgan, his cousins-german, offer- 
 ing to surrender them all his lands and posses- 
 sions in Strathnaver, if they would allow him 
 to retain Keantayle. This fair offer was, how- 
 ever, rejected, and an appeal was therefore 
 immediately made to arms. A desperate con- 
 flict then took place, in which many were 
 killed on both sides ; among whom were 
 Angus Murray and his two sons-in-law, Neill 
 and Morgan Macneill. John Aberigh, though 
 he gained the victory, was severely wounded, 
 and lost one of his arms. After the battle 
 
 11 Sir Robert Gordon, pp. 6J, G5. 
 
POLICY OF JAMES I.— HIGHLAND FEUDS. 
 
 75 
 
 Angus Dubh Mackay was carried, at his own 
 request, to the field, to search for the bodies 
 of his slain cousins, but he was killed by an 
 arrow from a Sutherland man who lay con- 
 cealed in a bush hard by. 
 
 James I. made many salutary regulations for 
 putting an end to the disorders consequent 
 upon the lawless state of the Highlands, and 
 the oppressed looked up to him for protection. 
 The following remarkable case will give some 
 idea of the extraordinary barbarity in which 
 the spoliators indulged : — A notorious thief, 
 named Donald Eoss, who had made himself 
 rich with plunder, carried off two cows from a 
 poor woman. This woman having expressed a 
 determination not to wear shoes again till she 
 had made a complaint to the king in person, 
 the robber exclaimed, " It is false : I'll have 
 you shod before you reach the court ;" and 
 thereupon, with a brutality scarcely paralleled, 
 the cruel monster took two horse shoes, and 
 fixed them on her feet with nails driven into 
 the flesh. The victim of this savage act, as 
 soon as she was able to travel, went to the 
 king and related to him the whole circum- 
 stances of her case, which so exasperated him, 
 that he immediately sent a warrant to the 
 sheriff of the county, where Eoss resided, for his 
 immediate apprehension ; which being effected, 
 he and a number of his associates were sent 
 under an escort to Perth, where the court was 
 then held. Eoss was tried and condemned, he 
 and his friends being treated in the same man- 
 ner as he had treated the poor woman ; and 
 before his execution a linen shirt, on which 
 was painted a representation of his crime, was 
 thrown over him, in which dress he was paraded 
 through the streets of the town, afterwards 
 dragged at a horse's tail, and hanged on a gal- 
 lows. 1 
 
 The commotions in Strathnaver, and other 
 parts of the Highlands, induced the king to 
 make another expedition into that part of his 
 dominions ; previous to which he summoned a 
 Parliament at Perth, which was held on the 
 15th of October, 1431, in which a land-tax, or 
 " zelde," was laid upon the whole lands of the 
 kingdom, to defray the expenses of the under- 
 taking. No contemporary record of this expe- 
 
 ] Fordun a GooJal, vol. ii. p. 5] 0. 
 
 dition exists ; but it is said that the king pro- 
 ceeded to Dunstaffnage castle, to punish those 
 chiefs who had joined in Donald Balloch's in- 
 surrection ; that, on his arrival there, numbers 
 of these came to him and made their submis- 
 sion, throwing the whole odium of the rebel- 
 lion upon the leader, whose authority, they 
 alleged, they were afraid to resist; and that, 
 by their means, three hundred thieves were ap- 
 prehended and put to death. 
 
 For several years after this expedition the 
 Highlands appear to have been tranquil ; but, 
 on the liberation of Neill Mackay from his 
 confinement on the Bass, in the year 1437, 
 fresh disturbances began. This restless chief 
 had scarcely been released, when he entered 
 Caithness, and spoiled the country. He was 
 met at a place called Sandsett ; but the people 
 who came to oppose his progress were defeated, 
 and many of them were slain. This conflict was 
 called Euaig Hanset ; that is, the flight, or 
 chase at Sandsett. 
 
 About the same time a quarrel took place be- 
 tween the Keiths and some others of the inhab- 
 itants of Caithness. As the Keiths could not 
 depend upon their own forces, they sought the 
 aid of Angus Mackay, son of Neill last men- 
 tioned, who had recently died. Angus agreed 
 to join the Keiths; and accordingly, accom- 
 panied by his brother, John Eoy, and a chief- 
 tain named Iain-Mor-Mac-Iain-Eiabhaich, with 
 a company of men, he went into Caithness, 
 and, joining the Keiths, invaded that part of 
 Caithness hostile to the Keiths. The people 
 of Caithness lost not a moment in assembling 
 together, and met the Strathnaver men and the 
 Keiths at a place called Elare-Tannie. Here a 
 sanguinary contest took place; but victory de- 
 clared for the Keiths, whose success, it is said, 
 was chiefly owing to the prowess of Iain-Mor- 
 Mac-Iain-Eiabhaich, whose name was, in con- 
 sequence, long famous in that and the adjoin- 
 ing country. 2 
 
 After the defeat of James, Earl of Douglas, 
 who had renounced his allegiance to James II., 
 at Arkinholme, in 1454, he retired into Ar- 
 gyleshire, where he was received by the Earl 
 of Eoss, with whom, and the Lord of the Isles, 
 he entered into an alliance. The ocean prince, 
 
 2 Sir R. Gordon, p. 09. 
 
76 
 
 GENERAL HISTORY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 having a powerful fleet of 500 galleys at 
 his command, immediately assembled his 
 vassals, to the amount of 5,000 fighting men, 
 and, having embarked them in his navy, 
 gave the command of the whole to Donald 
 Balloch, Lord of Isla, his near kinsman, a chief 
 who, besides his possessions in Scotland, had 
 great power in the north of Ireland. This 
 potent chief, whose hereditary antipathy to 
 the Scottish throne was as keen as that of his 
 relation, entered cheerfully into the views of 
 Douglas. With the force under his command 
 he desolated the western coast of Scotland 
 from Innerkip to Bute, the Cumbrays and the 
 Island of Arran ; yet formidable as he was both 
 in men and ships, the loss was not so consider- 
 able as might have been expected, from the 
 prudent precautions taken by the king to re- 
 pel the invaders. The summary of the damage 
 sustained is thus related in a contemporary 
 chronicle : — " There was slain of good men fif- 
 teen; of women, two or three; of children, 
 three or four. The plunder included five or 
 six hundred horse, ten thousand oxen and kine, 
 and more than a thousand sheep and goats. 
 At the same time, they burnt down several 
 mansions in Innerkip around the church; har- 
 ried all Arran ; stormed and levelled with the 
 ground the castle of Brodick ; and wasted, with 
 fire and sword, the islands of the Cumbrays. 
 They also levied tribute upon Bute ; carrying 
 away a hundred bolls of malt, a hundred marts, 
 and a hundred marks of silver." 3 
 
 While Donald Balloch was engaged in this 
 expedition, the Lord of the Isles, with his 
 kinsmen and followers to the number of five or 
 six hundred, made an incursion into Suther- 
 land, and encamped before the castle of Skibo. 
 What his object was has not been ascertained; 
 but, as a measure of precaution, the Earl of 
 Sutherland sent Neill Murray, son of Angus 
 Murray, who was slain at Drum-na-Coub, to 
 watch his motions. The Lord of the Isles im- 
 mediately began to commit depreciations, where- 
 upon he was attacked by Murray, and com- 
 pelled to retreat into Ross with the loss of one 
 of his captains, named Donald Dubh-na-Soirn, 
 and fifty of his men. Exasperated at this de- 
 feat, Macdonald sent another party of his 
 
 3 Auchinleck Chronicle, p. 55. 
 
 islanders, along with a company of men from 
 Ross, to Strathfleet in Sutherland to lay waste 
 the country, and thus wipe off the disgrace of 
 his late defeat. On hearing of this fresh in- 
 vasion, the Earl of Sutherland despatched his 
 brother Robert with a sufficient force to attack 
 the Clandonald. They met on the sands of 
 Strathfleet, and, after a fierce and bloody strug- 
 gle, the islanders and their allies were over- 
 thrown with great slaughter. Many perished 
 in the course of their flight. This was the last 
 hostile irruption of the Clandonald into Suther- 
 land, as all the disputes between the Lord of 
 the Isles and the Sutherland family were after- 
 wards accommodated by a matrimonial alliance. 
 
 The vigorous administration of James II., 
 which checked and controlled the haughty 
 and turbulent spirit of his nobles, was also 
 felt in the Highlands, where his power, 
 if not always acknowledged, was neverthe- 
 less dreaded; but upon the death of that 
 wise prince in 1460, and the accession of his 
 infant son to the crown, the princes of the 
 north again abandoned themselves to their 
 lawless courses. The first who showed the 
 example was Allan of Lorn of the Wood, as 
 he was called, a nephew of Donald Balloch by 
 his sister. Coveting the estate of his elder 
 brother, Ker of Lorn, Allan imprisoned him 
 in a dungeon in the island of Kerrera, with the 
 view of starving him to death that he might 
 the more easily acquire the unjust possession 
 he desired ; but Ker was liberated, and his pro- 
 perty restored to him by the Earl of Argyle, to 
 whom he was nearly related, and who suddenly 
 attacked Allan with a fleet of galleys, defeated 
 him, burnt his fleet, and slew the greater part 
 of his men. This act, so justifiable in itself, 
 roused the revengeful passions of the island 
 chiefs, who issued from their ocean retreats and 
 committed the most dreadful excesses. 4 
 
 After the decisive battle of Touton, Henry 
 VI. and his Queen retired to Scotlaud to watch 
 the first favourable opportunity of seizing the 
 sceptre from the house of York. Edward IV., 
 anticipating the danger that might arise to his 
 crown by an alliance between his rival, the 
 exiled monarch, and the king of Scotland, de- 
 termined to counteract the effects of such a 
 
 4 A uchinJeck Chronicle, pp. 5S, 59. 
 
INTEIGUES OF EDWAED IV.— EAEL OF EOSS EEBELS. 
 
 77 
 
 connection by a stroke of policy. Aware of 
 the disaffected disposition of some of the Scot- 
 tish nobles, and northern and island chiefs, he 
 immediately entered into a negotiation with 
 John, Earl of Eoss, and Donald Balloch, to 
 detach them from their allegiance. On the 1 9th 
 of October, 1461, the Earl of Eoss, Donald 
 Balloch, and his son John de Isle, held a coun- 
 cil of their vassals and dependants at Astornish, 
 at which it was agreed to send ambassadors to 
 England to treat with Edward. On the arrival 
 of these ambassadors a negotiation was entered 
 into between them and the Earl of Douglas, 
 and John Douglas of Balveny, his brother, both 
 of whom had been obliged to leave Scotland 
 for their treasons in the previous reign. These 
 two brothers, who were animated by a spirit of 
 hatred and revenge against the family of their 
 late sovereign James II., warmly entered into 
 the views of Edward, whose subjects they had 
 become ; and they concluded a treaty with the 
 northern ambassadors which assumed as its 
 basis nothing less than the entire conquest of 
 Scotland. Among other conditions, it was sti- 
 pulated that, upon payment of a specified 
 sum of money to himself, his son, and ally, the 
 Lord of the Isles should become for ever the 
 vassal of England, and should assist Edward 
 and his successors in the wars in Ireland and 
 elsewhere. And, in the event of the entire 
 subjugation of Scotland by the Earls of Eoss 
 and Douglas, the whole of the kingdom on the 
 north of the Frith of Forth was to be divided 
 equally between these Earls and Donald Bal- 
 loch, and the estates which formerly belonged 
 to Douglas between the Frith of Forth and the 
 borders were to be restored to him. This sin- 
 gular treaty is dated London, 18th February, 
 1462. 5 
 
 Pending this negotiation, the Earl of Angus, 
 at that time one of the most powerful of the 
 Scottish nobles, having, by the promise of an 
 English dukedom from the exiled Henry, en- 
 gaged to assist in restoring him to his crown 
 and dominions, the Earl of Eoss, before the 
 plan had been organized, in order to counteract 
 the attempt, broke out into open rebellion, 
 which was characterized by all those circum- 
 stances of barbarous cruelty which distin- 
 
 6 Rotuli Scoliai, vol. ii. p. 407. 
 
 I guished the inroads of the princes of the 
 j islands. He first seized the castle of Inver- 
 ness at the head of a small party, being ad- 
 mitted unawares by the governor, who did not 
 suspect his hostile intentions. He then col- 
 lected a considerable army, and proclaimed 
 himself king of the Hebrides. With his army 
 he entered the country of Athole, denounced 
 the authority of the king, and commanded all 
 taxes to be paid to him ; and, after committing 
 the most dreadful excesses, he stormed the 
 castle of Blair, dragged the Earl and Countess 
 of Athole from the chapel of St. Bridget, and 
 carried them off to Isla as prisoners. It is re- 
 lated that the Earl of Eoss thrice attempted to 
 set fire to the holy pile, but in vain. He lost 
 many of his war-galleys, in a storm of thunder 
 and lightning, in which the rich booty he had 
 taken was consigned to the deep. Prepara- 
 tions were immediately made by the regents 
 of the kingdom for punishing this rebellious 
 chief ; but these became unnecessary, for, 
 touched with remorse, he collected the remains 
 of his plunder, and stripped to his shirt and 
 drawers, and barefooted, he, along with his 
 principal followers, in the same forlorn and de- 
 jected condition, went to the chapel of St. 
 Bridget which they had lately desecrated, and 
 there performed a penance before the altar. 
 The Earl and Countess of Athole were there- 
 upon voluntarily released from confinement, 
 and the Earl of Eoss was afterwards assassi- 
 nated in the castle of Inverness, by an Irish 
 harper who bore him a grudge. 
 
 Although at this period an account of Ork- 
 ney and Shetland does not properly belong to 
 a history of the Highlands, as these islands had 
 for long been the property of the king of Nor- 
 way, and had a population almost purely Teu- 
 tonic, with a language, manners, and customs 
 widely differing from those of the Highlanders 
 proper ; still it will not be out of place to men- 
 tion here, that these islands were finally made 
 over to Scotland in 1469, as security for the 
 dowry of Margaret of Norway, the wife of 
 James III. 
 
 The successor of the Lord of the Isles — who 
 was generally more like an independent sov- 
 
 c FeiTcrius, p. 383. — Lesley dc Rebus Gesiis Scuto- 
 urn, p. 300. 
 
78 
 
 GENEEAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 ereign than a subject of the Scottish, king — not 
 being disposed to tender the allegiance which 
 his father had violated, the king, in the month 
 of May, 1476, assembled a large army on the 
 north of the Forth, and a fleet on the west 
 coast, for the purpose of making a simultaneous 
 attack upon him by sea and land. Seeing no 
 hopes of making effectual resistance against 
 such a powerful force as that sent against him, 
 he tendered his submission to the king on cer- 
 tain conditions, and resigned the earldom of 
 Eoss, and the lands of Kintyre and Knapdale, 
 into his majesty's hands. By this act he was 
 restored to the king's favour, who forgave him 
 all his offences, and " infeft him of new " in the 
 lordship of the Isles and the other lands which 
 he did not renounce. The Earl of Athole, who 
 commanded the royal army, was rewarded for 
 this service by a grant of the lands and forest 
 of ClunyJ 
 
 After the Lord of the Isles had thus resigned 
 the earldom of Eoss into the king's hands, that 
 province was perpetually molested by incur- 
 sions from the islanders, who now considered 
 it a fit theatre for the exercise of their preda- 
 tory exploits. Gillespie, cousin of the Lord 
 of the Isles, at the head of a large body of the 
 islanders, invaded the higher part of Eoss and 
 committed great devastation. The inhabitants, 
 or as many as the shortness of the time would 
 permit, amongst whom the Clankenzie were 
 chiefly distinguished, speedily assembled, and 
 met the islanders on the banks of the Connan, 
 where a sharp conflict took place. The Clan- 
 kenzie fought with great valour, and pressed 
 the enemy so hard that Gillespie Macdonald 
 was overthrown, and the greater part of his 
 men were slain or drowned in the river, about 
 two miles from Braile, thence called Blar-na- 
 Pairc. The predecessor of the Laird of Brodie, 
 who happened to be with the chief of the Mac- 
 kenzies at the time, fought with great courage. 
 
 For a considerable time the district of Suther- 
 land had remained tranquil, but on the 1 1th 
 of July, 1487, it again became the scene of a 
 bloody encounter between the Mackays and the 
 Bosses. To revenge the death of a relation, or 
 to wipe away the stigma of a defeat, were con- 
 sidered sacred and paramount duties by the 
 
 7 Lesley's Hist., j>. 41. — Sir R. Gordon, p. 77. 
 
 Highlanders ; and if, from the weakness of the 
 clan, the minority of the cliief, or any other 
 cause, the clay of deadly reckoning was de- 
 layed, the feeling which prompted revenge was 
 never dormant, and the earliest opportunity 
 was embraced of vindicating the honour of the 
 clan. Angus Mackay, son of the famous Neill 
 of the Bass, having been killed at Tarbert by 
 a Eoss, his son, John Eiabhaich Mackay, ap- 
 plied to John Earl of Sutherland, on whom he 
 depended, to assist him in revenging his father's 
 death. The Earl promised his aid, and accord- 
 ingly sent his uncle, Eobert Sutherland, with 
 a company of chosen men, to assist John Mac- 
 kay. With this force, and such men as John 
 Mackay and his relation Uilleam-Dubh-Mac- 
 Iain-Abaraich, son of John Aberigh who fought 
 at Drum-na-Coub, cordd collect, they invaded 
 Strath-oy-kell, carrying fire and sword in their 
 course, and laying waste many lands belonging 
 to the Bosses. As soon as the Laird of Balna- 
 gown, the chief of the Bosses, heard of this 
 attack, he collected all his forces, and attacked 
 Eobert Sutherland and John Eiabhaich Mac- 
 kay, at a place called Aldv-charrish. A long 
 and obstinate battle took place ; but the death 
 of Balnagown and seventeen of the principal 
 landed gentlemen of Eoss decided the combat , 
 for the people of Eoss, being deprived of their 
 leader, were thrown into confusion, and utterly 
 put to flight, with great slaughter. 
 
 The fruit of this victory was a large quantity 
 of booty, which the victors divided the same 
 day ; but the avarice of the men of Assynt, in- 
 duced them to instigate John Mackay to resolve 
 to commit one of the most perfidious and dia- 
 bolical acts ever perpetrated by men who had 
 fought on the same side. The design of the 
 Assynt men was, to cut off Eobert Sutherland 
 and his whole party, and possess themselves of 
 their share of the spoil, before the Earl of 
 Sutherland could learn the result of the battle, 
 that he might be led to suppose that his uncle 
 and his men had all fallen in the action with 
 the Bosses. When this plan was divulged to 
 Uilleam-Dubh-Mac-Iain-Abaraich, he was hor- 
 rified at it, and immediately sent notice to 
 Eobert Sutherland of it, that he might be upon 
 his guard. Eobert assembled his men upon 
 receipt of this extraordinary intelligence, told 
 them of the base intentions of John Mackay, 
 
PEUDENT POLICY OF JAMES IV. 
 
 79 
 
 and put them in order, to be prepared for the 
 threatened attack ; but on John Biabhaich 
 Mackay perceiving that Eobert and his party 
 were prepared to meet him, he slunk off, 
 and went home to Strathnaver. 8 
 
 The lawless state of society in the Highlands, 
 which followed as a consequence from the re- 
 moval of the seat of government to the Low- 
 lands, though it often engaged the attention of 
 the Scottish sovereigns, never had proper re- 
 medies applied to mend it. At one time the 
 aid of force was called in, and when that was 
 found ineffectual, the vicious principle of di- 
 viding the chiefs, that they might the more 
 effectually weaken and destroy one another, 
 was adopted. Both plans, as might be sup- 
 posed, proved abortive. If the government 
 had, by conciliatory measures, and by a profu- 
 sion of favours, suitable to the spirit of the 
 times, secured the attachment of the heads of 
 the clans, the supremacy of the laws might 
 have been vindicated, and the sovereign might 
 have calculated upon the support of powerful 
 and trustworthy auxiliaries in his domestic 
 struggles against the encroachments of the 
 nobles. Such ideas appear never to have once 
 entered the minds of the kings, but it was re- 
 served for James IV., who succeeded to the 
 throne in 1488, to make the experiment. " To 
 attach to his interest the principal chiefs of 
 these provinces, to overawe and subdue the 
 petty princes who affected independence, to 
 carry into their territories, hitherto too exclu- 
 sively governed by their own capricious or 
 tyrannical institutions, the same system of a 
 severe, but regular and rapid, administration of 
 civil and criminal justice, which had been 
 established in his Lowland dominions, was the 
 laudable object of the king; and for this pur- 
 pose he succeeded, with that energy and activ- 
 ity which remarkably distinguished him, in 
 opening up an intercourse with many of the 
 leading men in the northern counties. With 
 the captain of the Clanchattan, Duncan Mack- 
 intosh ; with Ewan, the son of Alan, captain 
 of the Clancameron ; with Campbell of Glen- 
 urqhay ; the Macgilleouns of Duart and Loch- 
 buy; Mackane of Ardnamurchan ; the lairds of 
 Mackenzie and Grant ; and the Earl of Huntley, 
 
 " Sir R. Gordon, pp. 78, 70. 
 
 a baron of the most extensive power in those 
 northern districts — he appears to have been in 
 habits of constant and regular communication 
 — rewarding them by presents, in the shape 
 either of money or of grants of land, and se- 
 curing their services in reducing to obedience 
 such of their fellow chieftains as proved contu- 
 macious, or actually rose in rebellion." 9 
 
 But James carried his views further. Bightly 
 judging how much the personal presence of 
 the sovereign would be valued by his distant 
 subjects, and the good effects which would re- 
 sult therefrom, he resolved to visit different 
 parts of his northern dominions. Accordingly, 
 in the year 1490, accompanied by his court, he 
 rode twice from Perth across the chain of 
 mountains which extends across the country 
 from the border of the Mearns to the head of 
 Loch Rannoch, which chain is known by the 
 name of the "Mount." Again, in 1493, he 
 twice visited the Highlands, and went as far 
 as Dunstaffhage and Mengarry, in Ardnamur- 
 chan. In the following year he visited the 
 isles no less than three times. His first voy- 
 age to the islands, which took place in April 
 and May, was conducted with great state. He 
 was attended by a vast suite, many of whom 
 fitted out vessels at their own expense. The 
 grandeur which surrounded the king impressed 
 the islanders with a high idea of his wealth 
 and power ; and his condescension and famili- 
 arity with all classes of his subjects, acquired 
 for him a popularity which added strength to 
 his throne. During these marine excursions 
 the youthful monarch indulged his passion for 
 sailing and hunting, and thereby relieved the 
 tediousness of business by the recreation of 
 agreeable and innocent pleasures. 
 
 The only opposition which James met with 
 during these excursions was from the restless 
 Lord of the Isles, who had the temerity to put 
 the king at defiance, notwithstanding the re- 
 peated and signal marks of the royal favour 
 he had experienced. But James was not to be 
 trifled with, for he summoned the island prince 
 to stand his trial for " treason in Kintyre ; " 
 and in a parliament held in Edinburgh shortly 
 after the king's return from the north, " Sir 
 John of the Isles," as he is named in the trea- 
 
 9 Tytler, vol. iv. pp- 367, 363. 
 
80 
 
 GEXEEAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 surer's accounts, was stripped of his power, and 
 his possessions were forfeited to the crown. 
 
 One of those personal petty feuds which were 
 so prevalent in the Highlands, occurred about 
 this time. Alexander Sutherland of Dilred, 
 being unable or unwilling to repay a sum of 
 money he had borrowed from Sir James Dun- 
 bar of Cumnock, the latter took legal measures 
 to secure his debt by appraising part of Dilred's 
 lands. This proceeding vexed the laird of 
 Dilred exceedingly, and he took an umbrage at 
 the Dunbars, who had recently settled in 
 Sutherland, " grudgeing, as it were," saj's Sir 
 E. Gordon, " that a stranger should brawe 
 (brave) him at his owne doors." Happening 
 to meet Alexander Dunbar, brother of Sir 
 James, who had lately married Lady Margaret 
 Baillie, Countess Dowager of Sutherland, high 
 words passed between them, a combat ensued, 
 and, after a long contest, Alexander Dunbar was 
 killed. Sir James Dunbar thereupon went to 
 Edinburgh, and laid the matter before King 
 James IV., who was so exasperated at the 
 conduct of Alexander Sutherland, that he 
 immediately proclaimed him a rebel, sent mes- 
 sengers everywhere in search of him, and pro- 
 mised his lands to any person that would 
 apprehend him. After some search he was 
 apprehended with ten of his followers by his 
 uncle, Y-Eoy-Mackay, brother of John Eeawigh 
 Mackay already mentioned, who sent him to 
 the king. Dilred was tried, condemned, and 
 executed, and his lands declared forfeited. 
 Eor this service, Y-Eoy-Mackay obtained from 
 the king a grant of the lands of Armdall, Far, 
 Golspietour, Einnald, Kilcolrnkill, and Dilred, 
 which formerly belonged to Alexander Suther- 
 land, as was noted in Mackay's infeftment, 
 dated in 1449. 1 "Avarice," says Sir E. Gor- 
 don, " is a strange vyce, which respects neither 
 blood nor freindship. This is the first infeft- 
 ment that any of the familie of Macky had 
 from the king, so far as I can perceave by the 
 records of this kingdom ; and they wer untill 
 tliis tyme possessors onlie of ther lands in 
 Strathnaver, not careing much for any charters 
 or infeftments, as most pairts of the High- 
 landers have alwise done." 
 
 The grant of the king as to the lands over 
 
 1 Sir R. Gordon, p. 80. 
 
 which Sir James Dunbar's security extended, 
 was called in question by Sir James, who ob- 
 tained a decree before the lords of council and 
 session, in February, 1512, setting aside the 
 right of Y-Eoy-Mackay, and ordaining the Earl 
 of Sutherland, as superior of the lands, to re- 
 ceive Sir James Dunbar as his vassal. 
 
 A lamentable instance of the ferocity of 
 these times is afforded in the case of one of 
 the Earls of Sutherland, who upon some pro- 
 vocation slew two of his nephews. This earl, 
 who was named John, had a natural brother, 
 Thomas Moir, who had two sons, Eobert 
 Sutherland and the Keith, so called on account 
 of his being brought up by a person of that 
 name. The young men had often annoyed the 
 Earl, and on one occasion they entered his 
 castle of Dimrobin to brave him to his face, an 
 act which so provoked the Earl, that he in- 
 stantly killed Eobert in the house. The Keith, 
 after receiving several wounds, made his es- 
 cape, but he was overtaken and slain at the 
 Clayside, near Dunrobin, which from that cir- 
 cumstance was afterwards called Ailein-Cheith, 
 or the bush of the Keith. 
 
 In 1513 a troop of Highlanders helped to 
 swell the Scotch army on the ever-memorable 
 and disastrous field of Flodden, but from their 
 peculiar mode of fighting, so different from 
 that of the Lowlanders, appear to have been 
 more a hindrance than a help. 
 
 CHAFTEE VII. 
 
 a. i>. 1516— 1588. 
 
 ■' .SCOTLAND: 
 
 Doings in Sutherland — Battle of Torrau-Dubh — Feud 
 between the Keiths and the clan Gun — John Mac- 
 kay and Murray of Aberscors — Alexander Suther- 
 land, the bastard, claims the Earldom — Contests 
 between John Mackay and the Master of Sutherland 
 — Earls of Caithness and Sutherland — Dissensions 
 among the clan Chattan — Hector Macintosh elected 
 Captain — His doings — Disturbances in Sutherland 
 — Feuds between the Clanranald and Lord Lovat — 
 The ' Field of Shirts' — Earl of Huntly's Expedition 
 — Commotions in Sutherland — Earl of Huntly and 
 the Clanranald — The Queen Eegent visits the High- 
 lands — Commotions in Sutherland — Queen Mary's 
 Expedition against Huntly — Earl and Countess of 
 Sutherland poisoned — Earl of Caithness' treatment 
 rfthe young Earl of Sutherland- -Quarrel between 
 
BATTLE OF TOBEAX-DUBH. 
 
 81 
 
 tlie Monroes and clan Kenzie — Doings of the Earl 
 of Caithness — Unruly state of the North — The elan 
 Chattan — Reconciliation of the Earls of Sutherland 
 and Caithness — The Earl of Sutherland and the clan 
 Gun — Disastrous Feud between the Macdonalds and 
 llacleans — Disputes between the Earls of Sutherland 
 and Caithness — Reconciliation between Mackay and 
 the Earl of Sutherland. 
 
 In tlie year 1516, Adam Earl of Sutherland, 
 in anticipation of threatened dangers in the 
 north, entered into bonds of friendship and 
 alliance ■with the Earl of Caithness for mutual 
 protection and support. The tetter to secure 
 the goodwill and assistance of the Earl of 
 Caithness, Earl Adam made a grant of some 
 lands upon the east side of the -water of Ully ; 
 but the Earl of Caithness, although he kept 
 possession of the lands, joined the foes of his 
 ally and friend. The Earl of Sutherland, how- 
 ever, ■would have found a more trustworthy 
 supporter in the person of Y-Boy-Mackay, who 
 had come under a written obligation to serve 
 Mm the same year ; but Mackay died, and a 
 contest immediately ensued in Strathnaver, be- 
 tween John and Donald Mackay his "bastard 
 sons, and Neill-Xaverigh Mackay, brother of 
 Y-Eoy, to obtain possession of his lands. John 
 took possession of all the lands belonging to 
 his father in Strathnaver ; but his uncle jSTeill 
 laid claim to them, and applied to the Earl of 
 Caithness for assistance to recover them. The 
 Earl, after many entreaties, put a force under 
 the command of jSTeill and his two sons, with 
 which thej' entered Strathnaver, and obtaining 
 an accession of strength in that country, they 
 dispossessed John Mackay, who immediately 
 went to the clan Chattan and clan Kenzie, to 
 crave their aid and support, leaving his brother 
 Donald Mackay to defend himself in Strath- 
 naver as he best could. Donald not having a 
 sufficient force to meet his uncle and cousins in 
 open combat, had recourse to a stratagem which 
 succeeded entirely to his mind. With his 
 little band he, under cloud of night, surprised 
 his opponents at Delreavigh in Strathnaver, 
 and slew both his cousins and the greater 
 part of their men, and thus utterly destroyed 
 the issue of NeilL John Mackay, on hearing 
 of this, immediately joined his brother, and 
 drove out of Strathnaver all persons who had 
 favoured the pretensions of his uncle jSTeill- 
 Xaverigh. This unfortunate old man, after be- 
 ing abandoned by the Earl of Caithness, threw 
 
 bimself upon the generosity of his nephews, 
 requesting that they would merely allow him a 
 small maintenance to keep him from poverty 
 during the remainder of his life ; but these un- 
 natural relatives, regardless of mercy and the 
 ties of blood, ordered Xeill to be beheaded in 
 their presence by the hands of Claff-na-Gep, 
 his own foster brother. 2 
 
 In the year 1517, advantage was taken by 
 John Mackay of the absence of the Earl of 
 Sutherland, who had gone to Edinburgh to 
 transact some business connected 'with his 
 estates, to invade the province of Sutherland, 
 and to burn and spoil every thing which oame 
 in his way. He "was assisted in this lawless 
 enterprise by two races of people dwelling in 
 Sutherland, called the Siol-Phaill, and the Siol- 
 Thomais, and by Xeil-Mac-Iain-Mac- Angus of 
 Assynt, and his brother John Mor-Mac-Iain, 
 with some of their countrymen. As soon as 
 the Countess of Sutherland, who had remained 
 at home, heard of this invasion, she prevailed 
 upon Alexander Sutherland, her bastard bro- 
 ther, to oppose Mackay. Assisted chiefly by 
 John Murray of Aberscors, and Uilleam Mae- 
 Sheumais-Mhic-Chruner, chief of the clan Gun 
 in Sutherland, Alexander convened hastily the 
 inhabitants of the country and went in search 
 of the enemy. He met John Mackay and his 
 brother Donald, at a place called Torran-Dubh 
 or Cnocan-Dubh, near Eogart in Strathfleet. 
 Macka} 7 ^ force was prodigious, for he had as- 
 sembled not only the whole strength of Strath- 
 naver, Durines, Edderachillis, and Assynt, with 
 the Siol-Phaill and Soil-Tkomais ; but also all 
 the disorderly and idle men of the "whole dio- 
 cese of Caithness, with all such as he could 
 entice to join him from the west and north- 
 west isles, to accompany him in his expedition, 
 buoyed up with the hopes of plunder. But 
 the people of Sutherland were nowise dismayed 
 at the appearance of this formidable host, and 
 made preparations for an attack. A desperate 
 struggle commenced, and after a long contest, 
 Mackay's vanguard was driven back upon the 
 position occupied by himself. Mackay having 
 rallied the retreating party, selected a number 
 of the best and ablest men he could find, and 
 having placed the remainder of his army under 
 
 2 .Sir Robert Gordon, p. 90. 
 
82 
 
 GENEEAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 the command of his brother Donald, to act as 
 a reserve in case of necessity, he made a furious 
 attack upon the Sutherland men, who received 
 the enemy with great coolness and intrepidity. 
 The chiefs on both sides encouraged their men 
 to fight for the honour of their clans, and in 
 consequence the fight was severe and bloody ; 
 but in the end the Sutherland men, after great 
 slaughter, and after prodigies of valour had been 
 displayed by both parties, obtained the victory. 
 Mackay's party was almost entirely cut off, 
 and Mackay himself escaped with difficulty. 
 The victors next turned their attention to the 
 reserve under the command of Donald Mackay ; 
 but Donald dreading the fate of his brother, 
 fled along with his party, which immediately 
 dispersed. They were, however, closely pur- 
 sued by John Murray and Uilleam Mac-Sheu- 
 mais, till the darkness of the night prevented 
 the pursuit. In this battle, two hundred of 
 the Strathnaver men, thirty-two of the Siol- 
 Phaill, and fifteen of the Siol-Thomais, besides 
 many of the Assynt men, and their commander, 
 Niall-Mac-Iain-Mac-Aonghais, a valiant chief- 
 tain, were slain. John Mor-Mac-Iain, the 
 brother of this chief, escaped with his life after 
 receiving many wounds. Of the Sutherland 
 men, thirty-eight only were slain. Sir Eobert 
 Gordon says that this "was the greatest conflict 
 that hitherto hes been foughtin between the 
 inhabitants of these cuntreyes, or within the 
 diocy of Catteynes, to our knowlege." 3 
 
 Shortly after the battle of Torran-Dubh, 
 Uilleam Mac-Sheumais, called Cattigh, chief of 
 the clan Gun, killed George Keith of Aikregell 
 with his son and twelve of their followers, at 
 Drummoy, in Sutherland, as they were travel- 
 ling from Inverugie to Caithness. This act 
 was committed by Mac-Sheumais to revenge 
 the slaughter of his grandfather (the Cruner,) 
 who had been slain by the Keiths, under the 
 following circumstances. A long feud had ex- 
 isted between the Keiths and the clan Gun, to 
 reconcile which, a meeting was appointed at 
 the chapel of St. Tayr in Caithness, near 
 Girnigoe, of twelve horsemen on each side. 
 The Cruner, then chief of the clan Gun, with 
 some of his sons and his principal kinsmen, 
 to the number of twelve in all, came to the 
 
 3 Sir E. Gordon, p. 92. 
 
 chapel at the appointed time. As soon as they 
 arrived, they entered the chapel and prostrated 
 themselves in prayer before the altar. While 
 employed in this devotional act, the laird of 
 Inverugie and Aikregell arrived with twelve 
 horses, and two men on each horse. After 
 dismounting, the whole of this party rushed 
 into the chapel armed, and attacked the Crunei 
 and his party unawares. The Clan Gun, how 
 ever, defended themselves with great intrepid- 
 ity, and although the whole twelve were slain, 
 many of the Keiths were also killed. For 
 nearly two centuries the blood of the slain was 
 to be seen on the walls of the chapel, which it 
 had stained. James Gun, one of the sons of the 
 Cruner, being absent, immediately on hearing 
 of his father's death, retired with his family 
 into Sutherland, where he settled, and where 
 his son William Mac-Sheumais, or Mac- James 
 otherwise William Cattigh, was born. 
 
 As John Mackay imputed his defeat at 
 Torran-Dubh mainly to John Murray of Aber- 
 scors, he Tesolved to take the first convenient 
 opportunity of revenging himself, and wiping 
 off the disgrace of his discomfiture. He, there- 
 fore, not being in a condition himself to under- 
 take an expedition, employed two brothers, 
 William and Donald, his kinsmen, chieftains 
 of the Sliochd-Iain-Abaraich, with a company 
 of men, to attack Murray. The latter having 
 mustered his forces, the parties met at a place 
 called Loch-Salchie, not far from the Torran- 
 Dubh, where a sharp skirmish took place, in 
 which Murray proved victorious. The two 
 Strathnaver chieftains and the greater part 
 of their men were slain, and the remainder 
 were put to flight. The principal person who 
 fell on Murray's side was his brother John- 
 Eoy, whose loss he deeply deplored. 
 
 Exasperated at this second disaster, John 
 Mackay sent John Croy and Donald, two of 
 his nephews, sons of Angus Mackay, who was 
 killed at Morinsh in Eoss, at the head of a 
 number of chosen men, to plunder and burn 
 the town of Pitfonr, in Strathfleet, which be- 
 longed to John Murray ; but they were equally 
 unsuccessful, for John Croy Mackay and some 
 of his men were slain by the Murrays, and 
 Donald was taken prisoner. In consequence 
 of these repeated reverses, John Mackay sub- 
 mitted himself to the Earl of Sutherland on 
 
ALEXANDEK SUTHEKLAND THE BASTARD. 
 
 ft.", 
 
 his return from Edinburgh, and granted him 
 his bond of service, in the year 1518. But, 
 notwithstanding this submission, Mackay after- 
 wards tampered with Alexander Sutherland, 
 the bastard, and having gained his favour by 
 giving his sister to Sutherland in marriage, he 
 prevailed upon him to rise against the Earl of 
 Sutherland. All these commotions in the 
 north happened during the minority of King 
 James V., when, as Sir R Gordon says, " everie 
 man thought to escape unpunished, and cheiflie 
 these who were remotest from the seat of jus- 
 tice." 4 
 
 This Alexander Sutherland was son of John, 
 
 the third of that name, Earl of Sutherland, 
 and as he pretended that the Earl and his 
 mother had entered into a contract of marriage, 
 he laid claim, on the death of the Earl, to the 
 title and estates, as a legitimate descendant of 
 Earl John, his father. By the entreaties of 
 Adam Gordon, Lord of Aboyne, who had mar- 
 ried Lady Elizabeth, the sister and sole heiress 
 of Earl John, Alexander Sutherland judicially 
 renounced his claim in presence of the sheriff 
 of Inverness, on the 25th of July, 1509. He 
 now repented of what he had done, and, being 
 instigated by the Earl of Caithness and John 
 Mackay, mortal foes to the house of Suther- 
 
 Old Dunrobin Castle. 
 
 land, he renewed his pretensions. Earl Adam, 
 perceiving that he might incur some danger 
 in making an appeal to arms, particularly as 
 the clans and tribes of the country, with many 
 of whom Alexander had become very popular, 
 were broken into factions and much divided 
 on the question betwixt the two, endeavoured 
 to win him over by offering him many favour- 
 able conditions, again to renounce his claims, 
 but in vain. He maintained the legitimacy 
 of his descent, and alleged that the renuncia- 
 tion he had granted at Inverness had been 
 obtained from him contrary to his inclination, 
 and against the advice of his best friends. 
 Having collected a considerable force, he, in 
 
 4 Sir R. Gordon, p. 93. 
 
 absence of the earl, who was in Strathbogie, 
 attacked Dunrobin castle, the chief strength of 
 the earl, which he took. In this siege he was 
 chiefly supported by Alexander Terrell of the 
 Doill, who, in consequence of taking arms 
 against the earl, his superior, lost all his lands, 
 and was afterwards apprehended and executed. 
 As soon as the earl heard of the insurrection, 
 he despatched Alexander Lesley of Kinninuvy, 
 with a body of men, into Sutherland to assist 
 John Murray of Aberscors, who was already at 
 the head of a force to support the earl. They 
 immediately besieged Dunrobin, which sur- 
 rendered. Alexander had retired to Strath- 
 naver, but he again returned into Sutherland 
 with a fresh body of men, and laid waste the 
 country. After putting to death several of his 
 
84 
 
 GENERAL HISTORY OE THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 own kinsmen who had joined the earl, he de- 
 scended farther into the country, towards the 
 parishes of Loth and Clyne. Meeting with 
 little or no opposition, the bastard grew care- 
 less, and being observed wandering along the 
 Sutherland coast, flushed with success and re- 
 gardless of danger, the earl formed the design 
 of cutting him entirely off. With this view, 
 he directed Alexander Lesley of Kinninuvy, 
 John Murray, and John Scorrigh-Mac-Finlay, 
 one of the Siol-Thomais, to hover on Suther- 
 land's outskirts, and to keep skirmishing with 
 him till he, the earl, should collect a sufficient 
 force with which to attack him. Having col- 
 lected a considerable body of resolute men, the 
 earl attacked the bastard at a place called Ald- 
 Quhillin, by East Clentredaill, near the sea 
 side. A warm contest ensued, in which Alex- 
 ander Sutherland was taken prisoner, and the 
 most of his men were slain, including John 
 Bane, one of his principal supporters, who fell 
 by the hands of John Scorrigh-Mac-Finlay. 
 After the battle Sutherland was immediately 
 beheaded by Alexander Lesley on the spot, and 
 his head sent to Dunrobin on a spear, which 
 was placed upon the top of the great tower, 
 " which shews us " (as Sir Robert Gordon, fol- 
 lowing the superstition of his times, curiously 
 observes), " that whatsoever by fate is allotted, 
 though sometymes forshewed, can never be 
 avoyded. For the witches had told Alexander 
 the bastard that Ms head should be the highest 
 that ever wes of the Southerlands ; which he 
 did foolishlye interpret that some day he should 
 be Earl of Southerland, and in honor above 
 all his predicessors. Thus the divell and his 
 ministers, the witches, deceaving still such as 
 trust in them, will either find or frame predic- 
 tions for everie action or event, which doeth 
 ever fall out contrarie to ther expectations ; a 
 kynd of people to all men unfaithfull, to hopers 
 deceatful, and in all cuntries allwise forbidden, 
 allwise reteaned and manteaned." 5 
 
 The Earl of Sutherland being now far ad- 
 vanced in life, retired for the most part to 
 Strathbogy and Aboyne, to spend the remainder 
 of his days amongst his friends, and intrusted 
 the charge of the country to Alexander Gordon, 
 his eldest son, a young man of great intrepidity 
 
 6 Sir R. Gordon, pp 96, 97. 
 
 and talent. The restless chief John Mackay, 
 still smarting under his misfortunes, and thirst- 
 ing for revenge, thought the present a favour- 
 able opportunity for retrieving his losses. 
 With a considerable force, therefore, he in-, 
 vaded Sutherland, and entered the parish of 
 Creigh, which he intended to ravage, but the 
 Master of Sutherland hastened thither, attacked 
 Mackay, and forced him to retreat into Strath- 
 naver with some loss. Mackay then assembled 
 a large body of his countrymen and invaded 
 the Breachat. He was again defeated by 
 Alexander Gordon at the Grinds after a keen 
 skirmish. Hitherto Mackay had been allowed 
 to hold the lands of Grinds, and some other 
 possessions in the west part of Sutherland, but 
 the Master of Sutherland now dispossessed him 
 of all these as a punishment for his recent con- 
 duct. Still dreading a renewal of Mackay's 
 visits, the Master of Sutherland resolved to re- 
 taliate, by invading Strathnaver in return, and 
 thereby showing Mackay what he might in 
 future expect if he persevered in continuing hie 
 visits to Sutherland. Accordingly, he collected 
 a body of stout and resolute men, and entered 
 Strathnaver, wdiich he pillaged and burnt, and, 
 having collected a large quantity of booty, re- 
 turned into Sutherland. In entering Strath- 
 naver, the Master of Sutherland had taken the 
 road to Strathully, passing through Mackay's 
 bounds in the hope of falling in with and ap- 
 prehending him, but Mackay was absent on a 
 creach excursion into Sutherland. In return- 
 ing, however, through the Diric Moor and the 
 Breachat, Alexander Gordon received intelli- 
 gence that Mackay with a company of men 
 was in the town of Lairg, with a quantity of 
 cattle he had collected in Sutherland, on his 
 way home to Strathnaver. He lost no time in 
 attacking Mackay, and such was the celerity of 
 his motions, that his attack was as sudden as 
 unexpected. Mackay made the best resistance 
 he could, but was put to the rout, and many 
 of his men were killed. He himself made his 
 escape with great difficulty, and saved his life 
 by swimming to the island of Eilean-Minric, 
 near Lairg, where he lay concealed during the 
 rest of the day. All the cattle which Mackay 
 had carried away were rescued and carried back 
 into Sutherland. The following day Mackay 
 left the island, returned home to his country, 
 
DISSENSION AMONG THE CLAN CHATTAN. 
 
 85 
 
 and again submitted himself to the Master and 
 his father, the Earl, to whom he a second time 
 gave his bond of service and manrent in the 
 year 1522. 6 
 
 As the Earl of Caithness had always taken 
 a side against the Sutherland family in these 
 different -quarrels, the Earl of Sutherland 
 brought an action before the Lords of Council 
 and Session against the Earl of Caithness, to 
 recover back from him the lands of Strathully, 
 on the ground, that the Earl of Caithness had 
 not fulfilled the condition on which the lands 
 were granted to him, viz., to assist the Earl of 
 Sutherland against his enemies. There were 
 other minor points of dispute between the earls, 
 to get all which determined they both repaired 
 to Edinburgh. Instead, however, of abiding 
 the issue of a trial at law before the judges, 
 both parties, by the advice of mutual friends, 
 referred the decision of all the points in dis- 
 pute on either side to Gavin Dunbar, 7 bishop 
 of Aberdeen, who pronounced his award at 
 Edinburgh, on the 11th March, 1524, his 
 judgment appearing to have satisfied both 
 parties, as the earls lived in peace with one 
 another ever after. 
 
 The year 1526 was signalized by a great 
 dissension among the clan Chattan. The 
 chief and head of that clan was Lauchlan 
 Macintosh of Dunnachtan, " a verrie honest 
 and wyse gentleman," says Bishop Lesley, " an 
 barroun of gude rent, quha keipit hes hole ken, 
 friendes and tennentis in honest and guid 
 rewll;" 8 and according to Sir Robert Gordon, 
 " a man of great possessions, and of such ex- 
 cellencies of witt and judgement, that with 
 great commendation he did conteyn all his 
 followers within the limits of ther dueties." 9 
 The strictness with which this worthy chief 
 curbed the lawless and turbulent dispositions of 
 his clan raised up many enemies, who, as 
 Bishop Lesley says, were " impacient of versi- 
 ons living." At the head of this restless party 
 was James Malcolmeson, a near kinsman of 
 the chief, who, instigated by his worthless 
 
 6 Sir K. Gordon, p. 97. 
 
 7 It was this excellent Bishop who built, at his own 
 expense, the beautiful bridge of seven arches on the 
 Dee, near Aberdeen. The Episcopal arras cut on 
 some of the stones are almost as entire as when 
 chiselled bv the hands of the sculptor. 
 
 8 Hist, of Scotland, p. 137 n P. 99. 
 
 companions, and the temptation of ruling the 
 clan, murdered the good chief. Afraid to face 
 the well-disposed part of the clan, to whom the 
 chief was beloved, Malcolmeson, along with 
 his followers, took refuge in the island in the 
 loch of Rothiemurchus ; but the enraged clan 
 followed them to their hiding places and de- 
 spatched them. 
 
 As the son of the deceased chief was of ten- 
 der age, and unable to govern the clan, with 
 common consent they made choice of Hector 
 Macintosh, a bastard brother of the late chief, 
 to act as captain till his nephew should arrive 
 at manhood. In the meantime the Earl of 
 Moray, who was uncle to young Macintosh, 
 the former chief having been married to the 
 earl's sister, took away his nephew and placed 
 him under the care of his friends for the bene- 
 fit of his education, and to bring him up vir- 
 tuously. Hector Macintosh was greatly in- 
 censed at the removal of the child, and used 
 every effort to get possession of him ■ but meet- 
 ing with a refusal he became outrageous, and 
 laid so many plans for accomplishing his ob- 
 ject, that his intentions became suspected, a3 
 it was thought he could not wish so ardently 
 for the custody of the child without some bad 
 design. Baffled in every attempt, Hector, as- 
 sisted by his brother William, collected a body 
 of followers, and invaded the Earl of Moray's 
 lands. They overthrew the fort of Dykes, and 
 besieged the castle of Tarnoway, the country 
 surrounding which they plundered, burnt the 
 houses of the inhabitants, and slew a number 
 of men, women, and children. Raising the 
 siege of Tarnoway, Hector and his men then 
 entered the country of the Ogilvies and laid 
 siege to the castle of Pettens, which belonged 
 to the Laird of Durnens, one of the families 
 of the Ogilvies, and which, after some resist- 
 ance, surrendered. No less than twent\'-four 
 gentlemen of the name of Ogilvie were mas- 
 sacred on this occasion. After this event the 
 Macintoshes and the party of banditti they had 
 collected, roamed over the whole of the adjoin- 
 ing country, carrying terror and dismay into 
 every bosom, and plundering, burning, and 
 destroying everything within their reach. To 
 repress disorders which called so loudly for 
 redress, King James V., by the advice of Ms 
 council, granted a commission to the Earl of 
 
86 
 
 GENERAL H1ST0EY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 Moray to take measures accordingly. Having 
 a considerable force put under Ms command, 
 the earl went in pursuit of Macintosh and his 
 party, and having surprised them, he took 
 upwards of 300 of them 1 and hanged them, 
 along with William Macintosh, the brother 
 of Hector. A singular instance of the fidelity 
 of the Highlanders to their chiefs is afforded 
 in the present case, where, out of such a 
 vast number as suffered, not one would 
 reveal the secret of Hector Macintosh's retreat, 
 although promised their lives for the discovery. 
 " Ther faith wes so true to ther captane, that 
 they culd not be persuaded, either by fair 
 meanes, or by any terror of death, to break the 
 same or to betray their master." 2 
 
 Seeing no hopes of escaping the royal ven- 
 geance but by a ready submission, Hector Mac- 
 intosh, by advice of Alexander Dunbar, Dean 
 of Moray, tendered his obedience to the king, 
 which was accepted, and he was received into 
 the royal favour. He did not, however, long 
 survive, for he was assassinated in St. Andrews 
 by one James Spence, who was in consequence 
 beheaded. After the death of Hector, the 
 clan Chattan remained tranquil during the re- 
 maining years of the minority of the young 
 chief, who, according to Bishop Lesley, " wes 
 sua well brocht up by the meenes of the Erie of 
 Murray and the Laird of Phindlater in vertue, 
 honestie, and civile policye, that after he had 
 received the governement of his cuntrey, he 
 was a mirrour of vertue to all the hieland cap- 
 tanis in Scotland." 3 But the young chieftain's 
 " honestie and civile policye " not suiting the 
 ideas of those who had concurred in the mur- 
 der of his father, a conspiracy was formed 
 against him by some of his nearest kinsmen to 
 deprive him of his life, which unfortunately 
 took effect. 
 
 The Highlands now enjoyed repose for some 
 years. John Mackay died in 1529, and was 
 succeeded by his brother Donald, who remained 
 quiet during the life of Adam Earl of Suther- 
 land, to whom his brother had twice granted 
 his bond of service. But, upon the death of 
 
 1 This is the number given by Bishop Lesley, whose 
 account must be preferred to that of Sir R. Gordon, 
 who states it at upwards of 200, as the Bishop lived 
 about a century before Sir Robert. 
 
 2 Sir E. Gordon, p. 100. 
 5 Hist, p. 138. 
 
 that nobleman, he began to molest the inhabi- 
 tants of Sutherland. In 1542 he attacked the 
 village of Knockartol, which he burnt ; and 
 at the same time he plundered Strathbroray. 
 To oppose his farther progress, Sir Hugh Ken- 
 nedy collected as many of the inhabitants of 
 Sutherland as the shortness of the time would 
 permit, and, being accompanied by Gilbert 
 Gordon of Gartay, John Murray of Aberscors, 
 Iris son Hutcheon Murray, and Mac-Mhic- 
 Sheurnais of Killiernan, he attacked Mackay 
 quite unawares near Alfr-Na-Beth. Notwith- 
 standing this unexpected attack, Mackay's men 
 met their assailants with great firmness, but 
 the Strathnaver men were ultimately obliged 
 to retreat with the loss of their booty and a 
 great number of slain, amongst whom was 
 John Mackean-Mac-Angus, chief of Slioehd- 
 Mliic-Iain-Mhic-Hutcheon, in Edderachillis. 
 Though closely pressed by Gilbert Gordon and 
 Hutcheon Murray, Donald Mackay made good 
 his retreat into Strathnaver. 
 
 By no means disheartened at his defeat, and 
 anxious to blot out the stain which it had 
 thrown upon him, he soon returned into Suth- 
 erland with a fresh force, and encamped near 
 Skibo. Hutcheon Murray collected some Suth- 
 erland men, and with them he attacked Mac- 
 kay, and kept him in check till an additional 
 force which he expected should arrive. Ae 
 soon as Mackay saw this new body of men ap- 
 proaching, with which he was quite unable to 
 contend, he retreated suddenly into his own 
 country, leaving several of his men dead on the 
 field. This affair was called the skirmish of 
 Loch-Buy. This mode of annoyance, whicli 
 continued for some time, was put an end to by 
 the apprehension of Donald Mackay, who, 
 being brought before the Earls of Huntly and 
 Sutherland, was, by their command, committed 
 a close prisoner to the castle of Foulis, where 
 he remained a considerable time in captivity. 
 At last, by means of Donald Mac-Iain-Mhoir, 
 a Strathnaver man, he effected his escape, and, 
 returning home, reconciled himself with the 
 Earl of Sutherland, to whom he gave his bond 
 of service and manrent, on the 8th of April, 
 1549. 
 
 During the reign of James V. some respect 
 was paid in the Highlands to the laws ; but 
 the divisions which fell out amongst the no- 
 
CLANBANALD AND LOED LOV AT— FIELD OF SHIETS. 
 
 87 
 
 bility, the unquiet state of the nation during 
 the minority of the infant queen, and the wars 
 with England, relaxed the springs of govern- 
 ment, and the consequence was that the usual 
 scenes of turbulence and oppression soon dis- 
 played themselves in the Highlands, accom- 
 panied with all those circumstances of ferocity 
 which rendered them so revolting to humanity. 
 The Clanranald was particularly active in these 
 lawless proceedings. This clan bore great en- 
 mity to Hugh, Lord Lovat ; and because Ban- 
 aid, son of Donald Glass of Moidart, was sis- 
 ter's son of Lovat, they conceived a prejudice 
 against him, dispossessed him of his lands, and 
 put John Macranald, his cousin, in possession 
 of the estate. Lovat took up the cause of his 
 nephew, and restored him to the possession of 
 his property; but the restless clan dispossessed 
 Eanald again, and laid waste part of Lovat's 
 lands in Glenelg. These disorders did not 
 escape the notice of the Earl of Arran, the 
 governor of the kingdom, who, by advice of 
 his council, granted a special commission to 
 the Earl of Huntly, making him lieutenant- 
 general of all the Highlands, and of Orkney 
 and Zetland. He also appointed the Earl of 
 Argyle lieutenant of Argyle and the Isles. 
 The Earl of Huntly lost no time in raising a 
 large army in the north, with which he marched, 
 in May, 1544, attended by the Macintoshes, 
 Grants, and Erasers, against the clan Cameron 
 and the clan Eanald, and the people of Moy- 
 lart and Knoydart, whose principal captains 
 were Ewen Allenson, Eonald M'Coneilglas, and 
 John Moydart. These had wasted and plun- 
 dered the whole country of Urquhart and Glen- 
 morriston, belonging to the Laird of Grant, and 
 the country of Abertarf, Strathglass, and others, 
 the property of Lord Lovat. They had also 
 taken absolute possession of these different 
 territories as their own properties, which they 
 intended to possess and enjoy in all time com- 
 ing. But, by the mediation of the Earl of Ar- 
 gyle, they immediately dislodged themselves 
 upon the Earl of Huntly's appearance, and re- 
 tired to their own territories in the west. 
 
 In returning to his own country, Lovat was 
 accompanied by the Grants and Macintoshes 
 as far as Gloy, afterwards called the Nine-Mile- 
 Water, and they even offered to escort him 
 home in case of danger ; but, having no appre- 
 
 hensions, he declined, and they returned home 
 by Badenoch. This was a fatal error on the 
 part of Lovat, for, as soon as he arrived at 
 Letterfinlay, he was informed that the Clan- 
 ranald were at hand, in full march, to intercept 
 him. To secure an important pass, he de- 
 spatched Iain-Cleireach, one of his principal 
 officers, with 50 men ; but, from some cause 
 or other, Iain-Cleireach did not accomplish his 
 object ; and, as soon as Lovat came to the north 
 end of Loch Lochy, he perceived the Clanran- 
 ald descending the hill from the west, to the 
 number of about 500, divided into seven com- 
 panies. Lovat was thus placed in a position 
 in which he could neither refuse nor avoid 
 battle. The day (3d July) being extremely 
 hot, Lovat's men, who amounted to about 300, 
 stript to the shirts, from which circumstance 
 the battle was called Blar-Nan-Leine, i.e., the 
 Field of Shirts. A sort of skirmish at first 
 took place, first with bows and arrows, which 
 lasted a considerable time, until both sides had 
 expended their shafts. The combatants then 
 drew their swords, and rushed in true High- 
 land fashion on each other, with fierce and 
 deadly intent. The slaughter was tremendous, 
 and few escaped on either side. Lord Lovat, 
 with 300 of the surname of Fraser, and other 
 followers, were left dead on the field. Lovat's 
 eldest son, a youth of great accomplishments, 
 who had received his education in France, 
 whence he had lately arrived, was mortally 
 wounded, and taken prisoner. He died within 
 three days. Great as was the loss on the side of 
 the Frasers, that on the opposite side was com- 
 paratively still greater. According to a tradi- 
 tion handed down, only four of the Frasers and 
 ten of the Clanranald remained alive. The 
 darkness of the night alone put an end to the 
 combat. This was an unfortunate blow to the 
 clan Fraser, which, tradition says, would have 
 been almost entirely annihilated but for the 
 happy circumstance that the wives of eighty 
 of the Frasers who were slain were pregnant at 
 the time, and were each of them afterwards 
 delivered of a male child. 4 
 
 As soon as intelligence of this disaster was 
 brought to the Earl of Huntly, he again re- 
 
 4 Lesley, p. 184.— Sir R. Gordon, pp. 109, 110.— 
 Shaw's Moray, pp. 265, 266. 
 
88 
 
 GENEKAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 turned with an army, entered Lochaber, wliich 
 he laid waste, and apprehended many of the 
 leading men of the hostile tribes, whom he put 
 to death. 
 
 The great power conferred on the Earl of 
 Huntly, as lieutenant-general in the north of 
 Scotland, and the promptitude and severity 
 with wliich he put down the insurrections of 
 some of the chiefs alluded to, raised up many 
 enemies against him. As he in company with 
 the Earl of Sutherland was about to proceed 
 to France for the purpose of conveying the 
 queen regent to that country, in the year 1550, 
 a conspiracy was formed against him, at the 
 head of which was Macintosh, chief of the 
 clan Chattan. This conspiracy being discov- 
 ered to the earl, he ordered Macintosh to 
 be immediately apprehended and brought to 
 Strathbogie, where he was beheaded in the 
 month of August of that year. His lands 
 were also forfeited at the same time. This 
 summary proceeding excited the sympathy and 
 roused the indignation of the friends of the 
 deceased chief, particularly of the Earl of Cas- 
 silis. A commotion was about to ensue, but 
 matters were adjusted for a time, by the pru- 
 dence of the queen regent, who recalled the 
 act of forfeiture and restored Macintosh's heir 
 to all his father's lands. But the clan Chattan 
 were determined to avail themselves of the 
 first favourable opportunity of being revenged 
 upon the earl, which they, therefore, anxiously 
 looked for. As Lauchlan Macintosh, a near 
 kinsman of the chief, was suspected of having 
 betrayed Ms chief to the earl, the clan entered 
 his castle of Pettie by stealth, slew him, and 
 banished all his dependants from the country 
 of the clan. 
 
 About the same time the province of Suther- 
 land again became the scene of some commo- 
 tions. The earl having occasion to leave home, 
 intrusted the government of the country to 
 Alexander Gordon, his brother, who ruled it 
 with great justice and severity; but the people, 
 disliking the restraints put upon them by 
 Alexander, created a tumult, and placed John 
 Sutherland, son of Alexander Sutherland, the 
 bastard, at their head. Seizing the favourable 
 opportunity, as it appeared to them, when 
 Alexander Gordon was attending divine service 
 in the church at Golspikirktoun, they proceeded 
 
 to attack him, but receiving notice of theii 
 intentions, he collected the little company he 
 had about him, and went out of church reso- 
 lutely to meet them. Alarmed at seeing him 
 and his party approach, the people immediately 
 dispersed and returned every man to Ms own 
 house. But William Murray, son of Caen 
 Murray, one of the family of Pulrossie, indig- 
 nant at the affront offered to Alexander Gor- 
 don, shortly afterwards killed John Suther- 
 land upon the Nether Green of Dunrobin, in 
 revenge for wMch murder William Murray 
 was Mmself thereafter slain by the Laird of 
 Clyne. 
 
 The Mackays also took advantage of the 
 Earl of Sutherland's absence, to plunder and 
 lay waste the country. Y-Mackay, son ol 
 Donald, assembled the Strathnaver men and 
 entered Sutherland, but Alexander Gordon 
 forced Mm back into Strathnaver, and not 
 content with acting on the defensive, he en- 
 tered Mackay's country, which he wasted, and 
 carried off a large booty in goods and cattle, 
 in the year 1551. Mackay, in his turn, re- 
 taliated, and this system of mutual aggression 
 and spoliation continued for several years. 5 
 
 During the absence of the Earl of Huntly in 
 France, John of Moydart, cliief of the Clan- 
 ranald, returned from the isles and recom- 
 menced Ms usual course of rapine. The queen 
 regent, on her return from France, being in- 
 vested with full authority, sent the Earl of 
 Huntly on an expedition to the north, for the 
 purpose of apprehending Clanranald and put- 
 ting an end to Ms outrages. The earl having 
 mustered a considerable force, chiefly High- 
 landers of the clan Chattan, passed into Moy- 
 dart and ELnoydart, but his operations were 
 paralyzed by disputes in his camp. The cMef 
 and Ms men having abandoned their own 
 country, the earl proposed to pursue them in 
 their retreats among the fastnesses of the 
 HigMands; but Ms principal officers, who 
 were cMefiy from the Lowlands, unaccustomed 
 to such a mode of warfare m such a country, 
 demurred; and as the earl was afraid to en- 
 trust himself with the clan Chattan, who 
 owed him a deep grudge on account of the 
 execution of their last chief, he abandoned the 
 
 5 Sir E. Gordon, p. 133. 
 
QUEEN KEGENT VISITS THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 89 
 
 enterprise and returned to the low country. 
 Sir Bobert Gordon says that the failure of the 
 expedition was owing to a tumult raised in 
 the earl's camp hy the clan Chattan, who 
 returned home; hut we are rather disposed to 
 consider Bishop Lesley's account, which we 
 have followed, as the more correct. 6 
 
 The failure of this expedition gave great 
 offence to the queen, who, instigated it is sup- 
 posed by Huntly's enemies, attributed it to 
 negligence on his part. The consequence was, 
 that the earl was committed a prisoner to the 
 castle of Edinburgh in the month of October, 
 where he remained till the month of March 
 following. He was compelled to renounce the 
 earldom of Moray and the lordship of Aber- 
 nethy, with his tacks and possessions in Orkney 
 and Zetland, and the tacks of the lands of the 
 earldom of Mar and of the lordship of Strath- 
 die, of which he was bailie and steward, and 
 he was moreover condemned to a banishment 
 of five years in France. But as he was about 
 to leave the kingdom, the queen, taking a 
 more favourable view of his conduct, recalled 
 the sentence of banishment, and restored him 
 to the office of chancellor, of which he had 
 been deprived; and to make this act of leniency 
 somewhat palatable to the earl's enemies, the 
 queen exacted a heavy pecuniary fine from the 
 earl. 
 
 The great disorders which prevailed in the 
 Highlands at this time, induced the queen- 
 regent to undertake a journey thither in order 
 to punish these breaches of the law, and to 
 repress existing tumults. She accordingly 
 arrived at Inverness in the month of July, 
 1555, where she was met by John, Earl of 
 Sutherland, and George, Earl of Caithness. 
 Although the latter nobleman was requested 
 to bring his countrymen along with him to the 
 court, ho neglected or declined to do so, and 
 he was therefore committed to prison at Inver- 
 ness, Aberdeen, and Edinburgh, successively, 
 and he was not restored to liberty till he paid 
 a considerable sum of money. Y-Mackay of 
 Ear was also summoned to appear before the 
 queen at Inverness, to answer for his spolia- 
 tions committed in the country of Sutherland 
 during the absence of Earl John in France; 
 
 6 Lesley, p. 251. 
 
 but he refused to appear. Whereupon the 
 queen granted a commission to the Earl of 
 Sutherland, to bring Mackay to justice. The 
 earl accordingly entered Strathnaver with a 
 great force, sacking and spoiling every thing 
 in his way, and possessing himself of all the 
 principal positions to prevent Mackay's escape. 
 Mackay, however, avoided the earl, and as he 
 declined to fight, the earl laid siege to the 
 castle of Borwe, the principal strength in 
 Strathnaver, scarcely two miles distant from 
 Far, which he took after a short siege, and 
 hanged Buari dh- Mac- Iain -Mhoir, the com- 
 mander. This fort the earl completely demo- 
 lished. 
 
 While the Earl of Sutherland was engaged 
 in the siege, Mackay entered Sutherland se- 
 cretly, and burnt the church of Loth. He 
 thereafter went to the village of Emockartol, 
 where he met Mackenzie and his eountrjTnen 
 in Strathbroray. A slight skirmish took place 
 between them; but Mackay and his men fled 
 after he had lost Angus-Mackeanvoir, one of 
 his commanders, and several of his followers. 
 Mackenzie was thereupon appointed by the earl 
 to protect Sutherland from the incursions of 
 Mackay during his stay in Strathnaver. Hav- 
 ing been defeated again by Mackenzie, and 
 seeing no chance of escape, Mackay surren- 
 dered himself, and was carried south, and com- 
 mitted a prisoner to the castle of Edinburgh, 
 in which he remained a considerable time. 
 During the queen's stay in the north many 
 notorious delinquents were brought to trial, 
 condemned and executed. 
 
 During Mackay's detention in Edinburgh, 
 John Mor-Mackay, who took charge of Iris 
 kinsman's estate, seizing the opportunity of the 
 Earl of Sutherland's absence in the south of 
 Scotland, entered Sutherland at the head of a 
 determined body of Strathnaver men, and 
 spoiled and wasted the east corner of that pro- 
 vince, and burnt the chapel of St. Ninian. 
 Mac-Mhic-Sheumais, chief of the Clan-Gun, 
 the Laird of Chyne, the Terrell of the Doill, 
 and James Mac-William, having collected a 
 body of Sutherland men, pursued the Strath- 
 naver men, whom they overtook at the foot of 
 the hill called Ben-Moir, in Berridell. Here 
 they laid an ambush for them, and having, by 
 favour of a fog, passed their sentinels, they 
 
90 
 
 GENERAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 unexpectedly surprised Maekay's men, and 
 attacked them with great fury. The Strath- 
 naver men made an obstinate resistance, hut 
 were at length overpowered. Many of them 
 were killed, and others drowned in the water 
 of Garwary. Mackay himself escaped with 
 great difficulty. This was one of the severest 
 defeats the Strathnaver men ever experienced, 
 except at the battle of Knoken-dow-Eeywird. 
 
 On the release of Mackay from his confine- 
 ment in the castle of Edinburgh, he was em- 
 ployed in the wars upon the borders, against 
 the English, in which he acquitted himself 
 courageously ; and on his return to Strathnaver 
 he submitted himself to the Earl of Suther- 
 land, with whom he lived in peace during the 
 remainder of the earl's life. But Mackay in- 
 curred the just displeasure of the tribe of 
 Slaight-ean-Voir by the committal of two crimes 
 of the deepest dye. Having imbibed a violent 
 affection for the wife of Tormaid-Mac-Iain- 
 Mhoir, the chieftain of that tribe, he, in order 
 to accomplish his object, slew the chief, after 
 which he violated his wife, by whom he had a 
 son called Donald Balloch Mackay. The in- 
 sulted clan flew to arms ; but they were de- 
 feated at Durines, by the murderer and adul- 
 terer, after a sharp skirmish. Three of the 
 principal men of the tribe who had given 
 themselves up, trusting to Maekay's clemency, 
 were beheaded. 7 
 
 In the early part of the reign of the unfor- 
 tunate Queen Mury, during the period of the 
 Eeformation in Scotland, the house of Huntly 
 had acquired such an influence in the north 
 and north-east of Scotland, the old Maormorate 
 of Moray, as to be looked upon with suspicion 
 by the government of the day. Moreover the 
 Lords of the Congregation regarded the earl 
 with no friendly feebng as the great leader of 
 the Eoman Catholic party in the country, and 
 it was therefore resolved that Mary should 
 make a royal progress northwards, apparently 
 for the purpose of seeing what was the real 
 state of matters, and, if possible, try to overawe 
 the earl, and remind him that he was only a 
 subject. The queen, who, although Huntly 
 was the Catholic leader, appears to have entered 
 into the expedition heartily; and her bastard 
 
 ' Sir It. Gordon, p. 136. 
 
 brother, the Earl of Murray, proceeded, in 1562, 
 northwards, backed by a small army, and on 
 fincling the earl fractious, laid siege to the castle 
 of Inverness, which was taken, and the governor 
 hanged. The queen's army and the followers 
 of Huntly met at the hill of Corrichie, about 
 sixteen miles west of Aberdeen, when the lat- 
 ter were defeated, the earl himself being found 
 among the slain. It was on this occasion that 
 Mary is said to have wished herself a man to 
 be able to ride forth " in jack and knap- 
 skull." This expedition was the means of 
 effectually breaking the influence of this power- 
 ful northern family. 
 
 George, Earl of Caithness, who had long 
 borne a mortal hatred to John, Earl of Suther- 
 land, now projected a scheme for cutting him 
 off, as well as his countess, who was big with 
 child, and their only son, Alexander Gordon ; 
 the earl and countess were accordingly both 
 poisoned at Helmsdale, while at supper, by 
 Isobel Sinclair, wife of Gilbert Gordon of Gar- 
 tay, and sister of William Sinclair of Dura- 
 baith, instigated, it is said, by the earl ; but 
 their son, Alexander, made a very narrow 
 escape, not having returned in time from a 
 hunting excursion to join his father and mother 
 at supper. On Alexander's return the earl had 
 become fully aware of the danger of his situ- 
 ation, and he was thus prevented by his father 
 from participating in any part of the supper 
 which remained, and after taking an affection- 
 ate and parting farewell, and recommending 
 him to the protection of God and of his dearest 
 friends, he sent him to Dunrobin the same 
 night without his supper. The earl and his 
 lady were carried next morning to Dunrobin, 
 where they died within five days thereafter, in 
 the month of July, 1567, and were buried in 
 the cathedral church at Dornoch. Pretending 
 to cover himself from the imputation of being 
 concerned in this murder, the Earl of Caith- 
 ness punished some of the earl's most faithful 
 servants under the colour of avenging his death; 
 but the deceased earl's friends being determined 
 to obtain justice, apprehended Isobel Sinclair, 
 and sent her to Edinburgh to stand her trial, 
 where, after being tried and condemned, she 
 died on the day appointed for her execution. 
 During all the time of her illness sne vented 
 the most dreadful imprecations upon her cousin, 
 
CONDUCT OF THE EARL OF CAITHNESS. 
 
 '.)1 
 
 the earl, who had induced her to commit the 
 horrid act. Had this woman succeeded in 
 cutting off the earl's son, her own eldest son, 
 John Gordon, hut for the extraordinary circum- 
 stances of his death, to he noticed, would have 
 succeeded to the earldom, as he was the nest 
 male heir. This youth happening to he in the 
 house when his mother had prepared the poison, 
 became extremely thirsty, and called for a 
 drink. One of his mother's servants, not aware 
 of the preparation, presented to the youth a 
 portion of the liquid into which the poison 
 had been infused, which he drank. This oc- 
 casioned his death within two days, a circum- 
 stance which, together with the appearances of 
 the body after death, gave a clue to the dis- 
 covery of his mother's guilt. 8 
 
 Taking advantage of the calamity which had 
 befallen the house of Sutherland, and the 
 minority of the young earl, now only fifteen 
 years of age, Y-Mackay of Far, who had 
 formed an alliance with the Earl of Caithness, 
 in 1567 invaded the country of Sutherland, 
 wasted the barony of Skibo, entered the town 
 of Dornoch, and, upon the pretence of a quar- 
 rel with the Murrays, by whom it was chiefly 
 inhabited, set fire to it, in which outrage he was 
 assisted by the Laird of Duffus. These mea- 
 sures were only preliminary to a design which 
 the Earl of Caithness had formed to get the Earl 
 of Sutherland into his hands, but he had the cun- 
 ning to conceal his intentions in the meantime, 
 and to instigate Mackay to act as he wished, 
 without appearing to be in any way concerned. 
 
 In pursuance of his design upon Alexander, 
 the young Earl of Sutherland, the Earl of Caith- 
 ness prevailed upon Eobert Stuart, bishop of 
 Caithness, to write a letter to the governor of 
 the castle of Skibo, in which the Earl of 
 Sutherland resided, to deliver up the castle to 
 him ; a request with which the governor com- 
 plied. Having taken possession of the castle, 
 the earl carried off the young man into Caith- 
 ness, and although only fifteen years of age, he 
 got him married to Lady Barbara Sinclair, his 
 daughter, then aged thirty-two years. Y-Mac- 
 kay was the paramour of this lady, and for 
 continuing the connexion with him she was 
 afterwards divorced by her husband. 
 
 8 Sir K. Gordon, p. 1 17. 
 
 The Earl of Caithness having succeeded ill 
 his wishes in obtaining possession of the Earl 
 of Sutherland, entered the earl's country, and 
 took possession of Dunrobin castle, in which 
 he fixed his residence. He also brought the 
 Earl of Sutherland along with him, but he 
 treated him meanly, and he burnt all the papers 
 belonging to the house of Sutherland he could 
 lay his hands on. Cruel and avaricious, he, 
 under the pretence of vindicating the law, for 
 imaginary crimes expelled many of the ancient 
 families in Sutherland from the country, put 
 many of the inhabitants to death, disabled 
 those he banished, in their persons, by new 
 and unheard-of modes of torture, and stripped 
 them of all their wealth. To be suspected of 
 favouring the house of Sutherland, and to be 
 wealthy, were deemed capital crimes by this 
 oppressor. 
 
 As the Earl of Sutherland did not live on 
 friendly terms with his wife on account of her 
 licentious connexion with Mackay, and as there 
 appeared no chance of any issue, the Earl of 
 Caithness formed the base design of cutting off 
 the Earl of Sutherland, and marrying William 
 Sinclair, his second son, to Lady Margaret 
 Gordon, the eldest sister of the Earl of Suther- 
 land, whom he had also gotten into his hands, 
 with the view of making William earl of 
 Sutherland. The better to conceal his inten- 
 tions the Earl of Caithness made a journey 
 south to Edinburgh, and gave the necessary 
 instructions to those in his confidence to 
 despatch the Earl of Sutherland ; but some of 
 his trusty friends having received private intel- 
 ligence of the designs of the Earl of Caithness 
 from some persons who were privy thereto, 
 they instantly set about measures for defeating 
 them by getting possession of the Earl of 
 Sutherland's person. Accordingly, under cloud 
 of night, they came quietly to the burn of 
 Golspie, in the vicinity of Dunrobin, where, 
 concealing themselves to prevent discovery, 
 they sent Alexander Gordon of Sidderay to the 
 castle, disguised as a pedlar, for the purpose of 
 warning the Earl of Sutherland of the danger 
 of his situation, and devising means of escape. 
 Being made acquainted with the design upon 
 his life, and the plans of his friends for rescu- 
 ing him, the earl, early the following morning, 
 proposed to the residents in the castle, under 
 
02 
 
 GENERAL HISTORY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 whose charge he was, to accompany him on a 
 small excursion in the neighbourhood. This 
 proposal seemed so reasonable in itself, that, 
 although he was perpetually watched by the 
 Earl of Caithness' servants, and his liberty 
 greatly restrained, they at once agreed ; and, 
 going out, the earl being aware of the ambush 
 laid by his friends, led his keepers directly into 
 the snare before they were aware of danger. 
 The earl's friends thereupon rushed from their 
 hiding-place, and seizing him, conveyed him 
 safely out of the country of Sutherland to 
 Strathbogie. This took place in 1569. As 
 soon as the Earl of Caithness's retainers heard 
 of the escape of Earl Alexander, they collected 
 a party of men favourable to their interests, 
 and went in hot pursuit of him as far as Port- 
 ne-Coulter ; but they found that the earl and 
 his friends had just crossed the ferry. 9 
 
 Shortly after this affair a quarrel ensued 
 between the Monroes and the clan Kenzie, two 
 very powerful Ross-shire clans. Lesley, the 
 celebrated bishop of Ross, had made over to 
 his cousin, the Laird of Balquhain, the right 
 and title of the castle of the Canonry of Ross, 
 together with the castle lands. Notwithstand- 
 ing this grant, the Regent Murray had given 
 the custody of this castle to Andrew Monroe 
 of Milntown ; and to make Lesley bear with 
 the loss, the Regent promised him some of the 
 lands of the Barony of Fintry in Buchan, but 
 on condition that he should cede to Monroe the 
 castle and castle lands of the Canonry ; but the 
 untimely and unexpected death of the Regent 
 interrupted this arrangement, and Andrew 
 Monroe did not, of course, obtain the title to 
 the castle and castle lands as he expected. 
 Yet Monroe had the address to obtain permis- 
 sion from the Earl of Lennox during his 
 regency, and afterwards from the Earl of Mar, 
 his successor in that office, to get possession of 
 the castle. The clan Kenzie grudging to see 
 Monroe in possession, and being desirous to 
 get hold of the castle themselves, purchased 
 Lesley's right, and, by virtue thereof, demanded 
 delivery of the castle. Monroe refused to 
 accede to this demand, on^which the clan laid 
 siege to the castle ; but Monroe defended it for 
 three years at the expense of many lives on 
 
 9 Sir R. Gordon, p. 154. 
 
 both sides. It was then delivered up to the 
 clan Kenzie under the act of pacification. 1 
 
 No attempt was made by the Earl of Suther- 
 land, during his minority, to recover his pos- 
 sessions from the Earl of Caithness. In the 
 meantime the latter, disappointed and enraged 
 at the escape of his destined prey, vexed and 
 annoyed still farther the partisans of the 
 Sutherland family. In particular, he directed 
 bis vengeance against the Murrays, and made 
 William Sutherland of Evelick, brother to the 
 Laird of Duffus, apprehend John Croy-Murray, 
 under the pretence of bringing him to justice. 
 This proceeding roused the indignation of 
 Hugh Murray of Aberscors, who assembled his 
 friends, and made several incursions upon the 
 lands of Evelick, Pronsies, and Riercher. They 
 also laid waste several villages belonging to the 
 Laird of Duffus, from which they carried off 
 some booty, and apprehending a gentleman 
 of the Sutherlands, they detained him as an 
 hostage for the safety of John Croy-Murray. 
 Upon this the Laird of Duffus collected all his 
 kinsmen and friends, together with the Siol- 
 Phaill at Skibo, and proceeded to the town of 
 Dornoch, with the intention of burning it. 
 But the inhabitants, aided by the Murrays, 
 went out to meet the enemy, whom they 
 courageously attacked and overthrew, and pur- 
 sued to the gates of Skibo. Besides killing 
 several of Duffus' men they made some prison- 
 ers, whom they exchanged for John Croy- 
 Murray. This affair was called the skirmish 
 of Torran-Roy. 
 
 The Laird of Duffus, who was father-in-law 
 to the Earl of Caithness, and supported him 
 in all his plans, immediately sent notice of this 
 disaster to the earl, who without delay sent 
 his eldest son, John, Master of Caithness, with 
 a large party of countrymen and friends, in- 
 cluding Y-Mackay and his countrymen, to 
 attack the Murrays in Dornoch. They be- 
 sieged the town and castle, which were both 
 manfully defended by the Murrays and their 
 friends ; but the Master of Caithness, favoured 
 by the darkness of the night, set fire to the 
 cathedral, the steeple of which, however, was 
 preserved. After the town had been reduced, 
 the Master of Caithness attacked the castle 
 
 1 Sir R. Gordon, p. 155. 
 
DOINGS OF MACKAY AND THE EAEL OF CAITHNESS. 
 
 93 
 
 and the steeple of the church, into which a 
 body of men had thrown themselves, "both of 
 which held out for the space of a week, and 
 would probably have resisted much longer, but 
 for the interference of mutual friends of the 
 parties, by whose mediation the Murrays sur- 
 rendered the castle and the steeple of the 
 church ; and, as hostages for the due perform- 
 ance of other conditions, they delivered up 
 Thomas Murray, son of Houcheon Murray of 
 Aberscors, Houcheon Murray, son of Alex- 
 ander Mac-Sii-Angus, and John Murray, son 
 of Thomas Murray, the brother of John Mur- 
 ray of Aberscors. But the Earl of Caithness 
 refused to ratify the treaty which his son had 
 entered into with the Murrays, and afterwards 
 basely beheaded the three hostages. These 
 occurrences took place in the year 1570. 2 
 
 The Murrays and the other friends of the 
 Sutherland family, no longer able to protect 
 themselves from the vengeance of the Earl of 
 Caithness, dispersed themselves into different 
 countries, there to wait for more favourable 
 times, when they might return to their native 
 soil without danger. The Murrays went to 
 Strathbogie, where Earl Alexander then re- 
 sided. Hugh Gordon of Drummoy retired to 
 Orkney, where he married a lady named Ursla 
 Tulloch ; but he frequently visited his friends 
 in Sutherland, in spite of many snares laid 
 for him by the Earl of Caithness, while secretly 
 going and returning tlirough Caithness. Hugh 
 Gordon's brothers took refuge with the Mur- 
 rays at Strathbogie. John Gray of Skibo and 
 his son Gilbert retired to St. Andrews, where 
 their friend Eobert, bishop of Caithness, then 
 resided, and Mae-Mhie-Sheumais of Strathully 
 went to Glengarry. 
 
 As the alliance of such a powerful and war- 
 like chief as Mackay would have been of great 
 importance to the Sutherland interest, an 
 attempt was made to detach him from the 
 Earl of Caithness. The plan appears to have 
 originated with Hugh Murray of Aberscors, 
 who made repeated visits to Strathbogie, to 
 consult with the Earl of Sutherland and his 
 friends on this subject, and afterwards went 
 into Strathnaver and held a conference with 
 Mackay, whom he prevailed upon to aecom- 
 
 2 Sir R. Gordon, p. 15.5. 
 
 pany him to Strathbogie. Mackay then en- 
 tered into an engagement with the Earl ol 
 Huntly and the Earl of Sutherland, to assist 
 the latter against the Earl of Caithness, in con- 
 sideration of which, and on payment of £300 
 Scots, he obtained from the Earl of Huntly the 
 heritable right and title of the lands of Strath- 
 naver ; but Mackay, influenced by Barbara 
 Sinclair, the wife of the Earl of Sutherland, 
 with whom he now publicly cohabited, broke 
 his engagement, and continued to oppress the 
 earl's followers and dependents. 
 
 From some circumstances which have not 
 transpired, the Earl of Caithness became sus- 
 picious of his son John, the Master of Caith- 
 ness, as having, in connection with Mackay, a 
 design upon his life. To put an end to the 
 earl's suspicion, Mackay advised John to go to 
 Girnigo (Castle Sinclair), and to submit him- 
 self to his father's pleasure, a request with 
 which the Master complied ; but, after arriving 
 at Girnigo, he was, while conversing with his 
 father, arrested by a party of armed men, who, 
 upon a secret signal being given by the earl, 
 had rushed in at the chamber door. He was 
 instantly fettered and thrust into prison within 
 the castle, where, after a miserable captivity 
 of seven years, he died, a prey to famine and 
 vermin. 
 
 Mackay, who had accompanied the Master to 
 Girnigo, and who in all probability would have 
 shared the same fate, escaped and returned 
 home to Strathnaver, where he died, within 
 four months thereafter, of grief and remorse 
 for the many bad actions of his life. During 
 the minority of his son Houcheon, John Mor- 
 Mackay, the cousin, and John Beg-Mackay, 
 the bastard son of Y-Mackay, took charge of 
 the estate ; but John Mor-Mackay was speedily 
 removed from his charge by the Earl of Caith- 
 ness, who, considering him as a favourer of the 
 Earl of Sutherland, caused him to be appre- 
 hended and carried into Caithness, where he 
 was detained in prison till his death. During 
 this time John Bobson, the chief of the clan 
 Gun in Caithness and Strathnaver, became a 
 dependent on the Earl of Sutherland, and acted 
 as his factor in collecting the rents and duties 
 of the bishop's lands within Caithness which 
 belonged to the earl. This connexion was 
 exceedingly disagreeable to the Earl of Caith- 
 
94 
 
 GEWEEAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 ness, who in consequence took a grudge at 
 John Eohson, and, to gratify his spleen, he 
 instigated Houcheon Mackay to lay waste the 
 lands of the clan Gun, in the Brea-Moir, in 
 Caithness, without the knowledge of John 
 Beg-Mackay, his brother. As the clan Gun 
 had always been friendly to the family of 
 Mackay, John Beg-Mackay was greatly exas- 
 perated at the conduct of the earl in enticing 
 the young chief to commit such an outrage ; 
 but he had it not in his power to make any 
 reparation to the injured clan. John Eobson, 
 the chief, however, assisted by Alexander Earl 
 of Sutherland, invaded Strathnaver and made 
 ample retaliation. Meeting the Strathnaver 
 men at a place called Creach-Drumi-Doun, he 
 attacked and defeated them, killing several of 
 them, and chiefly those who had accompanied 
 Houcheon Mackay in his expedition to the 
 Brea-Moir. He then carried off a large quan- 
 tity of booty, which he divided among the clan 
 Gun of Strathully, who had suffered by Hou- 
 cheon Mackay's invasion. 3 
 
 The Earl of Caithness, having resolved to 
 avenge himself on John Beg-Mackay for the 
 displeasure shown by him at the conduct of 
 Houcheon Mackay, and also on the clan Gun, 
 prevailed upon NeiU-Mac-Iain-Mae- William, 
 chief of the Sliochd-Iain-Abaraich, and James 
 Mae-Bory, chief of the Sliochd-Iain-Mhoir, to 
 attack them. Accordingly, in the month of 
 September, 1579, these two chiefs, with their 
 followers, entered Balnekill in Durines during 
 the night-time, and slew John Beg-Mackay 
 and William Mac-Iain-Mac-Eob, the brother 
 of John Eobson, and some of their people. 
 The friends of the deceased were not in a con- 
 dition to retaliate, but they kept up the spirit 
 of revenge so customary in those times, and 
 only waited a favourable opportunity to gratify 
 it. This did not occur till several years there- 
 after. In the year 1587, James Mac-Eory, 
 " a fyne gentleman and a good commander," 
 according to Sir Eobert Gordon, was assassi- 
 nated by Donald Balloch-Mackay, the brother 
 of John Beg-Mackay ; and two years there- 
 after John Mackay, the son of John Beg, 
 attacked Neill Mac-Iain-Mac- William, whom 
 he wounded severely, and cut off some of his 
 
 3 Sir R. Gordon, p. 173. 
 
 followers. " This Neill," says Sir E. Gordon, 
 " heir mentioned, wes a good captain, bold, 
 craftie, of a verie good witt, and quick resolu- 
 tion." 
 
 After the death of John Beg-Mackay, and 
 William Mac-Iain-Mac-Eob, a most deadly and 
 inveterate feud followed, between the clan Gun 
 and the Sliochd-Iain-Abaraich, but no recital 
 of the details has been handed down to us. 
 " The long, the many, the horrible encounters," 
 observes Sir E. Gordon " which happened be- 
 tween these two trybes, with the bloodshed, 
 and infinit spoills committed in every pairt of 
 the diocy of Catteynes by them and their asso- 
 ciats, are of so disordered and troublesome 
 memorie, that, what with their asperous names, 
 together with the confusion of place, tymes, 
 and persons, would yet be (no doubt) a warr 
 to the reader to overlook them; and therefor, 
 to favor myne oune paines, and his who shoidd 
 get little profite or delight thereby, I doe pass 
 them over." 4 
 
 The clan Chattan, about this time, must 
 have been harassing the surrounding districts 
 to a terrible extent, and causing the govern- 
 ment considerable trouble, as in 1583 we find 
 a mandate addressed by King James " to our 
 shirreffs of Kincardin, Abirdene, Banf, Elgen, 
 Fores, Name, and Invemyss; and to our 
 derrest bruthir, James, Erie of Murray, our 
 lieutenant generale in the north partis of our 
 realme, and to our louittis consingis [ ] Erie 
 of Sutkirland; John Erie of Cathnes," &c, 
 &c, commanding them that inasmuch as John 
 M'Kinlay, Thomas Mackinlay, Donald Glass, 
 &c, " throcht assistance and fortifying of all 
 the kin of Clanquhattane duelland within 
 Baienach, Fetty, Brauchly, Strathnarne, and 
 other parts thereabout, com mitts daily fire- 
 raising, slaughter, murder, heirschippis, and 
 wasting of the cuntre," to the harm of the true 
 lieges, these sheriffs and others shall fall upon 
 the " said Clanquhattane, and invade them to 
 their utter destruction by slaughter, burning, 
 drowning, and other ways; and leave na crea- 
 ture living of that clan, except priests, women, 
 and bairns." The "women and bairns" they 
 were ordered to take to " some parts of the sea 
 nearest land, quhair ships salbe forsene on our 
 
 4 History, p. 174. 
 
PROCEEDINGS AGAINST THE CLAN GUN. 
 
 95 
 
 expenses, to sail with them furth of our realme, 
 and land with them in Jesland, Zesland, or 
 Norway; because it were inhumanity to put 
 hands in the "blood of women and bairns." 
 Had this mandate for "stamping out" this 
 troublesome clan been carried out it would 
 certainly have been an effectual cure for many 
 of the disturbances in the Highlands; but we 
 cannot find any record as to what practical 
 result followed the issue of this cruel decree. 6 
 
 Tti the year 1585 a quarrel took place be- 
 tween Neill Houcheonson, and Donald Neilson, 
 the Laird of Assynt, who had married Houcheon 
 Mackay's sister. The cause of Donald Neilson 
 was espoused by Houcheon Mackay, and the 
 clan Gun, who came with an army out of 
 Caithness and Strathnaver, to besiege Neill 
 Houcheonson in the isle of Assynt. Neill, 
 who was commander of Assynt, and a follower 
 of the Earl of Sutherland, sent immediate 
 notice to the earl of Mackay's movements, on 
 receiving which the earl, assembling a body of 
 men, despatched them to Assynt to raise the 
 siege; but Mackay did not wait for their 
 coming, and retreated into Strathnaver. As 
 the Earl of Caithness had sent some of his 
 people to assist Mackay, who was the Earl of 
 Sutherland's vassal, the latter resolved to 
 punish both, and accordingly made preparations 
 for entering Strathnaver and Caithness with 
 an army. But some mutual friends of the 
 parties interfered to prevent the effusion of 
 blood, by prevailing on the two earls to meet 
 at Elgin, in the presence of the Earl of Huntly 
 and other friends, and get their differences 
 adjusted. A meeting was accordingly held, at 
 which the earls were reconciled. The whole 
 blame of the troubles and commotions which 
 had recently disturbed the peace of Sutherland 
 and Caithness, was thrown upon the clan Gun, 
 who were alleged to have been the chief insti- 
 gators, and as their restless disposition might 
 give rise to new disorders, it was agreed, at 
 said meeting, to cut them off, and particularly 
 that part of the tribe which dwelt in Caith- 
 ness, which was chiefly dreaded, for which 
 purpose the Earl of Caithness bound himself 
 to deliver up to the Earl of Sutherland, certain 
 individuals of the clan living in Caithness. 
 
 5 St* Spalding Club Miscellany, vol. ii. p. S3. 
 
 To enable him to implement his engagement a 
 resolution was entered into to send two com- 
 panies of men against those of the clan Gun 
 who dwelt in Caithness and Strathnaver, and 
 to surround them in such a way as to prevent 
 escape. The Earl of Caithness, notwithstand- 
 ing, sent private notice to the clan of the 
 preparations making against them by Angus 
 Sutherland of Mellary, in Berriedale; but the 
 clan were distrustful of the earl, as they had 
 already received secret intelligence that he had 
 assembled his people together for the purpose 
 of attacking them. 
 
 As soon as the Earl of Sutherland could get" 
 his men collected he proceeded to march to the 
 territories of the clan Gun; but meeting by 
 chance, on his way, with a party of Strath- 
 naver men, under the command of William 
 Mackay, brother of Houcheon Mackay, carrying 
 off the cattle of James Mac-Eory, a vassal of 
 his own, from Coireceann Loch in the Diri- 
 Meanigh, he rescued and brought back his 
 vassal's cattle. After this the earl's party pur- 
 sued William Mackay and the Strathnaver 
 men during the whole day, and Trilled one of 
 the principal men of the clan Gun in Strath- 
 naver, called Angus-Roy, with several others 
 of Mackay's company. This affair was called 
 Latha-Toni-Eraoich, that is, the day of the 
 heather bush. At the end of the pursuit, and 
 towards evening, the pursued party found 
 themselves on the borders of Caithness, where 
 they found the clan Gun assembled in conse- 
 quence of the rising of the Caithness people 
 who had taken away their cattle. 
 
 Tliis accidental meeting of the Strathnaver 
 men and the clan Gun was the means, probably, 
 of saving both from destruction. They imme- 
 diately entered into an alliance to stand by 
 one another, and to live or die together. Next 
 morning they found themselves placed between 
 two powerful bodies of their enemies. On the 
 one side was the Earl of Sutherland's party at 
 no great distance, reposing themselves from 
 the fatigues of the preceding day, and on the 
 other were seen advancing the Caithness men, 
 conducted by Henry Sinclair, brother to the 
 laird of Dun, and cousin to the Earl of Caith- 
 ness. A council of war was immediately held 
 to consult how to act in this emergency, when 
 it was resolved to attack the Caithness men 
 
96 
 
 GENEEAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 first, as they were far inferior in numbers, 
 which was done by tlie clan Gun and their 
 allies, who had the advantage of the hill, with 
 great resolution. The former foolishly expended 
 their arrows while at a distance from their 
 opponents; but the clan Gun having hus- 
 banded their shot till they came in close con- 
 tact with the enemy, did great execution. 
 The Caithness men were completely over- 
 thrown, after leaving 140 of their party, with 
 their captain, Henry Sinclair, dead on the field 
 of battle. Had not the darkness of the night 
 favoured their flight, they would have all been 
 destroyed. Henry Sinclair was Mackay's 
 uncle, and not being aware that he had been 
 in the engagement till he recognised his body 
 among the slain, Mackay felt extremely grieved 
 at the unexpected death of his relative. This 
 skirmish took place at Aldgown, in the year 
 1586. The Sutherland men having lost sight 
 of Mackay and his party among the hills, 
 immediately before the conflict, returned into 
 their own country with the booty they had 
 recovered, and were not aware of the defeat of 
 the Caithness men till some time after that 
 event. 
 
 The Earl of Caithness afterwards confessed 
 that he had no intention of attacking the clan 
 Gun at the time in question ; but that his 
 policy was to have allowed them to be closely 
 pressed and pursued by the Sutherland men, 
 and then to have relieved them from the im- 
 minent danger they would thereby be placed 
 in, so that they might consider that it was to 
 him they owed their safety, and thus lay them 
 under fresh obligations to him. But the 
 deceitful part he acted proved very disastrous 
 to his people, and the result so exasperated 
 him against the clan Gun, that he hanged 
 John Mac-Iain-Mac-Eob, chieftain of the clan 
 Gun, in Caithness, whom he had kept captive 
 for some time. 
 
 The result of all these proceedings was another 
 meeting between the Earls of Sutherland and 
 Caithness at the hill of Bingrime in Suther- 
 land, which was brought about by the media- 
 tion of Sir Patrick Gordon of Auchindun, 
 who was sent into the north by his nephew, 
 the Earl of Huntly, for that purpose. Here 
 again a new confederacy was formed against 
 the clan Gun in Caithness, who were now 
 
 maintained and harboured by Mackay. The 
 Earl of Sutherland, on account of the recent 
 defeat of the Caithness men, undertook to 
 attack the clan first. He accordingly directed 
 two bodies to march with all haste against the 
 clan, one of which was commanded by James 
 Mac-Eory and jSTeill Mac-Iain-Mac-William, 
 chief of the Sliochd-Iain-Abaraich, who were 
 now under the protection of the Earl of Suther- 
 land; and the other by Williani Sutherland 
 Johnson, George Gordon in Marie, and Wil- 
 liam Murray in Kinnald, brother of Hugh 
 Murray of Aberscors. Houcheon Mackay, 
 seeing no hopes of maintaining the clan Gun 
 any longer without danger to himself, dis- 
 charged them from his country, whereupon 
 they made preparations for seeking an asylum 
 in the western isles But, on their journey 
 thither, they were met near Loch Broom, at a 
 place called Leckmelme, by James Mac-Rory 
 and Neill Mac-Iain-Mac-William, where, after a 
 sharp skirmish, they were overthrown, and 
 the greater part of them killed. Their com- 
 mander, George Mac-Iain-Mac-Eob, brother of 
 John Mac-Iain-Mac-Eob, who was hanged by 
 the Earl of Caithness, was severely wounded, 
 and was taken prisoner after an unsuccessful 
 attempt to escape by swimming across a loch 
 close by. After being carried to Dunrobin 
 castle, and presented to the Earl of Sutherland, 
 George Gun was sent by him to the Earl of 
 Caithness, who, though extremely grieved at 
 the misfortune which had happened to the clan 
 Gun, dissembled his vexation, and received the 
 prisoner as if he approved of the Earl of 
 Sutherland's proceedings against him and his 
 unfortunate people. After a short confine- 
 ment, George Gun was released from his cap- 
 tivity by the Earl of Caithness, at the entreaty 
 of the Earl of Sutherland, not from any favour 
 to the prisoner himself, or to the earl, whom 
 the Earl of Caithness hated mortally, but with 
 the design of making Gun an instrument of 
 annoyance to some of the Earl of Sutherland's 
 neighbours. But the Earl of Caithness was 
 disappointed in his object, for George Gun, 
 after his enlargement from prison, always re- 
 mained faithful to the Earl of Sutherland. 6 
 About this time a violent feud arose in the 
 
 " tiiv R. Gordon, p. 185. 
 
FEUD BETWEEN" THE MACDONALDS AND MACLEANS. 
 
 western isles between Angus Maedonald of 
 Kintyre, and Sir Lauchlan Maclean of Duart, 
 in Mull, whose sister Angus had married, 
 which ended in the almost total destruction of 
 the clan Donald and clan Lean. The circum- 
 stances which led to this unfortunate dissen- 
 sion were these : — 
 
 Donald Gorm Maedonald of Slate, when 
 going on a visit from Slate to his cousin, Angus 
 Maedonald of Kintyre, was forced "by contrary 
 winds to land with his party in the island of 
 Jura, which belonged partly to Sir Lauchlan 
 Maclean, and partly to Angus Maedonald. 
 The part of the island where Maedonald of 
 Slate landed belonged to Sir Lauchlan Maclean. 
 No sooner had Maedonald and his company 
 landed, than, by an unlucky coincidence, Mae- 
 donald Tearreagh and Houcheon Macgillespic, 
 two of the clan Donald who had lately quarrelled 
 with Donald Gorm, arrived at the same time 
 with a party of men ; and, understanding that 
 Donald Gorm was in the island, they secretly 
 took away, by night, a number of cattle be- 
 longing to the clan Lean, and immediately put 
 to sea. Their object in doing so was to make 
 the clan Lean believe that Donald Gorm and 
 his party had carried off the cattle, in the hope 
 that the Macleans would attack Donald Gorm, 
 and they were not disappointed. As soon as 
 the lifting of the cattle had been discovered, 
 Sir Lauchlan Maclean assembled his whole 
 forces, and, under the impression that Donald 
 Gorm and his party had committed the spoli- 
 ation, he attacked them suddenly and unawares, 
 during the night, at a place in the island called 
 Inverchuockwriek, and slew about sixty of the 
 clan Donald. Donald Gorm, having previously 
 gone on board his vessel to pass the night, for- 
 tunately escaped. 
 
 When Angus Maedonald heard of this " un- 
 toward event," he visited Donald Gorm in 
 Skye for the purpose of consulting with him 
 on the means of obtaining reparation for the 
 loss of his men. On his return homeward to 
 Kintyre, he landed in the Isle of Mull, and, 
 contrary to the advice of Coll Mac-James and 
 Reginald Mac-James, his two brothers, and of 
 Reginald Mac-Coll, his cousin, who wished 
 him to send a messenger to announce the re- 
 sult of his meeting with Donald Gorm, went 
 to the castle of Duart, the principal residence 
 
 of Sir Lauchlan Maclean in Mull. His two 
 brothers refused to accompany him, and they 
 acted rightly; for, the day after Angus arrived 
 at Duart, he and all his party were perfidiously 
 arrested by Sir Lauchlan Maclean. Reginald 
 Mac-Coll, the cousin of Angus, alone escaped. 
 The Rhinns of Islay at this time belonged to 
 the clan Donald, but they had given the pos- 
 session of them to the clan Lean for personal 
 services. Sir Lauchlan, thinking the present 
 a favourable opportunity for acquiring an abso- 
 lute right to this property, offered to release 
 Angus Maedonald, provided he would renounce 
 his right and title to the Rhinns ; and, in case 
 of refusal, he threatened to make him end his 
 days in captivity. Angus, being thus in some 
 degree compelled, agreed to the proposed terms , 
 but, before obtaining his liberty, he was forced 
 to give James Maedonald, his eldest son, and 
 Reginald Mac-James, his brother, as hostages, 
 until the deed of conveyance should be deliv- 
 ered to Sir Lauchlan. 
 
 It was not, however, the intention of Angus 
 Maedonald to implement this engagement, if 
 he could accomplish the liberation of his son 
 and brother. His cousin had suffered a griev- 
 ous injury at the hands of Sir Lauchlan Mac- 
 lean without any just cause of offence, and he 
 himself had, when on a friendly mission, been 
 detained most unjustly as a prisoner, and com- 
 pelled to promise to surrender into Sir Lauch- 
 lan's hands, by a regular deed, a part of his 
 property. Under these circumstances, his 
 resolution to break the unfair engagement he 
 had come under is not to be wondered at. To 
 accomplish his object he had recourse to a 
 stratagem in which he succeeded, as will be 
 shown in the sequel. 
 
 After Maclean had obtained delivery of the 
 two hostages, he made a voyage to Islay to get 
 the engagement completed. He left behind, 
 in the castle of Duart, Reginald Mac-James, 
 one of the hostages, whom he put in fetters, 
 and took the other to accompany him on his 
 voyage. Having arrived in the isle of Islay, 
 he encamped at Eilean-Gorm, a ruinous castle 
 upon the Rhinns of Islay, which castle had 
 been lately in the possession of the clan Lean. 
 Angus Maedonald was residing at the time at 
 the house of Mulindry or Midlindhrea, a com- 
 fortable and well-furnished residence belonging 
 
98 
 
 GENERAL HISTOEY OE THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 to liim on the island, and to which he invited 
 Sir Lauchlan, under the pretence of affording 
 him better accommodation, and providing him 
 with better provisions than he could obtain in 
 lus camp ; but Sir Lauchlan, having his sus- 
 picions, declined to accept the invitation. 
 " There wes," says Sir Eobert Gordon, " so 
 little trust on either syd, that they did not now 
 meit in friendship or aniitie, bot vpon ther 
 owne guard, or rather by messingers, one from 
 another. And true it is (sayeth John Colwin, 
 in his manuscript) that the islanders are, of 
 nature, verie suspicious ; full of invention 
 against ther nighbours, by whatsoever way 
 they may get them destroyed. Eesyds this, 
 they are bent and eager in taking revenge, that 
 neither have they regaird to persone, tyme, 
 aige, nor cause ; and ar generallie so addicted 
 that way (as lykwise are the most pairt of all 
 Highlanders), that therein they surpasse all 
 other people whatsoever." 
 
 Sir Lauchlan, however, was thrown off his 
 guard by fair promises, and agreed to pay 
 Macdonald a visit, and accordingly proceeded 
 to Mulindry, accompanied by James Macdon- 
 ald, his own nephew, and the son of Angus, 
 and 86 of Iris kinsmen and servants. Maclean 
 and his party, on their arrival, were received 
 by Macdonald with much apparent kindness, 
 and were sumptuously entertained during the 
 whole day. In the meantime, Macdonald sent 
 notice to all his friends and well-wishers in the 
 island, to come to his house at nine o'clock at 
 
 night, his design being to seize Maclean and 
 his party. At the usual hour for going to 
 repose, Maclean and his people were lodged in 
 a long-house, which stood by itself, at some 
 distance from the other houses. During the 
 whole clay Maclean had always kept James 
 Macdonald, the hostage, within his reach, as a 
 sort of protection to him in case of an attack, 
 and at going to bed he took him along with 
 him. About an hour after Maclean and his 
 people had retired, Angus assembled his men 
 to the number of 300 or 400, and made them 
 surround the house in which Maclean and his 
 company lay. Then, going himself to the 
 door, he called upon Maclean, and told him 
 that he had come to give him his reposing 
 drink, which he had forgotten to offer him 
 before going to bed. Maclean answered that 
 he did not wish to drink at that time ; but 
 Macdonald insisted that he should rise and 
 receive the drink, it being, he said, his will 
 that he should do so. The peremptory tone of 
 Macdonald made Maclean at once apprehen- 
 sive of the danger of his situation, and imme- 
 diately getting up and placing the boy between 
 his shoulders, prepared to preserve his life as 
 long as he could with the boy, or to sell it as 
 dearly as possible. As soon as the door was 
 forced open, James Macdonald, seeing his 
 father with a naked sword in his hand and a 
 number of his men armed in the same manner, 
 cried aloud for mercy to Maclean, his uncle, 
 which being granted, Sir Lauchlan was iimnn- 
 
FEUD BETWEEX THE MACDOXALDS AXD MACLEAN'S. 
 
 99 
 
 diately removed to a secret chamber, where he 
 remained till nest morning. After Maclean 
 had surrendered, Angus Macdonald announced 
 to those within the house, that if they would 
 come without their lives would be spared : 
 but he excepted Macdonald Terreagh and 
 another individual whom he named. The 
 whole, with the exception of these two, hav- 
 ing complied, the house was immediately set 
 on fire, and consumed along with Macdonald 
 Terreagh and his companion. The former was 
 one of the clan Donald of the "Western Islands, 
 and not only had assisted the clan Lean 
 against his own tribe, but was also the origin- 
 ator, as we have seen, of all these disturbances ; 
 and the latter was a near kinsman to Maclean, 
 one of the oldest of the clan, and celebrated 
 for his wisdom and prowess. This affair took 
 place in the month of July, 1586. 
 
 When the intelligence of the seizure of Sir 
 Lauchlan Maclean reached the Isle of Mull, 
 Allan Maclean, who was the nearest kinsman 
 to Maclean, whose children were then very 
 young, bethought himself of an expedient to 
 obtain the possessions of Sir Lauchlan. In 
 conjunction with his friends, Allan caused a 
 false report to be spread in the island of Islay. 
 that the friends of Maclean had kill ed Reginald 
 Mac-James, the remaining hostage at Duart 
 in Mull, by means of which he hoped that 
 Angus Macdonald would be moved to kill Sir 
 Lauchlan, and thereby enable him (Allan) to 
 supply his place. But although this device 
 did not succeed, it proved very disastrous to 
 Sir Lauchlan's friends and followers, who were 
 beheaded in pairs by Coll Mac-James, the 
 brother of Angus Macdonald. 
 
 The friends of Sir Lauchlan seeing no hopes 
 of his release, applied to the Earl of Argyle to 
 assist them in a contemplated attempt to rescue 
 him out of the hands of Angus Macdonald ; 
 but the earl, perceiving the utter hopelessness 
 of such an attempt with such forces as he and 
 they could command, advised them to com- 
 plain to King James "VT. against Angus Mac- 
 donald, for the seizure and detention of their 
 chief. The king immediately directed that 
 Macdonald should be summoned by a herald- 
 at-arms to deliver up Sir Lauchlan into the 
 hands of the Earl of Argyle ; but the herald 
 was interrupted in the performance of his duty, 
 
 not being able to procure shipping fur Islay, 
 and was obliged to return home. The Earl of 
 Argyle had then recourse to negotiation with 
 Macdonald, and, after considerable trouble, he 
 prevailed on him to release Sir Lauchlan on 
 certain strict conditions, but not until Regi- 
 nald Mac-James, the brother of Angus, had 
 been delivered up, and the earl, for perform- 
 ance of the conditions agreed upon, had given 
 his own son, and the son of Macleod of Harris, 
 as hostages. But Maclean, quite regardless of 
 the safety of the hostages, and in open viola- 
 tion of the engagements he had come under, 
 on hearing that Angus Macdonald had gone 
 on a visit to the clan Donald of the glens in 
 Ireland, invaded Isla, which he laid waste, and 
 pursued those who had assisted in his capture. 
 
 On his return from Ireland, Angus Macdon- 
 ald made great preparations for inflicting a 
 just chastisement upon Maclean. Collecting 
 a large body of men, and much shipping, he 
 invaded Mull and Tiree, carrying havoc and 
 destruction along with him, and destroying 
 every human being and every domestic animal, 
 of whatever kind. While Macdonald was 
 committing these ravages in Mull and Tiree, 
 Maclean, instead of opposing him, invaded 
 Kintyre, where he took ample retaliation by 
 wasting and burning a great part of that coun- 
 try. In this manner did these hostile clans 
 continue, for a considerable period, mutually 
 to vex and destroy one another, till they were 
 almost exterminated, root and branch. 
 
 In order to strengthen his own poweT and 
 to weaken that of his antagonist, Sir Lauchlan 
 Maclean attempted to detach John Mac-Iain, 
 of Ardnamurchan, from Angus Macdonald and 
 his party. Mac-Iain had formerly been an 
 unsuccessful suitor for the hand of Maclean's 
 mother, and Sir Hector now gave bim an 
 invitation to visit him in Mull, promising, at 
 the same time, to give bim his mother in mar- 
 riage. Mac-Iain accepted the invitation, and 
 on his arrival in Mull, Maclean prevailed on 
 Ms mother to marry Mac-Iain, and the nuptials 
 were accordingly celebrated at Torloisk in 
 Mull. Xo persuasion, however, could induce 
 Mac-Iain to join against his own tribe, towards 
 which, notwithstanding his matrimonial alli- 
 ance, he entertained the strongest affection 
 Chagrined at the unexpected refusal of Mac- 
 
100 
 
 GENEEAL HTSTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 Iain, Sir LaucMan resolved to punish, his 
 refractory guest by one of those gross infringe- 
 ments of the laws of hospitality which so often 
 marked the hostility of rival clans. During 
 the dead hour of the night he caused the door 
 of Mac-Iain's bedchamber to be forced open, 
 dragged him from Ms bed, and from the arms 
 of his wife, and put him in close confinement, 
 after killing eighteen of his followers. After 
 suffering a year's captivitj r , he was released and 
 exchanged for Maclean's son, and the other 
 hostages in Macdonald's possession. 
 
 The dissensions between these two tribes 
 having attracted the attention of government, 
 the rival chiefs were induced, partly by com- 
 mand of the king, and partly by persuasions 
 and fair promises, to come to Edinburgh in the 
 year 1592, for the purpose of having their 
 differences reconciled. On their arrival they 
 were committed prisoners to the castle of Edin- 
 burgh, but were soon released and allowed to 
 return home on payment of a small pecuniary 
 fine, "and a shamfull remission," says Sir Eo- 
 bert Gordon, "granted to either of them." 7 
 
 In the year 1587, the flames of discord, 
 which had lain dormant for a short time, burst 
 forth between the rival houses of Sutherland 
 and Caithness. In the year 1583, Alexander, 
 Earl of Sutherland, obtained from the Earl of 
 Huntly a grant of the superiority of Strath- 
 naver, and of the heritable sheriffship of 
 Sutherland and Strathnaver, which last was 
 granted in lieu of the lordship of Abojnae. 
 This grant was confirmed by his Majesty in 
 a charter under the great seal, by which 
 Sutherland and Strathnaver were disjoined 
 and dismembered from the sheriffdom of 
 Inverness. As the strength and influence of 
 the Earl of Sutherland were greatly increased 
 by the power and authority with which the 
 superiority of Strathnaver invested him, the 
 Earl of Caithness used the most urgent entreat- 
 ies with the Earl of Huntly, who was his 
 brother-in-law, to recall the gift of the superi- 
 ority which he had granted to the Earl of 
 Sutherland, and confer the same on him. The 
 Earl of Huntly gave no decided answer to this 
 application, although he seemed rather to listen 
 with a favourable ear to his brother-in-law's 
 
 7 History, p. 192. 
 
 request. The Earl of Sutherland having been 
 made aware of his rival's pretensions, and of 
 the reception which he had met with from the 
 Earl of Huntly, immediately notified to Huntly 
 that he would never restore the superiority 
 either to him or to the Earl of Caithness, as 
 the bargain he had made with him had been 
 long finally concluded. The Earl of Huntly 
 was much offended at this notice, but he and 
 the Earl of Sutherland were soon reconciled 
 through the mediation of Sir Patrick Gordon 
 of Auchindun. 
 
 Disappointed in Ms views of obtaining the 
 superiority in question, the Earl of Caithness 
 seized the first opportunity, which presented 
 itself, of quarrelling with the Earl of Suther- 
 land, and he now thought that a suitable occa- 
 sion had occurred. George Gordon, a bastard 
 son of Gilbert Gordon of Gartay, having offered 
 many indigMties to the Earl of Caithness, the 
 Earl, Mstead of complaiMng to the Earl of 
 Sutherland, in whose service this George Gordon 
 was, craved satisfaction and redress from the 
 Earl of Huntly. Huntly very properly desired 
 the Earl of Caithness to lay Ms complaint 
 before the Earl of Sutherland ; but this he 
 declined to do, disdaining to seek redress from 
 Earl Alexander. Encouraged, probably, by the 
 refusal of the Earl of Huntly to interfere, and 
 the stubbornness of the Earl of Caithness to 
 ask redress from his master, George Gordon, 
 who resided in the town of Marie in Strathully, 
 on the borders of Caithness, not satisfied with 
 the MdigMties which he had formerly shown 
 to the Earl of Caithness, cut off the tails of the 
 earl's horses as they were passing the river of 
 Helmsdale under the care of his servants, on 
 their journey from Caithness to Edinburgh, 
 and M derision desired the earl's servants to 
 show Mm what he had done. 
 
 TMs George Gordon, it would appear, led a 
 very irregular and wicked course of life, and 
 shortly after the occurrence we have just related, 
 a circumstance happened wMch induced theEarl 
 of Caithness to take redress at his own hands. 
 George Gordon had incurred the displeasure of 
 the Earl of Sutherland by an uMawful con- 
 nexion with his wife's sister, and as he had no 
 hopes of regaining the earl's favour but by 
 renouncMg tliis impure intercourse, he sent 
 Patrick Gordon, his brother, to the Earl of 
 
EAKLS OF CAITHNESS AND SUTHERLAND. 
 
 mi 
 
 Caithness to endeavour to effect a reconciliation 
 with him, as he could no longer rely upon the 
 protection of his master, the Earl of Suther- 
 land. The Earl of Caithness, who felt an 
 inward satisfaction at hearing of the displea- 
 sure of the Earl of Sutherland with George 
 Gordon, dissembled Ms feelings, and pretended 
 to listen with great favour to the request of 
 Patrick Gordon, in order to throw George 
 Gordon off his guard, while he was in reality 
 meditating his destruction. The ruse succeeded 
 so effectuality, that although Gordon received 
 timeous notice, from some friends, of the 
 intentions of the earl to attack him, he reposed 
 in false security upon the promises held out to 
 him, and made no provision for his personal 
 safety. But he was soon undeceived by the 
 appearance of the earl and a body of men, 
 who, in February, 1587, entering Marie under 
 the silence of the night, surrounded his house 
 and required him to surrender, which he refused 
 to do. Having cut his way through his enemies 
 and thrown himself into the river of Helms- 
 dale, which he attempted to swim across, he 
 was slain by a shower of arrows. 
 
 The Earl of Sutherland, though he disliked 
 the conduct of George Gordon, was highly in- 
 censed at his death, and made great prepara- 
 tions to punish the Earl of Caithness for his 
 attack upon Gordon. The Earl of Caithness 
 in his turn assembled his whole forces, and, 
 being joined by Mackay and the Strathnaver 
 men, together with John, the Master of Orkney, 
 and the Earl of Carrick, brother of Patrick, 
 Earl of Orkney, and some of his countrymen, 
 marched to Helmsdale to meet the Earl of 
 Sutherland. As soon as the latter heard of the 
 advance of the Earl of Caithness, he also pro- 
 ceeded towards Helmsdale, accompanied by 
 Mackintosh, Roderick Mackenzie of Bedcastle, 
 Hector Monroe of Contaligh, and Neill Hou- 
 cheonson, with the men of Assynt. On his 
 arrival at the river of Helmsdale, the Earl of 
 Sutherland found the enemy encamped on the 
 opposite side. Neither party seemed inclined 
 to come to a general engagement, but contented 
 themselves with daily skirmishes, annoying 
 each other with guns and arrows from the 
 opposite banks of the river. The Sutherland 
 men, who were very expert archers, annoyed 
 the Caithness men so much, as to force them 
 
 to break up their camp on the river side and 
 to remove among the rocks above the village 
 of Easter Helmsdale. Mackay and his coun- 
 trymen were encamped on the river of Marie, 
 and in order to detach him from the Earl of 
 Caithness, Macintosh crossed that river and 
 had a private conference with him. After 
 reminding him of the friendship which had so 
 long subsisted between his ancestors and the 
 Sutherland family, Macintosh endeavoured to 
 impress upon his mind the danger he incurred 
 by taking up arms against his own superior the 
 Earl of Sutherland, and entreated him, for his 
 own sake, to join the earl; but Mackay remained 
 inflexible. 
 
 By the mediation of mutual friends, the two 
 earls agreed to a temporary truce on the 9th 
 of March, 1587, and thus the effusion of human 
 blood was stopped for a short time. As 
 Mackay was the vassal of the Earl of Suther- 
 land, the latter refused to comprehend him in 
 the truce, and insisted upon an unconditional 
 submission, but Mackay obstinately refused to 
 do so, and returned home to his own countay, 
 highly chagrined that the Earl of Caithness, 
 for whom he had put his life and estate in 
 jeopardy, should have acceded to the Earl of 
 Sutherland's request to exclude him from the 
 benefit of the truce. Before the two earls 
 separated they came to a mutual understand- 
 ing to reduce Mackay to obedience ; and that 
 he might not suspect their design, they agreed 
 to meet at Edinburgh for the purpose of con- 
 certing the necessary measures together. Ac- 
 cordingly, they held a meeting at the appointed 
 place in the year 1588, and came to the reso- 
 lution to attack Mackay; and to prevent 
 Mackay from receiving any intelligence of 
 their design, both parties swore to keep the 
 same secret; but the Earl of Caithness, re- 
 gardless of his oath, immediately sent notice to 
 Mackay of the intended attack, for the purpose 
 of enabling him to meet it. Instead, however, 
 of following the Earl of Caithness's advice, 
 Mackay, justly dreading his hollow friendship, 
 made haste, by the advice of Macintosli and 
 the Laird of Foulis, to reconcile himself to the 
 Earl of Sutherland, his superior, by an im- 
 mediate submission. For this purpose he and 
 the earl first met at Inverness, and after con- 
 ferring together they made another appoint- 
 
102 
 
 GENEEA1 HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 raent to meet at Elgin, where a perfect and 
 (inal reconciliation took place in tlie month of 
 November, 1588. 
 
 GHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 a. d. 1/.8S— 1601. 
 king OK Scotland: — James VI., 15137 — 1603. 
 
 Continued strife between the Earls of Sutherland and 
 Caithness — Short Reconciliation — Strife renewed — 
 Fresh Reconciliation — Quarrel between Clan Gun 
 and other tribes — The Earl of Huntly, the Clan 
 Chattan, and others — Death of the " Bonny" Earl 
 of Murray — Consequent excitement — Strife between 
 Huntly and the Clan Chattan — Huntly attainted 
 and treated as a rebel — Argyle sent against him — 
 Battle of Glenlivet — Journey of James VI. to the 
 North — Tumults in Ross — Feud between the Mac- 
 leans and Macdonalds — Defeat of the Macleans — Dis- 
 pute between the Earls of Sutherland and Caithness 
 — Feud between Macdonald of Slate and Macleod of 
 Harris — Reconciliation. 
 
 The truce between the Earls of Caithness 
 and Sutherland having now expired, the latter, 
 accompanied by Mackay, Macintosh, the Laird 
 of Foulis, the Laird of Assynt, and Gille-Calum, 
 Laird of Easay, entered Caithness with all his 
 forces in the beginning of 1588. In taking 
 this step he was warranted by a commission 
 which he had obtained at court, through the 
 influence of Chancellor Maitland, against the 
 Earl of Caithness for killing George Gordon. 
 The people of Caithness, alarmed at the great 
 force of the earl, fled in all directions on his 
 approach, and he never halted till he reached 
 the strong fort of Girnigo, where he pitched 
 his camp for twelve days. He then penetrated 
 as far as Duncansby, killing several of the 
 country people on his route, and collecting an 
 immense quantity of cattle and goods, so large, 
 indeed, as to exceed all that had been seen toge- 
 ther in that country for many years. This inva- 
 sion had such an effect upon the people of Caith- 
 ness, that every race, clan, tribe, and family 
 there, vied with one another in offering pledges 
 to the Earl of Sutherland to keep the peace in 
 all time co min g. The town of Wick was also 
 pillaged and burnt, but the church was pre- 
 served. In the church was found the heart of 
 the Earl of Caithness's father in a case of lead, 
 which was opened by John Mac-Gille-Calum of 
 Easay, and the ashes of the heart were thrown 
 by him to the winds. 
 
 During the time when these depredations 
 were being committed, the Earl of Caithness 
 shut himself up in the castle of Girnigo ; but 
 on learning the disasters which had befallen 
 his country, he desired a cessation of hostilities 
 and a conference with the Earl of Sutherland. 
 As the castle of Girnigo was strongly fortified, 
 and as the Earl of Caithness had made prepa- 
 rations for enduring a long siege, the Earl of 
 Sutherland complied with his request. Both 
 earls ultimately agreed to refer all their differ- 
 ences and disputes to the arbitration of friends, 
 and the Earl of Huntly was chosen by mutual 
 consent to act as umpire or oversman, in the 
 event of a difference of opinion. A second 
 truce was in this way entered into until the 
 decision of the arbiters, when all differences 
 were to cease. s 
 
 Notwithstanding this engagement, however, 
 the Earl of Caithness soon gave fresh provoca- 
 tion, for before the truce had expired he sent 
 a party of his men to Diri-Chatt in Sutherland, 
 under the command of Kenneth Buy, and his 
 brother Farquhar Buy, chieftains of the Siol- 
 Mhic-Iniheair in Caithness, and chief advisers 
 of the Earl of Caithness in his bad actions, and 
 his instruments in oppressing the poor people 
 of Caithness. The Earl of Sutherland lost no 
 time in revenging himself for the depredations 
 committed. At Whitsunday, in the year 1589, 
 he sent 300 men into Caithness, with Alexan- 
 der Gordon of Kilcalmekill at their head. 
 They penetrated as far as Girnigo, laying the 
 country waste everywhere around them, and 
 striking terror into the hearts of the inhabit- 
 ants, many of whom, including some of the 
 SiohMhic-Imheair, they killed. After spend- 
 ing their fury the party returned to Sutherland 
 with a large booty, and without the loss of a 
 single man. 
 
 To retaliate upon the Earl of Sutherland for 
 this inroad, James Sinclair of Markle, brother 
 of the Earl of Caithness, collected an army 
 of 3,000 men, with which he marched into 
 StrathuLly, in the month of June, 1589. As 
 the Earl of Sutherland had been apprehen- 
 sive of an attack, he had placed a range of 
 sentinels along the borders of Sutherland, to 
 give notice of the approach of the enemy. Of 
 
 s Sir U. Gordon, o. l. r <7. 
 
STRIFE BETWEEN THE EARLS OF CAITHNESS AND SUTHERLAND. 103 
 
 these, four were stationed in the village of 
 Liribell, which the Caithness men entered in 
 the middle of the clay unknown to the sentinels, 
 who, instead of keeping an outlook, were at 
 the time carelessly enjoying themselves within 
 the watch-house. On perceiving the Caithness 
 men about entering the house, they shut them- 
 selves up within it ; but the house "being set 
 on fire, three of them perished, and the fourth, 
 rushing through the flames, escaped with great 
 difficulty, and announced to his countrymen 
 the arrival of the enemy. From Strathully, 
 Sinclair passed forward with his army to a 
 place called Crissalligh, on the height of Strath- 
 broray, and began to drive away some cattle 
 towards Caithness. As the Earl of Sutherland 
 had not yet had sufficient time to collect a suf- 
 ficient force to oppose Sinclair, he sent in the 
 meantime Houcheon Mackay, who happened 
 to be at Dunrobin with 500 or 600 men, to 
 keep Sinclair in check until a greater force 
 should be assembled. With this body, which 
 was hastily drawn together on the spur of the 
 occasion, Mackay advanced with amazing celer- 
 ity, and such was the rapidity of his move- 
 ments, that he most unexpectedly came up 
 with Sinclair not far from Crissalligh, when 
 his army was ranging about without order or 
 military discipline. On coming up, Mackay 
 found John Gordon of Kilcalmekill at the 
 head of a small party skirmishing with the 
 Caithness men, a circumstance which made 
 him instantly resolve, though so far inferior in 
 numbers, to attack Sinclair. Crossing there- 
 tore the water, which was between him and 
 the enemy, Mackay and his men rushed upon 
 the army of Sinclair, which they defeated after 
 a long and warm contest. The Caithness men 
 retreated with the loss of their booty and part 
 of their baggage, and were closely pursued by 
 a body of men commanded by John Murray, 
 nicknamed the merchant, to a distance of 16 
 miles. 9 
 
 This defeat, however, did not satisfy the 
 Earl of Sutherland, who, having now assembled 
 au army, entered Caithness with the intention 
 of laying it waste. The earl advanced as far 
 as Corrichoigh, and the Earl of Caithness con- 
 vened his forces at Spittle, where he lay wait- 
 
 Sir K Gordon, p. !!>!>. 
 
 ing the arrival of his enemy. The Earl of 
 Huntly, having been made acquainted with the 
 warlike preparations of the two hostile earls, 
 sent, without delay, his uncle, Sir Patrick 
 Gordon of Auchindun, to mediate between 
 them, and he luckily arrived at the Earl of 
 Sutherland's head-quarters, at the very instant 
 his army was on its march to meet the Earl 
 of Caithness. By the friendly interference of 
 Sir Patrick, the parties were prevailed upon to 
 desist from their hostile intentions, and to 
 agree to hold an amicable meeting at Elgin, in 
 presence of the Earl of Huntly, to whom they 
 also agreed to refer all their differences. A 
 meeting accordingly took place in the month 
 of November, 1589, at which all disputes were 
 settled, and in order that the reconciliation 
 might be lasting, and that no recourse might 
 again be had to arms, the two earls subscribed 
 a deed, by which they appointed Huntly and 
 his successors hereditary judges, and arbitra- 
 tors of all disputes or differences, that might 
 thenceforth arise between these two houses. 
 
 This reconciliation, however, as it did not 
 obliterate the rancour which existed between 
 the people of these different districts, was but 
 of short duration. The frequent depredations 
 committed by the vassals and retainers of the 
 earls upon the property of one another, led to an 
 exchange of letters and messages between them 
 about the means to be used for repressing these 
 disorders. During this correspondence the Earl 
 of Sutherland became unwell, and, being con- 
 fined to his bed, the Earl of Caithness, in Octo- 
 ber, 1590, wrote him a kind letter, which he had 
 scarcely despatched when he most unaccount- 
 ably entered Sutherland with a hostile force ; 
 but he only remained one night in that country, 
 in consequence of receiving intelligence of a 
 meditated attack upon his camp by John Gor- 
 don of Kilcalmekill, and Neill Mac-Iain-Mac- 
 William. A considerable number of the Suth- 
 erland men having collected together, they re- 
 solved to pursue the Caithness men, who had 
 carried off a large quantity of cattle; but, on 
 coming nearly up with them, an unfortunate 
 difference arose between the Murrays and the 
 Gordons, each contending for the command of 
 the vanguard. The Murrays rested their claim 
 upon their former good services to the house 
 of Sutherland ; but the Gordons refusing to 
 
104 
 
 GENERAL HISTORY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 admit it, all the Murrays, with the exception 
 of "William Murray, brother of the Laird of 
 Palrossie, and John Murray, the merchant, 
 withdrew, and took a station on a hill hard 
 by to witness the combat. This unexpected 
 event seemed to paralyze the Gordons at first ; 
 but seeing the Caithness men driving the 
 cattle away before them, and thinking that if 
 they did not attack them they would be accused 
 of cowardice, Patrick Gordon of Gartay, John 
 Gordon of Embo, and John Gordon of Eil- 
 calmekill, after some consultation, resolved to 
 attack the retiring foe without loss of time, 
 and without waiting for the coming up of the 
 Strathnaver men, who were hourly expected 
 This was a bold and desperate attempt, as the 
 Gordons were only as one to twelve in point 
 of numbers, but they could not brook the idea 
 of being branded as cowards. "With such 
 numerical inferiority, and with the sun and 
 wind in their faces to boot, the Sutherland 
 men advanced upon and resolutely attacked 
 the Caithness men near Clyne. In the van of 
 the Caithness army were placed about 1,500 
 archers, a considerable number of whom were 
 from the "Western Isles, under the command of 
 Donald Balloch Mackay of Scourie, who 
 poured a thick shower of arrows upon the men 
 of Sutherland as they advanced, the latter, in 
 return, giving their opponents a similar recep- 
 tion. The combat raged with great fury for a 
 considerable time between these two parties : 
 thrice were the Caithness archers driven back 
 upon their rear, which was in consequence 
 thrown into great disorder, and thrice did 
 they return to the conflict, cheered on and 
 encouraged by their leader ; but, though supe- 
 rior in numbers, they could not withstand the 
 firmness and intrepidity of the Sutherland 
 men, who forced them to retire from the field 
 of battle on the approach of night, and to 
 abandon the cattle which had been carried off. 
 The loss in killed and wounded was about 
 equal on both sides ; but, with the exception 
 of Nicolas Sutherland, brother of the Laird of 
 Forse, and Angus Mac-Angus-Termat, both 
 belonging to the Caithness party, and John 
 Murray, the merchant, on the Sutherland side, 
 there were no principal persons killed 
 
 Yain as the efforts of the common friends of 
 the rival earls had hitherto been to reconcde 
 
 them effectually, the Earl of Huntly and 
 others once more attempted an arrangement, 
 and having prevailed upon the parties to meet 
 at Strathbogie, a final agreement was entered 
 into in the month of March, 1591, by which 
 they agreed to bury all bygone differences in 
 oblivion, and to live on terms of amity in all 
 time thereafter. 
 
 This fresh reconciliation of the two earls was 
 the means of restoring quiet in their districts 
 for a considerable time, which was partially 
 interrupted in the year 1594, by a quarrel 
 between the clan Gun and some of the other 
 petty tribes. Donald Mae-William-Mac-Hen- 
 ric, A lister Mac-Iain-Mae-Eorie, and others of 
 the clan Gun entered Caithness and attacked 
 Farquhar Buy, one of the captains of the tribe 
 of Siol-MMc-Lmheair, and William Sutherland, 
 alias "William Abaraich, the chief favourite of 
 the Earl of Caithness, and the principal plotter 
 against the life of George Gordon, whose death 
 has been already noticed After a warm skir- 
 mish, Farquhar Buy, and "William Abaraich, 
 and some of their followers, were slain. To re- 
 venge this outrage, the Earl of Caithness sent 
 the same year his brother, James Sinclair of 
 Murkle, with a party of men, against the clan 
 Gun in Strathie, in Strathnaver, who killed 
 seven of that tribe. George Mac-Iain-Mac- 
 Eob, the chief, and Donald Mac-"Williara-Mac- 
 Henric narrowly escaped with their lives. 
 
 For the sake of continuity, we have deferred 
 noticing those transactions in the north in 
 which George Gordon, Earl of Huntly, was 
 more immediately concerned, and which led to 
 several bloody conflicts. 
 
 The earl, who was a favourite at court, and 
 personally liked by James VI. , finding himself 
 in danger from the prevailing faction, retired 
 to his possessions in the north, for the purpose 
 of improving his estates and enjoying domestic 
 quiet. One of his first measures was to erect 
 a castle at Euthven, in Badenoch, in the neigh- 
 bourhood of his hunting forests. This gave 
 great offence to Macintosh, the chief of the clan 
 Chattan, and his people, as they considered 
 that the object of its erection was to overawe 
 the clan. Being the earl's vassals and tenants, 
 they were bound to certain services, among 
 which the furnishing of materials for the build- 
 ing formed a chief part ; but, instead of assist- 
 
EAEL OF HUNTLY AGAINST THE CLAN CHATTAN AND OTHERS. 105 
 
 ing the earl's people, they at fiist indirectly 
 and in an underhand manner endeavoured to 
 prevent the workmen from going on with their 
 operations, and afterwards positively refused 
 to furnish the necessaries required for the 
 building. This act of disobedience was the 
 cause of much trouble, which was increased by a 
 quarrel in the year 1590, between the Gordons 
 and the Grants, the occasion of which was as 
 follows. John Grant, the tutor of Ballen- 
 dalloch, having withheld the rents due to the 
 widow, and endeavoured otherwise to injure 
 her, James Gordon, her nephew, eldest son of 
 Alexander Gordon of Lismore, along with some 
 of his friends, went to Ballendalloch to obtain 
 justice for her. On their arrival, differences 
 were accommodated so far that the tutor paid 
 up all arrears due to the lady, except a trifle, 
 which he insisted, on some ground or other, on 
 retaining. This led to some altercation, in 
 which the servants of both parties took a share, 
 and latterly came to blows ; but they were 
 separated, and James Gordon returned home. 
 Judging from what had taken place, that his 
 aunt's interests would in future be better 
 attended to if under the protection of a hus- 
 band, he persuaded the brother of Sir Thomas 
 Gordon of Cluny to marry her, which he did. 
 This act so incensed the tutor of Ballendalloch, 
 that he at once showed his displeasure by 
 killing, at the instigation of the laird of Grant, 
 one of John Gordon's servants. For this the 
 tutor, and such of the Grants as should harbour 
 or assist him, were declared outlaws and rebels, 
 and a commission was granted to the Earl of 
 Huntly to apprehend and bring them to justice, 
 in virtue of which, he besieged the house of 
 Ballendalloch, and took it by force, on the 
 2d November, 1590 : but the tutor effected 
 his escape. Sir John Campbell of Cadell, a 
 despicable tool of the Chancellor Maitland, 
 who had plotted the destruction of the earl 
 and the laird of Grant, now joined in the 
 conspiracy against him, and stirred up the clan 
 Chattan, and Macintosh their chief, to aid 
 the Grants. They also persuaded the Earls of 
 Athol and Murray to assist them against the 
 Earl of Huntly. 
 
 As soon as Huntly ascertained that the 
 Grants and clan Chattan, who were his own 
 vassals, had put themselves under the com- 
 
 mand of these earls, he assembled his followers, 
 and, entering Badenoch, summoned his vassals 
 to appear before him, and deliver up the 
 tutor and his abettors, but none of them came. 
 He then proclaimed and denounced them rebels, 
 and obtained a royal commission to invade and 
 apprehend them. To consult on the best 
 means of defending themselves, the Earls of 
 Murray and Athole, the D unbars, the clan 
 Chattan, the Grants, and the laird of Cadeli, 
 and others of their party met at Eorres. In 
 the midst of their deliberations Huntly, who 
 had received early intelligence of the meeting, 
 and had, in consequence, assembled his forces, 
 unexpectedly made his appearance in the 
 neighbourhood of Forres. This sudden advance 
 of Huntly struck terror into the minds of the 
 persons assembled, and the meeting instantly 
 broke up in great confusion. The whole party, 
 with the exception of the Earl of Murray, left 
 the town in great haste, and fled to Tarnoway; 
 the Earl of Huntly, not aware that Murray 
 had remained behind, marching directly to 
 Tarnoway in pursuit of the fugitives. On 
 arriving within sight of the castle into which 
 the flying party had thrown themselves, the 
 earl sent John Gordon, brother of Sir Thomas 
 Gordon of Cluny, with a small body of men to 
 reconnoitre ; but approaching too near without 
 due caution, he was shot by one of the Earl of 
 Murray's servants. As Huntly found the castle 
 well fortified, and as the rebels evacuated it 
 and fled to the mountains, leaving a sufficient 
 force to protect it, he disbanded his men on 
 November 24, 1590, and returned home, 
 whence he proceeded to Edinburgh. 
 
 Shortly after his arrival the Earl of Bothwell, 
 who had a design upon the life of Chancellor 
 Maitland, made an attack upon the palace of 
 Holyroodhouse under cloud of night, with the 
 view of seizing Maitland ; but, having failed 
 in his object, he was forced to flee to the north 
 to avoid the vengeance of the king. The Earl 
 of Huntly, who had been lately reconciled to 
 Maitland, and the Duke of Lennox, were sent in 
 pursuit of Bothwell, but he escaped. Under- 
 standing afterwards that he was harboured by 
 the Earl of Murray at Donnibristle, the chan- 
 cellor, having procured a commission against 
 him from the king in favour of Huntly, again 
 sent him, accompanied by forty gentlemen, to 
 
106 
 
 GENERAL HISTORY OE THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 attack the Earl of Murray. When tlie party had 
 arrived near Donnibristle, the Earl of Huntly 
 sent Captain John Gordon, of Buckie, "brother 
 of Gordon of Gight, with a summons to the Earl 
 of Murray, requiring him to surrender himself 
 prisoner ; hut instead of complying, one of the 
 earl's servants levelled a piece at the hearer of 
 the despatch, and 'wounded him mortally. 
 Huntly, therefore, after giving orders to take 
 the Earl of Murray alive if possible, forcibly 
 entered the house ; but Sir Thomas Gordon, 
 recollecting the fate of his brother at Tamoway, 
 and Gordon of Gight, who saw his brother 
 lying mortally wounded before his eyes, entirely 
 disregarded the injunction; and following the 
 earl, who had fled among the rocks on the 
 adjoining sea-shore, slew him. It was this Earl 
 of Murray who was known as the "bonny" 
 earl, and, according to some historians, had 
 impressed the heart of Anne of Denmark, and 
 excited the jealousy of her royal spouse. This 
 at least was the popular notion of his time : — 
 
 " He was a braw gallant, 
 And he played at the gluve ; 
 And the bonny Earl of Murray, 
 Oh ! he was the queen's love." 
 
 According to one account the house was set 
 on fire, and Murray was discovered, when 
 endeavouring to escape, by a spark which fell 
 on his helmet, and slain by Gordon of Buckie, 
 saying to the latter, who had wounded him in 
 the face, " You have spilt a better face than 
 your awin." 
 
 The Earl of Huntly immediately despatched 
 John Gordon of Buckie to Edinburgh, to lay 
 a statement of the affair before the king and 
 the chancellor. The death of the Earl of 
 Murray would have passed quietly over, as an 
 event of ordinary occurrence in those trouble- 
 some times ; but, as he was one of the heads 
 of the Protestant party, the Presbyterian 
 ministers gave the matter a religious turn by 
 denouncing the Catholic Earl of Huntly as a 
 murderer, who wished to advance the interests 
 of his church by imbruing his hands in the 
 blood of his Protestant countrymen. The 
 effect of the ministers' denunciations was a 
 tumult among the people in Edinburgh and 
 other parts of the kingdom, which obliged the 
 king to cancel the commission he had granted 
 
 to the Earl of Huntly. The spirit of discon- 
 tent became so violent that Captain John 
 Gordon, who had been left at Inverkei thing 
 for the recovery of his wounds, but who had 
 been afterwards taken prisoner by the Earl of 
 Murray's friends and carried to Edinburgh, 
 was tried before a jury, and, contrary to law 
 and justice, condemned and executed for having 
 assisted the Earl of Huntly acting under a royal 
 commission. The recklessness and severity of 
 this act were still more atrocious, as Captain 
 Gordon's wounds were incurable, and he was 
 fast hastening to his grave. John Gordon of 
 Buckie, who was master of the king's house- 
 hold, was obliged to flee from Edinburgh, and 
 made a narrow escape with his life. 
 
 As for the Earl of Huntly, he was summoned, 
 at the instance of the Lord of St. Colme, brother 
 of the deceased Earl of Murray, to stand trial. 
 He accordingly appeared at Edinburgh, and 
 offered to abide the result of a trial by his 
 peers, and in the meantime was committed a 
 prisoner to the castle of Blackness on the 12th 
 of March, 1591, till the peers should assemble 
 to try him. On giving sufficient surety, how- 
 ever, that he would appear and stand trial on 
 receiving six clays' notice to that effect, he was 
 released by the king on the 20th day of the 
 same month. 
 
 The clan Chattan, who had never submitted 
 without reluctance to the Earl of Huntly, con- 
 sidered the present aspect of affairs as peculiarly 
 favourable to the design they entertained of 
 shaking off the yoke altogether, and being 
 countenanced and assisted by the Grants, and 
 other friends of the Earl of Murray, made no 
 secret of their intentions. At first the earl 
 sent Allan Macdonald-Dubh, the chief of the 
 clan Cameron, with his tribe, to attack the 
 clan Chattan in Badenoch, and to keep them 
 in due order and subjection. The Camerons, 
 though warmly opposed, succeeded in defeat- 
 ing the clan Chattan, who lost 50 of their 
 men after a sharp skirmish. The earl next 
 despatched Macronald, with some of the 
 Lochaber men, against the Grants in Strath- 
 spey, whom he attacked, killed 18 of them, 
 and laid waste the lands of Ballendalloch. 
 After the clan Chattan had recovered from 
 their defeat, they invaded Strathdee and 
 Glenmuck in November 1592. To punish 
 
EAEL OF HUNTLY ATTAINTED. 
 
 107 
 
 this aggression, the Earl of Huntly collected 
 his forces and entered Pettie, then in posses- 
 sion of the clan Chattan as a fief from the 
 Earls of Murray, and laid waste all the lands 
 of the clan Chattan there, killed many of 
 them, and carried off a large quantity of cattle, 
 which he divided among his army. But in 
 returning from Pettie after disbanding his 
 army, he received the unwelcome intelligence 
 that William Macintosh, son of Lauchlan Mac- 
 intosh, the chief, with 800 of the clan Chattan, 
 had invaded the lands of Auchindun and Cab- 
 berogh. The earl, after desiring the small 
 party which remained with him to follow him 
 as speedily as possible, immediately set off at 
 full speed, accompanied by Sir Patrick Gordon 
 of Auchindun and 36 horsemen, in quest of 
 Macintosh and his party. Overtaking them 
 before they had left the bounds of Cabberogh, 
 upon the top of a hill called Stapliegate, he 
 attacked them with his small party, and, after 
 a warm skirmish, defeated them, lulling about 
 10 of their men, and wounding William Mac- 
 intosh and others. 
 
 The Earl of Huntly, after thus subduing his 
 enemies in the north, now found himself placed 
 under ban by the government on account 
 of an alleged conspiracy between him and the 
 Earls of Angus and Errol and the crown of 
 Spain, to overturn the State and the Church. 
 The king and his councillors seemed to be 
 satisfied of the innocence of the earls ; but the 
 ministers, who considered the reformed religion 
 in Scotland in danger while these Catholic 
 peers were protected and favoured, importuned 
 his majesty to punish them. The king, yield- 
 ing to necessity and to the intrigues of Queen 
 Elizabeth, forfeited their titles, intending to 
 restore them when a proper opportunity 
 occurred ; and, to silence the clamours of the 
 ministers, convoked a parliament, which was 
 held in the end of May, 1594. As few of the 
 peers attended, the ministers, having the com- 
 missioners of the burghs on their side, carried 
 everything their own way, and the consequence 
 was, that the three earls were attainted without 
 trial, and their arms were torn in presence of 
 the parliament, according to the custom in 
 such cases. 
 
 Having so far succeeded, the ministers, 
 instigated by the Queen of England, now 
 
 entreated the king to send the Earl of Argyle, 
 a youth of nineteen years of age, in the pay of 
 Queen Elizabeth, with an army against the 
 Catholic earls. The king, still yielding to 
 necessity, complied, and Argyle, having col- 
 lected a force of about 12,000 men, entered 
 Badenoch and laid siege to the castle of Buth- 
 ven, on the 27th of September, 1594. He was 
 accompanied in this expedition by the Earl of 
 Athole, Sir Lauchlan Maclean with some of his 
 islanders, the chief of the Macintoshes, the 
 Laird of Grant, the clan Gregor, Macneil of 
 Barra, with all their friends and dependents, 
 together with the whole of the Campbells, and 
 a variety of others animated by a thirst for 
 plunder or malice towards the Gordons. The 
 castle of Euthven was so well defended by the 
 clan Pherson, who were the Earl of Huntly's 
 vassals, that Argyle was obliged to give up the 
 siege. He then marched through Strathspey, 
 and encamped at Drummin, upon the river 
 Avon, on the 2d of October, whence he issued 
 orders to Lord Forbes, the Frasers, the Dun- 
 bars, the clan Kenzie, the Irvings, the Ogil- 
 vies, the Leslies, and other tribes and clans 
 in the north, to join Ins standard with all con- 
 venient speed. 
 
 The earls, against whom this expedition was 
 directed, were by no means dismayed. They 
 knew that although the king was constrained 
 by popular clamour to levy war upon them, he 
 was in secret friendly to them ; and they were, 
 moreover, aware that the army of Argyle, 
 who was a youth of no military experience, 
 was a raw and undisciplined militia, and com- 
 posed, in a great measure, of Catholics, who 
 could not be expected to feel very warmly for 
 the Protestant interest, to support which the 
 expedition was professedly undertaken. The 
 seeds of disaffection, besides, had been already 
 sown in Argyle's camp by the corruption of the 
 Grants and Campbell of Lochnell. 
 
 On hearing of Argyle's approach, the Earl 
 of Errol immediately collected a select body of 
 about 100 horsemen, being gentlemen, on 
 whose courage and fidelity he could rely, and 
 with these he joined the Earl of Huntly at 
 Strathbogie. The forces of Huntly, after this 
 junction, amounted, it is said, to nearly 1,500 
 men, almost altogether horsemen, and with this 
 bodj 7 he advanced to Carnborrow, where the 
 
108 
 
 GENERAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 two earls and their chief followers made a 
 solemn vow to conquer or die. Marching from 
 thence, Huntly's army arrived at Auchindun 
 on the same day that Argyle's army reached 
 Drummin. At Auchindun, Huntly received 
 intelligence that Argyle was on the eve of 
 descending from the mountains to the lowlands, 
 which induced him, on the following day, 
 to send Captain Thomas Carr and a party of 
 horsemen to reconnoitre the enemy, while he 
 himself advanced with his main axmj. The 
 reconnoitring party soon fell in, accidentally, 
 with Argyle's scouts, whom they chased, and 
 some of whom they killed. This occurrence, 
 which was looked upon as a prognostic of 
 victory, so encouraged Huntly and his men, 
 that he resolved to attack the army of Argyle 
 before he should he joined by Lord Forbes, 
 and the forces which were waiting for his 
 appearance in the lowlands. Argyle had now 
 passed Glenlivet, and had reached the banks 
 of a small brook named Altchonlachan. 
 
 On the other hand, the Earl of Argyle had 
 no idea that the Earls of Huntly and Errol 
 would attack him with such an inferior force ; 
 and he was, therefore, astonished at seeing them 
 approach so near him as they did. Apprehen- 
 sive that his numerical superiority in foot would 
 be counterbalanced by Huntly's cavalry, he 
 held a council of war, which advised Argyle to 
 wait till the king, who had promised to appear 
 with a force, should arrive, or, at all events, 
 till he should be joined by the Frasers and 
 Mackenzies from the north, and the Irvings, 
 Forbeses, and Leslies from the lowlands with 
 their horse. This opinion, which was con- 
 sidered judicious by the most experienced of 
 Argyle's army, was however disregarded by 
 him, and he determined to wait the attack of 
 the enemy ; and to encourage his men he 
 pointed out to them the small number of those 
 they had to combat with, and the spoils they 
 might expect after victory. He disposed his 
 army on the declivity of a hill, betwixt Glen- 
 livet and Glenrinnes, in two parallel divisions. 
 The right wing, consisting of the Macleans and 
 Macintoshes, was commanded by Sir Lauchlan 
 Maclean and Macintosh — the left, composed 
 of the Grants, Macneills, and Macgregors, by 
 Grant of Gartinbeg ; and the centre, consisting 
 of the Campbells, &c, was commanded by 
 
 Campbell of Auchinbreck. This vanguard 
 consisted of 4,000 men, one-half of whom 
 carried muskets. The rear of the army, con- 
 sisting of about 6,000 men, was commanded 
 by Argyle himself. The Earl of Huntly's van- 
 guard was composed of 300 gentlemen, led by 
 the Earl of Errol, Sir Patrick Gordon of 
 Auchindun, the laird of Gight, the laird of 
 Bonnitoun, and Captain, afterwards Sir Thomas 
 Carr. The earl himself followed with the 
 remainder of his forces, having the laird of 
 Cluny upon his right hand and the laird of 
 Abergeldy upon his left. Three pieces of field 
 ordnance under the direction of Captain Andrew 
 Gray, afterwards colonel of the English and 
 Scots who served in Bohemia, were placed in 
 front of the vanguard. Before advancing, the 
 Earl of Huntly harangued his little army to 
 encourage them to fight manfully; he told 
 them that they had no alternative before them 
 but victory or death — that they were now to 
 combat, not for their own lives only, but also 
 for the very existence of their families, which 
 would be utterly extinguished if they fell a 
 prey to their enemies. 
 
 The position which Argyle occupied on the 
 declivity of the hill gave him a decided advan- 
 tage over his assailants, who, from the nature 
 of their force, were greatly hampered by the 
 mossy nature of the ground at the foot of the 
 hill, interspersed by pits from which turf had 
 been dug. But, notwithstanding these obstacles, 
 Huntly advanced up the hill with a slow and 
 steady pace. It had been arranged between 
 him and Campbell of Lochnell, who had pro- 
 mised to go over to Huntly as soon as the battle 
 had commenced, that, before charging Argyle 
 with his cavalry, Huntly should fire his artil- 
 lery at the yellow standard. Campbell bore a 
 mortal enmity at Argyle, as he had murdered 
 his brother, Campbell of Calder, m 1592; and 
 as he was Argyle's nearest heir, he probably 
 had directed the firing at the yellow standard 
 in the hope of cutting off the earl. Unfor- 
 tunately for himself, however, Campbell was 
 shot dead at the first fire of the cannon, and 
 upon his fall all his men fled from the field. 
 Macneill of Barra was also slain at the same 
 time. 
 
 The Highlanders, who had never before 
 seen field pieces, were thrown into disorder 
 
BATTLE OF GLENLIVET. 
 
 109 
 
 by tlie cannonade, which being perceived by 
 Huntly, be charged tbe enemy, and rushing in 
 among tbem "with his horsemen, increased the 
 confusion. The Earl of Errol was directed to 
 attack the right wing of Argyle's army, com- 
 manded by Maclean, but as it occupied a very 
 steep part of the hill, and as Errol was greatly 
 annoyed by thick volleys of shot from above, 
 he was compelled to make a detour, leaving 
 the enemy on his left. But Gordon of Auch- 
 indun, disdaining such a prudent course, gal- 
 loped up the hill with a party of his own fol- 
 lowers, and charged Maclean with great im- 
 petuosity ; but Auchindun's rashness cost him 
 his life. The fall of Auchindun so exasperated 
 his followers that they set no bounds to their 
 fury; but Maclean received their repeated 
 assaults with firmness, and manoeuvred his 
 troops so well as to succeed in cutting off the 
 Earl of Errol, and placing him between his 
 own body and that of Argyle, by whose joint 
 forces he was completely surrounded. At this 
 important crisis, when no hopes of retreat 
 remained, and when Errol and his men were 
 in danger of being cut to pieces, the Earl of 
 Huntly, very fortunately, came up to his assist- 
 ance and relieved him from his embarrass- 
 ment. The battle was now renewed and con- 
 tinued for two hours, during which both parties 
 fought with great bravery, "the one," says Sir 
 Eobert Gordon, " for glorie, the other for 
 necessitie." In the heat of the action the Earl 
 of Huntly had a horse shot under him, and was 
 in imminent danger of his life ; but another 
 horse was immediately procured for him. Af- 
 ter a hard contest the main body of Argyle's 
 army began to give way, and retreated towards 
 the rivulet of Altchonlachan ; but Maclean 
 still kept the field, and continued to support 
 the falling fortune of the day. At length, 
 finding the contest hopeless, and after losing 
 many of his men, he retired in good order with 
 the small company that still remained about 
 him. Huntly pursued the retiring foe beyond 
 the water of Altchonlachan, when he was 
 prevented from following them farther by the 
 steepness of the hills, so unfavourable to the 
 operations of cavalry. The success of Huntly 
 was mainly owing to the treachery of Lochnell, 
 and of John Grant of Gartinbeg, one of Huntly's 
 vassals, who, in terms of a concerted plan, re- 
 
 treated with his men as soon as the action 
 began, by which act the centre and the left 
 wing of Argyle's army were completely broken. 
 On the side of Argyle 500 men were killed 
 besides Macneill of Barra, and Lochnell 
 and Auchinbreck, the two cousins of Argyle. 
 The Earl of Huntly's loss was comparatively 
 trifling. About 14 gentlemen were slain, in- 
 cluding Sir Patrick Gordon of Auchindun, 
 and the Laird of Gight ; and the Earl of Errol 
 and a considerable number of persons were 
 wounded. At the conclusion of the battle the 
 conquerors returned thanks to God on the 
 field for the victory they had achieved. This 
 battle is called by some writers the battle of 
 Glenlivet, and by others the battle of Altchon- 
 lachan. Among the trophies found on the 
 field was the ensign belonging to the Earl of 
 Argyle, which was carried with other spoils to 
 Strathbogie, and placed upon the top of the 
 great tower. So certain had Argyle been of 
 success in his enterprise, that he had made out 
 a paper apportioning the lands of the Gordons, 
 the Hays, and all who were suspected to favour 
 them, among the chief officers of his army. 
 This document was found among the baggage 
 which he left behind him on the field of battle. 1 
 Although Ajgyle certainly calculated upon 
 being joined by the king, it seems doubtful if 
 James ever entertained such an intention, for 
 he stopped at Dundee, from which he did not 
 stir till he heard of the result of the battle of 
 Glenlivet. Instigated by the ministers and 
 other enemies of the Earl of Huntly, who 
 became now more exasperated than ever at the 
 unexpected failure of Argyle's expedition, the 
 king proceeded north to Strathbogie, and in 
 his route he permitted, most unwillingly, the 
 house of Craig in Angus, belonging to Sir 
 John Ogilvie, son of Lord Ogilvie, that of 
 Bagaes in Angus, the property of Sir Walter 
 Lindsay, the house of Culsalmond in Garioch, 
 appertaining to the Laird of Newton-Gordon, 
 the house of Slaines in Buchan, belonging to 
 the Earl of Errol, and the castle of Strathbogie, 
 to be razed to the ground, under the pretext 
 that priests and Jesuits had been harboured in 
 them. In the meantime the Earl of Huntly 
 
 1 Sir li. Gordon, pp. 226, 227, 228, 229.— Shaw's 
 Moray, pp. 266, 267, 268. 
 
no 
 
 GENEEAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS 
 
 and his friends retired into Sutherland, where 
 they remained six weeks with Earl Alexander ; 
 and on the king's departure to Strathbogie, 
 Huntly returned, leaving his eldest son George, 
 Lord Gordon, in Sutherland with his aunt, till 
 the return of more peaceable times. 
 
 The king left the Duke of Lennox to act as 
 his lieutenant in the north, with whom the 
 two earls held a meeting at Aberdeen, and as 
 their temporary absence from the kingdom 
 might allay the spirit of -violence and discon- 
 tent, which was particularly annoying to his 
 majesty, they agreed to leave the kingdom 
 during the king's pleasure. After spending 
 sixteen months in travelling through Germany 
 and Flanders, Huntly was recalled, and on his 
 return he, as well as the Earls of Angus and 
 Errol, were restored to their former honours 
 and estates by the parliament, held at Edin- 
 burgh in November 1597, and in testimony of 
 his regard for Huntly, the king, two years 
 thereafter, created him a marquis. This signal 
 mark of the royal favour had such an influence 
 upon the clan Chattan, the clan Kenzie, the 
 Grants, Forbeses, Leslies, and other hostile 
 elans and tribes, that they at once submitted 
 themselves to the marquis. 
 
 The warlike operations in the north seem, 
 for a time, to have drawn off the attention of 
 the clans from their own feuds ; but in the 
 year 1597 a tumult occurred at Loggiewreid in 
 Eoss, which had almost put that province and 
 the adjoining country into a flame. The quar- 
 rel began between John Mac-Gille-Calum, 
 brother of Gille-Calum, Laird of Easay, and 
 Alexander Bane, brother of Duncan Bane of 
 Tulloch, in Eoss. The Monroes took the side 
 of the Banes, and the Mackenzies aided John 
 Mac-Gille-Calum. In this tumult John Mac- 
 Gille-Calum and John Mac-Murthow-Mac- 
 William, a gentleman of the clan Kenzie, and 
 three persons of that surname, were killed on 
 the one side, and on the other were slain John 
 Monroe of Culcraigie, his brother Houcheon 
 Monroe, and John Monroe Eobertson. This 
 occurrence renewed the ancient animosity be- 
 tween the clan Kenzie and the Monroes, and 
 both parties began to assemble their friends 
 for the purpose of attacking one another ; but 
 their differences were in some measure happily 
 reconciled by the mediation of common friends. 
 
 In the following year the ambition and 
 avarice of Sir Lauchlan Maclean, of whom 
 notice has been already taken, brought Mm to 
 an untimely end, having been slain in Islay by 
 Sir James Macdonakl, his nephew, eldest son 
 of Angus Macdonald of Kintyre. Sir Lauch- 
 lan had long had an eye upon the possessions 
 of the clan Konald in Islay ; but having failed 
 in extorting a conveyance thereof from Angus 
 Macdonald in the way before alluded to, he 
 endeavoured, by his credit at court and by 
 bribery or other means, to obtain a grant of 
 these lands from the crown in 1595. At this 
 period Angus Macdonald had become infirm 
 from age, and his son, Sir James Macdonald, 
 was too young to make any effectual resistance 
 to the newly acquired claims of his covetous 
 uncle. After obtaining the gift, Sir Lauchlan 
 collected his people and friends, and invaded 
 Isky, for the purpose of taking possession of 
 the lands which belonged to the clan Donald. 
 Sir James Macdonald, on hearing of his uncle's 
 landing, collected his friends, and landed in 
 Islay to dispossess Sir Lauchlan of the property. 
 To prevent the effusion of blood, some common 
 friends of the parties interposed, and endea- 
 voured to bring about an adjustment of their 
 differences. They prevailed upon Sir James 
 to agree to resign the half of the island to his 
 uncle during the life of the latter, provided lie 
 would acknowledge that he held the same for 
 personal service to the clan Donald in the same 
 manner as Maclean's progenitors had always 
 held the Ehinns of Islay ; and he moreover 
 offered to submit the question to any impartial 
 friends Maclean might choose, under this 
 reasonable condition, that in case they should 
 not agree, his Majesty should decide. But 
 Maclean, contrary to the advice of his best 
 friends, would listen to no proposals short of 
 an absolute surrender of the whole of the island. 
 Sir James therefore resolved to vindicate his 
 right by an appeal to arms, though his force 
 was far inferior to that of Sir Lauchlan. 
 A desperate struggle took place, in which great 
 valour was displayed on both sides. Sir 
 Lauchlan was killed fighting at the head of 
 his men, who were at length compelled to 
 retreat to their boats and vessels. Besides 
 their chief, the Macleans left 80 of their prin- 
 cipal men and 200 common soldiers dead on 
 
STE1EE BETWEEN EAELS OF SUTHEELAND AND CAITHNESS. 
 
 Ill 
 
 the Held of battle. Lauchlan Barroch-Maclean, 
 son of Sir Lauehlan, was dangerously wounded, 
 but escaped. Sir James Macdonald was also 
 so severely wounded that he never fully recov- 
 ered from his wounds. About 30 of the clan 
 Donald were killed and about 60 wounded. 
 Sir Lauchlan, according to Sir Eobert Gordon, 
 had consulted a witch before he undertook this 
 journey into Islay, who advised him, in the 
 first place, not to land upon the island on a 
 Thursday ; secondly, that he should not drink 
 of the water of a well near Groynard ; and 
 lastly, she told him that one Maclean should 
 be slain at Groynard. " The first he trans- 
 gressed unwillingly," sa} r s Sir Eobert, " being 
 driven into the island of Ha by a tempest 
 upon a Thursday ; the second he transgressed 
 negligentlie, haveing drank of that water befor 
 he wes awair ; and so he wes killed ther at 
 Groinard, as wes foretold him, hot doubtfullie. 
 Thus endeth all these that doe trust in such 
 kynd of responces, or doe hunt after them !" 2 
 
 On hearing of Maclean's death and the defeat 
 of his men, the king became so highly incensed 
 against the clan Donald that, finding he had a 
 right to dispose of their possessions both in 
 Kintyre and Islay, he made a grant of them to 
 the Earl of Argyle and the Campbells. This 
 gave rise to a number of bloody conflicts be- 
 tween the Campbells and the clan Donald in 
 the years 1614, -15, and -16, which ended in 
 the ruin of the latter. 
 
 The rival houses of Sutherland and Caith- 
 ness had now lived on friendly terms for some 
 years. After spending about eighteen months 
 at court, and attending a convention of the 
 estates at Edinburgh in July, 1598, John, sixth 
 Earl of Sutherland, went to the Continent, 
 where he remained till the month of September, 
 1600. The Earl of Caithness, deeming the 
 absence of the Earl of Sutherland a fit oppor- 
 tunity for carrying into effect some designs 
 against him, caused William Mackay to obtain 
 leave from his brother Houcheon Mackay to 
 hunt in the policy of Durines belonging to the 
 Earl of Sutherland. The Earl of Caithness 
 thereupon assembled all his vassals and de- 
 pendents, and, under the pretence of hunting, 
 made demonstrations for entering Sutherland 
 
 • History, p. 238. 
 
 or Strathnaver. As soon as Mackay was 
 informed of his intentions, he sent a message 
 to the Earl of Caithness, intimating to him that 
 he would not permit him to enter either of 
 these countries, or to cross the marches. The 
 Earl of Caithness returned a haughty answer ; 
 but he did not carry his threat of invasion into 
 execution on account of the arrival of the Earl 
 of Sutherland from the Continent. As the 
 Earl of Caithness still continued to threaten 
 an invasion, the Earl of Sutherland collected 
 his forces, in the month of July 1601, to op- 
 pose him. Mackay, with his countrymen, 
 soon joined the Earl of Sutherland at Lagan- 
 Gaincamhd in Dirichat, where he was soon 
 also joined by the Monroes under Eobert 
 Monroe of Contaligh, and the laird of Assynt 
 with his countrymen. 
 
 While the Earl of Sutherland's force was 
 thus assembling, the Earl of Caithness ad- 
 vanced towards Sutherland with his arm)'. 
 The two armies encamped at the distance of 
 about three miles asunder, near the bill of 
 Bengrime. In expectation of a battle on the 
 morning after their encampment, the Suther- 
 land men took up a position in a plain which 
 lay between the two armies, called Leathad 
 Eeidh, than which a more convenient station 
 could not have been selected. But the corn- 
 modiousness of the plain was not the only 
 reason for making the selection. There had 
 been long a prophetic tradition in these coun- 
 tries that a battle was to be fought on this 
 ground between the inhabitants of Sutherland, 
 assisted by the Strathnaver men, and the men 
 of Caithness; that although the Sutherland 
 men were to be victorious their loss would be 
 great, and that the loss of the Strathnaver 
 men should even be greater, but that the 
 Caithness men should be so completely over- 
 thrown that they should not be able, for a con- 
 siderable length of time, to recover the blow 
 which they were to receive. This superstitious 
 idea made such an impression upon the minds 
 of the men of Sutherland that it was with 
 great difficulty they could be restrained from 
 immediately attacking their enemies. 
 
 The Earl of Caithness, daunted by this cir- 
 cumstance, and being diffident of the fidelity 
 of some of his people, whom he had used with 
 great cruelty, sent messengers to the Earl of 
 
112 
 
 GENERAL HISTORY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 Sutherland expressing his regret at what had 
 happened, stating that he was provoked to his 
 present measures "by the insolence of Mackay, 
 who had repeatedly dared him to the attack, 
 and that, if the Earl of Sutherland would pass 
 over the affair, he would permit him and his 
 army to advance twice as far into Caithness as 
 he had marched into Sutherland. The Earl of 
 Sutherland, on receipt of this offer, called a 
 council of his friends to deliberate upon it. 
 Mackay and some others advised the earl to 
 decline the proposal, and attack the Earl of 
 Caithness; while others of the earl's advisers 
 thought it neither fit nor reasonahle to risk so 
 many lives when such ample satisfaction was 
 offered. A sort of middle course was, there- 
 fore, adopted by giving the Earl of Caithness 
 an opportunity to escape if he inclined. The 
 messengers were accordingly sent hack with 
 this answer, that if the Earl of Caithness and 
 his army would remain where they lay till 
 sunrise next morning they might he assured of 
 an attack. 
 
 "When this answer was delivered in the Earl 
 of Caithness' camp, his men got so alarmed 
 that the earl, with great difficulty, prevented 
 them from running away immediately. He 
 remained on the field all night watching them 
 in person, encouraging them to remain, and 
 making great promises to them if they stood 
 firm. But his entreaties were quite unavailing, 
 for as soon as the morning dawned, on per- 
 ceiving the approach of the Earl of Sutherland's 
 army, they fled from the field in the utmost 
 confusion, jostling and overthrowing one an- 
 other in their flight, and leaving their whole 
 baggage behind them. The Earl of Sutherland 
 resolved to pursue the flying enemy; but, 
 before proceeding on the pursuit, his army col- 
 lected a quantity of stones which they accu- 
 mulated into a heap to commemorate the flight 
 of the Caithness men, which heap was called 
 Carn-Teiche, that is, the Flight Cairn. 
 
 Not wishing to encounter the Earl of Suther- 
 land under the adverse circumstances which 
 had occurred, the Earl of Caithness, after 
 entering his own territories, sent a message to 
 his pursuer to the effect that having complied 
 with his request in withdrawing his army, he 
 hoped hostile proceedings would cease, and 
 that if the Earl of Sutherland should advance 
 
 with his army into Caithness, Earl George 
 would not hinder him; but he suggested to 
 him the propriety of appointing some gentle- 
 men on both sides to see the respective armies 
 dissolved. The Earl of Sutherland acceded to 
 this proposal, and sent George Gray of Cuttle, 
 eldest son of Gilbert Gray of Sordell, with a 
 company of resolute men into Caithness to see 
 the army of the Earl of Caithness broken up. 
 The Earl of Caithness, in his turn, despatched 
 Alexander Bane, chief of the Caithness Banes, 
 who witnessed the dismissal of the Earl of 
 Sutherland's army. 3 
 
 About the period in question, great commo- 
 tions took place in the north-west isles, in con- 
 sequence of a quarrel between Donald Gorm 
 Macdonald of Slate, and Sir Roderick Macleod 
 of Harris, arising out of the following circum- 
 stances. Donald Gorm Macdonald, who had 
 married the sister of Sir Roderick, instigated 
 hj jealousy, had conceived displeasure at her 
 and put her away. Having complained to 
 her brother of the treatment thus received, Sir 
 Roderick sent a message to Macdonald requir- 
 ing hini to take back his wife. Instead of 
 complying with this request, Macdonald brought 
 an action of divorce against her, and having 
 obtained decree therein, married the sister of 
 Kenneth Mackenzie, lord of Kintail. Sir 
 Roderick, who considered himself disgraced 
 and his family dishonoured by such proceed- 
 ings, assembled all his countrymen and his 
 tribe, the Siol-Thormaid, without delay, and 
 invaded with fire and sword the lands of Mac- 
 donald in the isle of Skye, to which he laid 
 claim as his own. Macdonald retaliated by 
 landing in Harris with his forces, which he 
 laid waste, and after killing some of the inha- 
 bitants retired with a large booty in cattle. 
 To make amends for this loss, Sir Roderick in- 
 vaded Uist, which belonged to Macdonald, and 
 despatched his cousin, Donald Glas Macleod, 
 with 40 men, into the interior, to lay the 
 island waste, and to carry off a quantity of 
 goods and cattle, which the inhabitants had 
 placed within the precincts of the church of 
 Killtrynard as a sanctuary. This exploit 
 turned out to be very serious, as Donald 
 Macleod and his party were most unexpect- 
 
 3 Sir Robert Gordon, p. 243. 
 
FEUD BETWEEN THE COLQUHOTJNS A1STD MACGEEGOES. 
 
 113 
 
 edly attacked in the act of carrying off their 
 prey, by John Mac-Iain-Mkic-Sheiunais, a kins- 
 man of Macdonald, at the head of a body of 
 12 men who had remained in the island, by 
 whom Donald Macleod and the greater part of 
 his men were cut to pieces, and the booty 
 rescued. Sir Roderick, thinking that the force 
 which had attacked his cousin was much 
 greater than it was, retired from the island, 
 intending to return on a future day with a 
 greater force to revenge Iris loss. 
 
 This odious system of warfare continued till 
 the hostile parties had almost exterminated one 
 another; and to such extremities were they re- 
 duced by the ruin and desolation which fol- 
 lowed, that they were compelled to eat horses, 
 dogs, cats, and other animals, to preserve a 
 miserable existence. To put an end, if possible, 
 at once to this destructive contest, Macdonald 
 collected all his remaining forces, with the 
 determination of striking a decisive blow at 
 his opponent; and accordingly, in the year 
 1G01, he entered Sir Eoderiek's territories with 
 the design of bringing him to battle. Sir Ro- 
 derick was then in Argyle, soliciting aid and 
 advice from the Earl of Argyle against the 
 clan Donald ; but on hearing of the approach 
 of Macdonald, Alexander Macleod, brother of 
 Sir Roderick, resolved to try the result of a 
 battle. Assembling, therefore, all the inhabi- 
 tants of his brother's lands, together with the 
 whole tribe of the Siol-Thormaid, and some of 
 the Siol-Thorquill, he encamped close by the 
 hill of Benquhillln, in Skye, resolved to give 
 battle to the clan Donald next morning. Ac- 
 cordingly, on the arrival of morning, an obsti- 
 nate and deadly fight took place, which lasted 
 the whole day, each side contending with the 
 utmost valour for victory ; but at length the 
 clan Donald overthrew their opponents. Alex- 
 ander Macleod was wounded and taken pri- 
 soner, along with jSTeill-Mac-Alastair-Ruaidh, 
 and 30 others of the choicest men of the 
 Siol-Thormaid. Iain-Mac-Thormaid and Thor- 
 maid-Mac-Thormaid, two near kinsmen of Sir 
 Roderick, and several others, were slain. 
 
 After this affair, a reconciliation took place 
 between Macdonald and Sir Roderick, at the 
 solicitation of old Angus Macdonald of Kintyre, 
 the laird of Coll, and other friends, when Mac- 
 donald delivered up to Sir Roderick the pris- 
 
 oners he had taken at Benquhillin ; but 
 although these parties never again showed any 
 open hostility, they brought several actions at 
 law against each other, the one claiming from 
 the other certain parts of his possessions. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 i. D. 1602—1613. 
 
 James VI., 1567—1603. 
 
 Feud between the Colquhouns and Maegregors — Hac- 
 gvegors outlawed — Execution of their Chief — Quar- 
 rel between the clan Kenzie and Glengarry — Alister 
 Mac-Uilleam-Mhoir beheaded — Lawless proceedings 
 in Sutherland — Deadly quarrel iu Dornoch — Meeting 
 between the Earls of Caithness and Sutherland — 
 Feud between the Hurrays and some of the Siol- 
 Thomais — Dissension in Horay among the Dunbars 
 — Quarrel between the Earl of Caithness and the 
 chief of the Mackays — Commotions in Lewis among 
 the Hacleods — Invasion of Lewis by Fife adventurers 
 — Compelled to abandon it — Lord Kintail obtains 
 possession of Lewis — Expulsion of Neill Hacleod — 
 Quarrel between the Laird of Kasay and Hackenzie 
 of Gairloeh — Disturbances in Caithness — Tumults 
 in Caithness on the apprehension of Arthur Smith, 
 a false coiner — Earl of Caithness prosecutes Donald 
 Hackay and others —Dissensions among the clan 
 Cameron. 
 
 In the early part of the year 160S the west of 
 Scotland was thrown into a state of great dis- 
 order, in consequence of the renewal of some 
 old quarrels between Colquhoun of Euss, the 
 chief of that surname, and Alexander Macgre- 
 gor, chief of the clan Gregor. To put an end 
 to these dissensions, Alexander Macgregor left 
 Rannoch, accompanied by about 200 of his 
 kinsmen and friends, entered Lennox, and took 
 up his quarters on the confines of Luss's terri- 
 tory, where he expected, by the mediation of 
 his friends, to bring matters to an amicable 
 adjustment. As the laird of Luss was sus- 
 picious of Macgregor's real intentions, he 
 assembled all his vassals, with the Buchanans 
 and others, to the number of 300 horse and 
 500 foot, designing, if the result of the 
 meeting should not turn out according to his 
 expectations and wishes, to cut off Macgregor 
 and his party. But Macgregor, anticipating 
 Colquhon's intention, was upon his guard, and, 
 by his precautions, defeated the design upon 
 him. A conference was held for the purpose 
 of terminating all differences, but the meeting 
 
114 
 
 GENERAL H1ST0EY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 broke up without any adjustment : Macgregor 
 then proceeded homewards. The laird of 
 Luss, in pursuance of his plan, immediately 
 followed Macgregor with great haste through 
 Glenfreon, in the expectation of coining upon 
 him unawares, and defeating him; hut Mac- 
 gregor, who was on the alert, observed, in due 
 time, the approach of his pursuers, and made 
 his preparations accordingly. He divided his 
 company into two parts, the largest of which 
 he kept under his own command, and placed 
 the other part under the command of John 
 Macgregor, his brother, whom he despatched 
 by a circuitous route, for the purpose of 
 attacking Luss's party in the rear, when they 
 should least expect to be assailed. This stra- 
 tagem succeeded, and the result was, that after 
 a keen contest, Luss's party was completely 
 overthrown, with the loss of 200 men, besides 
 several gentlemen and burgesses of the town 
 of Dumbarton. It is remarkable that of the 
 Macgregors, John, the brother of Alexander, 
 and another person, were the only killed, though 
 some of the party were wounded. 
 
 The laird of Luss and his friends sent early 
 notice of their disaster to the liing, and by 
 misrepresenting the whole affair to him, and 
 exhibiting to his majesty eleven score bloody 
 shirts, belonging to those of their party who 
 were slain, the king grew exceedingly incensed 
 at the clan Gregor, who had no person about 
 the king to plead their cause, proclaimed them 
 rebels, and interdicted all the lieges from har- 
 bouring or having, any communication with 
 them. The Earl of Argyle, with the Camp- 
 bells, was afterwards sent against the proscribed 
 clan, and hunted them through the country. 
 About 60 of the clan made a brave stand at 
 Bentoik against a party of 200 chosen men 
 belonging to the clan Cameron, clan Nab, and 
 clan Ronald, under the command of Robert 
 Campbell, son of the laird of Glenorchy, when 
 Duncan Aberigh, one of the chieftains of the 
 clan Gregor, and bis son Duncan, and seven 
 gentlemen of Campbell's party were killed. 
 But although they made a brave resistance, and 
 killed many of their pursuers, the Macgregors, 
 after many skirmishes and great losses, were at 
 last overcome. Commissions were thereafter 
 sent through the kingdom, for fining those who 
 had harboured any of the clan, and for pun- 
 
 ishing all persons who had kept up any com- 
 munication with them, and the fines so levied 
 were given by the king to the Earl of Argyle, 
 as a recompense for his services against the 
 unfortunate Macgregors. 
 
 Alexander Macgregor, the chief, after suffer- 
 ing many vicissitudes of fortune, at last sur- 
 rendered himself to the Earl of Argyle, on con- 
 dition that he should grant him a safe conduct 
 into England to King James, that he might 
 lay before his majesty a true state of the whole 
 affair from the commencement, and crave the 
 royal mercy; and as a security for his return to 
 Scotland, he debvered up to Argyle thirty of his 
 choicest men as hostages. But no sooner had 
 Macgregor arrived at Berwick on his way to Lon- 
 don, than he was basely arrested, brought back 
 by the earl to Edinburgh, and, by his influence, 
 executed along with the thirty hostages. Argyle 
 hoped, by these means, ultimately to annihilate 
 the whole clan ; but in this cruel design he 
 was quite disappointed, for the clan speedily 
 increased, and became almost as powerful as 
 before. 4 
 
 While the Highland borders were thus dis- 
 turbed by the warfare between the Macgregors 
 and the Colquhouns, a commotion happened in 
 the interior of the Highlands, in consequence 
 of a quarrel between the clan Kenzie and the 
 laird of Glengany, who, according to Sir Robert 
 Gordon, was " unexpert and unskilfull in the 
 lawes of the realme." From his want of know- 
 ledge of the law, the clan Kenzie are said by 
 the same writer to have " easalie intrapped 
 him within the compas thereof," certainly by 
 no means a difficult matter in those lawless 
 times ; they then procured a warrant for citing 
 him to appear before the justiciary court at 
 Edinburgh, which they took good care should 
 not be served upon him personally. Either not 
 knowing of these legal proceedings, or neglect- 
 ing the summons, Glengarry did not appear at 
 Edinburgh on the day appointed, but went 
 about revenging the slaughter of two of his 
 kinsmen, whom the clan Kenzie had killed 
 after the summons for Glengarry's appearance 
 had been issued. The consequence was that 
 Glengarry and some of his followers were out- 
 Through the interest of the Earl of 
 
 Sir E. Gordon, p. 247. 
 
ALISTEE MAC-UILLEAM-MHOIK BEHEADED. 
 
 115 
 
 Dunfermline, lord chancellor of Scotland, 
 Kenneth Mackenzie, afterwards created Lord 
 Kintail, obtained a commission against Glen- 
 garry and his people, which occasioned great 
 trouble and much slaughter. Being assisted 
 by many followers from the neighbouring 
 country, Mackenzie, by virtue of his commis- 
 sion, invaded Glengarry's territories, which he 
 mercilessly wasted and destroyed with fire and 
 sword. On his return, Mackenzie besieged 
 the castle of Strome, which ultimately sur- 
 rendered to him. To assist Mackenzie in this 
 expedition, the Earl of Sutherland, in token of 
 the ancient friendship which had subsisted 
 between his family and the Mackenzies, sent 
 240 well equipped and able men, under the 
 command of John Gordon of Embo. Mac- 
 kenzie again returned into Glengarry, where 
 he had a skirmish with a party commanded by 
 Glengarry's eldest son, in which the latter and 
 60 of his followers were slain. The Mackenzies 
 also suffered some loss on this occasion. At 
 last, after much trouble and bloodshed on both 
 sides, an agreement was entered into, by which 
 Glengarry renounced in favour of Kenneth 
 Mackenzie, the castle of Strome and the adja- 
 cent lands. 5 
 
 In the year 1605, the peace of the northern 
 Highlands was somewhat disturbed by one 
 of those atrocious occurrences so common at 
 that time. The chief of the Mackays had a 
 servant named Alastair-Mac-Uilleam-Mhoir. 
 This man having some business to transact in 
 Caithness, went there without the least appre- 
 hension of danger, as the Earls of Sutherland 
 and Caithness had settled all their differences. 
 No sooner, however, did the latter hear of 
 Mac-Uilleam-Mhoir's arrival in Caithness, than 
 he sent Henry Sinclair, his bastard brother, 
 with a party of men to kill him. Mac-Uilleam- 
 Mhoir, being a bold and resolute man, was not 
 openly attacked by Sinclair ; but on entering 
 the house where the former had taken up his 
 residence, Sinclair and his party pretended 
 that they had come on a friendly visit to him 
 to enjoy themselves in his company. Not 
 suspecting their hostile intentions, Alister 
 invited them to sit down and drink with him; 
 but scarcely had they taken their seats when 
 
 they seized Mac-Uilleam-Mhoir, and carried 
 him off prisoner to the Earl of Caithness, who 
 caused him to be beheaded in his own presence, 
 the following day. The fidelity of this unfor- 
 tunate man to Mackay, his master, during the 
 disputes between the Earls of Sutherland and 
 Caithness, was the cause for which he suffered. 
 Mackay, resolved upon getting the earl 
 punished, entered a legal prosecution against 
 him at Edinburgh, but by the mediation of the 
 Marquis of Huntly the suit was quashed. 6 
 
 In July, 1605, a murder was committed in 
 Strathnaver, by Kobert Gray of Hopsdale or 
 Ospisdell, the victim being Angus Mac-Ken- 
 neth-Mac-Alister, one of the Siol-Mhurchaidh- 
 Rhiabhaich. The circumstances leading to 
 this will illustrate the utterly lawless and 
 insecure state of the Highlands at this time. 
 John Gray of Skibo held the lands of Ardinsh 
 under John, the fifth of that name, Earl of 
 Sutherland, as superior, which lands the grand- 
 father of Angus Mac-Kenneth had in possession 
 from John Mackay, son of T-Eoy-Mackay. 
 who, before the time of this Earl John, pos- 
 sessed some lands in Breachat. When John 
 Gray obtained the grant of Ardinsh from John 
 the fifth, he allowed Kenneth Mac-Alister, the 
 father of Angus Mac-Kenneth, to retain posses- 
 sion thereof, which he continued to do till 
 about the year 1573. About this period a 
 variance arose between John Gray and Hugh 
 Murray of Aberscors, in consequence of some 
 law-suits which they carried on against one 
 another ; but they were reconciled by Alex- 
 ander, Earl of Sutherland, who became bound 
 to pay a sum of money to John Gray, for Hugh 
 Murray, who was in the meantime to get 
 possession of the lands of Ardinsh in security. 
 As John Gray still retained the property and 
 kept Kenneth Mac-Alister in the possession 
 thereof at the old rent, the Murrays took 
 umbrage at him, and prevailed upon the Earl 
 of Sutherland to grant a conveyance of the 
 wadset or mortgage over Ardinsh in favour of 
 Angus Murray, formerly bailie of Dornoch. In 
 the meantime, Kenneth Mac-Alister died, leav- 
 ing his son, Angus Mac-Kenneth, in possession. 
 Angus Munay having acquired the mortgage, 
 now endeavoured to raise the rent of Ardinsh, 
 
 Sir R. Gordon, p. 248. 
 
 Sir It. Gordon, p. 253. 
 
116 
 
 GENEEAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 but Angus Mac-Kenneth refusing to pay more 
 than his father had paid, was dispossessed, and 
 the lands were let to William Mac-Iain-Mac- 
 Kenneth, cousin of Angus Mac-Kenneth. This 
 proceeding so exasperated Angus that he mur- 
 dered his cousin William Mac-Kenneth, his 
 wife, and two sons, under cloud of night, and 
 so determined was he that no other person 
 should possess the lands but himself, that he 
 killed no less than nine other persons, who had 
 successively endeavoured to occupy them. No 
 others being disposed to occupy Ardinsh at the 
 risk of their lives, and Angus Murray getting 
 wearied of his possession, resigned his right to 
 Gilbert Gray of Skibo, on the death of John 
 Gray, his father. Gilbert thereafter conveyed 
 the property to Eobert Gray of Ospisdell, his 
 second son ; but Eobert, being disinclined to 
 allow Angus Mac-Kenneth, who had again 
 obtained possession, to continue tenant, be 
 dispossessed him, and let the land to one Einlay 
 Logan, but this new tenant was murdered by 
 Mac-Kenneth in the year 1604. Mac-Kenneth 
 then fled into Strathnaver with a party com- 
 posed of persons of desperate and reckless pas- 
 sions like himself, with the intention of annoy- 
 ing Eobert Gray by their incursions. Gray 
 having ascertained that they were in the parish 
 cf Creigh, he immediately attacked them and 
 killed Murdo Mac-Kenneth, the brother of 
 Angus, who made a narrow escape, and again 
 retired into Strathnaver. Angus again re- 
 turned into Sutherland in May 1605, and, in 
 the absence of Eobert Gray, burnt his stable, 
 with some of his cattle, at Ospisdell. Gray 
 then obtained a warrant against Mac-Kenneth, 
 and having procured the assistance of a body 
 of men from John Earl of Sutherland, entered 
 Strathnaver and attacked Mac-Kenneth at the 
 Cruffs of Hoip, and slew him. 7 
 
 The Earl of Caithness, disliking the unquiet 
 state in which he had for some time been forced 
 to remain, made another attempt, in the month 
 of July, 1607, to hunt in Bengrime, without 
 asking permission from the Earl of Sutherland ; 
 but he was prevented from accomplishing his 
 purpose by the sudden appearance in Strathully 
 of the latter, attended by his friend Mackay, 
 and a considerable body of their countrymen. 
 
 » Sir R. Gordon, p. 254 
 
 Almost the whole of the inhabitants of Dornoch 
 turned out on this occasion, and went to Strath- 
 ully. During their absence a quarrel ensued 
 in the town between one John Macphaill and 
 three brothers of the name of Pope, in which 
 one of the latter was killed ; the circumstances 
 leading to and attending which quarrel were 
 these : — In the year 1585, William Pope, a 
 native of Eoss, settled in Sutherland, and 
 being a man of good education, was appointed 
 schoolmaster in Dornoch, and afterwards be- 
 came its resident minister. He also received 
 another clerical appointment in Caithness, by 
 means of which, and of his other Hving, he 
 became, in course of time, wealthy. This 
 good success induced two younger brothers, 
 Charles and Thomas, to leave their native 
 country and settle in Sutherland. Thomas 
 was soon made chancellor of Caithness and 
 minister of Eogart. Charles became a notary 
 public and a messenger-at-arms ; and having, 
 by his good conduct and agreeable conversa- 
 tion, ingratiated himself with the Earl of 
 Sutherland, was appointed to the office of 
 sheriff-clerk of Sutherland. The brothers soon 
 acquired considerable wealth, which they laid 
 out in the purchase of houses in the town of 
 Dornoch, where the} 1, chiefly resided. Many 
 of the inhabitants of the town envied their 
 acquisitions, and took every occasion to insult 
 them as intruders, who had a design, as they 
 supposed, to drive the ancient inhabitants of 
 the place from their possessions. On the 
 occasion in question William and Thomas 
 Pope, along with other ministers, had held a 
 meeting at Dornoch on church affairs, on 
 dissolving which they went to breakfast at 
 an inn. While at breakfast, John Macphaill 
 entered the house, and demanded some liquor 
 from the mistress of the inn, but she refused 
 to give him any, as she knew him to be a 
 troublesome and quarrelsome person. Mac- 
 phaill, irritated at the refusal, spoke harshly 
 to the woman, and the ministers having made 
 some excuse for her, Macphaill vented his abuse 
 upon them. Being threatened by Thomas 
 Pope, for his insolence, he pushed an arrow 
 with a barbed head, which he held in his hand, 
 into one of Pope's arms. The parties then 
 separated, but the two Popes being observed 
 walking in the churchyard in the evening, with 
 
DEADLY QUAEEEL IN DOENOCH. 
 
 117 
 
 Dornoch, showing the Cathedral and the remaining tower of the old Castle. 
 
 their swords girt about tliem, by Macphaill, 
 who looked upon their so arming themselves 
 as a threat, he immediately made the circum- 
 stance known to Houcheon Macphaill, his 
 nephew, and one "William Murray, all of whom 
 entered the churchyard and assailed the two 
 brothers with the most vituperative abuse. 
 Charles Pope, learning the danger his brothers 
 were in, immediately hastened to the spot, 
 where he found the two parties engaged. 
 Charles attacked Murray, whom he wounded 
 in the face, whereupon Murray instantly killed 
 him. William and Thomas were grievously 
 wounded by Macphaill and his nephew, and 
 left for dead, but they ultimately recovered. 
 Macphaill and his nephew fled to Holland, 
 where they ended their days. After this oc- 
 currence, the surviving brothers left Sutherland 
 and went back into their own country. It is 
 only by recording such comparatively unim- 
 portant incidents as this, apparently somewhat 
 beneath the dignity . of history, that a know- 
 ledge of the real state of the Highlands at this 
 time can be conveyed. 
 
 By the mediation of the Marquis of Huntly, 
 the Earls of Caithness and Sutherland again 
 met at Elgin with their mutual friends, and 
 once more adjusted their differences. On this 
 occasion the Earl of Sutherland was accom- 
 panied by large parties of the Gordons, the 
 Frasers, the Dunbars, the clan Kenzie, the 
 
 Monroes, the clan Chattan, and other friends, 
 which so displeased the Earl of Caithness, who 
 was grieved to see his rival so honourably 
 attended, that he could never afterwards be 
 induced to meet again with the Earl of Suther- 
 land or any of his family. 
 
 During the year 1G08 a quarrel occurred in 
 Sutherland between Iver Mac-Donald-Mae- 
 Alister, one of the Siol-Thomais, and Alex- 
 ander Murray in Auchindough. Iver and his 
 eldest son, John, meeting one day with Alex- 
 ander Murray and his son, Thomas, an alterca- 
 tion took place on some questions in dispute. 
 From words they proceeded to blows, and the 
 result was that John, the son of Iver, and 
 Alexander Murray were killed. Iver then fled 
 into Strathnaver, whither he was followed by 
 Thomas Murray, accompanied by a party of 24 
 men, to revenge the death of his father. Iver, 
 however, avoided them, and having assembled 
 some friends, he attacked Murray unawares, at 
 the hill of Binchlibrig, and compelled him to 
 flee, after taking five of his men prisoners, 
 whom he released after a captivity of five days. 
 As the chief of the Mackays protected Iver, 
 George Murray of Pulrossie took up the quarrel, 
 and annoyed Iver and his party ; but the 
 matter was compromised by Mackay, who paid 
 a sum of money to Pulrossie and Thomas 
 Murray, as a reparation for divers losses they 
 had sustained at Iver's hands during Ms out- 
 
J18 
 
 GENEBAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 lawry. This compromise was the more readily 
 entered into by Pulrossie, as the Earl of Suth- 
 erland was rather favourable to Iver, and was 
 by no means displeased at him for the injuries 
 he did to Prdrossie, who had not acted duti- 
 fully towards him. Besides having lost his 
 own son in the quarrel, who was killed by 
 Thomas Murray, Iver was unjustly dealt with 
 in being made the sole object of persecution. 8 
 
 A civil dissension occurred about this time 
 in Moray among the Dunbars, which nearly 
 proved fatal to that family. To understand 
 the origin of this dispute it is necessary to state 
 the circumstances which led to it, and to go 
 back to the period when Patrick Dunbar, 
 sheriff of Moray, and tutor and uncle of Alex- 
 ander Dunbar of Westfield, was killed, along 
 with the Earl of Murray, at Donnibristle. 
 Alexander did not enjoy his inheritance long, 
 having died at Dunkeld, shortly after the death 
 of his uncle, under circumstances which led to 
 a suspicion that he had been poisoned. As he 
 died without leaving any issue, he was suc- 
 ceeded by Alexander Dunbar, son of the above- 
 mentioned Patrick, by a sister of Eobert Dunbar 
 of Burgy. This Alexander was a young man of 
 great promise, and was directed in all his pro- 
 ceedings by his uncle Eobert Dunbar of Burgy. 
 Patrick Dunbar of Blery and Kilbuyack and his 
 family, imagining that Eobert Dunbar, to whom 
 they bore a grudge, was giving advice to his 
 nephew to their prejudice, conceived a deadly 
 enmity at both, and seized every occasion to 
 annoy the sheriff of Moray and his uncle. An 
 accidental meeting having taken place between 
 Eobert Dunbar, brother of Alexander, and 
 William Dunbar, son of Blery, high words 
 were exchanged, and a scuffle ensued, in which 
 William Dunbar received considerable injury 
 in his person. Patrick Dunbar and his sons 
 were so incensed at this occurrence that they 
 took up arms and attacked their chief, Alex- 
 ander Dunbar, sheriff of Moray, in the town of 
 Forres, where he was shot dead by Eobert 
 Dunbar, son of Blery. John Dunbar, sheriff 
 of Moray, who succeeded his brother Alexander, 
 and his brother, Eobert Dunbar of Burgy, en- 
 deavoured to bring the murderers of his brother 
 tr. justice ; but they failed in consequence of 
 
 8 Sir U. Gordon , p. 259. 
 
 Alexander Dunbar being, at the time of his 
 leath, a rebel to the king, having been de- 
 nounced at the horn for a civil cause. By 
 negotiation, however, this deadly feud was 
 stayed, and a sort of reconciliation effected by 
 the friendly mediation of the Earl of Dunferm- 
 line, then Lord Chancellor of Scotland. 9 
 
 In the year 1610 the Earl of Caithness and 
 Houcheon Mackay, chief of the Mackays, had 
 a difference in consequence of the protection 
 given by the latter to a gentleman named John 
 Sutherland, the son of Mackay's sister. Suth- 
 erland lived in Berridale, under the Earl of 
 Caithness, but he was so molested by the earl 
 that he lost all patience, and went about 
 avenging the injuries he had sustained. The 
 earl, therefore, cited liim to appear at Edin- 
 burgh to answer to certain charges made against 
 him ; but not obeying the summons, he was 
 denounced and proclaimed a rebel to the king. 
 Eeduced, in consequence, to great extremities, 
 and seeing no remedy by which he could re- 
 trieve himself, he became an outlaw, wasted 
 and destroyed the earl's countiy, and carried 
 off herds of cattle, which he transported into 
 Strathnaver, the country of his kinsman. The 
 earl thereupon sent a party of the Siol-Mhic- 
 Imheair to attack him, and, after a long search, 
 they found him encamped near the water of 
 Shin in Sutherland. He, however, was aware 
 of their approach before they perceived him, 
 and, taking advantage of this circumstance, 
 attacked them in the act of crossing the water. 
 They were in consequence defeated, leaving 
 several of their party dead on the field. 
 
 This disaster exasperated the earl, who re- 
 solved to prosecute Mackay and his son, Do- 
 nald Mackay, for giving succour and protec- 
 tion within their country to John Sutherland, 
 an outlaw. Accordingly, he served both .of 
 them with a notice to appear before the Privy 
 Council to answer to the charges he had pre- 
 ferred against them. Mackay at once obeyed 
 the summons, and went to Edinburgh, where 
 he met Sir Eobert Gordon, who had come from 
 England for the express purpose of assisting 
 Mackay on the present occasion. The earl, 
 who had grown tired of the troubles which 
 John Sutherland had occasioned in his country, 
 
 :1 Sir R. Gordon, p. 2G1. 
 
COMMOTIONS IN LEWIS AMONG THE MACLEODS 
 
 113 
 
 was induced, by the entreaties of friends, to 
 settle matters on the following conditions : — 
 That he should forgive John Sutherland all 
 past injuries, and restore him to his former 
 possessions ; that John Sutherland and his 
 brother Donald should be delivered, the one 
 after the other, into the hands of the earl, to 
 be kept prisoners for a certain time ; and that 
 Donald Mac-Thorn ais-Mhoir, one of the Sliochd- 
 Iain-Abaraich, and a follower of John Suther- 
 land in his depredations, should be also deliv- 
 ered up to the earl to be dealt with as to hirn 
 should seem meet ; all of which stipulations 
 were complied with. The earl hanged Donald 
 Mac-Thomais as soon as he was delivered up. 
 John Sutherland was kept a prisoner at Girnigo 
 about twelve months, during which time Don- 
 ald Mackay made several visits to Earl George 
 for the purpose of getting him released, in which 
 he at last succeeded, besides procuring a dis- 
 charge to Donald Sutherland, who, in his turn, 
 should have surrendered himself as prisoner on 
 the release of Ms brother John, but upon the 
 condition that he and his father, Houcheon 
 Mackay, should pass the next following Christ- 
 mas with the earl at Girnigo. Mackay and 
 his brother William, accordingly, spent their 
 Christmas at Girnigo, but Donald Mackay was 
 prevented by business from attending. The 
 design of the Earl of Caithness in thus favour- 
 ing Mackay, was to separate him from the 
 interests of the Earl of Sutherland, but he was 
 unsuccessful 
 
 Some years before the events we have just 
 related, a commotion took place in Lewis, 
 occasioned by the pretensions of Torquill 
 Connaldagh of the Cogigh to the possessions 
 of Roderick Macleod of Lewis, his reputed 
 father. Eoderick had first married Barbara 
 Stuart, daughter of Lord Methven, by whom 
 he had a son named Torquill-Ire, who, on arriv- 
 ing at manhood, gave proofs of a warlike 
 disposition. Upon the death of Barbara Stuart, 
 Macleod married a daughter of Mackenzie, 
 lord of Kintail, whom he afterwards divorced 
 for adultery with the Breve of Lewis, a sort 
 of judge among the islanders, to whose autho- 
 rity they submitted themselves. Macleod next 
 married a daughter of Maclean, by whom he 
 had two sons, Torquill Dubh and Tormaid. 
 
 In sailing from Lewis to Skye, Torquill- 
 
 Ire, eldest son of Macleod, and 200 men, 
 perished in a great tempest. Torquill Con- 
 naldagh, above mentioned, was the fruit of the 
 adulterous connexion between Macleod's second 
 wife and the Breve, at least Macleod would 
 never acknowledge him as his son. This Tor- 
 quill being now of age, and having married a 
 sister of Glengarry, took up arms against Mac- 
 leod, his reputed father, to vindicate his sup- 
 posed rights as Macleod's son, being assisted 
 by Tormaid, Ougigh, and Murthow, three of 
 the bastard sons of Macleod. The old man 
 was apprehended and detained four years in 
 captivity, when he was released on condition 
 that he should acknowledge Torquill Con- 
 naldagh as his lawful son. Tormaid Ougigh 
 having been slain by Donald Macleod, his 
 brother, another natural son of old Macleod, 
 Torquill Connaldagh, assisted by Murthow 
 Macleod, his reputed bastard brother, took 
 Donald prisoner and carried him to Cogigh, 
 but he escaped and fled to his father in 
 Lewis, who was highly offended at Torquill for 
 seizing his son Donald. Macleod then caused 
 Donald to apprehend Murthow, and having 
 delivered him to his father, he was imprisoned 
 in the castle of Stornoway. As soon as 
 Torquill heard of this occurrence, he went to 
 Stornoway and attacked the fort, which ha 
 took, after a short siege, and released Murthow. 
 He then apprehended Eoderick Macleod, 
 killed a number of his men, and carried off all 
 the charters and other title-deeds of Lewis, 
 which he gave in custody to the Mackenzies. 
 Torquill had a son named John Macleod, who 
 was in the service of the Marquis of Huntly ; he 
 now sent for him, and on his arrival committed 
 to him the charge of the castle of Stornoway in 
 which old Macleod was imprisoned. John 
 Macleod being now master of Lewis, and 
 acknowledged superior thereof, proceeded to 
 expel Borie-Og and Donald, two of Eoderick 
 Macleod's bastard sons, from the island ; but 
 Eorie-Og attacked him in Stornoway, and after 
 killing hirn, released Eoderick Macleod, his 
 father, who possessed the island in peace during 
 the remainder of his life. Torquill Connaldagh, 
 by the assistance of the clan Kenzie, got 
 Donald Macleod into his possession, and exe- 
 cuted him at Dingwall. 
 
 Upon the death of Eoderick Macleod, his 
 
120 
 
 GENERAL HISTORY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 Stornoway Castle. — From a photograph taken specially for this work. 
 
 son Torquill Dubh succeeded him in Lewis. 
 Taking a grudge at Borie-Og, his hrother, 
 he apprehended him, and sent him to Mac- 
 lean to he detained in prison; hut he escaped 
 out of Maclean's hands, and afterwards per- 
 ished in a snow-storm. As Torquill Dubh 
 excluded Torquill Connaldagh from the 
 succession of Lewis, as a bastard, the clan 
 Kenzie formed a design to purchase and conquer 
 Lewis, which they calculated on accomplish- 
 ing on account of the simplicity of Torquill 
 Connaldagh, who had now no friend to advise 
 with, and from the' dissensions which unfor- 
 tunately existed among the race of the Siol- 
 Torquill. This scheme, moreover, received the 
 aid of a matrimonial alliance between Torquill 
 Connaldagh and the clan, by a marriage between 
 his eldest daughter and Roderick Mackenzie, 
 the lord of Kintail' s brother. The clan did not 
 avow their design openly, but they advanced 
 their enterprise under the pretence of assisting 
 Torquill Connaldagh, who was a descendant of 
 the Kintail family, and they ultimately suc- 
 ceeded in destroying the family of Macleod of 
 Lewis, together with his tribe, the Siol-Torquill, 
 and by the ruin of that family and some neigh- 
 bouring clans, this ambitious clan made them- 
 selves complete masters of Lewis and other 
 places. As Torquill Dubh was the chief 
 obstacle in their way, they formed a conspiracy 
 
 against his life, which, by the assistance of the 
 Breve, they were enabled to carry out success- 
 fully. The Breve, by stratagem, managed to 
 obtain possession of Torquill Dubh and some 
 of his friends, and deliver them to the lord of 
 Kintail, who ordered them to be beheaded, 
 which they accordingly were in July, 1597. 
 
 Some gentlemen belonging to Fife, hearing 
 of these disturbances in Lewis, obtained from 
 the king, in 1598, a gift of the island, their 
 professed object being to civilize the inhabit- 
 ants, their real design, however, being, by 
 means of a colony, to supplant the inhabitants, 
 and drive them from the island. A body of 
 soldiers and artificers of all sorts were sent, 
 with every thing necessary for a plantation, 
 into Lewis, where, on their arrival, they began 
 to erect houses in a convenient situation, and 
 soon completed a small but neat town, in which 
 they took up their quarters. The new settlers 
 were, however, much annoyed in their opera- 
 tions by Neill and Murthow Macleod, the only 
 sons of Roderick Macleod who remained in 
 the island. The speculation proved ruinous 
 to many of the adventurers, who, in conse- 
 quence of the disasters they met with, lost 
 their estates, and were in the end obliged to 
 quit the island. 
 
 In the meantime, Neill Macleod quarrelled 
 with his brother Murthow, for harbouring and 
 
THE FIFE ADVENTUBEES IN LEWIS. 
 
 121 
 
 maintaining the Breve and suck of his tribe as 
 were still alive, who had been the chief instru- 
 ments in the murder of Torquill Dubh. Weill 
 thereupon apprehended his brother, and some 
 of the clan Mhic-Ghille-Mhoir, all of whom he 
 killed, reserving his brother only alive. When 
 the Fife speculators were informed that Neill 
 had taken Murthow, his brother, prisoner, they 
 sent him a message offering to give him a share 
 of the island, and to assist him in revenging 
 the death of Torquill Dubh, provided he would 
 deliver Murthow into their hands. Neill 
 agreed to this proposal, and having gone there- 
 after to Edinburgh, he received a pardon from 
 the king for all his past offences. 
 
 These proceedings frustrated for a time the 
 designs of the Mackenzies upon the island, and 
 the lord of Kintail almost despaired of obtain- 
 ing possession by any means. As the new 
 settlers now stood in his way, he resolved to 
 desist from persecuting the Siol-Torquill, and 
 to cross the former in their undertakings, by 
 all the means in his power. He vhad for some 
 time kept Tormaid Macleod, the lawful brother 
 of Torquill Dubh, a prisoner ; but he now re- 
 leased him, thinking that upon his appearance 
 in the Lewis all the islanders would rise in his 
 favour ; and he was not deceived in his expec- 
 tations, for, as Sir Eobert Gordon observes, 
 " all these islanders, (and lykwayes the Hie- 
 landers,) are, by nature, most bent and prone 
 to adventure themselves, their lyffs, and all 
 they have, for their masters and lords, yea 
 beyond all other people." 1 In the meantime 
 Murthow Macleod was carried to St. Andrews, 
 and there executed. Having at his execution 
 revealed the designs of the lord of Kintail, 
 the latter was committed, by order of the 
 king, to the castle of Edinburgh, from which, 
 however, he contrived to escape "without trial, 
 by means, as is supposed, of the then Lord- 
 Chancellor of Scotland. 
 
 On receiving pardon Neill Macleod returned 
 into Lewis with the Fife adventurers ; but he 
 had not been long in the island when he quar- 
 relled with them on account of an injury he had 
 received from Sir James Spence of Wormistoun. 
 He therefore abandoned them, and watched a 
 favourable opportunity for attacking them. 
 
 1 History, p. 271. 
 
 They then attempted to apprehend 1dm by a 
 stratagem, but only succeeded in bringing dis- 
 aster upon themselves. Upon hearing of this, 
 the lord of Kintail thought the time was now 
 suitable for liim to stir, and accordingly he 
 sent Tormaid Macleod into Lews, as he had 
 intended, promising him all the assistance in 
 his power if he would attack the Fife settlers. 
 
 As soon as Tormaid arrived in the island, 
 his brother Neill and all the natives assembled 
 and acknowledged him as their lord and master. 
 He immediately attacked the camp of the ad- 
 venturers, which he forced, burnt the fort, 
 killed the greater part of their men, took the 
 commanders prisoners, whom he released, after 
 a captivity of eight months, on their solemn 
 promise not to return again to the island, and 
 on their giving a pledge that they should obtain 
 a pardon from the king for Tormaid and his 
 followers for all past offences. After Tormaid 
 had thus obtained possession of the island, 
 John Mac-Donald-Mac-Houcheon apprehended 
 Torquill Connaldagh, and carried rrim into 
 Lewis to his brother, Tormaid Macleod. Tor- 
 maid inflicted no punishment upon Connal- 
 dagh, but merely required from him delivery 
 of the title-deeds of Lewis, and the other 
 papers which he had carried off when he appre- 
 hended his father Eoderick Macleod. Con- 
 naldagh informed him that he had it not in his 
 power to give them up, as he had delivered 
 them to the clan Kenzie, in whose possession 
 they still were. Knowing this to be the fact, 
 Tormaid released Torquill Connaldagh, and 
 allowed him to leave the island, contrary to 
 the advice of all his followers and friends, who 
 were for inflicting the punishment of death 
 upon Torquill, as he had been the occasion of 
 all the miseries and troubles which had befallen 
 them. 
 
 The Breve of Lewis soon met with a just 
 punishment for the crime he had committed in 
 betraying and murdering his master, Torquill 
 Dubh Macleod. The Breve and some of his 
 relations had taken refuge in the country of 
 Assynt. John Mac-Donald-Mac-Houcheon, 
 accompanied by four persons, having accident- 
 ally entered the house where the Breve and 
 six of his kindred lodged, found themselves 
 unexpectedly in the same room with them. 
 Being of opposite factions, a fight immediately 
 Q 
 
122 
 
 GENERAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS 
 
 ensued, in the course of which the Breve and 
 his party fled out of the house, but were pur- 
 sued by John and his men, and the Breve and 
 five of his friends killed. 
 
 Although the Fife settlers had engaged not 
 to return again into Lewis, they neverthe- 
 less made preparations for invading it, having 
 obtained the king's commission against Tor- 
 maid MacLeod and his tribe, the Siol-Torquill. 
 They were aided in this expedition by forces 
 from all the neighbouring counties, and par- 
 ticularly by the Earl of Sutherland, who sent 
 a party of men under the command of "William 
 Mac-Mhic-Sheumais, chief of the clan Gun 
 in Sutherland, to assist in subduing Tormaid 
 Macleod. As soon as they had effected a land- 
 ing in the island with all their forces, they sent 
 a message to Macleod, acquainting him that if 
 he would surrender himself to them, in name 
 of the king, they would transport him safely to 
 London, where his majesty then was ; and 
 that, upon his arrival there, they would not 
 only obtain his pardon, but also allow him to 
 deal with the lung in behalf of his friends, and 
 for the means of supporting himself. Macleod, 
 afraid to risk his fortune against the numerous 
 forces brought against him, agreed to the terms 
 proposed, contrary to the advice of his brother 
 Neill, who refused to yield. Tormaid was 
 thereupon sent to London, where he took care 
 to give the king full information concerning all 
 the circumstances of his case ; he showed his 
 majesty that Lewis was his just inheritance, 
 and that his majesty had been deceived by the 
 Fife adventurers in making him believe that 
 the island was at his disposal, which act of 
 deception had occasioned much trouble and a 
 great loss of blood. He concluded by implor- 
 ing his majesty to do him justice by restoring 
 him to his rights. Understanding that Mac- 
 leod's representations were favourably received 
 by his majesty, the adventurers used all their 
 influence at court to thwart him ; and as some 
 of them were the king's own domestic servants, 
 they at last succeeded so far as to get him to be 
 sent home to Scotland a prisoner in 1605. 
 He remained a captive at Edinburgh till the 
 month of March, 1615, when the king granted 
 him permission to pass into Holland, to Maurice, 
 Prince of Orange, where he ended his days. 
 The settlers soon grew wearied of their new 
 
 possession, and as all of them had declined in 
 their circumstances in this luckless speculation, 
 and as they were continually annoyed by Nedl 
 Macleod, they finally abandoned the island, 
 and returned to Fife to bewail their loss. 
 
 Lord Kintail, now no longer disguising his 
 intentions, obtained, through means of the 
 Lord Chancellor, a gift of Lewis, under the 
 great seal, for his own use, in virtue of the old 
 right which Torquill Connaldagh had long 
 before resigned in Iris favour. Some of the 
 adventurers having complained to the king of 
 this proceeding, his majesty became highly 
 displeased at Kintail, and made him resign his 
 right into his majesty's hands by means of 
 Lord Balmerino, then Secretary of Scotland, 
 and Lord President of the session ; which right 
 his majesty now (1608) vested in the persons 
 of Lord Balmerino, Sir George Hay, afterwards 
 Chancellor of Scotland, and Sir James Spence 
 of Wormistoun. Balmerino, on being con- 
 victed of high treason in 1609, lost his share, 
 but Hay and Spence undertook the coloniza- 
 tion of Lewis, and accordingly made great 
 preparations for accomplishing their purpose. 
 Being assisted by most of the neighbouring 
 countries, they invaded Lewis for the double 
 object of planting a colony, and of subduing 
 and apprehending Neill Macleod, who now 
 alone defended the island. 
 
 On this occasion Lord Kintail played a 
 double part, for while he sent Roderick Mac- 
 kenzie, his brother, with a party of men openly 
 to assist the new colonists who acted under 
 the king's commission, — promising them at the 
 same time his friendship, and sending them a 
 vessel from Ross with a supply of provisions,— 
 he privately sent notice to Neill Macleod 
 to intercept the vessel on her way; so that the 
 settlers, being disappointed in the provisions 
 to which they trusted, might abandon the 
 island for want. The case turned out exactly 
 as Lord Kintad anticipated, as Sir George 
 Hay and Sir James Spence abandoned the 
 island, leaving a party of men behind to keep 
 the fort, and disbanded their forces, returning 
 into Fife, intending to have sent a fresh sup- 
 ply of men, with provisions, into the island. 
 But Neill Macleod having, with the assistance 
 of his nephew, Malcolm Macleod, son of Ro- 
 derick Og, burnt the fort, and apprehended 
 
KEILL MACLEOD EXPELLED FEOM LEWIS. 
 
 123 
 
 the men who were left behind in the island, 
 whom he sent safely home, the Eife gentlemen 
 abandoned every idea of again taking possession 
 of the island, and sold their right to Lord Kin- 
 tail. He likewise obtained from the king a 
 grant of the share of the island forfeited by 
 Balmerino, and thus at length acquired what 
 he had so long and anxiously desired. 2 
 
 Lord Kintail lost no time in taking posses- 
 sion of the island, — and all the inhabitants, 
 shortly after his landing, with the exception 
 of Keill Macleod and a few others, submitted 
 to him. ISTeill, along with his nephews, Mal- 
 colm, William, and Eoderick, the three sons 
 of Eoderick Og, the four sons of Torquill Blair, 
 and thirty others, retired to an impregnable 
 rock in the sea called Berrissay, on the west of 
 Lewis, into which Neill had been accustomed, 
 for some years, to send provisions and other 
 necessary articles to serve him in case of neces- 
 shYy. Neill lived on this rock for three years, 
 Lord Kintail in the meantime dying in 1611. 
 As Macleod could not be attacked in his im- 
 pregnable position, and as his proximity was a 
 source of annoyance, the clan Kenzie fell on 
 the following expedient to get quit of him. 
 They gathered together the wives and children 
 of those that were in Berrissay, and also all per- 
 sons in the island related to them by consan- 
 guinity or affinity, and having placed them on 
 a rock in the sea, so near Berrissay that they 
 could be heard and seen by Neill and his 
 party, the clan Kenzie vowed that they would 
 suffer the sea to overwhelm them, on the 
 return of the flood-tide, if Neill did not in- 
 stantly surrender the fort. This appalling 
 spectacle had such an effect upon Macleod and 
 his companions, that they immediately yielded 
 up the rock and left Lewis. 
 
 Neill Macleod then retired into Harris, where 
 he remained concealed for a time; but not 
 being able to avoid discovery any longer, he 
 gave himself up to Sir Eoderick Macleod of 
 Harris, and entreated him to carry him into 
 England to the king, a request with which Sir 
 Roderick promised to comply. In proceeding 
 on his journey, however, along with Macleod, 
 he was charged at Glasgow, under pain of 
 treason, to deliver up Neill to the privy coun- 
 
 2 Gordon, p. 274; Gregory's Western Highlands, 
 
 cil. Sir Eoderick obeyed the charge, and Neill, 
 with his eldest son Donald, were presented to 
 the privy council at Edinburgh, where Neill 
 was executed in April 1613. His son Donald 
 was banished from the kingdom of Scotland, 
 and immediately went to England, where he 
 remained three years with Sir Eobert Gordon, 
 tutor of Sutherland, and from England he 
 afterwards went to Holland, where he died. 
 
 After the death of Neill Macleod, Eoderick 
 and William, the sons of Eoderick Og, were 
 apprehended by Eoderick Mackenzie, tutor of 
 Kintail, and executed. Malcolm Macleod, his 
 third son, who was kept a prisoner by Eoder- 
 ick Mackenzie, escaped, and having associated 
 himself with the clan Donald in Islay and 
 Kintyre during their quarrel with the Camp- 
 bells in 1615-16, he annoyed the clan Kenzie 
 with frequent incursions. Malcolm, thereafter, 
 went to Flanders and Spain, where he remained 
 with Sir James Macdonald. Before going to 
 Spain, he returned from Flanders into Lewis 
 in 1616, where he killed two gentlemen 
 of the clan Kenzie. He returned from Spain 
 in 1620, and the last that is heard of him is 
 in 1626, when commissions of fire and sword 
 were granted to Lord Kintail against " Mal- 
 colm Macquari Macleod." 3 
 
 From the occurrences in Lewis, we now 
 direct the attention of our readers to some pro- 
 ceedings in the isle of Easay, which ended in 
 bloodshed. The quarrel lay between Gille- 
 Chalum, laird of the island, and Murdo Mac- 
 kenzie of Gairloch, and the occasion was as 
 follows. The lands of Gairloch originally be- 
 longed to the clan Mhic-Ghille-Chalurn, the 
 predecessors of the laird of Easay; and when 
 the Mackenzies began to prosper and to rise, 
 one of them obtained the third part of these 
 lands in mortgage or wadset from the clan 
 Mhic-Ghille-Chalum. In process of time the 
 clan Kenzie, by some means or other, unknown 
 to the proprietor of Gairloch, obtained a right 
 to the whole of these lands, but they did not 
 claim possession of the whole till the death 
 of Torquill Dubh Macleod of Lewis, whom 
 the laird of Easay and his tribe followed as 
 their superior. But upon the death of Torquill 
 Dubh, the laird of Gairloch took possession of 
 
 3 Gregory, p 33 7. 
 
12-1 
 
 GENERAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 the whole of the lands of Gairloch in virtue of 
 his pretended right, and chased the clan Mhic- 
 Ghille-Chalum from the lands with fire and 
 sword. The clan retaliated in their turn by 
 invading the laird of Gairloch, plundering his 
 lands and committing slaughters. In a skir- 
 mish which took place in the year 1610, in 
 which lives were lost on both sides, the laird 
 of Gairloch apprehended John Mac-Alain-Mac- 
 Eory, one of the principal men of the clan; 
 but being desirous to get hold also of John 
 Holmoeh-Mac-Eory, anotheT of the chiefs, he 
 sent his son Murdo the following year along 
 with Alexander Bane, the son and heir of 
 Bane of Tulloch in Eoss, and some others, to 
 search for and pursue John Holmoch; and as 
 he understood that John Holmoch was in Skye, 
 he hired a ship to carry his son and party 
 thither; but instead of going to Skye, they 
 unfortunately, from some unknown cause, 
 landed in Easay. 
 
 On their arrival in Easay in August 1G11, 
 Gille-Chalum, laird of Easay, with some of his 
 followers, went on board, and unexpectedly 
 found Murdo Mackenzie in the vessel. After 
 consulting with his men, he resolved to take 
 Mackenzie prisoner, in security for his cousin, 
 John Mac-Alain-Mac-Eory, whom the laird of 
 Gairloch detained in captivity. The party 
 then attempted to seize Mackenzie, but he and 
 his party resisting, a keen conflict took place 
 on board, which continued a considerable time. 
 At last, Murdo Mackenzie, Alexander Bane, 
 and the whole of their party, with the excep- 
 tion of three, were slain. These three fought 
 manfully, killing the laird of Easay and the 
 whole men who accompanied him on board, 
 and wounding several persons that remained in 
 the two boats. Finding themselves seriously 
 wounded, they took advantage of a favourable 
 wind, and sailed away from the island, but 
 expired on the voyage homewards. From this 
 time the Mackenzies appear to have uninter- 
 ruptedly held possession of Gairloch. 4 
 
 About the time this occurrence took place, 
 the peace of the north was almost again dis- 
 turbed in consequence of the conduct of William 
 Mac-Angus-Boy, one of the clan Gun, who, 
 though born in Strathnaver, had become a 
 
 4 Sir Robert Gordon, p. 278. 
 
 servant to the Earl of Caithness. This man 
 had done many injuries to the people of Caith- 
 ness by command of the earl ; and the mere dis- 
 pleasure of Earl George at any of his people, 
 was considered by WilHani Mac -Angus as 
 sufficient authority for him to steal and take 
 away their goods and cattle. William got so 
 accustomed to this kind of service, that he 
 began also to steal the cattle and horses of the 
 earl, his master, and, after collecting a large 
 booty in this way, he took his leave. The 
 earl was extremely enraged at his quondam 
 servant for so acting; but, as William Mac- 
 Angus was hi possession of a warrant in writing 
 under the earl's own hand, authorizing him to 
 act as he had done towards the people of 
 Caithness, the earl was afraid to adopt any 
 proceedings against him, or against those who 
 protected and harboured him, before the Frivy 
 Council, lest he might produce the warrant 
 which he held from the earl. The confidence 
 which the earl had reposed in him served, 
 however, still more to excite the earl's indig- 
 nation. 
 
 As William Mac-Angus continued his depre- 
 dations in other quarters, he was apprehended 
 in the town of Tain, on a charge of cattle- 
 stealing; but he was released by the Monroes, 
 who gave security to the magistrates of the 
 town for his appearance when required, upon 
 due notice being given that he was wanted for 
 trial. On attempting to escape he was re- 
 delivered to the provost and bailies of Tain, by 
 whom he was given up to the Earl of Caith- 
 ness, who put him in fetters, and imprisoned 
 him within Castle Sinclair (1612). He soon 
 again contrived to escape, and fled into Strath- 
 naver, the Earl of Caithness sending his son, 
 William, Lord Berridale, in pursuit of him. 
 Missing the fugitive, he, in revenge, appre- 
 hended a servant of Mackay, called Angus 
 Henriach, without any authority from his 
 majesty, and carried him to Castle Sinclair, 
 where he was put into fetters and closely im- 
 prisoned on the pretence that he had assisted 
 William Mac-Angus in effecting his escape. 
 When this occurrence took place, Donald 
 Mackay, son of Houcheon Mackay, the chief, 
 was at Dunrobin castle, and he, on hearing of 
 the apprehension and imprisonment of his 
 father's servant, could scarcely be made to 
 
APPEEHENSIOrT OF AETHUE SMITH, A FALSE COINEE. 
 
 125 
 
 believe the fact on account of the friend- 
 ship which had been contracted between his 
 father and the earl the preceding Christmas. 
 But being made sensible thereof, and of the 
 cruel usage which the servant had received, he 
 prevailed on his father to summon the earl and 
 bis son to answer to the charge of having ap- 
 prehended and imprisoned Angus Henriach, a 
 free subject of the king, without a commission. 
 The earl was also charged to present his pris- 
 oner before the privy council at Edinburgh in 
 the month of June next following, which he 
 accordingly did ; and Angus being tried before 
 the lords and declared innocent, was delivered 
 over to Sir Eobert Gordon, who then acted for 
 Maekay. 5 
 
 During the same year (1612) another event 
 occurred in the north, which created consider- 
 able uproar and discord in the northern High- 
 lands. A person of the name of Arthur Smith, 
 who resided in Banff, had counterfeited the 
 coin of the realm, in consequence of which he, 
 and a man who had assisted him, fled from Banff 
 
 into Sutherland, where being apprehended in 
 the year 1599, they were sent by the Countess 
 of Sutherland to the king, who ordered them to 
 bs imprisoned in Edinburgh for trial. They 
 were both accordingly tried and condemned, 
 and having confessed to crimes even of a deeper 
 dye, Smith's accomplice was burnt at the place 
 of execution. Smith himself was reserved for 
 farther trial. By devising a lock of rare and 
 curious workmanship, which took the fancy of 
 the king, he ultimately obtained his release 
 and entered into the service of the Earl of 
 Caithness. His workshop was under the rock 
 of Castle Sinclair, in a quiet retired place 
 called the Cote, and to which there was a 
 secret passage from the earl's bedchamber. 
 No person was admitted to Smith's workshop 
 but the earl ; and the circumstance of his 
 being often heard working during the night, 
 raised suspicions that some secret work was 
 going on which could not bear the light of 
 day. The mystery was at last disolosed by an 
 inundation of counterfeit coin in Caithness, 
 
 Castles Sinclair and Girnigo. — From a photograph taken specially for this work. 
 
 Orkney, Sutherland, and Eoss, which was first 
 detected by Sir Eobert Gordon, brother to the 
 Earl of Sutherland, when in Scotland, in the 
 year 1611, and he, on his return to England, 
 made the king acquainted therewith. A com- 
 mission was granted to Sir Eobert to apprehend 
 
 5 Sir R. Gordon, p. 2S1. 
 
 Smith, and bring him to Edinburgh, but he 
 was so much occupied with other concerns 
 that he intrusted the commission to Donald 
 Maekay, his nephew, and to John Gordon, 
 younger of Embo, whose name was jointly 
 inserted in the commission along with that of 
 Sir Eobert. Accordingly, Maekay and Gordon, 
 accompanied by Adam Gordon Georgeson John, 
 
126 
 
 GENEEAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS 
 
 Gordon in Broray, and some other Sutherland 
 men, went, in May, 1612, to Strathnaver, and 
 assembling some of the inhabitants, they 
 marched into Caithness nest morning, and 
 entered the town of Thurso, where Smith then 
 resided. 
 
 After remaining about three hours in the 
 town, the party went to Smith's house and 
 apprehended him. On searching his house 
 they found a quantity of spurious gold and 
 silver coin. Donald Mackay caused Smith 
 to be put on horseback, and then rode off 
 with him out of the town. To prevent any 
 tumult among the inhabitants, Gordon remained 
 behind with some of his men to show them, if 
 necessary, his Majesty's commission for appre- 
 hending Smith. Scarcely, however, had Mac- 
 kay left the town, when the town-bell was 
 rung and all the inhabitants assembled. There 
 were present in Thurso at the time, John Sin- 
 clair of Stirkage, son of the Earl of Caithness's 
 brother, James Sinclair, brother of the laird of 
 Dun, James Sinclair of Dyrren, and other 
 friends, on a visit to Lady Berridale. When 
 information was brought them of the appre- 
 hension of Smith, Sinclair of Stirkage, trans- 
 ported with rage, swore that he would not 
 allow any man, no matter whose commission 
 he held, to carry away his uncle's servant in 
 his uncle's absence. A furious onset was made 
 upon Gordon, but his men withstood it bravely, 
 and after a warm contest, the inhabitants were 
 defeated with some loss, and obliged to retire 
 to the centre of the, town. Donald Mackay 
 hearing of the tumult, returned to the town to 
 aid Gordon, but the affair was over before he 
 arrived, Sinclair of Stirkage having been killed. 
 To prevent the possibility of the escape or 
 rescue of Smith, he was killed by the Strath- 
 naver men as soon as they heard of the tumult 
 in the town. 
 
 The Earl of Caithness resolved to prosecute 
 Donald Mackay, John Gordon, younger of 
 Embo, with their followers, for the slaughter 
 of Sinclair of Stirkage, and the mutilation of 
 James Sinclair, brother of the laird of Dun, 
 and summoned them, accordingly, to appear at 
 Edinburgh. On the other hand, Sir Eobert 
 Gordon and Donald Mackay prosecuted the 
 Earl of Caithness and his son, Lord Berridale, 
 with several other of their countrymen, for 
 
 resisting the king's commission, attacking the 
 commissioners, and apprehending Angus Henri- 
 ach, without a commission, which was declared 
 treason by the laws. The Earl of Caithness 
 endeavoured to make the Privy Council believe 
 that the affair at Thurso arose out of a pre- 
 meditated design against him, and that Sir 
 Eobert Gordon's intention in obtaining a com- 
 mission against Arthur Smith was, under the 
 cloak of its authority, to find means to slay 
 him and his brethren ; and that, in pursuance 
 of his plan, Sir Eobert had, a little before the 
 skirmish in Thurso, caused the earl to be 
 denounced and proclaimed as a rebel to the 
 king, and had lain in wait to kill him ; Sir 
 Eobert, however,, showed the utter ground- 
 lessness of these charges to the Lords of the 
 Council. 
 
 On the day appointed for appearance, the 
 parties met at Edinburgh, attended by their 
 respective friends. The Earl of Caithness and 
 his son, Lord Berridale, were accompanied by 
 the Lord Gray, the laird of Eoslin, the laird 
 of Cowdenknowes, a son of the sister of the 
 Earl of Caithness, and the lairds of Murkle and 
 Greenland, brothers of the earl, along with a 
 large retinue of subordinate attendants. Sir 
 Eobert Gordon and Donald Mackay were 
 attended by the Earl of Winton and his 
 brother, the Earl of Eglinton, with all their 
 followers, the Earl of Linlithgow, with 
 the Livingstones, Lord Elphinston, with his 
 friends, Lord Forbes, with his friends, the 
 Drummonds, Sir John Stuart, captain of Dum- 
 barton, and bastard son of the Duke of Lennox ; 
 Lord Balfour, the laird of Lairg Mackay in 
 Galloway ; the laird of Foulis, with the Mon- 
 roes, the laird of Duffus, some of the Gor- 
 dons, as Sir Alexander Gordon, brother of the 
 Earl of Sutherland, Cluny, Lesmoir, Buckie, 
 Knokespock, with other gentlemen of respecta- 
 bility. The absence of the Earl of Sutherland 
 and Houcheon Mackay mortified the Earl of 
 Caithness, who could not conceal his displea- 
 sure at being so much overmatched in the 
 respectability and number of attendants by 
 seconds and children, as he was pleased to call 
 his adversaries. 
 
 According to the usual practice on such 
 occasions, the parties were accompanied by 
 their respective friends, from their lodgings, to 
 
DISSENSIONS AMONG THE CLAN CAMERON. 
 
 127 
 
 the Louse where the council was sitting ; but 
 few were admitted within. The council spent 
 three days in hearing the parties and deliberat- 
 ing upon the matters brought before them, but 
 they came to no conclusion, and adjourned 
 their proceedings till the king's pleasure should 
 be known. In the meantime the parties, at 
 the entreaty of the Lords of the Council, 
 entered into recognizances to keep the peace, 
 in time coming, towards each other, which 
 extended not only to their kinsmen, but also 
 to their friends and dependants. 
 
 The king, after fully considering the state of 
 affairs between the rival parties, arid judging 
 that if the law were allowed to take its course 
 the peace of the northern countries might be 
 disturbed by the earls and their numerous fol- 
 lowers, proposed to the Lords of the Privy 
 Council to endeavour to prevail upon them to 
 submit their differences to the arbitration of 
 mutual friends. Accordingly, after a good 
 deal of entreaty and reasoning, the parties 
 were persuaded to agree to the proposed mea- 
 sure. A deed of submission was then sub- 
 scribed by the Earl of Caithness and William, 
 Lord Berridale, on the one part, and by Sir 
 Eobert Gordon and Donald Mackay on the 
 other part, taking burden on them for the Earl 
 of Sutherland and Mackay. The arbiters ap- 
 pointed by Sir Eobert Gordon were the Earl of 
 Kinghorn, the Master of Elphinston, the Earl 
 of Haddington, afterwards Lord Privy Seal of 
 Scotland, and Sir Alexander Drummond of 
 Meidhop. The Archbisbop of Glasgow, Sir 
 John Preston, Lord President of the Council, 
 Lord Blantyre, and Sir William Oliphant, 
 Lord Advocate, were named by the Earl of 
 Caithness. The Earl of Dunfermline, Lord- 
 Chancellor of Scotland, was chosen oversman 
 and umpire by both parties. As the arbiters 
 had then no time to hear the parties, or to 
 enter upon the consideration of the matters 
 submitted to them, they appointed them to re- 
 turn to Edinburgh in the month of May, 1613. 
 
 At the appointed time, the Earl of Caith- 
 ness and bis brother, Sir John Sinclair of 
 Greenland, came to Edinburgh, Sir Robert 
 Gordon arriving at the same time from Eng- 
 land. The arbiters, however, wbo were all 
 members of the Privy Council, being much 
 occupied with state affairs, did not go into the 
 
 matter, but made the parties subscribe a new 
 deed of submission, under which they gave 
 authority to the Marquis of Huntly, by whose 
 friendly offices the differences between the two 
 houses had formerly been so often adjusted, to 
 act in the matter by endeavouring to bring 
 about a fresh reconciliation. As the marquis 
 was the cousin- gernian of the Earl of Suther- 
 land, and brother-in-law of the Earl of Caith- 
 ness, who had married his sister, the council 
 thought him the most Ukely person to be 
 intrusted with such an important negotiation. 
 The marquis, however, finding the parties 
 obstinate, and determined not to yield a single 
 point of their respective claims and pretensions, 
 declined to act farther in the matter, and remit- 
 ted the whole affair back to the Privy Council. 
 During the year 1613 the peace of Loch- 
 aber was disturbed by dissensions among the 
 clan Cameron. The Earl of Argyle, reviv- 
 ing an old claim acquired in the reign of 
 James V., by Colin, the third earl, endea- 
 voured to obtain possession of the lands of 
 Lochiel, mainly to weaken the influence of his 
 rival the Marquis of Huntly, to whose party 
 the clan Cameron were attached. Legal pro- 
 ceedings were instituted by the earl against 
 Allan Cameron of Lochiel, who, hastening to 
 Edinburgh, was there advised by Argyle to 
 submit the matter to arbiters. The decision 
 was in favour of the earl, from whom Lochiel 
 consented to hold his lands as a vassal. This, 
 of course, highly incensed the Marquis of 
 Huntly, wbo resolved to endeavour to effect 
 the ruin of his quondam, vassal by fomenting 
 dissensions among the clan Cameron, inducing 
 the Camerons of Erracht, Kinlochiel, and Glen- 
 nevis to become his immediate vassals in those 
 lands which Lochiel had hitherto held from 
 the family of Huntly. Lochiel, failing to in- 
 duce his kinsmen to renew their allegiance to 
 him, again went to Edinburgh to consult his 
 lawyers as to the course which he ought to pur- 
 sue. While there, he heard of a conspiracy \>y 
 the opposite faction against his life, which 
 induced him to hasten home, sending word 
 privately to his friends — the Camerons of 
 Callart, Strone, Letterfinlay, and others — to 
 meet him on the day appointed for the assem- 
 bling of his opponents, near the spot where 
 the latter were to meet. 
 
128 
 
 GENEEAL H1ST0EY OF THE HIGHLANDS 
 
 On arriving at the appointed rendezvous, 
 Loohiel placed in ambush all his followers hut 
 six, with whom he advanced towards his ene- 
 mies, informing them that he wished to have 
 a conference with them. The hostile faction, 
 thinking this a favourable opportunity for 
 accomplishing their design, pursued the chief, 
 who, when he had led them fairly into the 
 midst of his ambushed followers, gave the 
 signal for their slaughter. Twenty of their 
 principal men were Id lied, and eight taken 
 prisoners, Lochiel allowing the rest to escape. 
 Lochiel and his followers were by the Privy 
 Council outlawed, and a commission of fire and 
 sword granted to the Marquis of Huntly and 
 the Gordons, for their pursuit and apprehen- 
 sion. The division of the clan Cameron which 
 supported Lochiel continued for several years 
 in a state of outlawry, but, through the influ- 
 ence of the Earl of Argyle, appears not to have 
 suffered extremely. 6 
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 a.d. 1613—1623. 
 king of great Britain :— James I., 1603 — 1G25. 
 
 Continued animosity between the Earls of Caithness 
 and Sutherland — The latter imprisoned as a sus- 
 pected Catholic — Formidable Rebellion ill the South 
 Hebrides — Suppressed by the Earl of Argyle — Fresh 
 intrigues of the Earl of Caithness — His oppressions 
 — Burning of the corn at Sanset— Legal proceedings 
 against the Guns — Agreement between the Earl of 
 Caithness, Sir Bobert Gordon, and Lord Forbes — 
 Lord Berridale imprisoned — Conditions of release — 
 Put in possession of the family Estates — Alliance 
 between the Earl of Caithness and Sir Donald Mac- 
 kay — Sir Robert Gordon protects the clan Gun — 
 Mackay's attempts against the Clan — Mackay and 
 Sir Robert Gordon reconciled — Quarrel between the 
 Earl of Enzie and the clan Chattan — Slaughter of 
 Thomas Lindsay — Hostile preparations against the 
 Earl of Caithness — Expedition into Caithness — 
 Flight of the Earl — Reduction and pacification of 
 Caithness. 
 
 As the Privy Council showed no inclination to 
 decide the questions submitted to them by the 
 Earl of Caithness and his adversaries, the earl 
 sent his brother, Sir John Sinclair of Green- 
 land, to Edinburgh, to complain of the delay 
 which had taken place, and desired him to 
 throw o it hints, that if the earl did not obtain 
 
 e Gregory's Western Highlands, p. 342. 
 
 satisfaction for his supposed injuries, he would 
 take redress at his own hands. The earl 
 thought that he would succeed, by such a 
 threat, in moving the council to decide in his 
 favour, for he was well aware that he was 
 unable to carry it into execution. To give 
 some appearance of an intention to enforce it, 
 he, in the month of October, 1613, while the 
 Earl of Sutherland, his brothers and nephews, 
 were absent from the country, made a demon- 
 stration of invading Sutherland or Strathnaver, 
 by collecting his forces at a particular point, 
 and bringing thither some pieces of ordnance 
 from Castle Sinclair. The Earl of Sutherland, 
 having arrived in Sutherland while the Earl of 
 Caithness was thus employed, immediately 
 assembled some of his countrymen, and, along 
 with his brother Sir Alexander, went to the 
 marches between Sutherland and Caithness, 
 near the height of Strathully, where they 
 waited the approach of the Earl of Caithness. 
 Here they were joined by Mackay, who had 
 given notice of the Earl of Caithness's move- 
 ments to the lairds of Eoulis, Balnagown, and 
 Assynt, the sheriff of Cromarty, and the tutor 
 of Kintail, all of whom prepared themselves to 
 assist the Earl of Sutherland. The Earl of 
 Caithness, however, by advice of his brother, 
 Sir John Sinclair, returned home and dis- 
 banded his force. 
 
 To prevent the Earl of Caithness from at- 
 tempting any farther interference with the 
 Privy Council, either in the way of intrigue or 
 intimidation, Sir Eobert Gordon obtained a 
 remission and pardon from the king, in the 
 month of December, 1613, to his nephew, 
 Donald Mackay, John Gordon, younger of 
 Emho, John Gordon in Eroray, Adam Gordon 
 Georgeson, and their accomplices, for the 
 slaughter of John Sinclair of Stirkage at 
 Thurso. However, Sir Gideon Murray, Deputy 
 Treasurer for Scotland, contrived to prevent the 
 pardon passing through the seals till the begin- 
 ning of the year 1616. 
 
 The Earl of Caithness, being thus baffled in 
 his designs against the Earl of Sutherland and 
 his friends, fell upon a device which never 
 failed to succeed in times of religious intoler- 
 ance and persecution. Unfortunately for man- 
 kind and for the interests of Christianity, the 
 principles of religious toleration, involving the 
 
FORMIDABLE REBELLION IN THE SOUTH HEBRIDES. 
 
 129 
 
 inalienable right of every man to worship God 
 according to the dictates of his conscience, have 
 been till of late but little understood, and at 
 the period in question, and for upwards of one 
 hundred and sixty years thereafter, the statute 
 book of Scotland was disgraced by penal enact- 
 ments against the Catholics, almost unparalleled 
 for their sanguinary atrocity. By an act of the 
 first parliament of James VI., any Catholic 
 who assisted at the offices of his religion was, 
 " for the first fault," that is, for following the 
 dictates of his conscience, to suffer confiscation 
 of all his goods, movable and immovable, 
 personal and real ; for the second, banishment; 
 and death for the third fault ! But the law 
 was not confined to overt acts only — the mere 
 suspicion of being a Catholic placed the sus- 
 pected person out of the pale and protection of 
 the law ; for if, on being warned by the bish- 
 ops and ministers, he did not recant and give 
 confession of his faith according to the ap- 
 proved form, he was excommunicated, and 
 declared infamous and incapable to sit or stand 
 in judgment, pursue or bear office. 7 
 
 Under this last-mentioned law the Earl of 
 Caithness now sought to gratify his vengeance 
 against the Earl of Sutherland. Having repre- 
 sented to the Archbishop of St. Andrews and 
 the clergy of Scotland that the Earl of Suther- 
 land was at heart a Catholic, he prevailed upon 
 the bishops — with little difficulty, it is sup- 
 posed — to acquaint the king thereof. His 
 majesty thereupon issued a warrant against 
 the Earl of Sutherland, who was in conse- 
 quence apprehended and imprisoned at St. 
 Andrews. The earl applied to the bishops for 
 a month's delay, till the 15th February, 1614, 
 promising that before that time he would 
 either give the church satisfaction or surrender 
 himself; but his application was refused by 
 the high commission of Scotland. Sir Alex- 
 ander Gordon, the brother of the earl, being 
 then in Edinburgh, immediately gave notice to 
 his brother, Sir Robert Gordon, who was at 
 the time in London, of the proceedings against 
 their brother, the earl. Sir Robert having 
 applied to his majesty for the release of the 
 earl for a time, that he might make up his 
 mind on the subject of religion, and look after 
 
 7 Act James VI., Pari. 3, Cap. 45. 
 
 his affairs in the north, his majesty granted a 
 warrant for his liberation till the month of 
 August following. On the expiration of the 
 time, he returned to his confinement at St. 
 Andrews, from which he was removed, on 
 his own application, to the abbey of Holyrood 
 house, where he remained till the month of 
 March, 1615, when he obtained leave to go 
 home, " having," says Sir Robert Gordon, " in 
 some measure satisfied the church concerning 
 his religion." 
 
 The Earl of Caithness, thus again defeated 
 in his views, tried, as a dernier resort, to dis- 
 join the families of Sutherland and Mackay. 
 Sometimes he attempted to prevail upon the 
 Marquis of Huntly to persuade the Earl of 
 Sutherland and his brothers to come to an 
 arrangement altogether independent of Mac- 
 kay; and at other times he endeavoured to 
 persuade Mackay, by holding out certain in- 
 ducements to him, to compromise their differ- 
 ences without including the Earl of Suther- 
 land in the arrangement; but he completely 
 failed in these attempts. 3 
 
 In 1614-15 a formidable rebellion broke out 
 in the South Hebrides, arising from the efforts 
 made by the clan Donald of Islay to retain that 
 island in their possession. The castle of Duny- 
 veg in Islay, which, for three years previous to 
 1614, had been in possession of the Bishopof the 
 Isles, having been taken by Angus Oig, younger 
 brother of Sir James Macdonald of Islay, from 
 Ranald Oig, who had surprised it, the former 
 refused to restore it to the bishop. The Privy 
 Council took the matter in hand, and, having 
 accepted from John Campbell of Calder an 
 offer of a feu-duty or perpetual rent for Islay, 
 they prevailed on him to accept a commission 
 against Angus Oig and his followers. The 
 clan Donald, who viewed with suspicion the 
 growing power of the Campbells, looked upon 
 this project with much dislike, and treated 
 certain hostages left by the bishop with great 
 severity. Even the bishop remonstrated against 
 making " the name of Campbell greater in the 
 Isles than they are already," thinking it neither 
 good nor profitable to his majesty, " to root 
 out one pestiferous clan, and plant in another 
 little better." The remonstrance of the bishop 
 
 8 Sir R. Gordon, p. 299. 
 
130 
 
 GENERAL HISTORY OE THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 and an offer made to put matters right by Sir 
 James Macdonald, who was then imprisoned 
 in Edinburgh castle, were alike unheeded, and 
 Campbell of Calder received his commission of 
 Lieutenandry against Angus Oig Macdonald, 
 Coll Mac-Gillespic, and the other rebels of Islay. 
 A free pardon was offered to all who were not 
 concerned in the taking of the castle, and a 
 remission to Angus Oig, provided he gave up 
 the castle, the hostages, and two associates of 
 his own rank. 
 
 While Campbell was collecting his forces, 
 and certain auxiliary troops from Ireland 
 were preparing to embark, the chancellor of 
 Scotland, the Earl of Dunfermline, by means 
 
 of a Ross-shire man, named George Graham of 
 Eryne, prevailed on Angus Oig to release the 
 bishop's hostages, and deliver up to Graham 
 the castle, in behalf of the chancellor. Graham 
 re-delivered the castle to Angus, to be held by 
 him as the regular constable, until he should 
 receive further order from the chancellor, and at 
 the same time assured Angus of the chancel- 
 lor's countenance and protection, enjoining him 
 to resist all efforts on the part of Campbell or 
 his friends to eject him. These injunctions 
 Graham's dupes too readily followed. " There 
 can be no doubt whatever that the chancellor 
 was the author of this notable plan to procure 
 the liberation of the hostages, and at the same 
 
 Dunyveg Castle, Islay. — From a drawni 
 
 time to deprive the clan Donald of the benefit 
 of the pardon promised to them on this account. 
 There are grounds for a suspicion that the 
 chancellor Mmself desired to obtain Islay ; 
 although it is probable that he wished to avoid 
 the odium attendant on the more violent mea- 
 sures required to render such an acquisition 
 available. He, therefore, contrived so as to 
 leave the punishment of the clan Donald to 
 the Campbells, who were already sufficiently 
 obnoxious to the western clans, whilst he him- 
 self had the credit of procuring the liberation 
 of the hostages." 
 
 Campbell of Calder and Sir Oliver Lambert, 
 commander of the Irish forces, did not effect a 
 junction till the 5th of January, t 615, and on 
 
 the 6th, Campbell landed on Islay with 200 
 men, his force being augmented next day by 
 140 more. Several of the rebels, alarmed, de- 
 serted Angus, and were pardoned on condition 
 of helping the besiegers. Ronald Mac-James, 
 uncle of Angus Oig, surrendered a fort on the 
 island of Lochgorme which he commanded, on 
 the 21st, and along with his son received a 
 conditional assurance of his majesty's favour. 
 Operations were commenced against Dunyveg 
 on February 1st, and shortly after Angus had 
 an interview with the lieutenant, during which 
 the latter showed that Angus had been deceived 
 by Graham, upon which he promised to sur- 
 render. On returning to the castle, however, 
 he refused to implement his promise, being iD- 
 
CAPTUEE OF DUNYVEG CASTLE. 
 
 131 
 
 stlgated to hold out apparently by Coll Mac- 
 Gillespic. After being again battered for some 
 time, Angus and some of his followers at last 
 surrendered unconditionally, Coll Mac-Gillespic 
 contriving to make his escape. Campbell took 
 possession of the castle on the 3d February, 
 dispersed the forces of the rebels, and put to 
 death a number of those who had deserted the 
 siege; Angus himself was reserved for exami- 
 nation by the Privy Council. In the course of 
 the examination it came out clearly that the 
 Earl of Argyle was the original promoter of the 
 seizure of the castle, his purpose apparently 
 being to ruin the clan Donald by urging them 
 to rebellion ; but this charge, as well as that 
 igainst the Earl of Dunfermline, appears to 
 have been smothered. 
 
 During the early part of the year 1615, Coll 
 Mac-Gillespic and others of the clan Donald 
 who had escaped, infested the western coasts, 
 and committed many acts of piracy, being- 
 joined about the month of May by Sir James 
 Macdonald, who had escaped from Edinburgh 
 castle, where he had been lying for a long 
 time under sentence of death. Sir James and 
 liis followers, now numbering several hundreds, 
 after laying in a good supply of provisions, 
 sailed towards Islay. The Privy Council were 
 not slow in taking steps to repress the rebel- 
 lion, although various circumstances occurred 
 to thwart their intentions. Calder engaged to 
 keep the castle of Dunyveg against the rebels, 
 and instructions were given to the various 
 western gentlemen friendly to the government 
 to defend the western coasts and islands. 
 Large rewards were offered for the principal 
 rebels. All the forces were enjoined to be 
 at their appointed stations by the 6th of July, 
 furnished with forty days' provisions, and with 
 a sufficient number of boats, to enable them to 
 act by sea, if necessary. 
 
 Sir James Macdonald, about the end of 
 June, landing on Islay, managed by stratagem 
 to obtain possession of Dunyveg Castle, him- 
 self and his followers appearing to have con- 
 ducted themselves with great moderation. 
 Dividing his force, which numbered about 400, 
 into two bodies, with one of which he himself 
 intended to proceed to Jura, the other, under 
 Coll Mac-Gillespic, was destined for Kintyre, 
 for the purpose of encouraging the ancient 
 
 followers of Ms family to assist him. In the 
 beginning of July, Angus Oig and a number of 
 his followers were tried and condemned, and 
 executed immediately after. 
 
 Various disheartening reports were now cir- 
 culated as to the disaffection of Donald Gorme 
 of Sleat, captain of the clan Kanald, Euari 
 Macleod of Harris, and others ; and that Hector 
 Maclean of Dowart, if not actually engaged hi 
 the rebellion, had announced, that if he was 
 desired to proceed against the clan Donald, he 
 would not be very earnest in the service. The 
 militia of Ayr, Eenfrew, Dumbarton, Bute, 
 and Inverness were called out, and a commis- 
 sion was granted to the Marquis of Hamilton 
 to keep the clan Donald out of Arran. 
 
 The Privy Council had some time before 
 this urged the king to send down the Earl of 
 Argyle from England — to which he had fled 
 from liis numerous creditors — to act as lieu- 
 tenant in suppressing the insurrection. After 
 many delays, Argyle, to whom full powers had 
 been given to act as lieutenant, at length 
 mustered his forces at Duntroon on Loch 
 Crinan early in September. He issued a pro- 
 clamation of pardon to all rebels who were 
 willing to submit, and by means of spies ex- 
 amined Macdonald's camp, which had been 
 pitched on the west coast of Kintyre, the num- 
 ber of the rebels being ascertained to be about 
 1,000 men. Argyle set himself so promptly 
 and vigorously to crush the rebels, that Sir 
 James Macdonald, who had been followed to 
 Islay by the former, finding it impossible either 
 to resist the Lieutenant's forces, or to escape 
 with his galleys to the north isles, desired from 
 the earl a truce of four days, promising at the 
 end of |hat time to surrender. Argyle would 
 not accede to this request except on condition 
 of Sir James giving up the two forts which he 
 held ; this Sir James urged Coll Mac-Gillespic 
 to do, but he refused, although he sent secretly 
 to Argyle a message that he was willing to 
 comply with the earl's request. Argyle im- 
 mediately sent a force against Sir James to 
 surprise him, who, being warned of this by the 
 natives, managed to make his escape to an 
 island called Inchdaholl, on the coast of Ire- 
 land, and never again returned to the Hebrides. 
 Next day, Mac-Gillespic surrendered the two 
 forts and his prisoners, upon assurance of his 
 
132 
 
 GENERAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 own life and the lives of a few of his followers, 
 at the same time treacherously apprehending 
 and delivering to Argyle, Maefie of Colonsay, 
 one of the principal rebel leaders, and eighteen 
 others. This conduct soon had many imita- 
 tors, including Maefie himself. 
 
 Having delivered the forts in Tslay to Camp- 
 bell of Calder, and having executed a number 
 of the leading rebels, Argyle proceeded to 
 Kintyre, and crushed out all remaining seeds of 
 insurrection there. Many of the principal 
 rebels, notwithstanding a diligent search, 
 effected their escape, many of them to Ireland, 
 Sir James Macdonald being sent to Spain by 
 3ome Jesuits in Galway. The escape of so 
 many of the principal rebels seems to have 
 given the Council great dissatisfaction. Argyle 
 carried on operations till the middle of Decem- 
 ber 1615, refusing to dismiss the hired soldiers 
 in the beginning of November, as he was 
 ordered by the Council to do. He was com- 
 pelled to disburse the pay, amounting to 
 upwards of .£7,000, for the extra month and a 
 half out of his own pocket. 
 
 " Thus," to use the words of our authority 
 for the above details, 9 "terminated the last 
 struggle of the once powerful clan Donald of 
 Islay and Kintyre, to retain, from the grasp of 
 the Campbells, these ancient possessions of 
 their tribe.". 
 
 Ever since the death of John Sinclair at 
 Thurso, the Earl of Caithness used every means 
 in his power to induce such of his country- 
 men as were daring enough, to show their 
 prowess and dexterity, by making incursions 
 into Sutherland or Strathnaver, for the pur- 
 pose of annoying the vassals and depend- 
 ants of the Earl of Sutherland and his ally. 
 Mackay. Amongst others he often communi- 
 cated on this subject with William Kenneth- 
 son, whose father, Kenneth Buidhe, had always 
 been the principal instrument in the hands 
 of Earl George in oppressing the people of 
 his own country. For the furtherance of his 
 plans he at last prevailed upon William, who 
 already stood rebel to the king in a criminal 
 cause, to go into voluntary banishment into 
 Strathnaver, and put himself under the pro- 
 tection of Mackay, to whom he was to pre- 
 
 - Oregory's Western Highlands, p. 319, el seq 
 
 tend that he had left Caithness to avoid any 
 solicitations from the Earl of Caithness to 
 injure the inhabitants of Strathnaver. To 
 cover their designs they caused a report to be 
 spread that William Mac-Kenneth was to leave 
 Caithness because he would not obey the orders 
 of the earl to execute some designs against Sir 
 Robert Gordon, the tutor of Sutherland, and 
 Mackay, and when this false rumour had 
 been sufficiently spread, Mac-Kenneth, and 
 his brother John, and their dependants, fled 
 into Strathnaver and solicited the favour and 
 protection of Mackay. The latter received 
 them kindly ; but as William and his party 
 had been long addicted to robbery and theft, 
 he strongly advised them to abstain from such 
 practices in all time coming ; and that they 
 might not afterwards plead necessity as an 
 excuse for continuing their depredations, he 
 allotted them some lands to dwell on. After 
 staying a month or two in Strathnaver, during 
 which time they stole some cattle and horses 
 out of Caithness, William received a private 
 visit by night from Kenneth Buidhe, his 
 father, who had been sent by the Earl of Caith- 
 ness for the purpose of executing a contem- 
 plated depredation in Sutherland. Mackay 
 was then in Sutherland on a visit to his uncle. 
 Sir Eobert Gordon, which being known to 
 William Mac-Kenneth, he resolved to enter 
 Sutherland with his party, and carry off into 
 Caithness all the booty they could collect. 
 Being observed in the glen of Loth by some of 
 the clan Gun, collecting cattle and horses, they 
 were immediately apprehended, with the ex- 
 ception of Iain-Garbh-Mac-Chonald-Mac-Mhur- 
 chidh-Mhoir, who, being a very resolute man, 
 refused to surrender, and was in consequence 
 killed. The prisoners were delivered to Sir 
 Robert Gordon at Dornoch, who committed 
 William and his brother John to the castle of 
 Dornoch for trial. In the meantime two of 
 the principal men of Mac-Kenneth's party 
 were tried, convicted, and executed, and the 
 remainder were allowed to return home on 
 giving surety to keep the peace. This occur 
 rence took place in the month of January 
 1G16. 
 
 The Earl of Caithness now finished his rest- 
 less career of iniquity by the perpetration of a 
 crime which, tnough trivial in its crnsequences, 
 
MACHINATIONS OF THE EAEL OF CAITHNESS. 
 
 133 
 
 was of so highly a penal nature in itself as to 
 bring liis own life into jeopardy. As the cir- 
 cumstances which led to the burning of the 
 corn of William Innes, a servant of Lord Forbes 
 at Sanset in Caithness, and the discovery of 
 the Earl of Caithness as instigator, are some- 
 what curious, it is thought that a recital of 
 them may not he here out of place. 
 
 Among other persons who had suffered at 
 the hands of the earl was his own kinsman, 
 William Sinclair of Dumbaith. After annoy- 
 ing him in a variety of ways, the earl insti- 
 gated his bastard brother, Henry Sinclair, and 
 Kenneth Buidhe, to destroy and lay waste part 
 of Dumbaith's lands, who, unable to resist, and 
 being in dread of personal risk, locked himself 
 up in his house at Dunray, which they besieged. 
 William Sinclair immediately applied to John, 
 Earl of Sutherland, for assistance, who sent 
 his friend Mackay with a party to rescue Sin- 
 clair from his perilous situation. Mackay suc- 
 ceeded, and carried Sinclair along with Mm 
 into Sutherland, where he remained for a time, 
 but he afterwards went to reside in Moray, 
 where he died. Although thus cruelly perse- 
 cuted and forced to become an exile from his 
 country by the Earl of Caithness, no entreaties 
 could induce him to apply for redress, choosing 
 rather to suffer himself than to see his relative 
 punished. William Sinclair was succeeded by 
 his grandson, George Sinclair, who married a 
 sister of Lord Forbes. By the persuasion of 
 Iris wife, who was a mere tool in the hands 
 of the Earl of Caithness, George Sinclair was 
 induced to execute a deed of entail, by which, 
 failing of heirs male of his own body, he left 
 the whole of his lands to the earl. When the 
 earl had obtained this deed he began to devise 
 means to make away with Sinclair, and ac- 
 tually persuaded Sinclair's wife to assist him 
 in this nefarious design Having obtained 
 notice of this conspiracy against his life, Sin- 
 clair left Caithness and took up his residence 
 with his brother-in-law, Lord Forbes, who 
 received him with great kindness and hospi- 
 tality, and reprobated very strongly the wicked 
 conduct of his sister. Sinclair now recalled 
 the entail in favour of the Earl of Caithness, 
 and made a new deed by which he conveyed 
 his whole estate to Lord Forbes. George Sin- 
 clair died soon after the execution of the deed. 
 
 and having left no issue, Lord Forbes took pos- 
 session of his lands of Dunray and Dumbaith. 
 
 Disajjpointed in his plans to acquire Sinclair's 
 property, the Earl of Caithness seized every 
 opportunity of annoying Lord Forbes in his 
 possessions, by oppressing his tenants and 
 servants, in every possible way, under the pre- 
 tence of discharging his duty as sheriff, to 
 which office he had been appointed by the Earl 
 of Huntly, on occasion of his marriage with 
 Huntly's sister. Complaints were made from 
 time to time against the earl, on account of 
 these proceedings, to the Privy Council of 
 Scotland, which, in some measure, afforded 
 redress ; but to protect his tenants more effectu- 
 ally, Lord Forbes took up a temporary resi- 
 dence in Caithness, relying upon the aid of the 
 house of Sutherland in case of need. 
 
 As the Earl of Caithness was aware that any 
 direct attack on Lord Forbes would be properly 
 resented, and as any enterprise undertaken by 
 his own people would be laid to his charge, 
 however cautious he might be in dealing with 
 them, he fixed on the clan Gun as the fittest 
 instruments for effecting his designs against 
 Lord Forbes. Besides being the most resolute 
 men in Caithness, always ready to undertake 
 any desperate action, they depended more upon 
 the Earl of Sutherland and Mackay, from 
 whom they held some lands, than upon the 
 Earl of Caithness ; a circumstance which the 
 latter supposed, should the contemplated out- 
 rages of the clan Gun ever become matter of 
 inquiry, might throw the suspicion upon the 
 two former as the silent instigators. Accord 
 ingly, the earl opened a negotiation with Jolin 
 Gun, chief of the clan Gun in Caithness, and 
 with his brother, Alexander Gun, whose father 
 he had hanged in the year 1586. In conse- 
 quence of an invitation, the two brothers, along 
 with Alexander Gun, their cousin-german, re 
 paired to Castle Sinclair, where they met the 
 earl. The earl did not at first divulge his 
 plans to all the party; hut taking Alexander 
 Gun, the cousin, aside, he pointed out to him 
 the injury he alleged he had sustained, in con- 
 sequence of Lord Forbes having obtained a 
 footing in Caithness, — that he could no longer 
 submit to the mdignity shown him by a stran- 
 ger, — that he had made choice of him (Gun) to 
 undertake a piece of service for him, on per- 
 
134 
 
 GENERAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 forming which he would reward him most 
 amply ; and to secure compliance, the earl de- 
 sired him to rememher the many favours he had 
 already received from him, and how well he 
 had treated him, promising, at the same time, to 
 show Mm even greater kindness in time coming. 
 Alexander thereupon promised to serve the earl, 
 though at the hazard of his life ; hut upon being- 
 interrogated by the earl whether he would 
 undertake to burn the corn of Sanset, belong- 
 ing to William Lines, a servant of Lord Forbes, 
 Gun, who had never imagined that he was to 
 be employed in such an ignoble affair, expressed 
 the greatest astonishment at the proposal, and 
 refused, in the most peremptory and indignant 
 manner, to undertake its execution ; yet, to 
 satisfy the earl, he told him that he would, at 
 his command, undertake to assassinate William 
 Innes, — an action which he considered less 
 criminal and dishonourable, and more becom- 
 ing a gentleman, than burning a quantity of 
 corn ! Finding him obdurate, the earl enjoined 
 him to secrecy. 
 
 The earl next applied to the two brothers, 
 John and Alexander, with whom he did not 
 find it so difficult to treat. They at first hesi- 
 tated with some firmness in undertaking the 
 business on which the earl was so intent ; and 
 they pleaded an excuse, by saying, that as 
 justice was then more strictly executed in 
 Scotland than formerly, they could not expect 
 to escape, as they had no place of safety to re- 
 treat to after the crime was committed; as a 
 proof of which they instanced the cases of the 
 clan Donald and the clan Gregor, two races of 
 people much more powerful than the clan Gun, 
 who had been brought to the brink of ruin, and 
 almost annihilated, under the authority of the 
 laws. The earl replied, that as soon as they 
 should perform the service for him he would 
 send them to the western isles, to some of his 
 acquaintances and friends, with whom they 
 might remain till Lord Forbes and he were 
 reconciled, when he would obtain their pardon ; 
 that in the meantime he would profess, in 
 public, to be their enemy, but that he would be 
 their friend secretly, and permit them to fre- 
 quent Caithness without danger. Alexander 
 Gun, overcome at last by the entreaties of the 
 earl, reluctantly consented to Ms request, and 
 going into Sanset, in the dead of night, with 
 
 two accomplices, set fire to all the <x rn stacks 
 wMch were in the barn-yard, belonging to 
 William Innes, and which were in consequence 
 consumed. TMs affair occurred in the month 
 of November, 1615. The Earl of Caithness 
 immediately spread a report through the whole 
 country that Mackay's tenants had committed 
 this outrage, but the deception was of short 
 duration. 
 
 It may be here noticed that John, sixth Earl 
 of Sutherland, died in September, 1615, and 
 was succeeded by his eldest son, John, a boy 
 six years old, to whom Sir Eobert Gordon, Ms 
 uncle, was appointed tutor. 
 
 Sir Eobert Gordon, having arrived in the 
 north of Scotland, from England, in the month 
 of December following, resolved to probe the 
 matter to the bottom, not merely on account 
 of Ms nephew, Mackay, whose men were sus- 
 pected, but to satisfy Lord Forbes, who was 
 now on friendly terms with the house of Suth- 
 erland ; but the discovery of the perpetrators 
 soon became an easy task, in consequence of a 
 quarrel among the clan Gun themselves, the 
 members of which upbraided one another as 
 the authors of the M'e-raising. Alexander Gun, 
 the cousin of Alexander Gun, the real criminal, 
 thereupon fled from Caithness, and sent some 
 of Ms friends to Sir Eobert Gordon and Donald 
 Mackay with these proposals : — that if they 
 would receive Mm into favour, and secure him 
 from danger, he would confess the whole cir- 
 cumstances, and reveal the authors of the con- 
 flagration, and that he would declare the whole 
 before the Privy Council if required. On 
 receiving this proposal, Sir Eobert Gordon 
 appointed Alexander Gun to meet him pri- 
 vately at Hebnsdale, in the house of Sir Alex- 
 ander Gordon, brother of Sir Eobert. A meet- 
 ing was accordingly held at the place appointed, 
 at wMch Sir Eobert and Ms friends agreed to 
 do everytMng in their power to preserve Gun's 
 life ; and Mackay promised, moreover, to give 
 Mm a possession in Strathie, where his father 
 had formerly lived. 
 
 When the Earl of Caithness heard of Alex- 
 ander Gun's flight into Sutherland he became 
 greatly alarmed lest Alexander should reveal the 
 affair of Sanset ; and anticipating such a result, 
 the earl gave out everywhere that Sir Eobert 
 Gordon, Mackay, and Sir Alexander Gordon. 
 
BURNING OF THE COKN AT SANSET. 
 
 135 
 
 had hired some of the clan Gun to accuse 
 him of having burnt William Innes's corn. 
 But this artifice was of no avail, for as soon as 
 Lord Forbes received notice from Sir Robert 
 Gordon of the circumstances related by Alex- 
 ander Gun, he immediately cited John Gun 
 and his brother Alexander, and their accom- 
 plices, to appear for trial at Edinburgh, on the 
 2d April, 1616, to answer to the charge of 
 burning the corn at Sanset ; and he also sum- 
 moned the Earl of Caithness, as sheriff of that 
 county, to deliver them up for trial. John 
 Gun, thinking that the best course he could 
 pursue under present circumstances was to fol- 
 low the example of his cousin, Alexander, sent 
 a message to Sir Alexander Gordon, desiring 
 an interview with him, which being granted, 
 they met at Navidale. John Gun then offered 
 to reveal everything he knew concerning the 
 fire, on condition that his life should be spared; 
 but Sir Alexander observed that he could come 
 under no engagement, as he was uncertain how 
 the king and the council might view such a 
 proceeding ; but he promised, that as John bad 
 not been an actor in the business, but a witness 
 only to the arrangement between his brother 
 and the Earl of Caithness, he would do what 
 he could to save him , if he went to Edinburgh 
 in compliance with the summons. 
 
 In this state of matters, the Earl of Caith- 
 ness wrote to the Marquis of Huntly, accusing 
 Sir Bobert Gordon and Mackay of a design to 
 bring him within the Teach of the law of trea- 
 son, and to injure the honour of his house by 
 slandering him with the burning of the corn at 
 Sanset. The other party told the marquis that 
 they could not refuse to assist Lord Forbes in 
 finding out the persons who had burned the corn 
 at Sanset, but that they had never imagined 
 that the earl would have acted so base a part 
 as to become an accomplice in such a cr imin al 
 act ; and farther, that as Mackay's men were 
 challenged with the deed, the}' certainly were 
 entitled at least to clear Mackay's people from 
 the charge by endeavouring to find out the male- 
 factors, — in all which they considered they had 
 done the earl no wrong. The Marquis of 
 Huntly did not fail to write the Earl of Caith- 
 ness the answer he had received from Sir Bo- 
 bert Gordon and Mackay, which grieved him 
 exceedingly, as he was too well aware of the 
 
 consequences which would follow if the prose- 
 cution of the Guns was persevered in. 
 
 At the time appointed for the trial of the 
 Guns, Sir Bobert Gordon, Mackay, and Lord 
 Forbes, with all his friends, went to Edin- 
 burgh, and upon their arrival they entreated 
 the council to prevent a remission in favour of 
 the Earl of Caithness from passing the signet 
 until the affair in hand was tried ; a request 
 with which the council complied. The Earl 
 of Caithness did not appear ; but he sent his 
 son, Lord Berridale, to Edinburgh, along with 
 John Gun and all those persons who had been 
 summoned by Lord Forbes, with the exception 
 of Alexander Gun and his two accomplices. 
 He alleged as his reason for not sending them 
 that they were not his men, being Mackay's 
 own tenants, and dwelling in Dilred, the pro- 
 perty of Mackay, which was held by him off 
 the Earl of Sutherland, who, he alleged, was 
 bound to present the three persons alluded to. 
 But the lords of the council would not admit 
 of this excuse, and again required Lord Berri- 
 dale and his father to present the three culprits 
 before the court on the 10th June following, 
 because, although they had possessions in Dil- 
 red, they had also lands from the Earl of Caith- 
 ness on which they usually resided. Besides, 
 the deed was committed in Caithness, of which 
 the earl was sheriff, on which account also he 
 was bound to apprehend them. Lord Berri- 
 dale, whose character was quite the reverse of 
 that of his father, apprehensive of the conse- 
 quences of a trial, now offered satisfaction in 
 his father's name to Lord Forbes if he would 
 stop the prosecution ; but his lordship refused 
 to do anything without the previous advice and 
 consent of Sir Bobert Gordon and Mackay, who, 
 upon being consulted, caused articles of agree- 
 ment to be drawn up, which were presented 
 to Lord Berridale by neutral persons for his 
 acceptance. He, however, considering the con- 
 ditions sought to be imposed upon his father 
 too hard, rejected them. 
 
 In consequence of the refusal of Lord Berri- 
 dale to accede to the terms proposed, John Gun 
 was apprehended by one of the magistrates of 
 Edinburgh, on the application of Lord Forbes, 
 and committed a prisoner to the jail of that 
 city. Gun thereupon requested to see Sir 
 Bobert Gordon and Mackay, whom he entreated 
 
136 
 
 GENEEAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 to use their influence to procure him his 
 liberty, promising to declare everything he 
 knew of the business for which he was 
 prosecuted before the lords of the council. 
 Sir Eobert Gordon and Mackay then deliber- 
 ated with Lord Forbes and Lord Elphinston 
 on the subject, and they all four promised 
 faithfully to Gun to do everything in their 
 power to save him, and that they would 
 thenceforth maintain and defend him and his 
 cousin', Alexander Gun, against the Earl of 
 Caithness or any person, as long as they 
 had reason and equity on their side ; besides 
 which, Mackay promised him a liferent lease 
 of the lands in Strathie to compensate for his 
 possessions in Caithness, of which he would, 
 of course, be deprived by the earl for revealing 
 the latter's connexion with the fire-raising at 
 Sanset. John Gun was accordingly examined 
 the following day by the lords of the council, 
 when he confessed that the Earl of Caithness 
 made his brother, Alexander Gun, burn the 
 corn of Sanset, and that the affair had been 
 proposed and discussed in his presence. Alex- 
 ander Gun, the cousin, was examined also at 
 the same time, and stated the same circum- 
 stances precisely as John Gun had done. 
 After examination, John and Alexander were 
 again committed to prison. 
 
 As neither the Earl of Caithness nor his son, 
 Lord Berridale, complied with the commands 
 of the council to deliver up Alexander Gun and 
 his accomplices in the month of June, they 
 were both outlawed and denounced rebels ; and 
 were summoned and charged by Lord Forbes to 
 appear personally at Edinburgh in the month 
 of July immediately following, to answer to the 
 charge of causing the corn of Sanset to be burnt. 
 This fixed determination on the part of Lord 
 Forbes to bring the earl and his son to trial 
 had the effect of altering their tone, and they 
 now earnestly entreated him and Mackay to 
 agree to a reconciliation on any terms ; but 
 they declined to enter into any arrangement 
 until they had consulted Sir Eobert Gordon. 
 After obtaining Sir Eobert's consent, and a 
 written statement of the conditions which he 
 required from the Earl of Caithness in behalf of 
 his nephew, the Earl of Sutherland, the parties 
 entered into a final agreement in the month of 
 July, 1016. The principal heads of the contract, 
 
 which was afterwards recorded hi the books of 
 council and session, were as follows : — That 
 all civil actions between the parties should be 
 settled by the mediation of common friends, — 
 that the Earl of Caithness and his son should 
 pay to Lord Forbes and Mackay the sum of 
 20,000 merks Scots money, — that all quarrels 
 and criminal actions should be mutually for- 
 given, and particularly, that the Earl of Caith- 
 ness and all his friends should forgive and 
 remit the slaughter at Thurso — that the Earl 
 of Caithness and his son should renounce for 
 themselves and their heirs all jurisdiction, 
 criminal or civil, within Sutherland or Strath- 
 naver, and any other jurisdiction which they 
 should thereafter happen to acquire over any 
 lands lying within the diocese of Caithness 
 then pertaining, or which should afterwards 
 belong, to the Earl of Sutherland, or his heirs, 
 — that the Earl of Caithness should deliver 
 Alexander Gun and his accomplices to Lord 
 Forbes, — that the earl, his son, and their heirs, 
 should never thenceforth contend with the 
 Earl of Sutherland for precedency in parlia- 
 ment or priority of place, — that the Earl of 
 Caithness and his son, their friends and tenants, 
 should keep the peace in time coming, under 
 the penalty of great sums of money, and should 
 never molest nor trouble the tenants of the 
 Earl of Sutherland and Lord Forbes, — that 
 the Earl of Caithness, his son, or their friends, 
 should not receive nor harbour any fugitives 
 from Sutherland or Strathnaver, — and that 
 there should be good friendship and amity 
 kept amongst them in all time to come. 
 
 In consequence of this agreement, the two 
 sons of Kenneth Buy, William and John be- 
 fore-mentioned, were delivered to Lord Berri- 
 dale, who gave security for their keeping the 
 peace; and John Gun and Alexander his 
 cousin were released, and delivered to Lord 
 Forbes and Mackay, who gave surety to the 
 lords of the council to present them for trial 
 whenever required; and as the Earl of Caith- 
 ness had deprived them of their possessions in 
 Caithness on account of the discovery they had 
 made, Mackay, who had lately been knighted 
 by the king, gave them lands in Strathnaver 
 as he had promised. Matters being thus set- 
 tled, Lord Berridale presented himself be- 
 fore the court at Edinburgh to abide his 
 
LOED BEBEIDALE IMPRISONED. 
 
 137 
 
 trial; but no person of course appearing against 
 him, the trial was postponed. ' The Earl of 
 Caithness, however, failing to appear, the diet 
 against him was continued till the 28tli of 
 August following. 
 
 Although the king was well pleased, on ac- 
 count of the peace which such an adjustment 
 would produce in his northern dominions, with 
 the agreement which had been entered into, 
 and the proceedings which followed thereon, 
 all of which were made known to him by tbe 
 Privy Council; yet, as the passing over such 
 a flagrant act as wilful fire-raising, without 
 punishment, might prove pernicious, he wrote 
 a letter to the Privy Council of Scotland, 
 commanding them to prosecute, with all sever- 
 ity, those who were guilty of, or accessory to, 
 the crime. Lord Berridale was thereupon 
 apprehended on suspicion, and committed a 
 prisoner to the castle of Edinburgh ; and his 
 father, perceiving the determination of the 
 king to prosecute the authors of the fire, again 
 declined to appear for trial on the appointed 
 day, on which account he was again outlawed, 
 and declared a rebel as the guilty author. 
 
 In this extremity Lord Berridale had recourse 
 to Sir Eobert Gordon, then resident at court, 
 for his aid. He wrote him a letter, entreating 
 him that, as all controversies were now settled, 
 he would, in place of an enemy become a faithful 
 friend, — that for his own part, he, Lord Berri- 
 dale, had been always innocent of the jars and 
 dissensions which had happened between the 
 two fa mili es, — that he was also innocent of the 
 crime of which he was charged, — and that he 
 wished his majesty to be informed by Sir Eo- 
 bert of these circumstances, hoping that he 
 would order him to be released from confine- 
 ment. Sir Eobert answered, that he had long- 
 desired a perfect agreement between the houses 
 of Sutherland and Caithness, which he would 
 endeavour to maintain during Iris administra- 
 tion in Sutherland, — that he would intercede 
 with the long in behalf of his lordship to the 
 utmost of his power, — that all disputes being 
 now at an end, he would be his faithful friend, 
 — that he had a very different opinion of his 
 disposition from that he entertained of his 
 father, the earl ; and he concluded by entreat- 
 ing him to be careful to preserve the friendship 
 which had been now commenced between them. 
 
 As the king understood that Lord Berridale 
 was supposed to be innocent of the crime with 
 which he and his father stood charged, and as 
 he could not, without a verdict against Berri- 
 dale, proceed against the family of Caithness 
 by forfeiture, in consequence of his lordship 
 having been infeft many years before in his 
 father's estate, his majesty, on the earnest 
 entreaty of the then bishop of Eoss, Sir Eobert 
 Gordon, and Sir James Spence of Wormistoun, 
 was pleased to remit and forgive the crime on 
 the following conditions: — 1st. That the Earl 
 of Caithness and his son should give satisfac- 
 tion to their creditors, who were constantly 
 annoying Ms majesty with clamours against 
 the earl, and craving justice at his hands. 2d. 
 That the Earl of Caithness, with consent of 
 Lord Berridale, should freely renounce and 
 resign perpetually, into the hands of his ma- 
 jesty, the heritable sheriffship and justiciary of 
 Caithness. 3d. That the Earl of Caithness 
 should deliver the three criminals who had 
 burnt the corn, that public justice might be 
 satisfied upon them, as a terror and example 
 to others. 4th. That the Earl of Caithness, 
 with consent of Lord Berridale, should give 
 and resign in perpetuum to the bishop of 
 Caithness, the house of Strabister, with as 
 many of the feu lands of that bishopric as 
 should amount to the yearly value of two 
 thousand merks Scots money, for the purpose 
 of augmenting the income of the bishop, which 
 was at that time small in consequence of the 
 greater part of his lands being in the hands of 
 the earl. Commissioners were sent down 
 from London to Caithness in October 1616, to 
 see that these conditions were complied with. 
 The second and last conditions were imme- 
 diately implemented; and as the earl and his 
 son promised to give satisfaction to their 
 creditors, and to do everything in their power 
 to apprehend the burners of the corn, the lat- 
 ter was released from the castle of Edinburgh, 
 and directions were given for drawing up a 
 remission and pardon to the Earl of Caithness. 
 Lord Berridale, however, had scarcely been 
 released from the castle, when he was again 
 imprisoned within the jail of Edinburgh, at 
 the instance of Sir James Home of Cowden- 
 knowes, his cousin german, who had become 
 surety for liim and Ms father to their creditors 
 
138 
 
 GENERAL HISTORY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 for large sums of money. The earl himself 
 narrowly escaped the fate of his son and retired 
 to Caithness, hut his creditors had sufficient 
 interest to prevent his remission from passing 
 till they should he satisfied. With consent of 
 the creditors the council of Scotland gave him 
 a personal protection, from time to time, to 
 enable h im to come to Edinburgh for the pur- 
 pose of settling with them, but he made no 
 arrangement, and returned privately into Caith- 
 ness before the expiration of the supersedere 
 which had been granted him, leaving his son 
 to suffer all the miseries of a prison. After 
 enduring a captivity of five years, Lord Berri- 
 dale was released from prison by the good 
 offices of the Earl of Enzie, and put, for behoof 
 of himself, and his own and his father's credi- 
 tors, in possession of the family estates from 
 which his father was driven by Sir Robert 
 Gordon acting under a royal warrant, a just 
 punishment for the many enormities of a long 
 and misspent life. 1 
 
 Desperate as the fortunes of the Earl of 
 Caithness were even previous to the disposal 
 of his estates, he most unexpectedly found an 
 ally in Sir Donald Mackay, who had taken 
 offence at Sir Robert Gordon, and who, being a 
 man of quick resolution and of an inconstant 
 disposition, determined to forsake the house of 
 Sutherland, and to ingratiate himself with the 
 Earl of Caithness. He alleged various causes 
 of discontent as a reason for his conduct, one 
 of the chief being connected with pecuniary 
 considerations ; for 'having, as he alleged, 
 burdened his estates with debts incurred for 
 some years past in following the house of 
 Sutherland, he thought that, in time coming, he 
 might, by procuring the favour of the Earl of 
 Caithness, turn the same to his own advantage 
 and that of his countrymen. Moreover, as he 
 had been induced to his own prejudice to grant 
 certain life-rent tacks of the lands of Strathie 
 and Dilred to John and Alexander Gun, and 
 others of the clan Gun for revealing the affair 
 of Sanset, he thought that by joining the Earl 
 of Caithness, these might be destroyed, by 
 which means he would get back his lands 
 which he meant to convey to his brother, John 
 Mackay, as a portion ; and he, moreover, 
 
 1 Sir R, Gordon, p. 329, et seq. 
 
 expected that the earl would give him and his 
 countrymen some possessions in Caithness. 
 But the chief ground of discontent on the part 
 of Sir Donald Mackay was an action brought 
 against him and Lord Forbes before the court 
 of session, to recover a contract entered into 
 between the last Earl of Sutherland and Mac- 
 kay, in the year 1613, relative to their marches 
 and other matters of controversy, which being 
 considered by Mackay as prejudicial to him, 
 he had endeavoured to get destroyed through 
 the agency of some persons about Lord Forbes, 
 into whose keeping the deed had been intrusted. 
 
 After brooding over these subjects of discon- 
 tent for some years, Mackay, in the year 1618, 
 suddenly resolved to break with the house of 
 Sutherland, and to form an alliance with the 
 Earl of Caithness, who had long borne a mortal 
 enmity at that family. Accordingly, Mackay 
 sent John Sutherland, his cousin-german, into 
 Caithness to request a private conference with 
 the earl in any part of Caithness he might 
 appoint. This offer was too tempting to be 
 rejected by the earl, who expected, by a recon- 
 ciliation with Sir Donald Mackay, to turn the 
 same to his own personal gratification and 
 advantage. In the first place, he hoped to 
 revenge himself upon the clan Gun, who were 
 his principal enemies, and upon Sir Donald 
 himself, by detaching him from his superior, 
 the Earl of Sutherland, and from the friendship 
 of his uncles, who had always supported him 
 in all his difficulties. In the second place, he 
 expected that, by alienating Mackay from the 
 duty and affection he owed the house of Suther- 
 land, that he would weaken his power and 
 influence. And lastly, he trusted that Mackay 
 would not only be prevailed upon to discharge 
 his own part, but would also persuade Lord 
 Forbes to discharge his share of the sum of 
 20,000 merks Scots, which he and his son, 
 Lord Berridale, had become bound to pay them, 
 on account of the burning at Sanset. 
 
 The Earl of Caithness having at once agreed 
 to Mackay's proposal, a meeting was held by 
 appointment in the neighbourhood of Dunray, 
 in the parish of Reay, in Caithness. The 
 parties met in the night-time, accompanied each 
 by three men only. After much discussion, and 
 various conferences, which were continued for 
 two or three days, they resolved to destroy the 
 
ALLIANCE OF THE EAEL OF CAITHNESS WITH SIE DONALD MACKAY. 130 
 
 clan Gun, and particularly John Gun, and 
 Alexander his cousin. To please the earl, 
 Mackay undertook to despatch these last, as 
 they were obnoxious to him, on account of the 
 part they had taken against him, in revealing 
 the burning at Sanset. They persuaded them- 
 selves that the house of Sutherland -would 
 defend the clan, as they were bound to do 
 by their promise, and that that house would 
 be thus drawn into some snare. To confirm 
 their friendship, the earl and Mackay arranged 
 that John Mackay, the only brother of Sir 
 Donald, should marry a niece of the earl, a 
 daughter of James Sinclair of Murkle, who 
 was a mortal enemy of all the clan Gun. Hav- 
 ing thus planned the line of conduct they were 
 to follow, they parted, after swearing to con- 
 tinue in perpetual friendship. 
 
 Notwithstanding the private way in which 
 the meeting was held, accounts of it immedi- 
 ately spread through the kingdom ; and every 
 person wondered at the motives which could 
 induce Sir Donald Mackay to take such a step 
 so unadvisedly, without the knowledge of Ms 
 uncles, Sir Eobert and Sir Alexander Gordon, 
 or of Lord Forbes. The clan Gun receiving 
 secret intelligence of the design upon them, 
 from different friendly quarters, retired into 
 Sutherland. The clan were astonished at Mac- 
 kay's conduct, as he had promised, at Edin- 
 burgh, in presence of Lords Forbes and Elph- 
 ingston and Sir Eobert Gordon, in the year 
 1616, to be a perpetual friend to them, and 
 chiefly to John Gun and to his cousin Alex- 
 ander. 
 
 After Mackay returned from Caithness, he 
 sent his cousin-german, Angus Mackay of Big- 
 house, to Sutherland, to acquaint his uncles, 
 who had received notice of the meeting, that 
 his object in meeting the Earl of Caithness was 
 for his own personal benefit, and that nothing 
 had been done to their prejudice. Angus 
 Mackay met Sir Eobert Gordon at Dunrobin, 
 to whom he delivered his kinsman's message, 
 which, he said, he hoped Sir Eobert would 
 take in good part, adding that Sir Donald 
 would show, in presence of both his uncles, that 
 the clan Gun had failed in duty and fidelity to 
 Mm and the house of Sutherland, smce they had 
 revealed the burning ; and therefore, that if his 
 uncles would not forsake John Gun, and some 
 
 others of the clan, he would adhere to them no 
 longer. Sir Eobert Gordon returned a verbal 
 answer by Angus Mackay, that when Sir 
 Donald came in person to Dunrobin to clear 
 himself, as in duty he was bound to do, he 
 would then accept of Ms excuse, and not till 
 then. And he at the same time wrote a letter 
 to Sir Donald, to the effect that for Ms own 
 (Sir Eobert's) part, he did not much regard 
 Mackay's secret journey to Caithness, and Ms 
 reconciliation with Earl George, without his 
 knowledge or the advice of Lord Forbes ; and 
 that, however unfavourable the world might 
 construe it, he would endeavour to colour it in 
 the best way he could, for Mackay's own 
 credit. He desired Mackay to consider that a 
 man's reputation was exceedingly tender, and 
 that if it were once blemished, though wrong- 
 fully, there would still some blot remain, be- 
 cause the greater part of the world would 
 always Mchne to speak the worst ; that what- 
 ever had been arranged in that journey, between 
 him and the Earl of Caithness, beneficial to 
 Mackay and not prejudicial to the house of 
 Sutherland, he should be always ready to assist 
 him therein, although concluded without Ms 
 consent. As to the clan Gun, he could not 
 with honesty or credit abandon them, and par- 
 ticularly John and Ms cousin Alexander, until 
 tried and found guilty, as he had promised 
 faitlifully to be their friend, for revealing the 
 affair of Sanset ; that he had made them this 
 promise at the earnest desire and entreaty of 
 Sir Donald himself ; that the house of Suther- 
 land did always esteem their truth and con- 
 stancy to be their greatest jewel ; and seeing 
 that he and his brother, Sir Alexander, were 
 almost the only branches of it then of age or 
 man's estate, they would endeavour to prove 
 true and constant wheresoever they did possess 
 friendsliip ; and that neither the house of 
 Sutherland, nor any greater house whereof 
 they had the honour to be descended, should 
 have the least occasion to be ashamed of them 
 in that respect ; that if Sir Donald had quar- 
 relled or challenged the clan Gun, before going 
 into Caithness and Ms arrangement with Ear] 
 George, the clan might have been suspected ; 
 but he saw no reason to forsake them until 
 they were found guilty of some great offence. 
 Sir Eobert Gordon, therefore, acting as tutor 
 
140 
 
 GENEEAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 for Iiis nephew, took the clan Gun under his 
 immediate protection, with the exception of 
 Alexander Gun, the burner of the corn, and 
 Ms accomplices. John Gun thereupon de- 
 manded a trial before his friends, that they 
 might hear what Sir Donald had to lay to his 
 charge. John and his kinsmen were acquitted, 
 and declared innocent of any offence, either 
 against the house of Sutherland or Mackay, 
 since the fact of the burning. 
 
 Sir Donald Mackay, dissatisfied with this 
 result, went to Edinburgh for the purpose of 
 obtaining a commission against the clan Gun 
 from the council, for old crimes committed by 
 them before his majesty had left Scotland for 
 England ; but he was successfully opposed in 
 this by Sir Eobert Gordon, who wrote a letter 
 to the Lord-Chancellor and to the Earl of 
 Melrose, afterwards Earl of Haddington and 
 Lord Privy Seal, showing that the object of 
 Sir Donald, in asking such a commission, was 
 to break the king's peace, and to breed fresh 
 troubles in Caithness. Disappointed in this 
 attempt, Sir Donald returned home to Strath- 
 naver, and, in the month of April, 1618, he 
 went to Braill, in Caithness, where he met the 
 earl, with whom he continued three nights. 
 On this occasion they agreed to despatch Alex- 
 ander Gun, the burner of the corn, lest Lord 
 Forbes should request the earl to deliver him 
 up ; and they hoped that, in consequence of 
 such an occurrence, the tribe might be ensnared. 
 P>efore parting, the earl delivered to Mackay 
 some old writs of cettain lands in Strathnaver 
 and other places within the diocese of Caith- 
 ness, which belonged to Sir Donald's prede- 
 cessors ; by means of which the earl thought 
 he would put Sir Donald by the ears with his 
 uncles, expecting him to bring an action against 
 the Earl of Sutherland, for the warrandice of 
 Strathnaver, and thus free himself from the 
 superiority of the Earl of Sutherland. 
 
 Shortly after this meeting was held, Sir 
 Donald entered Sutherland privately, for the 
 purpose of capturing John Gun ; but, after 
 lurking two nights in Golspie, watching Gun, 
 without effect, he was discovered by Adam 
 Gordon of Kilcalmkill, a trusty dependant of 
 the house of Sutherland, and thereupon re- 
 turned to his country. In the meantime the 
 Earl of Caithness, who sought every oppor- 
 
 tunity to quarrel with the house of Suther- 
 land, endeavoured to pick a quarrel with Sir 
 Alexander Gordon about some sheilings which 
 he alleged the latter's servants had erected 
 beyond the marches between Torrish, in Strath- 
 ully, and the lands of Berridale. The dispute, 
 however, came to nothing. 
 
 "When Sir Eobert Gordon heard of these 
 occurrences in the north, he returned home 
 from Edinburgh, where he had been for some 
 time ; and, on his return, he visited the Marquis 
 of Huntly at Strathbogie, who advised him to 
 be on Ms guard, as he had received notice from 
 the Earl of Caithness that Sir Donald meant 
 to create some disturbances in Sutherland. 
 The object the earl had in view, in acquaint- 
 ing the marquis with Mackay's intentions, was 
 to screen himself from any imputation of being 
 concerned in Mackay's plans, although he fa- 
 voured them in secret. As soon as Sir Eobert 
 Gordon was informed of Mackay's intentions he 
 hastened to Sutherland ; but before his arrival 
 there, Sir Donald had entered Strathully with 
 a body of men, in quest of Alexander Gun, the 
 burner, against whom he had obtained letters 
 of caption. He expected that if he could find 
 Gun in Strathully, where the clan of that 
 name cMefiy dwelt, they, and particularly 
 John Gun, would protect Alexander, and that 
 in consequence he would ensnare John Gun 
 and his tribe, and bring them within the reach 
 of the law, for having resisted the king's 
 authority ; but Mackay was disappointed in 
 his expectations, for Alexander Gun escaped, 
 and none of the clan Gun made the least 
 movement, not knowing how Sir Eobert Gor- 
 don was affected towards Alexander Gun. 
 In entering Strathully, without acquainting 
 his uncles of his intention, Sir Donald had 
 acted improperly, and contrary to his duty, as 
 the vassal of the house of Sutherland : but, not 
 satisfied with this trespass, he went to Badin- 
 loch, and there apprehended William M'Corkill, 
 one of the clan Gun, and carried him along 
 with him towards Strathnaver, on the ground 
 that he had favoured the escape of Alexander 
 Gun; but M'Corkill escaped while his keepers 
 were asleep, and went to Dunrobin, where he 
 met Sir Alexander Gordon, to whom he related 
 the circumstance. 
 
 Hearing that Sir Eobert Gordon was upon 
 
MACKAY AND SIR EOBERT GOEDON RECONCILED. 
 
 141 
 
 his journey to Sutherland, Mackay left Badiii- 
 loeh in haste, and went privately to the parish 
 of Culmaly, taking up his residence in Golspie- 
 tour with John Gordon, younger of Embo, till 
 he should learn in what manner Sir Eobert 
 would act towards him. Mackay, perceiving 
 that his presence in Golspietour was likely to 
 lead to a tumult among the people, sent Ms 
 men home to Strathnaver, and went himself 
 the following day, taking only one man along 
 with him, to Dunrobin castle, where he met 
 Sir Eobert Gordon, who received Mm kindly 
 according to his usual manner; and after Sir 
 Eobert had opened his mind very freely to 
 Mm on the bad course he was pursuing, he 
 began to talk to him about a reconciliation 
 with John Gun; but Sir Donald would not 
 hear of any accommodation, and after staying a 
 few days at Dunrobin, returned home to Ms 
 own country. 
 
 Sir Donald Mackay, perceiving the danger 
 in wMch he had placed himself, and seeing 
 that he could put no reliance on the hollow 
 and Mconstant friendship of the Earl of Caith- 
 ness, became desirous of a reconciliation with 
 Ms uncles, and with tMs view he offered 
 to refer all matters in dispute to the arbitra- 
 ment of friends, and to make such satisfaction 
 for his offences as they might enjoin. As Sir 
 Eobert Gordon still had a kindly feeling 
 towards Mackay, and as the state M which the 
 affairs of the house of Sutherland stood during 
 the minority of his nephew, the earl, could not 
 uonveMently admit of following out hostile 
 measures against Mackay, Sir Eobert embraced 
 his offer. The parties, therefore, met at Tain, 
 and matters being discussed M presence of Sir 
 Alexander Gordon of Navidale, George Monroe 
 of Milntoun, and John Monroe of Leamlair, 
 they adjudged that Sir Donald should send 
 Angus Mackay of Bighouse, and three gentle- 
 men of the Slaight-ean-Aberigh, to Dunrobin, 
 there to remain prisoners duiMg Sir Eobert's 
 pleasure, as a punishment for apprehending 
 William M'Corkill at Badinloch. After set- 
 tling some other matters of little moment, the 
 parties agreed to hold another meeting for 
 adjusting all remairung questions, at ElgM, in 
 the month of June of the following year, 1619. 
 Sir Donald wished to include Gordon of Embo 
 and others of his friends in Sutherland in this 
 
 arrangement; but as they were vassals of the 
 house of Sutherland, Sir Eobert would not 
 allow Mackay to treat for them. 
 
 In the month of November, 1618, a disturb- 
 ance took place in consequence of a quarrel 
 between George, Lord Gordon, Earl of Enzie, 
 and Sir Lauchlan Macintosh, cMef of the clan 
 Chattan, which arose out of the following cir- 
 cumstances : — When the earl went Mto Loch- 
 aber, in the year 1613, in pursuit of the clan 
 Cameron, he requested Macintosh to accom- 
 pany him, both on account of his bemg the 
 vassal of the Marqms of Huntly, the earl's 
 father, and also on account of the ancient 
 enmity which had always existed between the 
 clan Chattan and clan Cameron, in consequence 
 of the latter keepmg forcible possession of cer- 
 tain lands belonging to the former in Lochaber. 
 To Mduce Macintosh to jom him, the earl 
 promised to dispossess the clan Cameron of 
 the lands belonging to Macintosh, and to 
 restore him to the possession of them ; but, by 
 advice of the laird of Grant, his father-in-law, 
 who was an enemy of the house of Huntly, he 
 declined to accompany the earl M his expedi- 
 tion. The earl was greatly displeased at Mac- 
 intosh's refusal, which afterwards led to some 
 disputes between them. A few years after the 
 date of this expedition — in wMch the earl sub- 
 dued the clan Cameron, and took their cMef 
 prisoner, whom he imprisoned at Inverness in 
 the year 1614 — Macintosh obtained a commis- 
 sion against Macronald, younger of Moidart. 
 and his brother, Donald Glass, for laying waste 
 his lands M Lochaber; and, having collected 
 all Ms friends, he entered Lochaber for the 
 purpose of apprehending -them, but, bemg un- 
 successful in Ms attempt, he returned home. 
 As Macintosh conceived that he had a right to 
 the services of all Ms clan, some of whom 
 were tenants and dependants of the Marquis 
 of Huntly, he ordered these to follow him, and 
 compelled such of them as were refractory to 
 accompany Mm Mto Lochaber. This proceed- 
 Mg gave offence to the Earl of Enzie, who 
 summoned MacMtosh before the lords of the 
 Erivy Council for having, as he asserted, ex- 
 ceeded his co mm ission. He, moreover, got 
 MacMtosh's commission recalled, and obtained 
 a new commission m his own favour from the 
 lords of the council, under wMch he invaded 
 
142 
 
 GENERAL H1ST0KY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 Lochaber, and expelled Macronald and his 
 brother Donald from that country. 
 
 As Macintosh held certain lands from the 
 earl and his father for services to be done, 
 which the earl alleged had not been performed 
 by Macintosh agreeably to the tenor of his 
 titles, the earl brought an action against Mac- 
 intosh in the year 1618 for evicting these 
 lands, on the ground of his not having imple- 
 mented the conditions on which he held them. 
 And, as the earl had a right to the tithes of 
 Culloden, which belonged to Macintosh, he 
 served him, at the same time, with an inhibition, 
 prohibiting him to dispose of these tithes. As 
 the time for tithing drew near, Macintosh, by 
 advice of the clan Kenzie and the Grants, 
 circulated a report that he intended to oppose 
 the earl in any attempt he might make to take 
 possession of the tithes of Culloden in kind, 
 because such a practice had never before been 
 in use, and that he would try the issue of an 
 action of spuilzie, if brought against him. 
 Although the earl was much incensed at such 
 a threat on the part of his own vassal, yet, 
 being a privy counsellor, and desirous of 
 showing a good example in keeping the peace, 
 he abstained from enforcing his right; but, 
 having formerly obtained a decree against Mac- 
 intosh for the value of the tithes of the pre- 
 ceding years, he sent two messengers-at-arms 
 to poind and distrain the corns upon the 
 ground under that warrant. The messengers 
 were, however, resisted by Macintosh's servants, 
 and forced to desist from the execution of then 
 duty. The earl, in consequence, pursued Mac- 
 intosh and his servants before the Privy 
 Council, and got them denounced and pro- 
 claimed rebels to the king. He, thereupon, 
 collected a number of his particular friends 
 with the design of carrying his decree into 
 execution, by distraining the crop at Culloden 
 and carrying it to Inverness. Macintosh pre- 
 pared himself to resist, by fortifying the house 
 of Culloden and laying in a large quantity of 
 ammunition; and having collected all the corn 
 within shot of the castle and committed the 
 charge of it to his two uncles, Duncan and 
 Lauchlan, he waited for the approach of the 
 earL As the earl was fully aware of Mac- 
 intosh's preparations, and that the clan Chattan, 
 the Grants, and the clan Kenzie, had promised 
 
 to assist Macintosh in opposing the execution 
 of his warrant, he wrote to Sir Robert Gordon, 
 tutor of Sutherland, to meet him at Culloden 
 on the 5th of November, 1618, being the day 
 fixed by liim for enforcing his decree. On 
 receipt of tins letter, Sir Robert Gordon left 
 Sutherland for Bog-a-Gight, where the Marquis 
 of Huntly and his son then were, and on his 
 way paid a visit to Macintosh with the view 
 of bringing about a compromise; but Macintosh, 
 who was a young man of a headstrong disposi- 
 tion, refused to listen to any proposals, and 
 rode post-haste to Edinburgh, from which ho 
 went privately into England. 
 
 In the meantime, the Earl of Enzie having 
 collected his friends, to the number of 1,100 
 horsemen well appointed and armed, and 
 600 Highlanders on foot, came to Inver- 
 ness with this force on the day appointed, 
 and, after consulting his principal officers, 
 marched forwards towards Culloden. When 
 he arrived within view of the castle, the earl 
 sent Sir Robert Gordon to Duncan Macintosh, 
 who, with his brother, commanded the house, 
 to inform him that, in consequence of his 
 nephew's extraordinary boasting, he had come 
 thither to put his majesty's laws in execution, 
 and to carry off the corn which of right be- 
 longed to him. To this message Duncan re- 
 plied, that he did not mean to prevent the earl 
 from taking away what belonged to him, but 
 that, in case of attack, he would defend the 
 castle which had been committed to his charge. 
 Sir Robert, on his return, begged the earl to 
 send Lord Lovat, who had some influence with 
 Duncan Macintosh, to endeavour to prevail on 
 him to surrender the castle. At the desire of 
 the earl, Lord Lovat accordingly went to the 
 house of Culloden, accompanied by Sir Robert 
 Gordon and George Monroe of Milntoun, and, 
 after some entreaty, Macintosh agreed to sur- 
 render at discretion; a party thereupon took 
 possession of the house, and sent the keys to 
 the earl. He was, however, so well pleased 
 with the conduct of Macintosh, that he sent 
 back the keys to him, and as neither the clan 
 Chattan, the Grants, nor the clan Kenzie, 
 appeared to oppose him, he disbanded his 
 party and returned home to Bog-a-Gight. 
 He did not even carry off the corn, but gave 
 it to Macintosh's grandmother, who enjoyed 
 
SLAUGHTER OF THOMAS LINDSAY. 
 
 143 
 
 the life-rent of the lands of Culloclen as her 
 jointure. 
 
 As the Earl of Enzie had other claims against 
 Sir Lauehlan Macintosh, he cited him before 
 the lords of council and session, but failing to 
 appear, he was again denounced rebel, and 
 outlawed for his disobedience. Sir Lauehlan, 
 who was then in England at court, informed 
 the king of the earl's proceedings, which he 
 described as harsh and illegal, and, to counteract 
 the effect which such a statement might have 
 upon the mind of his majesty, the earl posted 
 to London and laid before him a true statement 
 of matters. The consequence was, that Sir 
 Lauehlan was sent home to Scotland and com- 
 mitted to the castle of Edinburgh, until he 
 should give the earl full satisfaction. This 
 step appears to have brought him to reason, 
 and induced him to apply, through the media- 
 tion of some friends, for a reconciliation with 
 the earl, which took place accordingly, at 
 Edinburgh, in the year 1619. Sir Lauehlan, 
 however, became bound to pay a large sum of 
 money to the earl, part of which the latter 
 afterwards remitted. The laird of Grant, by 
 whose advice Macintosh had acted in opposing 
 the earl, also submitted to the latter; but the 
 I reconciliation was more nominal than real, 
 for the earl was afterwards obliged to protect 
 the chief of the clan Cameron against them, 
 and this circumstance gave rise to many dis- 
 sensions between them and the earl, which 
 ended only with the lives of Macintosh and 
 the laird of Grant, who both died in the year 
 1622, when the ward of part of Macintosh's 
 lands fell to the earl, as his superior, during 
 the minority of his son. The Earl of Seaforth 
 and his clan, who had also favoured the de- 
 signs of Macintosh, were in like manner recon- 
 ciled, at the same time, to the Earl of Enzie, 
 at Aberdeen, through the mediation of the 
 Earl of Dunfermline, the Chancellor of Scot- 
 land, whose daughter the Earl of Seaforth had 
 married. 2 
 
 In no part of the Highlands did the spirit 
 of faction operate so powerfully, or reign with 
 greater virulence, than in Sutherland and 
 Caithness and the adjacent country. The 
 jealousies and strifes which existed for such a 
 
 B Sir Eoliert Gordon, p. 35G, et seq. 
 
 length of time between the two great rival 
 families of Sutherland-and Caithness, and the 
 warfare which these occasioned, sowed the 
 seeds of a deep-rooted hostility, which extended 
 its baneful influence among all their followers, 
 dependants, and friends, and retarded their 
 advancement. The most trivial offences were 
 often magnified into the greatest crimes, and 
 bodies of men, animated by the deadliest 
 hatred, were instantly congregated to avenge 
 imaginary wrongs. It would be almost an 
 endless task to relate the many disputes and 
 differences which occurred during the seven- 
 teenth century in these distracted districts; 
 but as a short account of the principal events 
 is necessary in a work of this nature, we again 
 proceed agreeably to our plan. 
 
 The resignation which the Earl of Caithness 
 was compelled to make of part of the feu lands 
 of the bishopric of Caithness, into the hands of 
 the bishop, as before related, was a measure 
 which preyed upon his mind, naturally restless 
 and vindictive, and in consequence he con- 
 tinually annoyed the bishop's servants and 
 tenants. His hatred was more especially 
 directed against Robert Monroe of Aldie, com- 
 missary of Caithness, who always acted as 
 chamberlain to the bishop, and factor in the 
 diocese, whom he took every opportunity to 
 molest. The earl had a domestic servant, 
 James Sinclair of Dyren, who had possessed 
 part of the lands which he had been compelled 
 to resign, and which were now tenanted by 
 Thomas Lindsay, brother-uterine of Robert 
 Monroe, the commissary. This James Sinclair, 
 at the instigation of the earl, quarrelled with 
 Thomas Lindsay, who was passing at the time 
 near the earl's house in Thurso, and, after 
 changing some hard words, Sinclair inflicted a 
 deadly wound upon him, of which he shortly 
 thereafter died. Sinclair immediately fled to 
 Edinburgh, and thence to London, to meet 
 Sir Andrew Sinclair, who was transacting 
 some business for the king of Denmark there, 
 that he might intercede with the king for a 
 pardon ; but his majesty refused to grant it, 
 and Sinclair, for better security, went to Den- 
 mark along with Sir Andrew. 
 
 As Robert Monroe did not consider his per- 
 son safe in Caithness under such circumstances, 
 he retired into Sutherland for a time. He then 
 
144 
 
 GENERAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 pursued James Sinclair and his master, the 
 Earl of Caithness, for the slaughter of his 
 brother, Thomas Lindsay ; hut, not appearing 
 for trial on the day appointed, they were "both 
 outlawed, and denounced rebels. Hearing that 
 Sinclair was in London, Monroe hastened 
 thither, and in his own name and that of the 
 bishop of Caithness, laid a complaint before his 
 majesty against the earl and his servant. His 
 majesty thereupon wrote to the Lords of the 
 Privy Council of Scotland, desiring them to 
 adopt the most speedy and rigorous measures 
 to suppress the oppressions of the earl, that his 
 subjects in the north who were well affected 
 might live in safety and peace ; and to enable 
 them the more effectually to punish the earl, 
 his majesty ordered them to keep back the 
 remission that had been granted for the affair 
 at Sanset, which had not yet been delivered to 
 him. His majesty also directed the Privy 
 Council, with all secrecy and speed, to give a 
 commission to Sir Eobert Gordon to apprehend 
 the earl, or force him to leave the kingdom, and 
 to take possession of all his castles for his 
 majesty's behoof; that he should also compel 
 the landed proprietors of Caithness to find 
 surety, not only for keeping the king's peace 
 in time coming, but also for their personal 
 appearance at Edinburgh twice every year, as 
 the West Islanders were bound to do, to 
 answer to such complaints as might be made 
 against them. The letter containing these in- 
 structions is dated from Windsor, 25th May, 
 1621. 
 
 The Privy Council, on receipt of this letter, 
 communicated the same to Sir Eobert Gordon, 
 who was then in Edinburgh ; but he excused 
 himself from accepting the commission offered 
 him, lest his acceptance might be construed as 
 proceeding from spleen and malice against the 
 Earl of Caithness. This answer, however, did 
 not satisfy the Privy _ Council, which insisted 
 that he should accept the commission ; he 
 eventually did so, but on condition that the 
 council should furnish him with shipping and 
 the munitions of war, and all other necessaries 
 to force the earl to yield, in case he should 
 fortify either Castle Sinclair or Ackergill, and 
 withstand a siege. 
 
 While the Privy Council were deliberating 
 on this matter, Sir Eobert Gordon took occa- 
 
 sion to speak to Lord Berridale, who was still 
 a prisoner for debt in the jail of Edinburgh, 
 respecting the contemplated measures against 
 the earl, his father. As Sir Eobert was still 
 very unwilling to enter upon such an enter- 
 prise, he advised his lordship to undertake 
 the business, by engaging in which he might 
 not only get himself relieved of the claims 
 against him, save his country from the dangers 
 which threatened it, but also keep possession of 
 his castles ; and that as his father had treated 
 him in the most unnatural manner, by suffering 
 him to remain so long in prison without taking 
 any steps to obtain his liberation, he would be 
 justified, in the eyes of the world, in accepting 
 the offer now made. Being encouraged by 
 Lord Gordon, Earl of Enzie, to whom Si: 
 Eobert Gordon's proposal had been communi- 
 cated, to embrace the offer, Lord Berridale 
 offered to undertake the service without any 
 charge to his majesty, and that . he would, 
 before being liberated, give security to his 
 creditors, either to return to prison after In, 
 had executed the commission, or satisfy them 
 for their claims against him. The Privy Coun- 
 cil embraced at once Lord Berridale's proposal, 
 but, although the Earl of Enzie offered himself 
 as surety for his lordship's return to prison after 
 the service was over, the creditors refused to 
 consent to his liberation, and thus the matter 
 dropped. Sir Eobert Gordon was again urged 
 by the council to accept the commission, and 
 to make the matter more palatable to him, they 
 granted the commission to him and the Earl 
 of Enzie jointly, both of whom accepted it. 
 As the council, however, had no command from 
 the king to supply the commissioners with 
 shipping and warlike stores, they delayed pro- 
 ceedings till they should receive instructions 
 from his majesty touching that point. 
 
 When the Earl of Caithness was informed of 
 the proceedings contemplated against him, and 
 that Sir Eobert Gordon had been employed by a 
 commission from his majesty to act in the mat- 
 ter, he wrote to the Lords of the Privy Council, 
 asserting that he was innocent of the death of 
 Thomas Lindsay ; that his reason for not ap- 
 pearing at Edinburgh to abide Iris trial for that 
 crime, was not that he had been in any shape 
 privy to the slaughter, but for fear of his 
 creditors, who, he was afraid, would apprehend 
 
LOED BEEEIDALE AND HIS CEEDITOES. 
 
 145 
 
 and imprison him ; and promising, that if his 
 majesty would grant him a protection and safe- 
 conduct, he would find security to abide trial 
 for the slaughter of Thomas Lindsay. On 
 receipt of this letter, the lords of the council 
 promised him a protection, and in the month 
 of August, his brother, James Sinclair of 
 Murkle, and Sir John Sinclair of Greenland, 
 became sureties for bis appearance at Edin- 
 burgh, at the time prescribed for his appear- 
 ance to stand trial. Thus the execution of the 
 commission was in the meantime delayed. 
 
 Notwithstanding the refusal of Lord Berri- 
 dale's creditors to consent to his Liberation, 
 Lord Gordon afterwards did all in his power 
 to accomplish it, and ultimately succeeded in 
 obtaining this consent, by giving his own 
 personal security either to satisfy the creditors, 
 or deliver up Lord Berridale into their hands. 
 TTia lordship was accordingly released from 
 prison, and returned to Caithness in the year 
 1621, after a confinement of five years. As 
 his final enlargement from jail depended upon 
 his obtaining the means of paying his creditors, 
 and as his father, the earl, staid at home con- 
 suming the rents of his estates, in rioting and 
 licentiousness, without paying any part either 
 of the principal or interest of his debts, and 
 without feeling the least uneasiness at his son's 
 confinement, Lord Berridale, immediately on 
 his return, assisted by his friends, attempted 
 to apprehend his father, so as to get the family 
 estates into his own possession ; but without 
 success. 
 
 In the meantime the earl's creditors, wearied 
 out with the delay which had taken place 
 in liquidating their debts, gTew exceedingly 
 clamorous, and some of them took a journey to 
 Caithness in the month of April, 1622, to 
 endeavour to effect a settlement with the earl 
 personally. All, however, that they obtained 
 were fair words, and a promise from the earl 
 that he would speedily follow them to Edin- 
 burgh, and satisfy them of all demands ; but 
 he failed to perform his promise. About this 
 time, a sort of reconciliation appears to have 
 taken place between the earl and his son, Lord 
 Berridale ; but it was of short duration. On 
 this new disagreement breaking out, the earl 
 lost the favour and friendship not only of his 
 brothers, James and Sir John, but also that of 
 
 his best friends in Caithness. Lord Berridale, 
 thereupon, left Caithness and took up his 
 residence with Lord Gordon, who wrote to his 
 friends at Court to obtain a new commission 
 against the earl. As the king was daily troubled 
 with complaints against the earl by his creditors, 
 he readily consented to such a request, and he 
 accordingly wrote a letter to the Lords of the 
 Privy Council of Scotland, in the month of 
 December 1622, desiring them to issue a com- 
 mission to Lord Gordon to proceed against the 
 earl. The execution of the commission was, 
 however, postponed in consequence of a message 
 to Lord Gordon to attend the Court and pro- 
 ceed to France on some affairs of state, where 
 he accordingly went in the year 1623. On 
 the departure of his lordship, the earl made 
 an application to the Lords of the Council for 
 a new protection, promising to appear at Edin- 
 burgh on the 10th of August of this year, and 
 to satisfy his creditors. This turned out to be 
 a mere pretence to obtain delay, for although 
 the council granted the protection, as required, 
 upon the most urgent solicitations, the earl 
 failed to appear on the day appointed. This 
 breach of his engagement incensed his majesty 
 and the council the more against him, and made 
 them more determined than ever to Teduce him 
 to obedience. He was again denounced and 
 proclaimed rebel, and a new commission was 
 granted to Sir Eobert Gordon to proceed against 
 him and his abettors with fire and sword. In 
 this commission there were conjoined with Sir 
 Eobert, his brother, Sir Alexander Gordon, 
 Sir Donald Mackay, his nephew, and James 
 Sinclair of Murkle, but on this condition, that 
 Sir Eobert should act as chief commissioner, 
 and that nothing should be done by the other 
 commissioners in the service they were employed 
 in, without his advice and consent. 
 
 The Earl of Caithness seeing now no longer 
 any chance of evading the authority of the 
 laws, prepared to meet the gathering storm by 
 fortifying his castles and strongholds. Pro- 
 clamations were issued interdicting all persons 
 from having any communication with the earl, 
 and letters of concurrence were given to Sir 
 Eobert in name of his majesty, charging and 
 commanding the inhabitants of Eoss, Suther- 
 land, Strathnaver, Caithness, and Orkney, to 
 assist him in the execution of his majesty's 
 
146 
 
 GENEEAL HISTOEY OE THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 commission ; a ship well furnished with muni- 
 tions of war, was sent to the coast of Caithness 
 to prevent the earl's escape by sea, and to 
 furnish Sir Eohert with ordnance for battering 
 the earl's castles in case he should withstand 
 a siege. 
 
 Sir Eobert Gordon having arrived in Suther- 
 land in the month of August, 1623, was 
 immediately joined by Lord Berridale for the 
 purpose of consulting on the plan of operations 
 to be adopted ; but, before fixing on any par- 
 ticular plan, it was concerted that Lord Berri- 
 dale should first proceed to Caithness to learn 
 what resolution his father had come to, and to 
 ascertain how the inhabitants of that country 
 stood affected towards the earl. He was also 
 to notify to Sir Eobert the arrival of the ship 
 of war on the coast. A day was, at the same 
 time, fixed for the inhabitants of the adjoin- 
 ing districts to meet Sir Eobert Gordon in 
 Strathully, upon the borders between Suther- 
 land and Caithness. Lord Berridale was not 
 long in Caithness when he sent notice to Sir 
 Eobert acquainting him that his father, the 
 earl, had resolved to stand out to the last 
 extremity, and that he had fortified the strong 
 castle of Ackergill, which he had supplied with 
 men, ammunition, and provisions, and upon 
 holding out which he placed his last and only 
 hope. He advised Sir Eobert to bring with 
 him into Caithness as many men as he could 
 muster, as many of the inhabitants stood still 
 well affected to the earl. 
 
 The Earl of Caithness, in the meantime, 
 justly apprehensive of the consequences which 
 might ensue if unsuccessful in his opposition, 
 despatched a messenger to Sir Eobert Gordon, 
 proposing that some gentlemen should be 
 authorized to negotiate between them, for the 
 purpose of bringing matters to an amicable 
 iccomniodation. Sir Eobert, who perceived 
 the drift of this message, which was solely to 
 obtain delay, returned for answer that he was 
 exceedingly sorry that the earl bad refused the 
 benefit of his last protection for clearing away 
 the imputations laid to his charge ; and that 
 he clearly perceived that the earl's object in 
 proposing a negotiation was solely to waste 
 time, and to weary out the commissioners 
 and army by delays, which he, for his own 
 part, would not submit to, because the harvest 
 
 was nearly at hand, and the king's ship could 
 not be detained upon the coast idle. Unless, 
 therefore, the earl at once submitted himself 
 unconditionally to the king's mercy, Sir Eobert 
 threatened to proceed against him and his 
 supporters immediately. The earl had been 
 hitherto so successful in his different schemes 
 to avoid the ends of justice that such an answer 
 was by no means expected, and the firmness 
 displayed in it served greatly to shake his 
 courage. 
 
 Upon receipt of the intelligence from Lord 
 Berridale, Sir Eobert Gordon made prepara- 
 tions for entering Caithness without delay; 
 and, as a precautionary measure, he took 
 pledges from such of the tribes and families in 
 Caithness as he suspected were favourable to 
 the earl. Before all his forces had time to 
 assemble, Sir Eobert received notice tliat the 
 war ship had arrived upon the Caithness coast, 
 and that the earl was meditating an escape be- 
 yond the seas. Unwilling to withdraw men 
 from the adjoining provinces during the harvest 
 season, and considering the Sutherland forces 
 quite sufficient for his purpose, he sent couriers 
 into Eoss, Strathnaver, Assynt, and Orkney, 
 desiring the people who had been engaged to 
 accompany the expedition to remain at home 
 till farther notice ; and, having assembled all 
 the inhabitants of Sutherland, he picked out 
 the most active and resolute men among them, 
 whom he caused to be well supplied with war- 
 like weapons, and other necessaries, for the 
 expedition. Having thus equipped his army, 
 Sir Eobert, accompanied by his brother, Sir 
 Alexander Gordon, and the principal gentle- 
 men of Sutherland, marched, on the 3d of 
 September, 1623, from Dunrobin to Killiernan 
 in Strathully, the place of rendezvous previ- 
 ously appointed. Here Sir Eobert divided his 
 forces into companies, over each of which he 
 placed a commander. The following morning 
 he passed the river Helmsdale, and arranged 
 his army in the following order : — Half-a-mile 
 in advance of the main body he placed a com- 
 pany of the clan Gun, whose duty it was to 
 search the fields as they advanced for the pur- 
 pose of discovering any ambuscades which 
 might be laid in their way, and to clear away 
 any obstruction to the regular advance of the 
 main body. The right wing of the army was 
 
REDUCTION AND PACIFICATIOISr OF CAITHNESS. 
 
 147 
 
 led "by John Murray of Aberscors, Hugh Gor- 
 don of Ballellon, and Adam Gordon of Kil- 
 calnikill. The left 'wing was commanded by 
 John Gordon, younger of Emtio, Robert Gray 
 of Ospisdale, and Alexander Sutherland of 
 Kilphidder. And Sir Robert Gordon himself, 
 his brother Sir Alexander, the laird of Pul- 
 rossie, and William Mac-Mhic-Sheumais of 
 Killiernan, led the centre. The two wings 
 were always kept a short distance in advance 
 of the centre, from which they were to 
 receive support when required. In this man- 
 ner the army advanced towards Berridale, and 
 they observed the same order of marching dur- 
 ing all the time they remained in Caithness. 
 
 As soon as Lord Berridale heard of Sir 
 Robert Gordon's advance, he and James Sin- 
 clair of Murkle, one of the commissioners, and 
 some other gentlemen, went forward in haste 
 to meet him. The parties accordingly met 
 among the mountains above Cayen, about three 
 miles from Berridale. Sir Robert continued 
 his march till he arrived at Brea-Na-Henglish 
 in Berridale, where at night he encamped. 
 Here they were informed that the ship of war, 
 after casting anchor before Castle Sinclair, had 
 gone from thence to Scrabster road, and that 
 the Earl of Caithness had abandoned the 
 country, and sailed by night into one of the 
 Orkney Islands, with the intention of going 
 thence into Norway or Denmark. Erom Brea- 
 Na-Henglish the army advanced to Lathron, 
 where they encamped. Here James Sinclair 
 of Murkle, sheriff of Caithness, Sir "William 
 Sinclair of May, the laird of Ratter, the laird 
 of Eorse, and several other gentlemen of Caith- 
 ness, waited upon Sir Robert Gordon and 
 tendered their submission and obedience to his 
 majesty, offering, at the same time, every 
 assistance they could afford in forwarding the 
 objects of the expedition. Sir Robert received 
 them kindly, and promised to acquaint his 
 majesty with their submission ; but he dis- 
 trusted some of them, and he gave orders that 
 none of the Caithness people should be allowed 
 to enter his camp after sunset. At Lathron, 
 Sir Robert was joined by about 300 of the 
 Caithness men, consisting of the Cadels and 
 others who had favoured Lord Berridale. 
 These men were commanded by James Sinclair, 
 fiar of Murkle, and were kept always a mile or 
 
 two in" advance of the army till they reached 
 Castle Sinclair. 
 
 No sooner did Sir Robert arrive before Castle 
 Sinclair, which was a very strong place, and 
 the principal residence of the Earl of Caith- 
 ness, than it surrendered, the keys being de- 
 livered up to him as representing his majesty. 
 The army encamped before the castle two 
 nights, during which time the officers took up 
 their quarters within the castle, which was 
 guarded by Sutherland men. 
 
 From Castle Sinclair Sir Robert marched to 
 the castle of Ackergill, another strong place, 
 which also surrendered on the first summons, 
 and the keys of which were delivered in like 
 manner to him. The army next marched in 
 battle array to the castle of Kease, the last resi- 
 dence of the earl, which was also given up with- 
 out resistance. The Countess of Caithness had 
 previously removed to another residence not far 
 distant, where she was visited by Sir Robert 
 Gordon, who was her cousin-gernian. The 
 countess entreated him, with great earnestness, 
 to get her husband again restored to favour, 
 seeing he had made no resistance to him. Sir 
 Robert promised to do what he could if the 
 earl would follow his advice ; but he did not 
 expect that matters could be accommodated so 
 speedily as she expected, from the pecidiar 
 situation in which the earl then stood. 
 
 From Kease Sir Robert Gordon returned 
 with his army to Castle Sinclair, where, accord- 
 ing to the directions he had received from the 
 Privy Council, he delivered the keys of all 
 these castles and forts to Lord Berridale, to be 
 kept by him for his majesty's use, for which he 
 should be answerable to the lords of the coun- 
 cil until the farther pleasure of his majesty 
 should be known. 
 
 The army then returned to Wick in the same 
 marching order which had been observed since 
 its first entry into Caithness, at which place 
 the. commissioners consulted together, and 
 framed a set of instructions to Lord Berridale 
 for governing Caithness peaceably in time com- 
 ing, conformably to the laws of the kingdom, 
 and for preventing the Earl of Caithness from 
 again disturbing the country, should he venture 
 to return after the departure of the army. At 
 Wick Sir Robert Gordon was joined by Sir 
 Donald Mackay, who had collected together 
 
1.48 
 
 GENEEAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 the choicest men of Strathnaver ; but, as the 
 object of the expedition had been accomplished, 
 Sir Donald, after receiving Sir Eobert's thanks, 
 returned to Strathnaver. Sir Bobert having 
 brought this expedition to a successful termina- 
 tion, led back his men into Sutherland, and, 
 after a stay of three months, went to England, 
 carrying with him a letter from the Privy 
 Council of Scotland to the king, giving an 
 account of the expedition, and of its happy 
 results. 3 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 a. D. 1624—1636. 
 
 BRITISH SOVEREIGNS I — 
 
 James VI., 1603—1625. Charles I., 1625—1619. 
 
 Insurrection of the clan Chattan against the Earl of 
 Murray — Dispute between the laird of Dunns and 
 Gordon, younger of Embo — Sir Donald Mackay's 
 machinations — Feud among the Grants — Dispute 
 between the lairds of Frendraught and Hothiemay — 
 Quarrel between Frendraught and the laird of Pit- 
 caple — Calamitous and fatal fire at Frendraught 
 House — Inquiry as to the cause of the fire — Escape 
 of James Grant — Apprehension of Grant of Ballin- 
 dalloch — And of Thomas Grant — Dispute between 
 the Earl of Sutherland and Lord Lorn — Depreda- 
 tions committed upon Frendraught — Marquis of 
 Huntly accused therewith — The Marquis and Let- 
 terfourie committed — Liberated— Death and char- 
 acter of the Marquis. 
 
 The troubles in Sutherland and Caithness had 
 been scarcely allayed, when a formidable in- 
 surrection broke out on the part of the clan 
 Chattan against the Earl of Murray, which 
 occasioned considerable uproar and confusion 
 in the Highlands. The clan Chattan had for 
 a very long period been the faithful friends 
 and followers of the Earls of Murray, who, 
 on that account, had allotted them many 
 valuable lands in recompense for their ser- 
 vices in Pettie and Strathearn. The clan had, 
 iu particular, been very active in revenging 
 upon the Marquis of Huntly the death of 
 James, Earl of Murray, who was killed at 
 Donnibristle; but his son and successor being 
 reconciled to the family of Huntly, and need- 
 ing no longer, as he thought, the aid of the 
 clan, dispossessed them of the lands which his 
 predecessors had bestowed upon them. This 
 harsh proceeding occasioned great irritation, 
 3 Sir Robert Gordon, p. 366, et scq. 
 
 and, upon the death of Sir Lauchlan their 
 chief, who died a short time before Whitsun- 
 day, 1624, they resolved either to recover the 
 possessions of which they had been deprived, 
 or to lay them waste. While Sir Lauchlan 
 lived, the clan were awed by his authority and 
 prevented from such an attempt, but no such 
 impediment now standing in their way, and as 
 their chief, who was a mere child, could run 
 no risk by the enterprise, they considered the 
 present a favourable opportunity for carrying 
 their plan into execution. 
 
 Accordingly, a gathering of the clan, to the 
 number of about 200 gentlemen and 300 ser- 
 vants, took place about Whitsunday, 1624. 
 This party was commanded by three uncles of 
 the late chief. 4 " They keeped the feilds," 
 sayo Spalding, " in their Highland weid upon 
 foot with swords, bowes, arrowes, targets, hag- 
 buttis, pistollis, and other Highland armour; 
 and first began to rob and spoulzie the earle's 
 tennents, who laboured their possessions, of 
 their haill goods, geir, insight, plenishing, 
 horse, nolt, sheep, corns, and cattell, and left 
 them nothing that they could gett within their 
 bounds ; syne fell in sorning throw out Murray, 
 Strathawick, TJrquhart, Eoss, Sutherland, Brae 
 of Marr, and diverse other parts, takeing their 
 meat and food per force wher they could not 
 gett it willingly, frae freinds alseweill as frae 
 their faes; yet still keeped themselves from 
 shedeing of innocent blood. Thus they lived 
 as outlawes, oppressing the countrie, (besydes 
 the casting of the earle's lands waist), and 
 openly avowed they had tane this course to gett 
 thir own possessions again, or then hold the 
 country walking." ' 
 
 When this rising took place, the Earl of 
 Murray obtained from Monteith and Balquhid- 
 der about 300 armed men, and placing himself 
 at their head he marched through Moray to In- 
 verness. The earl took up his residence in 
 the castle with the Earl of Enzie, his brother- 
 in-law, eldest son of the Marquis of Huntly, 
 and after the party had passed one night at 
 Inverness, he despatched them in quest of the 
 
 4 Spalding says that the party were commanded by 
 Lauchlan Macintosh, alias Lauchlan Og, uncle of the 
 young chief, and Lauchlan Macintosh or Lauchlan 
 Angus-son, eldest son of Angus Macintosh, alias 
 Angus William, son of Auld Tirlie. — Mcmorialls oj 
 the Trublcs in Scotland and im Enrjland, A. D. 1624 — 
 1645. 
 
INSURRECTION OF THE CLAN CHATTAN QUELLED. 
 
 149 
 
 clan Cliattan, but whether from fear of meet- 
 ing them, or because they could not find them, 
 certain it is that the Monteith and Bakruhidder 
 men returned without effecting anything, after 
 putting the earl to great expense. The earl, 
 therefore, sent them back to their respective 
 countries, and went himself to Elgin, where he 
 raised another body of men to suppress the 
 clan Chattan, who were equally unsuccessful in 
 finding the latter out. 
 
 These ineffectual attempts against the clan 
 served to make them more bold and dar- 
 ing in their outrages; and as the earl now saw 
 that no force which he could himself bring 
 into the field was sufficient to overawe these 
 marauders, King James, at his earnest solici- 
 tation, granted him a commission, appointing 
 him his lieutenant in the Highlands, and giv- 
 ing him authority to proceed capitally against 
 the offenders. On his return the earl pro- 
 claimed the commission he had obtained from 
 his majesty, and issued letters of intercom- 
 muning against the clan Chattan, prohibiting 
 all persons from harbouring, supplying, or en- 
 tertaining them, in any manner of way, under 
 certain severe pains and penalties. Although 
 the Marquis of Huntly was the earl's father-in- 
 law, he felt somewhat indignant at the appoint- 
 ment, as he conceived that he or his son had 
 the best title to be appointed to the lieutenancy 
 of the north ; but he concealed his displeasure. 
 
 After the Earl of Murray had issued the 
 notices, prohibiting all persons from communi- 
 cating with, or assisting the clan Chattan, their 
 kindred and friends, who had privately pro- 
 mised them aid, before they broke out, began 
 to grow cold, and declined to assist them, as 
 they were apprehensive of losing their estates, 
 many of them being wealthy. The earl per- 
 ceiving this, opened a communication with 
 some of the principal persons of the clan, to 
 induce them to submit to his authority, who, 
 seeing no hopes of making any longer an effec- 
 tual resistance, readily acquiesced, and, by the 
 intercession of friends, made then' peace with 
 the earl, on condition that they should inform 
 him of the names of such persons as had given 
 them protection, after the publication of his 
 letters of interdiction. Having thus quelled 
 this formidable insurrection without bloodshed, 
 the earl, by virtue of his commission, held 
 
 justice courts at Elgin, where " some slight 
 louns, followers of the clan Chattan," were 
 tried and executed, but all the principals con- 
 cerned were pardoned. 
 
 As the account which Spalding gives of the 
 appearance of the accused, and of the base 
 conduct of the principal men of the clan 
 Chattan, in informing against their friends and 
 benefactors, is both curious and graphic, it is 
 here inserted: "Then presently was brought 
 in befor the barr; and in the honest men's 
 faces, the clan Chattan who had gotten supply, 
 verified what they had gotten, and the honest 
 men confounded and dasht, knew not what to 
 answer, was forced to come in the earle's will, 
 whilk was not for their weill : others compeared 
 and willingly confessed, trusting to gett more 
 favour at the earle's hands, but they came little 
 speid: and lastly, some stood out and denyed 
 all, who was reserved to the triall of an assyse. 
 The principall malefactors stood up in judg- 
 ment, and declared what they had gotten, 
 whether meat, money, cloathing, gun, ball, 
 powder, lead, sword, dirk, and the like com- 
 modities, and alse instructed the assyse in ilk 
 particular, what they had gotten frae the per- 
 sons pannalled; an uncouth form of probation, 
 wher the principall malefactor proves against 
 the receiptor for his own pardon, and honest 
 men, perhaps neither of the clan Chattan's 
 kyne nor blood, punished for their good will, 
 ignorant of the laws, and rather receipting 
 them more for their evil nor their good. 
 Nevertheless thir innocent men, under collour 
 of justice, part and part as they came in, were 
 soundly fyned in great soumes as their estates 
 might bear, and some above their estate was 
 fyned, and every one warded within the tolbuith 
 of Elgine, while the least myte was payed of 
 such as was persued in anno 1624." 5 
 
 Some idea of the unequal administration of 
 the laws at this time may be formed, when it 
 is considered that the enormous fines imposed 
 in the present instance, went into the pockets 
 of the chief judge, the Earl of Murray himself, 
 as similar mulcts had previously gone into 
 those of the Earl of Argyle, in his crusade 
 against the unfortunate clan Gregor! This 
 legal robbery, however, does not appear to have 
 
 5 Memorials, vol. i. p. 8. 
 
150. 
 
 GENERAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 enriched the houses of Argyle and Murray, for 
 Sir Eobert Gordon observes, that " these fynes 
 did not much advantage either of these two 
 earles." The Earl of Murray, no doubt, think- 
 ing such a mode of raising money an easy and 
 profitable speculation, afterwards obtained an 
 enlargement of his commission from Charles I., 
 not only against the clan Chattan, but also 
 against all other offenders within several adja- 
 cent shires ; but the commission was afterwards 
 annulled by his majesty, not so much on 
 account of the abuses and injustice which 
 might have been perpetrated under it, but 
 because, as Sir Eobert Gordon observes, "it 
 grieved divers of his majesty's best affected 
 subjects, and chieflie the Marquis of Huntlie, 
 unto whose predicessors onlie the office of 
 livetennendrie in the north of Scotland had 
 bein granted by former kings, for these many 
 ages." 
 
 There seems reason, however, for supposing 
 that the recall of the commission was hastened 
 by complaints to the king, on the part of the 
 oppressed; for the earl had no sooner obtained 
 its renewal, than he held a court against the 
 burgh of Inverness, John Grant of Glenmoris- 
 ton, and others who had refused to acknowledge 
 their connexion with the clan Chattan, or to 
 pay him the heavy fines which he had imposed 
 upon them. The town of Inverness endea- 
 voured to get quit of the earl's extortions, on 
 the ground that the inhabitants were innocent 
 of the crimes laid to their charge ; but the earl 
 frustrated their application to the Privy Coun- 
 cil. The provost, Duncan Forbes, 6 was then 
 sent to the king, and Grant of Glenmoriston 
 took a journey to London, at the same time, 
 on his own account; but their endeavours 
 proved ineffectual, and they had no alternative 
 but to submit to the earl's exactions. 7 
 
 The quarrel between the laird of Duffus and 
 John Gordon, younger of Embo, which had 
 lain dormant for some time, burst forth again, 
 in the year 1625, and proved nearly fatal to 
 both parties. Gordon had long watched an 
 opportunity to revenge the wrong which he 
 conceived had been done him by the laird 
 
 6 Founder of the house of Culloden, and great- 
 grandfather of the celebrated Lord President Forbes. 
 
 7 Vide the petition of Provost Forbes to the king, 
 "in the name of the inhabitants" of Inverness; 
 printed among the Culloden Papers, No. 5, p. 4. 
 
 of Duffus and his brother, James, but he could 
 never fall in with either of them, as they 
 remained in Moray, and, when they appeared 
 in Sutherland, they were always accompanied 
 by some friends, so that Gordon was prevented 
 from attacking them. Frequent disappoint- 
 ments in this way only whetted his appetite 
 for revenge; and meeting, when on horseback, 
 one day, between Sidderay and Skibo, with 
 John Sutherland of Clyne, third brother of 
 the laird of Duffus, who was also on horseback, 
 he determined to make the laird of Clyne suffer 
 for the delinquencies of his elder brother. 
 Eaising, therefore, a cudgel which he held in 
 his hand, he inflicted several blows upon John 
 Sutherland, who, as soon as he recovered him- 
 self from the surprise and confusion into which 
 such an unexpected attack had thrown him, 
 drew his sword. Gordon, in his turn, un- 
 sheathed his, and a warm combat ensued, 
 between the parties and two friends who ac- 
 companied them. After they had fought a 
 while, Gordon wounded Sutherland in the 
 head and in one of his hands, and otherwise 
 injured him, but he spared his life, although 
 completely in his power. 
 
 Duffus immediately cited John Gordon to 
 appear before the Privy Council, to answer for 
 this breach of the peace, and, at the same 
 time, summoned before the council some of the 
 Earl of Sutherland's friends and dependants, 
 for an alleged conspiracy against himself and 
 his friends. Duffus, with his two brothers 
 and Gordon, came to Edinburgh on the day- 
 appointed, and, the parties being heard, Gordon 
 was declared guilty of a riot, and was there- 
 upon committed to prison. This result gave 
 great satisfaction to Duffus and his brothers, 
 who now calculated on nothing less than the 
 utter ruin of Gordon; as they had, by means 
 of Sir Donald Mackay, obtained a Strathnaver 
 man, named William Mack-Allen (one of the 
 Siol-Thomais), who had been a servant of 
 Gordon's, to become a witness against him, 
 and to prove every thing that Duffus was 
 pleased to allege against Gordon. 
 
 In this state of matters, Sir Eobert Gordon 
 returned from London to Edinburgh, where he 
 found Duffus in high spirits, exulting at his 
 success, and young Embo in prison. Sir 
 Eobert applied to Duffus, hoping to bring 
 
SIE DONALD MACKAY'S MACHINATIONS. 
 
 151 
 
 about a reconciliation by the intervention of 
 friends, but Duffus refused to hear of any 
 arrangement ; and the more reasonable the 
 conditions were, which Sir Robert proposed, 
 the more unreasonable and obstinate did he 
 become ; his object being to get the lords to 
 award him great sums of money at the expense 
 of Gordon, in satisfaction for the wrong done 
 his brother. Sir Robert, however, finally suc- 
 ceeded, by the assistance of the Earl of Enzie, 
 who was then at Edinburgh, in getting the 
 prosecution against the Earl of Sutherland's 
 friends quashed, in obtaining the liberation of 
 John Gordon, and in getting his fine mitigated 
 to one hundred pounds Scots, payable to the 
 king only ; reserving, however, civil action to 
 John Sutherland of Clyne against Gordon, 
 before the Lords of Session. 8 
 
 Sir Donald Mackay, always restless, and 
 desirous of gratifying his enmity at the house 
 of Sutherland, endeavoured to embroil it with 
 the laird of Duffus in the following way. 
 Having formed a resolution to leave the king- 
 dom, Sir Donald applied for, and obtained, a 
 license from the king to raise a regiment in the 
 north, to assist Count Mansfield in his campaign 
 in Germany. He, accordingly, collected, in a 
 few months, about 3,000 men from different 
 parts of Scotland, the greater part of whom he 
 embarked at Cromarty in the month of October 
 1626 ; but, on account of bad health, he was 
 obliged to delay his own departure till the 
 following year, when he joined the king of 
 Sweden with his regiment, in consequence of 
 a peace having been concluded between the 
 King of Denmark and the Emperor of Ger- 
 many. 9 Among others whom Mackay had 
 engaged to accompany him to Germany, was a 
 person named Angus Roy Gun, against whom, 
 a short time previous to his enlistment, Mac- 
 
 8 Sir R. Gordon, p. 397, et seq. 
 
 9 A considerable number of gentlemen, chiefly from 
 Kos9, Sutherland, and Caithness, joined Mackay, some 
 of whom rose to high rank in the army of Gustavns 
 Adolphus. Among these were Robert Monroe of 
 Foulis, and his brother, Hector ; Thomas Mackenzie, 
 brother of the Earl of Seaforth ; John Monroe of Obis- 
 dell, and his brother Robert ; John Monroe of Assynt, 
 and others of that surname; Hugh Ross of Priesthill ; 
 David Ross and Nicolas Ross, sons of Alexander Ross 
 of Invereharron ; Hugh Gordon, son of Adam Gordon 
 of Culkour ; John Gordon, son of John Gordon of 
 Garty ; Adam Gordon and John Gordon, sons of 
 Adam Gordon George-son ; Ive Mackay, 'William, son 
 of Donald Mackay of Scourie ; William Gun, son of 
 
 kay and his brother, John Mackay of Dirlet, 
 had obtained a commission from the lords of 
 the " Privy Council for the purpose of appre- 
 hending him and bringing him before the 
 council for some supposed crimes. Mackay 
 could have easily apprehended Angus Roy Gun 
 on different occasions, but having become one 
 of his regiment, he allowed the commission, as 
 far as he was concerned, to remain a dead letter. 
 
 Sometime after his enlistment, Angus Roy 
 Gun made a journey into Sutherland, a circum- 
 stance which afforded Mackay an opportunity 
 of putting into execution the scheme he had 
 formed, and which showed that he was no 
 mean adept in the arts of cunning and dissimu- 
 lation. His plan was this : — He wrote, in the 
 first place, private letters to the laird of Duffus, 
 and to his brother, John Sutherland of Clyne, 
 to apprehend Angus Roy Gun under the com- 
 mission he had obtained ; and at the same 
 time, sent the commission itself to the laird of 
 Duffus as his authority for so doing. He next 
 wrote a letter to Alexander Gordon, the Earl 
 of Sutherland's uncle, who, in the absence of 
 his brother, Sir Robert, governed Sutherland, 
 entreating him, as Angus Roy Gun was then in 
 Sutherland, to send him to him to Cromarty, as 
 he was his hired soldier. Ignorant of Mackay's 
 design, and desirous of serving him, Sir Alex- 
 ander sent two of his men to bring Gun to 
 Sir Alexander ; but on their return they were 
 met by John Sutherland of Clyne and a party 
 of sixteen men, who seized Gun ; and to pre- 
 vent a rescue, the laird of Duffus sent his 
 brother, James Sutherland, Alexander Murray, 
 heir-apparent of Aberscors, and William Neill- 
 son, chief of the Sliochd-Iain-Abaraich, with 
 300 men to protect his brother John. At the 
 same time, as he anticipated an attack from Sir 
 Alexander Gordon, he sent messengers to his 
 supporters in Ross, Strathnaver, Caithness, and 
 other places for assistance. 
 
 When Sir Alexander Gordon heard of the 
 assembling of such a body of the Earl of 
 Sutherland's vassals without his knowledge, 
 he made inquiry to ascertain the cause ; and 
 
 John Gun Rob-son ; John Sinclair, bastard son of the 
 earl of Caithness ; Francis Sinclair, son of James Sin- 
 clair of Murkle ; John Innes, son of William Innes of 
 Sanset ; John Gun, son of William Gun in Golspie- 
 Kirktown ; and George Gun, son of Alexander Gun 
 Rob-son. 
 
152 
 
 GENERAL HISTOKY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 being informed of Gun's capture, he collected 
 18 men who were near at hand, and hastened 
 with them from Dunrobin towards Clyne. On 
 arriving at the bridge of Broray, he found 
 James Sutherland, with his brother John, and 
 their whole party drawn up in battle array at 
 the east end of the bridge. He, thereupon, sent 
 a person to the Sutherlands to know the cause 
 of such an assemblage, and the reason why they 
 had taken Gun from his servants. As the 
 Sutherlands refused to exhibit their authority, 
 Sir Alexander made demonstrations for passing 
 the bridge, but he was met by a shower of 
 shot and arrows which wounded two of his 
 men. After exchanging shots for some time, 
 Sir Alexander was joined by a considerable 
 body of his countrymen, by whose aid, not- 
 withstanding the resistance he met with, he 
 was enabled to cross the bridge. The Suther- 
 lands were forced to retreat, and as they saw 
 no chance of opposing, with success, the power 
 of the house of Sutherland, they, after some 
 hours' consultation, delivered up Angus Roy 
 Gun to Sir Alexander Sutherland, who sent 
 Mm immediately to Mackay, then at Cromarty. 
 As such an example of insubordination 
 among the Earl of Sutherland's vassals might, 
 if overlooked, lead others to follow a similar 
 course, Sir Alexander caused the laird of Duffus 
 and his brother of Clyne, with their accom- 
 plices, to be cited to appear at Edinburgh on 
 the 16th of November following, to answer 
 before the Privy Council for their misdemean- 
 ours. The laird of Duffus, however, died in 
 the month of October, but the laird of Clyne 
 appeared at Edinburgh at the time appointed, 
 and produced before the Privy Council the 
 letter he had received from Mackay, as his 
 authority for acting as he had done. Sir Alex- 
 ander Gordon also produced the letter sent to 
 him by Sir Donald, who was thereby convicted 
 of having been the intentional originator of the 
 difference ; but as the lords of council thought 
 that the laird of Clyne had exceeded the 
 bounds of his commission, he was imprisoned 
 in the jail of Edinburgh, wherein he was 
 ordered to remain until he should give satisfac- 
 tion to the other party, and present some of 
 his men who had failed to appear though sum- 
 moned. By the mediation, however, of James 
 Sutherland, tutor of Duffus, a reconciliation 
 
 was effected between Sir Robert and Sir Alex- 
 ander Gordon, and the laird of Clyne, who 
 was, in consequence, soon thereafter liberated 
 from prison. 1 
 
 The year 1628 was marked by the breaking 
 out of an old and deadly feud among the 
 Grants, which had been transmitted from father 
 to son for several generations, in consequence 
 of the murder of John Grant of Ballindalloch, 
 about the middle of the sixteenth century, by 
 John Roy Grant of Carron, the natural son of 
 John Grant of Glenmoriston, at the instigation 
 of the laird of Grant, the chief of the tribe, 
 who had conceived a grudge against his kins- 
 man. Some years before the period first men- 
 tioned, James Grant, one of the Carron family, 
 happening to be at a fair in the town of Elgin, 
 observed one of the Grants of the Ballindalloch 
 family eagerly pursuing his (James's) brother, 
 Thomas Grant, whom he knocked down in the 
 street and wounded openly before his eyes. 
 The assailant was in his turn attacked by James 
 Grant, who killed him upon the spot and im- 
 mediately decamped. Ballindalloch then cited 
 James Grant to stand trial for the slaughter of 
 his kinsman, but, as he did not appear on the 
 day appointed, he was outlawed. The laird of 
 Grant made many attempts to reconcile the 
 parties, but in vain, as Ballindalloch was ob- 
 stinate and would listen to no proposals. 
 Nothing less than the blood of James Grant 
 would satisfy Ballindalloch. 
 
 This resolution on the part of Ballindalloch 
 almost drove James Grant to despair, and see- 
 ing his life every moment in jeopardy, and de- 
 prived of any hope of effecting a compromise, 
 he put himself at the head of a party of bri- 
 gands, whom he collected from all parts of the 
 Highlands. These freebooters made no dis- 
 tinction between friends and foes, but attacked 
 all persons of whatever description, and wasted 
 and despoiled their property. James Grant of 
 Dalnebo, one of the family of Ballindalloch, 
 fell a victim to their fury, and many of the 
 kinsmen of that family suffered greatly from 
 the depredations committed by Grant and his 
 associates. The Earl of Murray, under the 
 renewed and extended commission which he 
 had obtained from King Charles, made various 
 
 1 Sir K, Gordon, p. 401, et se<). 
 
FEUD AMONG THE GBANTS. 
 
 153 
 
 attempts to put an end to these lawless pro- 
 ceedings, but to no purpose; the failure of 
 these attempts serving only to harden James 
 Grant and his party, who continued their de- 
 predations. As John Grant of Carron, nephew 
 of James Grant, was supposed to maintain and 
 assist his uncle secretly, a suspicion for which 
 there seems to have been no foundation, John 
 Grant of Ballindalloch sought for an oppor- 
 tunity of revenging himself upon Carron, who 
 was a promising young man. Carron having 
 one day left his house, along with one Alex- 
 ander Grant and seven or eight other persons, 
 to cut down some timber in the woods of 
 Abernethy, Ballindalloch thought the occa- 
 sion favourable for putting his design into 
 execution. Having collected and armed sixteen 
 of his friends, he went to the forest where 
 Carron was, and under the pretence of search- 
 ing for James Grant and some of his associates, 
 against whom he had a commission, attacked 
 Carron, who fought manfully in defence of his 
 life, but being overpowered, was killed by 
 Ballindalloch. Before Carron fell, however, 
 he and Alexander Grant had slain several of 
 Ballindalloch's friends, among whom were 
 Thomas Grant of Davey, and Lauchlan Mac- 
 intosh of Eockinoyr. Alexander Grant after- 
 wards annoyed Ballindalloch, killing several of 
 his men, and assisted James Grant to lay waste 
 Ballindalloch's lands. " Give me leave heir," 
 says Sir E. Gordon, " to remark the provi- 
 dence and secrait judgement of the Almightie 
 God, who now hath mett Carron with the 
 same measure that his forefather, John Eoy 
 Grant of Carron, did serve the ancestor of 
 Ballendallogh; for upon the same day of the 
 moneth that John Eoy Grant did kill the great 
 grandfather of Ballendallogh (being the eleventh 
 day of September), the verie same day of this 
 month wes Carron slain by this John Grant of 
 Ballendallogh many yeirs thereafter. And, be- 
 sides,as that John Eoy Grant of Carron was left- 
 handed, so is this John Grant of Ballendallogh 
 left-handed also; and moreover, it is to be ob- 
 served that Ballendallogh, at the killing of this 
 Carron, had upon him the same coa1>of-armour, 
 or maillie-coat, which John Eoy Grant had upon 
 him at the slaughter of the great-grandfather 
 of this Ballendallogh, which maillie-coat Bal- 
 lendallogh had, a little before this tyme, taken 
 
 from James Grant, in a s kirmi sh that passed 
 betwixt them. Thus wee doe sie that the 
 judgements of God are inscrutable, and that, 
 in his own tyme, he punisheth blood by blood." 2 
 
 The Earl of Murray, when he heard of this 
 occurrence, instead of taking measures against 
 Ballindalloch for his outrage against the laws, 
 which he was fully entitled to do by virtue 
 of the commission he held, took part with 
 Ballindalloch against the friends of Carron. 
 He not only represented Ballindalloch's case 
 favourably at court, but also obtained an in- 
 demnity for him for some years, that he might 
 not be molested. The countenance thus given 
 by his majesty's lieutenant to the murderer of 
 their kinsmen, exasperated James and Alexan- 
 der Grant in the highest degree against Ballin- 
 dalloch and his supporters, whom they contin- 
 ually annoyed with their incursions, laying 
 waste their lands and possessions, and cutting 
 off their people. To such an extent was this 
 system of lawless warfare carried, that Ballin- 
 dalloch was forced to flee from the north of 
 Scotland, and live for the most part in 
 Edinburgh, to avoid the dangers with which 
 he was surrounded. But James Grant's des- 
 perate career was checked by a party of the 
 clan Chattan, who unexpectedly attacked him 
 at Auchnachyle, in Strathdoun, under cloud of 
 night, in the latter end of December, 1630, 
 when he was taken prisoner after receiving 
 eleven wounds, and after four of his party were 
 killed. He was sent by his captors to Edin- 
 burgh for trial before the lords of the council, 
 and was imprisoned in the castle of Edinburgh, 
 from which he escaped in the manner to be 
 afterwards noticed. 
 
 About the time that James Grant was deso- 
 lating the district of the Highlands, to which 
 his operations were confined, another part of 
 the country was convulsed by a dispute, end- 
 ing tragically, which occurred between James 
 Crichton of Frendret, or Frendraught, and 
 William Gordon of Eothiemay, whose lands 
 lay adjacent to each other. Part of Gordon's 
 lands which marched with those of Crichton 
 were purchased by the latter; but a dispute 
 having occurred about the right to the salmon 
 fishings belonging to these lands, an irrecon- 
 
 - Ilistortj, p. 416. 
 
154 
 
 GENEEAL H1ST0ET OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 cilable difference arose between them, which no 
 mediation of friends could reconcile, although 
 the matter in dispute was of little moment. 
 The parties having had recourse to the law to 
 settle their respective claims, Crichton pre- 
 vailed, and succeeded in getting Gordon de- 
 nounced rebel. He had previously treated 
 Eothiemay very harshly, who, stung by the 
 severity of his opponent, and by the victory he 
 had obtained over him, would listen to no pro- 
 posals of peace, nor follow the advice of his 
 best friends. Determined to set the law at 
 defiance, he collected a number of loose and 
 disorderly characters, and annoyed Frendraught, 
 who, in consequence, applied for and obtained 
 a commission from the Privy Council for appre- 
 hending Eothiemay and his associates. In the 
 execution of this task he was assisted by Sir 
 George Ogilvy of Banff, George Gordon, 
 brother-german of Sir James Gordon of Les- 
 moir, and the uncle of Frendraught, James 
 Leslie, second son of Leslie of Pitcaple, John 
 Meldrum of Eeidhill, and others. Accom- 
 panied by these gentlemen, Crichton left his 
 house of Frendraught on the 1st of January, 
 1630, for the house of Eothiemay, with a reso- 
 lution either to apprehend Gordon, his anta- 
 gonist, or to set him at defiance by affronting 
 him. He was incited the more to follow this 
 course, as young Eothiemay, at the head of a 
 party, had come a short time before to the very 
 doors of Frendraught, and had braved him to 
 his face. When Eothiemay heard of the ad- 
 vance of Frendraught, he left his house, accom- 
 panied by his eldest son, John Gordon, and 
 about eight men on horseback armed with guns 
 and lances, and a party of men on foot with 
 muskets, and crossing the river Deveron, went 
 forward to meet Frendraught and his party. 
 A sharp conflict immediately took place, in 
 which Eothiemay's horse was killed under him ; 
 but he fought manfully for some time on foot, 
 until the whole of his party, with the excep- 
 tion of his son, were forced to retire. The son, 
 notwithstanding, continued to support his 
 father against fearful odds, but was at last 
 obliged to save himself by flight, leaving bis 
 father lying on the field covered with wounds, 
 and supposed to be dead. He, however, was 
 found still alive after the conflict was over, and 
 being carried home to his house, died within 
 
 three days thereafter. George Gordon, brother 
 of Gordon of Lesmoir, received a shot in the 
 thigh, and died in consequence ten days after 
 the skirmish. These were the only deaths 
 which occurred, although several of the com- 
 batants on both sides were wounded. John 
 Meldrum, who fought on Frendraught's side, 
 was the only person severely wounded. 
 
 The Marquis of Huntly was highly displeased 
 at Frendraught for having, in such a trifling 
 matter, proceeded to extremities against his 
 kinsman, a chief baron of his surname, whose 
 life had been thus sacrificed in a petty quarrel. 
 The displeasure of the marquis was still farther 
 heightened, when he was informed that Fren- 
 draught had joined the Earl of Murray, and had 
 claimed his protection and assistance ; but the 
 marquis was obliged to repress his indignation. 
 John Gordon of Eothiemay, eldest son of the 
 deceased laird, resolved to avenge the death 
 of his father, and having collected a party of 
 men, he associated himself with James Grant 
 and other freebooters, for the purpose of laying 
 waste Frendraught's lands, and oppressing him 
 in every possible way. Frendraught, who was 
 in the south of Scotland when this combination 
 against him was formed, no sooner heard of it 
 than he posted to England, and, having laid a 
 statement of the case before the king, his ma- 
 jesty remitted the matter to the Privy Council of 
 Scotland, desiring them to use their best endea- 
 vours for settling the peace of the northern 
 parts of the kingdom. A commission was 
 thereupon granted by the lords of the council 
 to Frendraught and others, for the purpose of 
 apprehending John Gordon and his associates ; 
 but, as the commissioners were not able to 
 execute the task imposed upon them, the lords 
 of the council sent Sir Eobert Gordon, tutor 
 of Sutherland, who had just returned from 
 England, and Sir "William Seaton of Killes- 
 muir, to the north, with a new commission 
 against the rebels. As it seemed to be en- 
 tirely out of the power of the Earl of Murray 
 to quell the disturbances in the north, the 
 two commissioners received particular instruc- 
 tions to attempt, with the aid of the Marquis 
 of Huntly, to get matters settled amicably, and 
 the opposing parties reconciled. The lords of 
 the council, at the same time, wrote a letter to 
 the Marquis of Huntly to the same effect. 
 
DISPUTE .BETWEEN FEENDEAUGHT AND PITCAPLE. 
 
 155 
 
 Sir Eobert Gordon and Sir William Seaton 
 accordingly left Edinburgh, on their way north, 
 in the beginning of May, 1630. The latter 
 stopped at Aberdeen for the purpose of con- 
 sulting with some gentlemen of that county, 
 as to the best mode of proceeding against the 
 rebels ; and the former went to Strathbogie to 
 advise with the Marquis of Huntly. 
 
 On Sir Eobert's arrival at Strathbogie, he 
 found that the marquis had gone to Aberdeen 
 to attend the funeral of the laird of Drum. 
 By a singular coincidence, James Grant and 
 Alexander Grant descended the very day of 
 Sir Eobert's arrival from the mountains, at 
 the head of a party of 200 Highlanders, well 
 armed, with a resolution to burn and lay 
 waste Frendraught's lands. As soon as Sir 
 Eobert became aware of this circumstance, 
 he went in great haste to Eothiemay house, 
 where he found John Gordon and his associates 
 in arms, ready to set out to join the Grants. 
 By persuasion and entreaties Sir Eobert, as- 
 sisted by his nephew the Earl of Sutherland, 
 and his brother, Sir Alexander Gordon, who 
 were then at Frendraught on a visit to the 
 lady of that place, who was a sister of the earl, 
 prevailed not only upon John Gordon and his 
 friends to desist, but also upon James Grant 
 and his companions-in-arms, to disperse. 
 
 On the return of the Marquis of Huntly to 
 Strathbogie, Eothiemay and Frendraught were 
 both induced to meet them in presence of the 
 marquis, Sir Eobert Gordon, and Sir William 
 Seaton, who, after much entreaty, prevailed 
 upon them to reconcile their differences, and 
 submit all matters in dispute to their arbitra- 
 ment. A decree-arbitral was accordingly pro- 
 nounced, by which the arbiters adjudged that 
 the laird of Eothiemay and the children of 
 George Gordon should mutually remit their 
 father's slaughter, and, in satisfaction thereof, 
 they decerned that the laird of Frendraught 
 should pay a certain sum of money to the laird 
 of Eothiemay, for relief of the debts which he 
 had contracted during the disturbances between 
 the two families, 3 and that he should pay some 
 money to the children of George Gordon. 
 
 :! Spalding says that Frendraught was " ordained to 
 pay to the lady, relict of Rothiemay, and the bairns, 
 liftie thousand merks, in composition of the slaughter. " 
 
 P. 14. 
 
 Frendraught fulfilled these conditions most 
 willingly, and the parties shook hands together 
 in the orchard of Strathbogie, in token of a 
 hearty and sincere reconciliation. 4 
 
 The laird of Frendraught had scarcely been 
 reconciled to Eothiemay, when he got into 
 another dispute with the laird of Pitcaple, the 
 occasion of which was as follows : — John Mel- 
 drum of Eeidhill had assisted Frendraught in 
 his quarrel with old Eothiemay, and had 
 received a wound in the skirmish in which the 
 latter lost his life, for which injury Fren- 
 draught had allowed him some compensation ; 
 but, conceiving that his services had not been 
 fairly requited, he began to abuse Frendraught, 
 and threatened to compel him to give him a 
 greater recompense than he had yet received. 
 As Frendraught refused to comply with his 
 demands, Meldrum entered the park of Fren- 
 draught privately in the night-time, and carried 
 away two horses belonging to his pretended 
 debtor. Frendraught thereupon prosecuted 
 Meldrum for theft, but he declined to appear 
 in court, and was consequently declared rebel. 
 Frendraught then obtained a commission from 
 the Privy Council to apprehend Meldrum, 
 who took refuge with John Leslie of Pitcaple, 
 whose sister he had married. Under the com- 
 mission which he had procured, Frendraught 
 went in quest of Meldrum, on the 27th of 
 September, 1630. He proceeded to Pitcaple's 
 lands, on which he knew Meldrum then lived, 
 where he met James Leslie, second son of the 
 laird of Pitcaple, who had been with him at 
 the skirmish of Eothiemay. Leslie then began 
 to expostulate with him in behalf of Meldrum , 
 his brother-in-law, who, on account of the aid 
 he had given him in his dispute with Eothie- 
 may, took Leslie's remonstrances in good part ; 
 but Eobert Crichton of Conland, 5 a kinsman 
 of Frendraught, grew so warm at Leslie's free- 
 dom that from high words they proceeded to 
 blows. Conland, then, drawing a pistol from 
 his belt, wounded Leslie in the arm, who was 
 thereupon carried home, apparently in a dying 
 state. 
 
 This affair was the signal for a confederacy 
 among the Leslies, the greater part of whom 
 
 4 Sir R. Gordon, p. 416, c.t seq. Spalding, p. 14. 
 8 Sir R. Gordon (p. 419) spells this Couland and 
 Ooudland. 
 
156 
 
 GENERAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 took up arms against Frendraught, who, a few 
 days after the occurrence, viz., on the 5th of 
 October, first went to the Marquis of Hmitly, 
 and afterwards to the Earl of Murray, to express 
 the regret he felt at what had taken place, and 
 to beg their kindly interference to bring matters 
 to an amicable accommodation. The Earl of 
 Murray, for some reason or other, declined to 
 interfere; but the marquis undertook to mediate 
 between the parties. Accordingly, he sent for 
 the laird of Pitcaple to come to the Bog of 
 Gight to confer with him ; hut, before setting 
 out, he mounted and equipped about 30 horse- 
 men, in consequence of information he had 
 received that Frendrausht was at the Bog. 
 
 At the meeting with the marquis, Pitcapit 
 complained heavily of the injury his son had 
 sustained, and avowed, rather rashly, that he 
 would revenge himself before he returned home, 
 and that, at all events, he would listen to no 
 proposals for a reconciliation till it should be 
 ascertained whether his son would survive the 
 wound he had received. The marquis insisted 
 that Erendraught had done him no wrong, and 
 endeavoured to dissuade him from putting his 
 threat into execution ; but Pitcaple was so dis- 
 pleased at the marquis for thus expressing 
 himself, that he suddenly mounted his horse 
 and set off, leaving Frendranght behind him. 
 The marquis, afraid of the consequences, de- 
 
 Frendraught House, with the ruins of the old Castle 
 tained Frendraught two days with him in the 
 Bog of Gight, and, hearing that the Leslies 
 had assembled, and lay hi wait for Frendraught 
 watching his return home, the marquis sent his 
 son, John, Viscount of Aboyne, and the laird 
 of Rothiemay along with him, to protect and 
 defend him if necessary. They arrived at 
 Frendraught without interruption, and being 
 solicited to remain all night, they yielded, and, 
 after partaking of a hearty supper, went to bed 
 in the apartments provided for them. 
 
 The sleeping apartment of the viscount was 
 in the old tower of Frendraught, leading off 
 from the hall. Immediately below this apart- 
 nient was a vault, in the bottom of which was 
 a round hole of considerable depth. Robert 
 
 in front. — From a photograph taken for this work. 
 
 Gordon, a servant of the viscount, and his 
 page, English Will, as he was called, also slept 
 in the same chamber. The laird of Rothiemay, 
 with some servants, were put into an upper 
 chamber immediately above that in which the 
 viscount slept ; and in another apartment, 
 directly over the latter, were laid George 
 Chalmer of Noth, Captain Rollock, one of 
 Frendraught's party, and George Gordon, an- 
 other of the viscount's servants. About 
 midnight the whole of the tower almost 
 instantaneously took fire, and so suddenly and 
 furiously did the flames consume the edifice, 
 that the viscount, the laird of Rothiemay, 
 English Will, Colonel Ivat, one of Aboyne's 
 friends, and two other persons, perished in 
 
LUEN1NG OF FEENDEAUGHT HOUSE. 
 
 157 
 
 the flames. Eobert Gordon, called Sutherland 
 Gordon, from having heen horn in that county, 
 who lay in the viscount's chamher, escaped 
 from the flames, as did George Chalmer and 
 Captain Eollock, who were in the third floor; 
 and it is said that Lord Aboyne might have 
 saved himself also, had he not, instead of going 
 out of doors, which he refused to do, run sud- 
 denly up stairs to Eothiemay's chamber for the 
 purpose of awakening him. While so engaged, 
 the stair-case and ceiling of Bothieniay's apart- 
 ment hastily took fire, and, being prevented 
 from descending by the flames, which filled the 
 stair-case, they ran from window to window of 
 the apartment piteously and unavailingly ex- 
 claiming for help. 
 
 The news of this calamitous event spread 
 speedily throughout the kingdom, and the fate 
 of the unfortunate sufferers was deeply deplored. 
 Many conjectures were formed as to the cause 
 of the conflagration. Some persons laid the 
 blame on Frendraught without the least reason; 
 for, besides the improbability of the thing, 
 Frendraught himself was a considerable loser, 
 having lost not only a large quantity of silver 
 plate and coin, but also the title deeds of his 
 property and other necessary papers, which 
 were all consumed. The greater number, how- 
 ever, suspected the Leslies and their adherents, 
 who were then so enraged at Frendraught that 
 they threatened to burn the house of Fren- 
 draught, and had even entered into a negotia- 
 tion to that effect with James Grant the rebel, 
 who was Pitcaple's cousin -german, for his 
 assistance. 6 
 
 The Marquis of Huntly, who suspected 
 Frendraught to be the author of the fire, after- 
 wards went to Edinburgh and laid a statement 
 of the case before the Privy Council, who, 
 thereupon, issued a commission to the bishops 
 of Aberdeen and Moray, Lord Ogilvie, Lord 
 Carnegie, and Colonel Bruce, to investigate 
 the circumstances which led to the catastrophe. 
 The commissioners accordingly went to Fren- 
 draught on April 13th, 1631, where they were 
 met by Lords Gordon, Ogilvie, and Deskford, 
 and several barons and gentlemen, along with 
 whom they examined the burnt tower and 
 vaults below, with the adjoining premises, to 
 
 ' Sir R. Gordon, p. 241. — Spalding, p. 13, et seq. 
 
 ascertain, if possible, how the fire had origin- 
 ated. After a minute inspection, they came to 
 the deliberate opinion, which they communi- 
 cated in writing to the council, that the fire 
 could not have been accidental, and that it 
 must have been occasioned either by some 
 means from without, or raised intentionally 
 within the vaults or chambers of the tower. 7 
 
 The matter, however, was not allowed to 
 rest here, but underwent thorough investigation 
 by the Privy Council in Edinburgh, the result 
 being that John Meldruni, above mentioned, 
 was brought to trial and condemned to death 
 by the Justiciary Court, in August, 1633, as 
 having been the perpetrator of the fiend- 
 ish deed. "We give below an extract from 
 the " dittay " or indictment against Meldrum, 
 showing the manner in which it was thought 
 he accomplished his devilish task. 8 The 
 catastrophe roused such intense and wide- 
 spread excitement among all classes of people 
 at the time, that the grief and horror which 
 was felt found an outlet in verse. 9 
 
 7 Spalding, p. 24. 
 
 8 "Johne Meldrum haifing convocat to himsellf 
 certane brokin men, all fugitiues and rebellis, his 
 complices and associate's, upone the audit day of 
 October, the yeir of God jai vie and threttie yeiris 
 under silence and clud of nicht, betwix twelff hours at 
 nycht and twa eftir mydnycht, come to the place of 
 Frendraucht, and supponeing and certanely persuad- 
 ing himselff that the said James Creichtoun of Fren- 
 ilrauchtweslyingwithin the tourof Frendraucht, qukilk 
 was the only strenth and strongest pairt of the said 
 place, the said Johne Meldrum, with his saidis com- 
 plices, in maist tresonabill and feirfull maner, haifing 
 brocht with thame ane hudge quantitie of powder, 
 pik, brumstone, flax, and uther combustabill matter 
 provydit be thame for the purpois, pat and convoyit 
 the samyn in and throw the slittis and stones of the 
 volt of the said grit tour of Frendraucht, Weill knaw- 
 in and foirseine be the said Johne Meldrum, quha 
 with his complices at that instant tyme fyret the 
 samyn pik, powder, brumstone, flax, and uther com- 
 bustable matter above writtin, at dyuerse places of 
 the said volt; quhilk being sua fyret and kindlet, did 
 violentlie flie to ane hoill in the heid of the said volt 
 and tak vent thairat, the whilk hoill of the said volt 
 and vent thairof being perfytlie knawin to the said 
 John Meldrum, be rcasone he had remained in hous- 
 hald with the said laird of Frendraucht, as his douie- 
 full servand, within the said hous and place of Fren- 
 draucht for ane lang tyme of befoir, and knew and was 
 pre vie to all the secreitis of the said house. And the 
 said volt being sua fyret, the haill tour and houssis 
 quhairof immediately thaireftir, being foure hous high!, 
 in les space than ane hour tuik fyre in the deid hour 
 of the night, and was in maist tresonabill, horrible, 
 and lamentable maner brunt, blawin up, aud con- 
 sumed" — Spalding's Memorialls, Appendix, vol. i. 
 p. 390. 
 
 ;1 A ballad is still sung in the district around 
 Frendraught, which, says Motherwell, "has a high 
 
158 
 
 GENERAL HISTORY OE THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 During James Grant's confinement within 
 the castle of Edinburgh, the north was com- 
 paratively quiet. On the night of the 15th 
 October, 1632, he, however, effected his escape 
 from the castle by descending on the west side 
 by means of ropes furnished to him by his 
 wife or son, and fled to Ireland. Proclama- 
 tions were immediately posted throughout the 
 whole kingdom, offering large sums for his 
 apprehension, either dead or alive, but to no 
 
 degree of poetic merit, and probably was written 
 at the time by an eye-witness of the event which it 
 records." We give a few verses from the version in 
 Motherwell's Minstrelsy, as quoted in the Appendix 
 to Spalding, vol. i. p. 409. 
 
 " The eighteenth of October, 
 
 A dismal tale to hear, 
 
 How good Lord John and Rothiemay 
 
 Was both burnt in the fire. 
 
 They had not long cast off their cloaths, 
 And were but now asleep — 
 When the weary smoke began to rise, 
 Likewise the scorching heat. 
 
 ' waken, waken, Rothiemay, 
 waken, brother dear, 
 And turn you to our Saviour, 
 There is strong treason here.' 
 
 He did him to the wire-window 
 
 As fast as he could gang — 
 
 Says — ' Wae to the hands put in the stancheons, 
 
 For out we'll never win.' 
 
 Cried — ' Mercy, mercy, Lady Frendraught, 
 Will ye not sink with sin ? 
 For first your husband killed my father, 
 And now you burn his son.' 
 
 then out spoke her, Lady Frendraught, 
 
 And loudly did she cry — 
 
 ' It were great pity for good Lord John, 
 
 But none for Rothiemay. 
 
 But the keys are casten in the deep draw well, 
 
 Ye cannot get away.' 
 
 While he stood in this dreadful plight, 
 Most piteous to be seen, 
 There called out his servant Gordon, 
 As he had frantic been. 
 
 "' loup, loup, my dear master, 
 
 loup and come to me; 
 
 I'll catch you in my arms two, 
 One foot I will not flee.' 
 
 ' But I cannot loup, I cannot come, 
 
 1 cannot win to thee; 
 
 My head's fast in the wire-window, 
 My feet burning from me. 
 
 ' Take here the rings from my white fingers, 
 That are so long and small, 
 And give them to my Lady fair, 
 Where she sits in her hall. 
 
 ' So I cannot loup, I cannot come, 
 I cannot loup to thee — 
 My earthly part is all consumed, 
 My spirit but speaks to thee.' 
 
 Wringing her hands, tearing her hair, 
 His Lady she was seen, 
 And thus addressed his servant Gordon , 
 Where he stood on the green. 
 
 purpose. His wife was taken into custody bj 
 order of the Marquis of Huntly, but after 
 undergoing an examination, in which she 
 admitted nothing which could in the least 
 degree criminate her, she was set at liberty. 9 
 
 James Grant did not remain long in Ireland, 
 but returned again to the north, where he con- 
 cealed himself for some time, only occasionally 
 skulking here and there in such a private man- 
 ner, that his enemies were not aware of his 
 presence. By degrees he grew bolder, and at 
 last appeared openly in Strathdoun and on 
 Speyside. His wife, who was far advanced in 
 pregnancy, had taken a small house in Carron. 
 belonging to the heirs of her husband's nephew, 
 in which she meant to reside till her accouche- 
 ment, and in which she was occasionally visited 
 by her husband. Ballindalloch hearing of this, 
 hired a person named Patrick Macgregor, an 
 outlaw, to apprehend James Grant. This em- 
 ployment was considered by Macgregor and 
 his party a piece of acceptable service, as they 
 expected, in the event of Grant's apprehension, 
 to obtain pardon for then - offences from the 
 lords of the council. Macgregor, therefore, at 
 the head of a party of men, lay in wait for 
 James Grant near Carron, and, on observing 
 him enter his wife's house at night, along with 
 his bastard son and another man, they im- 
 mediately surrounded the house and attempted 
 to force an entry. Grant perceiving his danger, 
 acted with great coolness and determination. 
 Having fastened the door as firmly as he could, 
 he and his two companions went to two win- 
 dows, from which they discharged a volley of 
 arrows upon their assailants, who all shrunk 
 back, and none would venture near the door 
 except Macgregor himself, who came boldly 
 forward and endeavoured to force it ; but he 
 paid dearly for his rashness, for Grant, imme- 
 
 ' wae be to you, George Gordon, 
 An ill death may you die, 
 So safe and sound as you stand there, 
 And my Lord bereaved from me.' 
 
 ' I bade him loup, I bade him come, 
 I bade him loup to me, 
 I'd catch him in my arms two, 
 A foot I should not flee.' 
 
 And aft she cried, ' Ohon ! alas, alas, 
 A sair heart's ill to win ; 
 I wan a sair heart when I married him, 
 And the day it's well return'd again.' " 
 
 Spalding, vol. i. p. 29. 
 
IMPRISONMENT OE GRANT OE BALLINDALLOCH. 
 
 159 
 
 diately laying hold of a musket, shot him 
 through both his thighs, when he instantly 
 fell to the ground, and soon after expired. 
 In the confusion which this occurrence occa- 
 sioned among Macgregor's party, Grant and his 
 two associates escaped. 
 
 Shortly after this event, on the night of 
 Sunday, December 7th, 1634, James Grant 
 apprehended his cousin, John Grant of Ballin- 
 dalloch, by stratagem. After remaining a few 
 days at Culquholy, Ballindalloch was blind- 
 folded and taken to Thomas Grant's house at 
 Dandeis, about three miles from Elgin, on the 
 high road between that town and the Spey. 
 James Grant ordered him to be watched strictly, 
 whether sleeping or waking, by two strong 
 men on each side of him. Ballindalloch com- 
 plained of foul play, but James Grant excused 
 himself for acting as he had done for two 
 reasons; 1st, Because Bal lin dalloch had failed 
 to perform a promise he had made to obtain 
 a remission for him before the preceding Lam- 
 mas ; and, '2dly, That he had entered into a 
 treaty with the clan Gregor to deprive him of 
 his life. 
 
 Ballindalloch was kept in durance vile for 
 twenty days in a kiln near Thomas Grant's 
 house, suffering the greatest privations, without 
 fire, light, or bed-clothes, in the dead of winter, 
 and without knowing where he was. He was 
 closely watched night and day by Leonard 
 Leslie, son-in-law of Robert Grant, brother of 
 James Grant, and a strong athletic man, named 
 M'Grimmon, who would not allow him to leave 
 the kiln for a moment even to perform the 
 necessities of nature. On Christmas, James 
 Grant and his party having gone on some 
 excursion, leaving Leslie and M'Grimmon be- 
 hind them, Ballindalloch, worn out by fatigue, 
 and almost perishing from cold and hunger, 
 addressed Leslie in a low tone of voice, lament 
 ing his miserable situation, and imploring him 
 to aid him in effecting his escape, and promis- 
 ing, in the event of success, to reward him 
 handsomely. Leslie, tempted by the offer, 
 acceded to Ballindalloch's request, and made 
 him acquainted with the place of his confine- 
 ment. It was then arranged that Ballindalloch, 
 under the pretence of stretching his arms, 
 should disengage the arm which Leslie held, 
 and that, having so disentangled that arm, ho 
 
 should, by another attempt, get his other arm 
 out of M'Grimmon's grasp. The morning of 
 Sunday, the 28th of December, was fixed upon 
 for putting the stratagem into execution. The 
 plan succeeded, and as soon as Ballindalloch 
 found his arms at liberty, he suddenly sprung 
 to his feet and made for the door of the kiln. 
 Leslie immediately followed him, pretending 
 to catch him, and as M'Grimmon was hard 
 upon his heels, Leslie purposely stumbled in 
 his way and brought M'Grimmon down to the 
 ground. This stratagem enabled Ballindalloch 
 to get a-head of his pursuers, and although 
 M'Grimmon sounded the alarm, and the pur- 
 suit was continued by Robert Grant and a 
 party of James Grant's followers, Ballindalloch 
 succeeded in reaching the village of Urquhart 
 in safety, accompanied by Leonard Leslie. 
 
 Sometime after his escape, Ballindalloch 
 applied for and obtained a warrant for the 
 apprehension of Thomas Grant, and others, for 
 harbouring James Grant. Thomas Grant, and 
 some of his accomplices, were accordingly seized 
 and sent to Edinburgh, where they were tried 
 and convicted. Grant was hanged, and others 
 were banished from Scotland for life. 
 
 After Ballindalloch's escape, James Grant 
 kept remarkably quiet, as many persons lay in 
 wait for him ; but hearing that Thomas Grant, 
 brother of Patrick Grant of Colquhoche, and 
 a friend of Ballindalloch, had received a sum 
 of money from the Earl of Moray, as an 
 encouragement to seek out and slay James 
 Grant, the latter resolved to murder Thomas 
 Grant, and thus relieve himself of one enemy 
 at least. He therefore went to Thomas's house, 
 but not finding him at home, he killed sixteen 
 of his cattle ; and afterwards learning that 
 Thomas Grant was sleeping at the house of a 
 friend hard by, he entered that house and 
 found Thomas Grant and a bastard brother of 
 his, both in bed. Having forced them out of 
 bed, he took them outside of the house and 
 put them immediately to death. A few days 
 after the commission of this crime, Grant and 
 four of his associates went to the lands of 
 Strathbogie, and entered the house 'of the com- 
 mon executioner, craving some food, without 
 being aware of the profession of the host whose 
 hospitality they solicited. The executioner, 
 disbking the appearance of Grant and his 
 
I6C 
 
 GENERAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 companions, went to James Gordon, the bailie 
 of Stratlibogie, and informed him that there 
 were some suspicious looking persons in his 
 house. Judging that these could be none other 
 but Grant and his comrades, Gordon immedi- 
 ately collected some well-armed horsemen and 
 foot, and surrounded the house in which Grant 
 was ; but he successfully resisted all their 
 attempts to enter the house, and killed two 
 servants of the Marquis of Huntly. After 
 keeping them at bay for a considerable time, 
 Grant and his brother, Eobert, effected their 
 escape from the house, but a bastard son of 
 James Grant, John Forbes, an intimate associ- 
 ate, and another person, were taken prisoners, 
 and carried to Edinburgh, where they were 
 executed, along with a notorious thief, named 
 Gille-Eoy-Mac-Gregor. This occurrence took 
 place in the year 1636. The laird of .Grant 
 had, during the previous year, been ordered 
 by the council to apprehend James Grant, or 
 to make him leave the kingdom ; and they 
 had obliged him to find caution and surety, in 
 terms of the general bond 1 appointed by law 
 to be taken from all the heads of clans, and from 
 all governors of provinces in the kingdom, but 
 chiefly in the west and north of Scotland ; but 
 the laird could neither perform the one nor the 
 other. 2 
 
 By the judicious management of the affairs 
 of the house of Sutherland by Sir Eobert 
 Gordon, his nephew, the earl, on reaching his 
 
 1 The "Common Band" or "General Band," was 
 the name given in popular speech to an Act of the 
 Scottish Parliament of the year 1587, which was passed 
 with the view of maintaining good order, both on the 
 Borders and in the Highlands and Isles. The plan 
 on which this Act chiefly proceeded was, "To make 
 it imperative on all landlords, bailies, and chiefs of 
 clans, to find sureties to a large amount, proportioned 
 to their wealth and the number of their vassals or 
 clansmen, for the peaceable and orderly behaviour of 
 those under them. It was provided, that, if a supe- 
 rior, after having found the required sureties, should 
 fail to make immediate reparation of any injuries 
 committed by persons for whom he was bound to 
 answer, the injured party might proceed at law against 
 the sureties for the amount of the damage sustained. 
 Besides being compelled, in such cases, to reimburse 
 his sureties, the superior was to incur a heavy fine to 
 the Crown. This important statute likewise contained 
 many useful provisions for facilitating the administra- 
 tion of justice in these rude districts." — Spalding's 
 Memorialls, vol. i. p. 3, (note). Oregon's Western 
 Highlands, p. 237. 
 
 2 Continuation of the History of the Earls of Suther- 
 land, by Gilbert Gordon of Sallagh, annexed to Sir E. 
 Gordon's work, p. 460. Spalding, p. 63. 
 
 majority in 1630 and entering upon the man- 
 agement of his own affairs, found the hostility 
 of the enemy of his family either neutralised or 
 rendered no longer dangerous ; but, in the year 
 1633 he found himself involved in a quarrel 
 with Lord Lorn, eldest son of the Earl of 
 Argyle, who had managed the affairs of his 
 family during his father's banishment from 
 Scotland. This dispute arose out of the fol- 
 lowing circumstances. 
 
 In consequence of a quarrel between Lord 
 Berridale, who now acted as sole administrator 
 of his father's estates, and William Mac-Iver, 
 chieftain of the Siol-Mhic-Imheair, in Caith- 
 ness, the former removed the latter from the 
 lands and possessions he held of him in Caith- 
 ness. Mac-Iver thereupon retired into Argyle, 
 and assuming the surname of Campbell, as 
 being originally an Argyle man, sought the 
 favour and protection of Lord Lorn. The 
 latter endeavoured, by writing to the Earl of 
 Sutherland, Berridale himself, and others, to 
 bring about a reconciliation between Mac-Iver 
 and Berridale, but to no purpose. Seeing no 
 hopes of an accommodation, Mac-Iver collected 
 a party of rebels and outlaws, to the number of 
 about 20, and made an incursion into Caith- 
 ness, where, during the space of four or five 
 years, he did great injury, carrying off con- 
 siderable spoil, which he conveyed through 
 the heights of Strathnaver and Sutherland. 
 
 To put an end to Mac-Iver's depredations, 
 Lord Berridale at first brought a legal prosecu- 
 tion against him, and having got him de- 
 nounced rebel, sent out parties of his country- 
 men to ensnare him ; but he escaped for a long 
 time, and always retired in safety with his 
 booty, either into the isles or into Argyle. 
 Lord Lorn, however, publicly disowned Mac- 
 Iver's proceedings. In his incursions, Mac- 
 Iver was powerfully assisted by an islander of 
 the name of Gille-Calum-Mac-Shomhairle, who 
 had married his daughter, and who was well 
 acquainted with all the passes leading into 
 Caithness. 
 
 At last Mac-Iver and his son were appre- 
 hended by Lord Berridale, and hanged, and 
 the race of the Siol-Mhic-Imheair was almost 
 extinguished ; but Gille-Calum-Mac-Shomhairle 
 having associated with himself several of the 
 men of the Isles and Argyle, and some out- 
 
EXECUTION OF EWEN AIED AND ACCOMPLICES. 
 
 161 
 
 laws of the clan. Mhic-Iain-Dhivinn, who were 
 dependants of Lord Lorn, continued his incur- 
 sions into Caithness. Having divided his com- 
 pany into two parties, one of which, headed by 
 Gille-Calum himself, went to the higher parts 
 of Eoss and Sutherland, there to remain till 
 joined "by their companions. The other party 
 went through the lowlands of Eoss, under the 
 pretence of going to the Lammas fair, then held 
 at Tain, and thence proceeded to Sutherland to 
 meet the rest of their associates, under the pre- 
 tence of visiting certain kinsmen they said 
 they had in Strathully and Strathnaver. This 
 last-mentioned body consisted of 16 or 20 per- 
 sons, most of whom were of the clan Mhic-Iain- 
 Dhuinn. They were under the command of 
 one Ewen Aird ; and as they passed the town 
 of Tain, on their way to Sutherland, they stole 
 some horses, which they sold in Sutherland, 
 without being in the least suspected of the 
 theft. 
 
 The owners of the stolen horses soon came 
 into Sutherland in quest of them, and claimed 
 them from the persons to whom they had been 
 sold. The Earl of Sutherland, on proof being 
 given of the property, restored the horses to 
 the true owners, and sent some men in quest of 
 Ewen Aird, who was still in Strathully. Ewen 
 was apprehended and brought to Dunrobin. 
 The Earl of Sutherland ordained him to repay 
 the monies which Ewen and his companions 
 had received for the horses, the only punish- 
 ment he said he would inflict on them, be- 
 cause they were strangers. Ewen assented 
 to the earl's request, and remained as a hostage 
 at Dunrobin until his companions should send 
 money to relieve him ; but as soon as his asso- 
 ciates heard of his detention, they, instead of 
 sending money for his release, fled to Gille- 
 Calum-Mac-Shomhairle and his party, leaving 
 their captain a prisoner at Dunrobin. In their 
 retreat they destroyed some houses in the high 
 parts of Sutherland, and on entering Eoss 
 they laid waste some lands belonging to 
 Hutcheon Eoss of Auchincloigh. These out- 
 rages occasioned an immediate assemblage of 
 the inhabitants of that part of the country, 
 who pursued the marauders and took them 
 prisoners. On the prisoners being sent to the 
 Earl of Sutherland, he assembled the principal 
 gentlemen of Eoss and Sutherland at Dornoch, 
 
 where Ewen Aird and bis accomplices were 
 tried before a jury, convicted, and executed at 
 Dornoch, with the exception of two young 
 boys, who were dismissed. 
 
 The Privy Council not only approved of 
 what the Earl of Sutherland had done, but 
 also sent a commission to him, the Earl 
 of Seaforth, Hutcheon Eoss, and some other 
 gentlemen in Eoss and Sutherland, against the 
 clan Mhic-Iain-Dhu inn, in case they should 
 again make any incursion into Eoss and Suth 
 erland. 
 
 Lord Lorn being at this time justiciary of the 
 Isles, had obtained an act of the Privy Council 
 in his favour, by which it was decreed that any 
 malefactor, being an islander, upon being appre- 
 hended in any part of the kingdom, should be 
 sent to Lord Lorn, or to his deputies, to be 
 judged ; and that to this effect he should have 
 deputies in 'every part of the kingdom. As 
 soon as his lordship heard of the trial and exe- 
 cution of the men at Dornoch, who were of the 
 clan Mhic-Iain-Dhuinn, his dependants and 
 followers, he took the matter highly amiss, and 
 repaired to Edinburgh, where he made a com- 
 plaint to the lords of the council against the 
 Earl of Sutherland, for having, as he main- 
 tained, apprehended the king's free subjects 
 without a commission, and for causing them to 
 be executed, although they had not been appre- 
 hended within his own jurisdiction. The 
 lords of the council having heard this com- 
 plaint, Lord Lorn obtained letters to charge 
 the Earl of Sutherland and Hutcheon Eoss 
 to answer to the complaint at Edinburgh be- 
 fore the lords of the Privy Council, and, more- 
 over, obtained a suspension of the earl's com- 
 mission against the clan Mhic-Iain-Dhuinn, on 
 becoming bound, in the meantime, as surety for 
 their obedience to the laws. 
 
 Sir Eobert Gordon happening to arrive at 
 Edinburgh from England, shortly after Lord 
 Lorn's visit to Edinburgh, in the year 1634, 
 learned the object of his mission, and the suc- 
 cess which had attended it. He, therefore, 
 being an eye-witness of every thing which had 
 taken place at Dornoch respecting the trial, 
 condemnation, and execution of Lord Lorn's 
 dependents, informed the lords of the council 
 of all the proceedings, which proceeding on his 
 part had the effect of preventing Lord Lorn 
 
1G2 
 
 GENEEAL H1ST0EY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 from going on with Lis prosecution against the 
 Earl of Sutherland. He, however, proceeded 
 to summon Hutcheon Boss; hut the earl, Sir 
 Eohert Gordon, Lord Eeay, and all the gentle- 
 men who were present at the trial at Dornoch, 
 signed and sent a letter to the lords of the 
 council, giving a detail of the whole circum- 
 stances of the case, and along with this letter 
 he sent a copy of the proceedings, attested by 
 the sheriff clerk of Sutherland, to he laid 
 before the council on the day appointed for 
 Eoss's appearance. After the matter had been 
 fully debated in council, the conduct of the 
 Earl of Sutherland and Hutcheon Eoss was 
 approved of, and the commission to the earl of 
 Sutherland again renewed, and Lord Lorn was 
 taken bound, that, in time coming, the counties 
 of Sutherland and Eoss should be kept harm- 
 less from the clan Mnic-lain-Dhuinn. The 
 council, moreover, decided, that, as the Earl 
 of Sutherland had the rights of regality and 
 sheriffship within himself, and as he was ap- 
 pointed to administer justice within his own 
 bounds, therefore he was not obliged to send 
 criminals, though islanders, to Lord Lorn or to 
 his deputies. This decision had the effect of 
 relieving Sutherland and Eoss from farther 
 incursions on the part of Lord Lorn's followers. 3 
 The disaster at Frendraught had made an 
 impression upon the mind of the Marquis of 
 Huntly, which nothing could efface, and he 
 could never be persuaded that the fire had not 
 originated with the proprietor of the mansion 
 himself. He made .many unsuccessful attempts 
 to discover the incendiaries, and on the arrival 
 of King Charles at Edinburgh, in the year 
 1633, the niarcjuis made preparations for paying 
 a personal visit to the king, for the purpose of 
 imploring him to order an investigation into 
 all the circumstances attending the fire, so as 
 to lead to a discovery of the criminals. Fall- 
 ing sick, however, on his journey, and unable 
 to proceed to Edinburgh, he sent forward Ms 
 marchioness, who was accompanied by Lady 
 Aboyne and other females of rank, all clothed 
 in deep mourning, to lay a statement of the 
 case before his majesty, and to solicit the 
 royal interference. The king received the 
 marchioness and her attendants most gra- 
 
 3 Gordon of Sallagh's Continuation, \i. 464, et seq. 
 
 ciously, comforted them as far as words could, 
 and promised to see justice done. 
 
 After the king's departure from Scotland, 
 the marchioness and Lady Aboyne, both of 
 whom still remained in Edinburgh, determining 
 to see his majesty's promise implemented, pre- 
 vailed upon the Privy Council to bring John 
 Meldrum of Eeidhill to trial, the result being 
 as recorded above. A domestic servant of 
 Frendraught named Tosh, who was suspected 
 of having been concerned in the fire, was after- 
 wards put to the torture, for the purpose of 
 extorting a confession of guilt from him ; but he 
 confessed nothing, and was therefore liberated 
 from prison. 
 
 The condemnation and execution of Mel- 
 drum, in place of abating, appear to have 
 increased the odium of Frendraught's enemies. 
 The Highlanders of his neighbourhood, as well 
 as the Gordons, considering his property to be 
 fair game, made frequent incursions upon his 
 lands, and carried off cattle and goods. In 
 1633 and 1634 Adam Gordon of Strathdoun, 
 with a few of his friends and some outlaws, 
 made incursions upon Frendraught's lands, 
 wasted them, and endeavoured to carry off a 
 quantity of goods and cattle. Frendraught, 
 however, heading some of his tenants, pursued 
 them, secured the booty, and cajstured some of 
 the party, whom he hanged. 
 
 On another occasion, about 600 High- 
 landers, belonging to the clan Gregor, clan 
 Cameron, and other tribes, appeared near 
 Frendraught, and openly declared that they 
 had come to join Adam Gordon of Park, John 
 Gordon of Invermarkie, and the other friends 
 of the late Gordon of Eothiemay, for the pur- 
 pose of revenging his death. When Fren- 
 draught heard of the irruption of this body, he 
 immediately collected about 200 foot, and 140 
 horsemen, and went in quest of these in- 
 truders; but being scattered through the coun- 
 try, they could make no resistance, and every 
 man provided for his own safety by flight. 
 
 To put an end to these annoyances, Fren- 
 draught got these marauders declared outlaws, 
 and the lords of the Privy Council wrote to 
 the Marquis of Huntly, desiring liim to repress 
 the disorders of those of his surname, and 
 failing his doing so, that they would consider 
 him the author of them. The marquis returned 
 
DEPEEDATIONS COMMITTED UPON FEENDEAUGHT. 
 
 1G3 
 
 an answer to this conimunication, stating, that 
 as the aggressors were neither his tenants nor 
 servants, he could in no shape he answerahle 
 for them, — that he had neither countenanced 
 nor incited them, and that he had no warrant 
 to pursue or prosecute them. 
 
 The refusal of the marquis to obey the 
 orders of the Privy Council, emboldened the 
 denounced party to renew their acts of spolia- 
 tion and robbery. They no longer confined 
 
 their depredations to Frendraught and his 
 tenants, but extended them to the property ol 
 the ministers who lived upon Frendraught's 
 lands. In this course of life, they were joined 
 by some of the young men of the principal 
 families of the Gordons in Strathbogie, to the 
 number of 40 horsemen, and 60 foot, and 
 to encourage them in their designs against 
 Frendraught, the lady of Eothiemay gave them 
 the castle of Eothiemay, which they fortified. 
 
 First Marquis and Marchioness of Huntly. Copied by permission of His tirace the Duke of 
 Richmond, from the Orisrinals at Gordon Castle. 
 
 and from which they made daily sallies upon 
 Frendraught's possessions; burned his corn, 
 laid waste his lands, and killed some of his 
 people. Frendraught opposed them for some 
 time; but being satisfied that such proceedings 
 taking place almost under the very eyes of the 
 Marquis of Huntly, must necessarily be done 
 with his concurrence he went to Edinburgh, 
 and entered a complaint against the marqius 
 to the Privy Council. During Frendraught's 
 absence, his tenants were expelled by the 
 Gordons from their possessions, without oppo- 
 sition. 4 
 
 When the king heard of these lawless pro- 
 ceedings, and of the refusal of the marquis to 
 interfere, he ordered the lords of the Privy 
 Council to adopt measures for suppressing 
 them; preparatory to which they cited the 
 
 4 fxordou'a Continuation, p. 475. 
 . 47, el seq. 
 
 Spalding, vol. 
 
 marquis, in the beginning ot the following 
 year, to appear before them to answer for 
 these oppressions. He accordingly went to 
 Edinburgh in the month of February, 1635, 
 where he was commanded to remain till the 
 matter should be investigated. The heads of 
 the families whose sons had joined the outlaws 
 also appeared, and, after examination, Letter- 
 fourie, Park, Tilliangus, Terrisoule, Inver- 
 markie, Tulloch, Ardlogy, and several other 
 persons of the surname of Gordon, were com- 
 mitted to prison, until their sons, who had 
 engaged in the combination against Fren- 
 draught, should be presented before the council. 
 The prisoners, who denied being accessory 
 thereto, then petitioned to be set at liberty, a 
 request which was complied with on condition 
 that they should either produce the rebels, as 
 the pillagers were called, or make them leave 
 the kingdom. The marquis, although nothing 
 i coidd be proved against him, was obliged to 
 
164 
 
 GENEEAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 find caution that all persons of the surname 
 of Gordon within his bounds should keep 
 the peace ; and that he should he answerable 
 in all time coming for any damage which 
 should befall the laird of Erendraught, or his 
 lands, by whatever violent means; and also 
 that he should present the rebels at Edinburgh, 
 that justice might be satisfied, or make them 
 leave the kingdom. 
 
 The Marquis of Huntly, thereupon, returned 
 to the north, and the rebels hearing of the 
 obligation he had come under, immediately 
 dispersed themselves. The greater part of 
 them fled into Elanders, and about twelve of 
 them were apprehended by the marquis, and 
 sent by him to Edinburgh. John Gordon, 
 who lived at Woodhead of Eothiemay, and 
 another, were executed. Of the remaining 
 two, James Gordon, son of George Gordon in 
 Auchterless, and William Eoss, son of John 
 Eoss of Ballivet, the former was acquitted by 
 the jury, and the latter was imprisoned in the 
 jail of Edinburgh for future trial, having been 
 a ringleader of the party. In apprehending 
 these twelve persons, James Gordon, son of 
 Adam Gordon of Strathdoun, was killed, and 
 to show the Privy Council how diligent the 
 marquis had been in fulfilling his obligation, 
 his head was sent to Edinburgh along with 
 the prisoners. 
 
 The activity with which the marquis pursued 
 the oppressors of Frendraught, brought him 
 afterwards into some trouble. Adam Gordon, 
 one of the principal ringleaders of the confed- 
 eracy, and second son of Sir Adam Gordon of 
 the Park, thinking it " hard to be baneishit 
 out of his native country, resoluit to cum home" 
 and throw himself on the king's mercy. For 
 this purpose he made a private communication 
 to the Archbishop of St. Andrews, then chan- 
 cellor of Scotland, in which he offered to sub- 
 mit himself to the king's pleasure, promis- 
 ing, that if his majesty would grant him a 
 pardon, he would reveal the author of the re- 
 bellion. The archbishop, eager, it would ap- 
 pear, to fulfil the ends of justice, readily 
 entered into Gordon's views, and sent a spe- 
 cial messenger to London to the lung, who 
 at once granted Adam a pardon. On receiving 
 the pardon, Gordon accused the Marquis of 
 Huntly as the author of the conspiracy against 
 
 Frendraught, and with having instigated him 
 and his associates to commit all the depreda- 
 tions which had taken place. The king, there- 
 upon, sent a commission to Scotland, appoint- 
 ing a select number of the lords of the Privy 
 Council to examine into the affair. 
 
 As Adam Gordon had charged James Gordon 
 of Letterfourie, with having employed him and 
 his associates, in name of the marquis, against 
 the laird of Frendraught, Letterfourie was cited 
 to appear at Edinburgh for trial. On being 
 confronted with Adam Gordon, he denied 
 everything laid to his charge, but, notwith- 
 standing this denial, he was committed, a 
 prisoner to the jail of Edinburgh. The mar- 
 quis himself, who had also appeared at Edin- 
 burgh on the appointed clay, January 15th, 
 1636, was likewise confronted with Adam 
 Gordon before the committee of the Privy 
 Council ; but although he denied Adam's ac- 
 cusation, and " cleared himself with great dex- 
 teritie, beyond admiration," as Gordon of Sal- 
 lagh observes, he was, "upon presumption," 
 committed a close prisoner to the castle of 
 Edinburgh. 
 
 When his majesty was made acquainted with 
 these circumstances by the commissioners, and 
 that there was no proof to establish the charge 
 against the marquis, both the marquis and 
 Gordon of Letterfourie were released by his 
 command, on giving security for indemnify- 
 ing the laird of Frendraught for any damage 
 he might sustain in time coming, from the 
 Gordons and their accomplices. Having so 
 far succeeded in annoying the marquis, Adam 
 Gordon, after collecting a body of men, by 
 leave of the Privy Council, went along with 
 them to Germany, where he became a captain 
 in the regiment of Colonel George Leslie. To 
 terminate the unhappy differences between the 
 marquis and Frendraught, the king enjoined 
 Sir Eobert Gordon, who was related to both, 
 — the marquis being his cousin-german, and 
 chief of that family, and Frendraught the 
 husband of his niece, — to endeavour to bring 
 about a reconciliation between them. Sir 
 Eobert, accordingly, on his return to Scotland, 
 prevailed upon the parties to enter into a sub- 
 mission, by which they agreed to refer all 
 questions and differences between them to the 
 arbitrament of friends ; but before the submis- 
 
DEATH AND CHAEACTEE OF THE MAKQUIS OE HUNTLY. 
 
 165 
 
 sion was brought to a final conclusion, the 
 marquis expired at Dundee on the 13th 
 June, (15th according to Gordon), 1636, at 
 the age of seventy-four, while returning to 
 the north from Edinburgh. He was in- 
 terred in the family vault at Elgin, on the 
 thirtieth day of August following, " having," 
 says Spalding, " above his chist a rich mort- 
 cloath of black velvet, wherein was wrought 
 two whyte crosses. He had torchlights in 
 great number carried be freinds and gentlemen ; 
 the marques' son, called Adam, was at his 
 head, the earle of Murray on the right spaik, 
 the earle of Seaforth on the left spaik, the 
 earle of Sutherland on the third spaik, and Sir 
 Robert Gordon on the fourth spaik. Besyds 
 thir nobles, many barrons and gentlemen was 
 there, haveing above three hundred lighted 
 torches at the lifting. He is carried to the 
 east port, doun the wynd to the south kirk 
 stile of the colledge kirk, in at the south kirk 
 door, and buried in his own isle with much 
 murning and lamentation. The like forme of 
 burriall, with torch light, was not sein heir thir 
 many dayes befor." 5 
 
 The marquis was a remarkable man for the 
 age in which he lived, and there are no char- 
 acters in that eventful period of Scottish his- 
 tory so well entitled to veneration and esteem. 
 A lover of justice, he never attempted to 
 aggrandize his vast possessions at the expense 
 of his less powerful neighbours ; a kind and 
 humane superior and landlord, he exercised a 
 lenient sway over his numerous vassals and 
 tenants, who repaid his kindness by sincere 
 attachment to his person and family. En- 
 dowed with great strength of mind, invincible 
 courage, and consummate prudence, he sur- 
 mounted the numerous difficulties with which 
 he was surrounded, and lived to see the many 
 factions which had conspired against him dis- 
 comfited and dissolved. While his constant 
 and undeviating attachment to the religion of 
 his forefathers, raised up many enemies against 
 him among the professors of the reformed doc- 
 trines, by whose cabals he was at one time 
 obliged to leave the kingdom, his great power 
 and influence were assailed by another formi- 
 
 5 Spalding, vol. i. p. 50, et seq. Gordon's Contin- 
 vMimi, p. 476, et seq. 
 
 dable class of opponents among the turbulent 
 nobility, who were grieved to see a man who 
 had not imitated their venality and rapacity, 
 not only retain his predominance in the north, 
 but also receive especial marks of his sovereign's 
 regard. But skilful and intriguing as they 
 were in all the dark and sinister ways of an 
 age distinguished for its base and wicked 
 practices, their machinations were frustrated 
 by the discernment and honesty of George 
 Gordon, the first Marquis of Huntly. 
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 a.d. 1636— (September) 1644. 
 sovereign :— Charles I., 1625—1649. 
 
 Charles I. attempts to introduce Episcopacy into Scot- 
 land — Meets with opposition — Preparations for war 
 — Doings in the North — Earl of Montrose — Mont- 
 rose at Aberdeen — Arrests the Marquis of Huntly — 
 Covenanters of the North meet at Turriff — The 
 " Trott of Turray " — Movements of the Gordons — 
 Viscount Aboyne lands at Aberdeen — " Eaid of 
 Stonehaven " — Battle at the Bridge of Dee — Pacifi- 
 cation of Berwick — War again — Earl of Argyle 
 endeavours to secure the West Highlands — Harsh 
 proceedings against the Earl of Airly — Montrose 
 goes over to the king — Marquis of Huntly rises in 
 the North — Montrose enters Scotland in disguise — 
 Landing of Irish forces in the West Highlands — 
 Meeting of Montrose and Alexander Macdonald — 
 Atholemen join Montrose — Montrose advances into 
 Strathearn — Battle of Tippermuir. 
 
 Hitherto the history of the Highlands has 
 been confined chiefly to the feuds and con- 
 flicts of the clans, the details of which, though 
 interesting to their descendants, cannot be sup- 
 posed to afford the same gratification to readers 
 at large. We now enter upon a more impor- 
 tant era, when the Highlanders begin to play 
 a much more prominent part in the theatre of 
 our national history, and to give a foretaste of 
 that military prowess for which they after- 
 wards became so highly distinguished. 
 
 In entering upon the details of the military 
 achievements of the Highlanders during the 
 period of the civil wars, it is quite unnecessary 
 and foreign to our purpose to trouble the 
 reader with a history of the rash, unconstitu- 
 tional, and ill-fated attempt of Charles I. to 
 introduce Episcopacy into Scotland ; nor, for the 
 same reason, is it requisite to detail minutely 
 the proceedings of the authors of the Covenant. 
 
166 
 
 GENERAL HISTORY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 Suffice it to say, that in consequence of the 
 inflexible determination of Charles to force 
 English Episcopacy upon the people of Scot- 
 land, the great majority of the nation declared 
 their determination " by the great name of the 
 Lord their God," to defend their religion against 
 what they considered to be errors and corrup- 
 tions. Notwithstanding, however, the most 
 positive demonstrations on the part of the 
 people to resist, Charles, acting by the advice 
 of a privy council of Scotsmen established hi 
 England, exclusively devoted to the affairs of 
 Scotland, and instigated by Archbishop Laud, 
 resolved to suppress the Covenant by open force. 
 In order to gain time for the necessary prepara- 
 tions, he sent the Marquis of Hamilton, as his 
 commissioner, to Scotland, who was instructed 
 to promise " that the practice of the liturgy and 
 the canons should never be pressed in any other 
 than a fair and legal way, and that the high 
 commission should be so rectified as never to 
 impugn the laws, or to be a just grievance to 
 loyal subjects," and that the king would pardon 
 those who had lately taken an illegal covenant, 
 on their immediately renouncing it, and giving 
 up the bond to the commissioners. 
 
 When the Covenanters heard of Hamilton's 
 approach, they appointed a national fast to be 
 held, to beg the blessing of God upon the lurk, 
 and on the 10th of June, 1638, the marquis 
 was received at Leith, and proceeded to the 
 capital through an assemblage of about 60,000 
 Covenanters, and 500 ministers. The spirit 
 and temper of such a vast assemblage over- 
 awed the marquis, and he therefore concealed 
 his instructions. After making two. successive 
 journeys to London to communicate the alarm- 
 ing state of affairs, and to receive fresh instruc- 
 tions, he, on his second return, issued a pro- 
 clamation, discharging " the service book, the 
 book of canons, and the high commission court, 
 dispensing with the five articles of Perth, dis- 
 pensing the entrants into the ministry from 
 taking the oath of supremacy and of canonical 
 obedience, commanding all persons to lay aside 
 the new Covenant, and take that which had 
 been published by the king's father in 1589, 
 and summoning a free assembly of the kirk to 
 meet it. the month of November, and a parlia- 
 ment in the month of May, the following year." 
 Matters had, however, proceeded too far for 
 
 submission to the conditions of the proclama- 
 tion, and the covenanting leaders answered it 
 by a formal protest, in which they gave sixteen 
 reasons, showing that to comply with the de- 
 mands of the king would be to betray the cause 
 of God, and to act against the dictates of con- 
 science. 
 
 In consequence of the opposition made to 
 the proclamation, it was generally expected 
 that the king would have recalled the order for 
 the meeting of the assembly at Glasgow ; but 
 no prohibition having been issued, that assem- 
 bly, which consisted, besides the clergy, of one 
 lay-elder and four lay-assessors from every pres- 
 bytery, met at the time appointed, viz., in the 
 month of November, 1638. After the assembly 
 had spent a week in violent debates, the com- 
 missioner, in terms of his instructions, declared 
 it dissolved ; but, encouraged by the accession 
 of the Earl of Argyle, who placed himself at 
 the head of the Covenanters, the members de- 
 clined to disperse at the mere mandate of the 
 sovereign, and passed a resolution that, in 
 spiritual matters, the kirk was independent of 
 the civil power, and that the dissolution by 
 the commissioner was illegal and void. After 
 spending three weeks in revising the ecclesi- 
 astical regulations introduced into Scotland 
 since the accession of James to the crown of 
 England, the assembly condemned the liturgy, 
 ordinal, book of canons, and court of high 
 commission, and, assuming all the powers of 
 legislation, abolished episcopacy, and excom- 
 municated the bishops themselves, and the 
 ministers who supported them. Charles de- 
 clared their proceedings null ; but the people 
 received them with great joy, and testified 
 their approbation by a national thanksgiving. 
 
 Both parties had for some time been prepar- 
 ing for war, and they now hastened on their 
 plans. In consequence of an order from the 
 supreme committee of the Covenanters in Edin- 
 burgh, every man capable of bearing arms was 
 called out and trained. Experienced Scottish 
 officers, who had spent the greater part of their 
 lives in military service in Sweden and Ger- 
 many, returned to Scotland to place themselves 
 at the head of their countrymen, and the Scot- 
 tish merchants in Holland supplied them with 
 arms and ammunition. The king advanced as 
 far as York with an army, the Scottish bishops 
 
DOINGS IN THE NORTH. 
 
 1G7 
 
 making liim believe that the news of his ap- 
 proach would induce the Covenanters to submit 
 themselves to his pleasure ; hut he was disap- 
 pointed, — for instead of submitting themselves, 
 they were the first to commence hostilities. 
 About the 19th of March, 1639, General Les- 
 lie, the covenanting general, with a few men, 
 surprised, and without difficulty, occupied the 
 castle of Edinburgh, and about the same time 
 the Earl of Traquair surrendered Dalkeith 
 house. Dumbarton castle, like that of Edin- 
 burgh, was taken by stratagem, the governor, 
 named Stewart, being intercepted on a Sunday 
 as he returned from church, and made to 
 change clothes with another gentleman and 
 give the pass- word, by which means the Cove- 
 nanters easily obtained possession. The king, 
 on arriving at Durham, despatched the Marquis 
 of Hamilton with a fleet of forty ships, having 
 on board 6,000 troops, to the Erith of Eorth ; 
 but as both sides of the Erith were well forti- 
 fied at different points, and covered with troops, 
 he was unable to effect a landing. 6 
 
 In the meantime, the Marquis of Huntly 
 raised the royal standard in the north, and as 
 the Earl of Sutherland, accompanied by Lord 
 Reay, John, Master of Berridale and others, 
 had been very busy in Inverness and Elgin, 
 persuading the inhabitants to subscribe the 
 Covenant, the marquis wrote Mm confidentially, 
 blaming him for his past conduct, and advising 
 him to declare for the king ; but the earl 
 informed him in reply, that it was against the 
 bishops and their innovations, and not against 
 the king, that he had so acted. The earl then, 
 in his turn, advised the marquis to join the 
 Covenanters, by doing which, he said he would 
 not only confer honour on himself, but much 
 good on his native country; that in any private 
 question in which Huntly was personally inter- 
 ested he would assist, but that in the present 
 affair he would not aid him. The earl there- 
 upon joined the Earl of Seaforth, the Master of 
 Berridale, Lord Lovat, Lord Reay, the laird of 
 Balnagown, the Rosses, the Monroes, the laird 
 of Grant, Macintosh, the laird of Innes, the 
 sheriff of Mora}', the baron of Kilravoek, the 
 laird of Altire, the tutor of Duffus, and the 
 otherCovenanters on the north of the riverSpey. 
 
 The Marquis of Huntly assembled his forces 
 first at Turriff, and afterwards at Kintore, 
 whence he marched upon Aberdeen, which he 
 took possession of in name of the king. The 
 niarquis being informed shortly after his arrival 
 in Aberdeen, that a meeting of Covenanters, 
 who resided within his district, was to be held 
 at Turriff on the 14th of February, resolved to 
 disperse them. He therefore wrote letters to 
 his chief dependents, requiring them to meet 
 him at Turriff the same day, and bring with 
 them no arms but swords and "sehottis" or 
 pistols. One of these letters fell into the hands 
 of the Earl of Montrose, one of the chief cove- 
 nanting lords, who determined at all hazards 
 to protect the meeting of his friends, the Cove- 
 nanters. In pursuance of this resolution, he 
 collected, with great alacrity, some of his best 
 friends in Angus, and with his own and their 
 dependents, to the number of about 800 men, 
 he crossed the range of hills called the Grange- 
 bean, between Angus and Aberdeenshire, and 
 took possession of Turriff on the morning of 
 the 14th of February. When Huntly's party 
 arrived during the course of the day, they were 
 surprised at seeing the little churchyard of the 
 village filled with armed men ; and they were 
 still more surprised to observe them levelling 
 their hagbuts at them across the walls of the 
 churchyard. Net knowing how to act in the 
 absence of the marquis, they retired to a place 
 called the Broad Ford of Towie, about two 
 miles south from the village, when they were 
 soon joined by Huntly and his suite. After 
 some consultation, the marquis, after parading 
 his men in order of battle along the north-west 
 side of the village, in sight of Montrose, 
 dispersed his party, which amounted to 2,000 
 men, without offering to attack Montrose, on 
 the pretence that his commission of lieu- 
 tenancy only authorised Mm to act on the 
 defensive. 7 
 
 James Graham, Earl, and afterwards first 
 Marquis of Montrose, who played so pro- 
 minent a part in the history of the troublous 
 times on wMch we are entering, was descended 
 from a family wMch can be traced back to the 
 beginning of the 12th century. His ancestor, 
 the Earl of Montrose, fell at Flodden, and Ms 
 
 Gordon's Scote Affairs, vol. 
 
 Spalding, vol. i. p. 137 
 
168 
 
 GENEEAL HISTOEY OE THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 grandfather became viceroy of Scotland after 
 James VI. ascended the throne of England. 
 He himself was born in 1612, his mother being 
 Lady Margaret Euthven, eldest daughter of 
 "William, first Earl of Gowrie. He succeeded 
 to the estates and title in 1626, on the death 
 of his father, and three years after, married 
 Magdalene Carnegie, daughter of Lord Car- 
 negie of Kinnaird. He pursued his studies at 
 St. Andrews University and Kinnaird Castle 
 till he was about twenty years of age, when 
 he went to the Continent and studied at the 
 academies of Erance and Italy, returning an 
 accomplished gentleman and a soldier. On 
 his return he was, for some reason, coldly 
 received by Charles I., and it is supposed by 
 some that it was mainly out of chagrin on this 
 account that he joined the Covenanters. "What- 
 ever may have been his motive for joining 
 them, he was certainly an important and 
 powerful accession to their ranks, although, as 
 will be seen, his adherence to them was but of 
 short duration. 
 
 Montrose is thus portrayed by his contempo- 
 rary, Fatrick Gordon of Euthven, author of 
 Britands Distemper. " It cannot be denied 
 but he was ane accomplished gentleman of 
 many excellent partes ; a bodie not tall, but 
 comely and well compossed in all his linia- 
 mentes ; his complexion meerly whitee, with 
 flaxin haire ; of a stayed, graue, and solide 
 looke, and yet his eyes sparkling and full of 
 lyfe ; of speach slowe, but wittie and full of 
 sence ; a presence graitfull, courtly, and so 
 winneing vpon the beholder, as it seemed to 
 claime reuerence without seweing for it ; for 
 he was so affable, so courteous, so bening, as 
 seemed verely to scorne ostentation and the 
 keeping of state, and therefor he quicklie made 
 a conquesse of the heartes of all his followers, 
 so as whan he list he could haue lead them in 
 a chaine to haue followed him with cheare- 
 fullnes in all his interpryses ; and I am cer- 
 tanely perswaded, that this his gratious, hu- 
 mane, and courteous fredome of behauiour, 
 being certanely acceptable befor God as well as 
 men, was it that wanne him so much renovne, 
 and inabled liim cheifly, in the loue of his 
 followers, to goe through so great interprysses, 
 ivheirrn his equall had failled, altho they 
 exceeded him fame in power, nor can any 
 
 other reason be giuen for it, but only this that 
 followeth. He did not seeme to affect state, 
 nor to claime reuerence, nor to keepe a dis- 
 tance with gentlemen that ware not his domes- 
 tickes ; but rather in a noble yet courteouse 
 way he seemed to slight those vanisheing 
 smockes of greatnes, affecting rather the reall 
 possession of mens heartes then the frothie 
 and outward showe of reuerence ; and therefor 
 was all reuerence thrust vpon him, because all 
 did loue him, therfor all did honour him and 
 reuerence him, yea, haueing once acquired there 
 heartes, they ware readie not only to honour 
 him, but to quarrell with any that would not 
 honour him, and would not spare there for- 
 tounes, nor there derrest blood about there 
 heartes, to the end he might be honoured, 
 because they saue that he tooke the right 
 course to obtaine honour. He had fund furth 
 the right way to be reuerenced, and thereby 
 was approued that propheticke maxime which 
 hath never failed, nor neuer shall faille, 
 being pronounced by the Fontaine of treuth 
 ( He that exalteth himself e shall be humbled) ; 
 for his winneing behauiour and courteous 
 caryago got him more respect then those to 
 whom they ware bound both by the law of 
 nature and by good reason to hawe giuen it to. 
 Nor could any other reason be giuen for it, 
 but only there to much keepeing of distance, 
 and caryeing themselfes in a more statlye and 
 reserued way, without putteing a difference 
 betuixt a free borne gentleman and a seruille 
 or base mynded slaue. 
 
 " This much I thought good by the way to 
 signifie ; for the best and most waliant generall 
 that euer lead ane armie if he mistake the dis- 
 position of the nation whom he commandes, 
 and will not descend a litle till he meete with 
 the genious of his shouldiours, on whose fol- 
 loweing his grandour and the success of his in- 
 terpryses chiefely dependeth, stryueing through 
 a high soireing and over winneing ambition to 
 drawe them to his byas with awe and not 
 with lowe, that leader, I say, shall neuer pre- 
 waill against his enemies with ane armie of the 
 Scotes nation." 
 
 Montrose had, about this time, received a 
 commission from the Tables — as the boards of 
 representatives, chosen respectively by the no- 
 bility, county gentry, clergy, and inhabitants of 
 
EARL OF MONTROSE AT ABERDEEN. 
 
 169 
 
 the burghs, were called — to raise a body of 
 troops for the service of the Covenanters, and he 
 now proceeded to embody them with extraordi- 
 nary promptitude. Within one month, he col- 
 lected a force of about 3,000 horse and foot, 
 from the counties of Fife, Forfar, and Perth, 
 and put them into a complete state of military 
 discipline. Being joined by the forces under 
 General Leslie, he marched upon Aberdeen, 
 which he entered, without opposition, on the 
 30th of March, the Marquis of Huntly having 
 abandoned the town on his approach. Some 
 idea of the well-appointed state of this army 
 may be formed from the curious description of 
 Spalding, who says, that " upon the morne, 
 being Saturday, they came in order of battell, 
 weiil armed, both on horse and foot, ilk horse- 
 man having five shot at the least, with ane 
 carabine in his hand, two pistols by his sydes, 
 and other two at his saddell toir ; the pikemen 
 in their ranks, with pike and sword ; the 
 musketiers in their ranks, with musket, musket- 
 staffe, bandelier, sword, powder, ball, and 
 match ; ilk company, both on horse and foot, 
 had their captains, lieutenants, ensignes, Ser- 
 jeants, and other officers and commanders, all 
 for the most part in buff coats, and in goodly 
 order. They had five colours or ensignes, 
 whereof the Earl of Montrose had one, have- 
 ing this motto : ' For Religion, the Cove- 
 nant, and the Codnteie ;' the Earle of Maris- 
 chall had one, the Earle of Kinghorne had 
 one, and the town of Dundie had two. They 
 had trumpeters to ilk company of horsemen, 
 and drummers to ilk company of footmen ; 
 they had their meat, drink, and other provi- 
 sion, bag and baggage, carry ed with them, 
 all done be advyse of his excellence Felt Mar- 
 schall Leslie, whose councell Generall Montrose 
 followed in this busieness. Now, in seemly 
 order and good array, this army came forward, 
 and entered the burgh of Aberdein, about ten 
 hours in the morning, at the Over Kirkgate 
 Port, syne came doun throw the Broadgate, 
 throw the Castlegate, out at the Justice Port 
 to the Queen's Links directly. Here it is to 
 be notted that few or none of this hail army 
 wanted ane blew ribbin hung about his craig, 
 doun under his left arme, which they called 
 the Covenanters' Ribbin. But the Lord Gor- 
 don, and some other of the marquess' bairnes 
 
 and familie, had ane ribbin when he was 
 dwelling in the toun, of ane reid flesh cullor, 
 which they wore in their hatts, and called it 
 77(6 Roy all Ribbin, as a signe of their love and 
 loj'alltie to the king. In despyte and derision 
 thereof this blew ribbin was worne, and called 
 the Covenanters' Ribbin, be the hail souldiers 
 of the army, and would not hear of the royall 
 ribbin ; such was their pryde and malice." 8 
 
 At Aberdeen Montrose was joined the same 
 day by Lord Fraser, the Master of Forbes, the 
 laird of Dalgettie, the tutor of Pitsligo, the 
 Earl Marshal's men in Buchan, with several 
 other gentlemen and their tenants, dependants, 
 and servants, to the number of 2,000, an addi- 
 tion which augmented Montrose's army to 9,000 
 men. Leaving the Earl of Kinghorn with 
 1,500 men to keep possession of Aberdeen, 
 Montrose marched the same day towards Kin- 
 tore, where he encamped that night. Halting 
 all Sunday, he proceeded on the Monday to In- 
 verury, where he again pitched his camp. The 
 Marquis of Huntly grew alarmed at this sudden 
 and unexpected movement, and thought it now 
 time to treat with such a formidable foe for his 
 personal safety. He, therefore, despatched 
 Robert Gordon of Straloch and Doctor Gordon, 
 an Aberdeen physician, to Montrose's camp, to 
 request an interview. The marquis proposed 
 to meet him on a moor near Blackhall, about 
 two miles from the camp, with 11 attendants 
 each, with no arms but a single sword at their 
 side. After consulting with Field Marshal 
 Leslie and the other officers, Montrose agreed 
 to meet the marquis, on Thursday the 4th of 
 April, at the place mentioned. The parties 
 accordingly met. Among the eleven who 
 attended the marquis were his son James, 
 Lord Aboyne, and the Lord Oliphant. Lords 
 Elcho and Cowper were of the party who at- 
 tended Montrose. After the usual salutation 
 they both alighted and entered into conversa- 
 tion; but, coming to no understanding, they 
 adjourned the conference til] the following 
 morning, when the marquis signed a paper 
 obliging himself to maintain the king's author- 
 ity, " the liberty of church and state, religion 
 and laws." He promised at the same time to 
 do his best to make his friends, tenants, and 
 
 8 Troubles, vol. i. pp. 107, 108. 
 
170 
 
 GENERAL HISTORY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 servants subscribe the Covenant. 9 The mar- 
 quis, after this arrangement, went to Strath- 
 bogie, and Montrose returned with his army to 
 Aberdeen, the following day. 
 
 The marquis had not been many days at 
 Strathbogie, when he received a notice from 
 Montrose to repair to Aberdeen with his two 
 sons, Lord Gordon and Viscount Aboyne, 
 for the ostensible purpose of assisting the 
 committee in their deliberations as to the 
 settlement of the disturbances in the north. 1 
 On Hnntly receiving an assurance from Mon- 
 trose and the other covenanting leaders that 
 no attempt should be made to detain himself 
 and his sons as prisoners, he complied with 
 Montrose's invitation, and repairing to Aber- 
 deen, he took up his quarters in the laird of 
 Pitfoddel's house. 
 
 The arrest of the marquis, which followed, 
 has been attributed, not without reason, to the 
 intrigues of the Frasers and the Forbeses, who 
 bore a mortal antipathy to the house of Huntly, 
 and who were desirous to see the " Cock of the 
 North," as the powerful head of that house was 
 popularly called, humbled. 2 But, be these con- 
 jectures as they may, on the morning after the 
 marquis's arrival at Aberdeen, viz., on the 11th 
 April, a council of the principal officers of 
 Montrose's army was held, at which it was 
 determined to arrest the marquis and Lord 
 Gordon, his eldest son, and carry them to 
 Edinburgh. It was not, however, judged ad- 
 visable to act upon this resolution irarnediately, 
 and to do away with any appearance of treach- 
 ery, Montrose ard his friends invited the mar- 
 quis and his two sons to supper the following 
 evening. During the entertainment the most 
 friendly civilities were passed on both sides, 
 and, after the party had become somewhat 
 merry, Montrose and his friends hinted to the 
 marquis the expediency, in the present posture 
 of affairs, of resigning his commission of lieu- 
 tenancy. They also proposed that he should 
 write a letter to the king along with the resig- 
 nation of his commission, in favour of the 
 Covenanters, as good and loyal subjects ; and 
 that he should despatch the laird of Cluny, the 
 following morning, with the letter and resigna- 
 
 9 Spalding, vol. i. pp. 157, 160. 
 
 1 Gordon of Kothiemay, vol. ii. p. 235. 
 
 2 Id., vol. ii. p. 235. 
 
 tion. The marquis, seeing that his commission 
 was altogether unavailable, immediately wrote 
 out, in presence of the meeting, a resignation of 
 it, and a letter of recommendation as proposed, 
 and, in their presence, delivered the same to the 
 laird of Cluny, who was to set off the following 
 morning with them to the king. It would 
 appear that Montrose was not sincere in mak- 
 ing this demand upon the marquis, and that 
 his object was, by calculating on a refusal, to 
 make that the ground for arresting him; for 
 the marquis had scarcely returned to his lodg- 
 ings to pass the night, when an armed guard 
 was placed round the house, to prevent him 
 from returning home, as he intended to do, the 
 following morning. 
 
 When the marquis rose, next morning, he 
 was surprised at receiving a message from 
 the covenanting general, desiring his attend- 
 ance at the house of the Earl Marshal; and 
 he was still farther surprised, when, on 
 going out, along with his two sons, to the 
 appointed place of meeting, he found his 
 lodging beset with sentinels. The marquis 
 was received by Montrose with the usual 
 morning salutation, after which, he proceeded 
 to demand from him a contribution for liqui- 
 dating a loan of 200,000 merks, which the 
 Covenanters had borrowed from Sir Willian 
 Dick, a rich merchant of Edinburgh. To this 
 unexpected demand the rnarquis replied, that 
 he was not obliged to pay any part thereof, not 
 having been concerned in the borrowing, and 
 of course, declined to comply. Montrose then 
 requested him to take steps to apprehend James 
 Grant and John Dugar, and their accomplices, 
 who had given considerable annoyance to the 
 Covenanters in the Highlands. Huntly ob- 
 jected, that, having now no commission, he 
 could not act, and that, although he had, 
 James Grant had already obtained a remission 
 from the king ; and as for John Dugar, he would 
 concur, if required, with the other neighbouring 
 proprietors in an attempt to apprehend him. 
 The earl, finally, as the Covenant, he said, ad- 
 mitted of no standing hatred or feud, required 
 the marquis to reconcile himself to Crichton, 
 the laird of Frendraught, but this the marquis 
 positively refused to do. Finding, as he no 
 doubt expected, the marquis quite resolute in 
 his determination to resist these demands, the 
 
MOXTEOSE AEEESTS THE MAEQUIS OF HUNTLY. 
 
 171 
 
 earl suddenly changed his tone, and thus ad- 
 dressed the marquis, apparently in the most 
 friendly terras, " My lord, seeing we are all 
 now friends, will you go south to Edinburgh 
 with us?" Iluntly answered that he would 
 not — that he was not prepared for such a 
 journey, and that he was just going to set off 
 for Stratlibogie. " Your lordship," rejoined 
 Montrose, " will do well to go with us." The 
 marquis now pereei""ing Montrose's design, 
 accosted him thus, " My lord, I came here to 
 this town upon assurance that I should come 
 and go at my own pleasure, without molesta- 
 tion or inquietude; and now I see why my 
 lodging was guarded, and that ye mean to take 
 me to Edinburgh, whether I will or not. This 
 conduct, on your part, seems to me to he 
 neither fair nor honourahle." He added, " My 
 lord, give me back the bond which I gave you 
 at Inverury, and you shall have an answer." 
 Montrose thereupon delivered the bond to the 
 marquis. Huntly then inquired at the earl, 
 " Whether he would take bim to the south as 
 a captive, or w illin gly of his own mind?" 
 " Make your choice," said Montrose. " Then," 
 observed the marquis, " I will not go as a cap- 
 tive, but as a volunteer." The marquis there- 
 upon immediately returned to his lodging, and 
 despatched a messenger after the laird of 
 Cluny, to stop him on his journey." 2 
 
 It was the intention of Montrose to take 
 both the marquis and his sons to Edinburgh, 
 but Viscount Aboyne, at the desire of some of 
 his friends, was released, and allowed to return 
 to Strathbogie. On arriving at Edinburgh, 
 the marquis and his son, Lord Gordon, were 
 com mi tted close prisoners to the castle of 
 Edinburgh, and the Tables "appointed five 
 guardians to attend upon him and his son 
 night and day, upon his own expenses, that 
 none should come in nor out but by their 
 sight." 3 On being solicited to sign the Cov- 
 enant, Huntly issued a manifesto characterized 
 by magnanimity and the most steadfast loyalty, 
 concluding with the following words: — "For 
 my oune part, I am in your power; and re- 
 solved not to leave that foul title of traitor as 
 ane inheritance upon my posteritye. Yow 
 
 = Spalding, vol. i. p. 
 3 Ibid. p. 177. 
 
 may tacke my heade from my shoulders, but 
 not my heart from my soveraigne." 4 
 
 Some time after the departure of Montrose's 
 army to the south, the Covenanters of the north 
 appointed a committee meeting to be held at 
 Turriff, upon "Wednesday, 24th April, con- 
 sisting of the Earls Marshal and Seaforth, 
 Lord Fraser. the Master of Forbes, and some 
 of their kindred and friends. All persons 
 within the diocese, who had not subscribed the 
 Covenant, were required to attend this meeting 
 for the purpose of signing it, and failing com- 
 pliance, their property was to be given up 
 to indiscriminate plunder. As neither Lord 
 Aboyne, the laird of Banff, nor any of their 
 friends and kinsmen, had subscribed the Cov- 
 enant, nor meant to do so, they resolved to 
 protect themselves from the threatened attack. 
 A preliminary meeting of the heads of the 
 northern Covenanters was held on the 22d of 
 April, at Monymusk, where they learned of 
 the rising of Lord Aboyne and his friends. 
 This intelligence induced them to postpone 
 the meeting at Turriff till the 26 th of April, 
 by whi"h day they expected to be joined by 
 several gentlemen from Caithness, Sutherland, 
 Eoss, Moray, and other quarters. At another 
 meeting, however, on the 24th of April, they 
 postponed the proposed meeting at Turriff, 
 ■sine die, and adjourned to Aberdeen; but as 
 no notice had been sent of the postponement 
 to the different covenanting districts in the 
 north, about 1,500 men assembled at the place 
 of meeting on the 26 th of April, and were 
 quite astonished to find that the chiefs were 
 absent. Upon an explanation taking place, 
 the meeting was adjourned till the 20th of May. 
 
 Lord Aboyne had not been idle during this 
 interval, having collected about 2,000 horse 
 and foot from the Highlands and Lowlands, 
 with which force he had narrowly watched 
 the movements of the Covenanters. Hearing, 
 however, of the adjournment of the Turriff 
 meeting, his lordship, at the entreaty of his 
 friends, broke up his army, and went by sea to 
 England to meet the king, to inform him of 
 the precarious state of affairs in the north. 
 Many of his followers, such as the lairds of 
 Gight, Haddo, Udney, Newton, Pitmedden, 
 
 4 Gordon of Rothiemay, ii. 240. Spalding, i. 179. 
 
172 
 
 GENEEAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 Foveran, Tippertie, Harthill, and others, who 
 had subscribed the Covenant, regretted his 
 departure; but as they had gone too far to 
 recede, they resolved to continue their forces 
 in the field, and held a meeting on the 7th of 
 May at Auchterless, to concert a plan of 
 operations. 
 
 A body of the Covenanters, to the number 
 of about 2,000, having assembled at Turriff as 
 early as the 13th of May, the Gordons resolved 
 instantly to attack them, before they should 
 be joined by other forces, which were expected 
 to arrive before the 20th. Taking along with 
 them four brass field-pieces from Strathbogie, 
 the Gordons, to the number of about 800 horse 
 and foot, commenced their march on the 13th 
 of May, at ten o'clock at night, and reached 
 Turriff next morning by day-break, by a road 
 unknown to the sentinels of the covenanting 
 army. As soon as they approached the town, 
 the commander of the Gordons ordered the 
 trumpets to be sounded and the drums to be 
 beat, the noise of which was the first indication 
 the Covenanters had of their arrival. Being 
 thus surprised, the latter had no time to make 
 any preparations for defending themselves. 
 They made, indeed, a short resistance, but were 
 soon dispersed by the fire from the field-pieces, 
 leaving behind them the lairds of Echt and 
 Skene, and a few others, who were taken 
 prisoners. The loss on either side, in killed 
 and wounded, was very trifling. This skirmish 
 is called by the writers of the period, " the 
 Trott of Turray." 5 
 
 The successful issue of this trifling affair had 
 a powerful effect on the minds of the victors, 
 who forthwith marched on Aberdeen, which 
 they entered on the 15th of May. They 
 expelled the Covenanters from the town, and 
 were there joined by a body of men from the 
 Braes of Mar under the command of Donald 
 Farquharson of Tulliegarmouth, and the laird 
 of Abergeldie, and by another party headed by 
 James Grant, so long an outlaw, to the num- 
 ber of about 500 men. These men quartered 
 themselves very freely upon the inhabitants, 
 particularly on those who had declared for the 
 Covenant, and they plundered many gentle- 
 
 5 Turray is the old name of Turriff. — Gordon of 
 Rothiemay, vol. ii. p. 254. Gordon of Sallagh, p. 101. 
 
 men's houses in the neighbourhood. The house 
 of Durris, belonging to John Forbes of Leslie, 
 a great Covenanter, received a visit from them. 
 " There was," says Spalding, " little plenishing 
 left unconveyed away before their comeing. 
 They gott good bear and ale, broke up girnells, 
 and buke bannocks at good fyres, and drank 
 merrily upon the laird's best drink : syne 
 carried away with them alse meikle victual 
 as they could beir, which they could not gett 
 eaten and destroyed ; and syne removed from 
 that to Echt, Skene, Monymusk, and other 
 houses pertaining to the name of Forbes, all 
 great Covenanters." 6 
 
 Two days after their arrival at Aberdeen, 
 the Gordons sent to Dunnottar, for the purpose 
 of ascertaining the sentiments of the Earl 
 Marshal, in relation to their proceedings, and 
 whether they might reckon on his friendship. 
 The earl, however,, intimated that he could say 
 nothing in relation to the affair, and that he 
 would require eight days to advise with his 
 friends. This answer was considered quite 
 unsatisfactory, and the chiefs of the army were 
 at a loss how to act. Eobert Gordon of Stra- 
 loch, and James Burnet of Craigmylle, a 
 brother of the laird of Leys, proposed to enter 
 into a negotiation with the Earl Marshal, but 
 Sir George Ogilvie of Banff would not listen 
 to such a proceeding, and, addressing Straloch, 
 he said, " Go, if you will go ; but pr'ythee, let 
 it be as quarter-master, to inform the earl that 
 we are coming." Straloch, however, went not 
 in the character of a quarter-master, but as a 
 mediator in behalf of his chief. The earl said 
 he had no intention to take up arms, without 
 an order from the Tables ; that, if the Gordons 
 would disperse, he would give them early 
 notice to re-assemble, if necessary, for their 
 own defence, but that if they should attack 
 him, he would certainly defend himself. 
 
 The army was accordingly disbanded on the 
 21st of May, and the barons went to Aberdeen, 
 there to spend a few days. The depredations 
 of the Highlanders, who had come down to 
 the lowlands in quest of plunder, upon the 
 properties of the Covenanters, were thereafter 
 carried on to such an extent, that the latter com- 
 plained to the Earl Marshal, who immediately 
 
 c Spalding, vol. i. D. 188. 
 
VISCOUNT ABOYNE LANDS AT ABEKDEEN. 
 
 173 
 
 assembled a body of men out of Angus and 
 the Mearns, with which he entered Aberdeen 
 on the 23d of May, causing the barons to 
 make a precipitate retreat. Two days there- 
 after the earl was joined by Montrose, at the 
 head of 4,000 men, an addition which, with 
 other accessions, made the whole force assem- 
 bled at Aberdeen exceed 6,000. 
 
 Meanwhile a large body of northern Cove- 
 nanters, under the command of the Earl of 
 Seaforth, was approaching from the districts 
 beyond the Spey; but the Gordons having 
 crossed the Spey for the purpose of opposing 
 their advance, an agreement was entered into 
 between both parties that, on the Gordons re- 
 tiring across the Spey, Seaforth and his men 
 should also retire homewards. 
 
 After spending five days in Aberdeen, Mon- 
 trose marched his army to Udney, thence 
 to Kellie, the seat of the laird of Haddo, and 
 afterwards to Gight, the residence of Sir 
 Eobert Gordon, to which he laid siege. But 
 intelligence of the arrival of Viscount Aboyne 
 in the bay of Aberdeen, deranged his plans. 
 Being quite uncertain of Aboyne's strength, 
 and fearing that his retreat might be cut off, 
 Montrose quickly raised the siege and returned 
 to Aberdeen. Although Lord Aboyne still 
 remained on board his vessel, and could easily 
 have been prevented from landing, Montrose 
 most unaccountably abandoned the town, and 
 retired into the Mearns. 
 
 Viscount Aboyne had been most graciously 
 received by the king, and had ingratiated him- 
 self so much with the monarch, as to obtain 
 the commission of lieutenancy which his father 
 held. The king appears to have entertained 
 good hopes from his endeavours to support the 
 royal cause in the north of Scotland, and be- 
 fore taking leave he gave the viscount a letter 
 addressed to the Marquis of Hamilton, request- 
 ing him to afford his lordship all the assistance 
 in his power. Erom whatever cause, all the 
 aid afforded by the Marquis was limited to a 
 few officers and four field-pieces : " The king,'' 
 says Gordon of Sallagh, " coming to Berwick, 
 and business growing to a height, the armies 
 of England and Scotland lying near one another, 
 his majesty sent the Viscount of Aboyne and 
 Colonel Gun (who was then returned out of 
 Germany) to the Marquis of Hamilton, to 
 
 receive some forces from him, and with these 
 forces to go to Aberdeen, to possess and re- 
 cover that town. The Marquis of Hamilton, 
 lying at anchor in Forth, gave them no supply 
 of men, but sent them five ships to Aberdeen, 
 and the marquis himself retired with his fleet 
 and men to the Holy Island, hard by Berwick, 
 to reinforce the king's army there against the 
 Scots at Dunslaw." 7 On his voyage to 
 Aberdeen, Aboyne's ships fell in with two 
 vessels, one of which contained the lairds of 
 Banff, Foveran, Newton, Crummie, and others, 
 who had fled on the approach of Montrose to 
 Gight; and the other had on board some 
 citizens of Aberdeen, and several mini sters 
 who had refused to sign the Covenant, all of 
 whom the viscount persuaded to return home 
 along with him. 
 
 On the 6th of June, Lord Aboyne, accom- 
 panied by the Earls of Glencairn and Tulli- 
 bardine, the lairds of Drum, Banff, Fedderet, 
 Foveran, and Newton, and their followers, 
 with Colonel Gun and several English officers, 
 landed in Aberdeen without opposition. Imme- 
 diately on coming ashore, Aboyne issued a pro- 
 clamation which was read at the cross of Aber- 
 deen, prohibiting all his majesty's loyal subjects 
 from paying any rents, duties, or other debts to 
 the Covenanters, and requiring them to pay 
 one-half of such sums to the king, and to 
 retain the other for themselves. Those persons 
 who had been forced to subscribe the Cove- 
 nant against their will, were, on repentance, to 
 be forgiven, and every person was required to 
 take an oath of allegiance to his majesty. 
 
 This bold step inspired the royalists with 
 confidence, and in a short space of time a con- 
 siderable force rallied round the royal standard. 
 Lewis Gordon, third son of the Marquis of 
 Huntly, a youth of extraordinary courage, on 
 hearing of his brother's arrival, collected his 
 father's friends and tenants, to the number of 
 about 1,000 horse and foot, and with these he 
 entered Aberdeen on the 7th of June. These 
 were succeeded by 100 horse, sent in by the 
 laird of Drum, and by considerable forces led 
 by James Grant and Donald Farquharson. 
 Many of the Covenanters also joined the 
 viscount, so that his force ultimately amounted 
 
 7 Continuation, j>. 402. 
 
174 
 
 GENEEAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 to several thousand men. Spalding 8 gives 
 a sad, though, somewhat ludicrous account 
 of the way in which Earquharson's " hie- 
 land men " conducted themselves while in 
 Aberdeen. He says, " Thir saulless lounis 
 plunderit meit, drink, and scheip quhair ever 
 they cam. Thay oppressit the Oldtoun, and 
 brocht in out of the countrie honest menis 
 scheip, and sold at the cross of Old Abirdein 
 to sic as wold by, ane scheip upone foot for 
 aue groat. The poor men that aucht thame 
 follouit in and coft bak thair awin scheip 
 agane, sic as wes left unslayne for thair meit." 
 
 On the 10th of June the viscount left Aber- 
 deen, and advanced upon Kintore with an 
 army of about 2,000 horse and foot, to which 
 he received daily accessions. The inhabitants 
 of the latter place were compelled by him to 
 subscribe the oath of allegiance, and notwith- 
 standing their compliance, " the troops," says 
 Spalding, " plundered meat and drink, and 
 made good fires: and, where they wanted 
 peats, broke down beds and boards in honest 
 men's houses to be fires, and fed their horses 
 with corn and straw that day and night." 9 
 Next morning the army made a raid upon 
 Hall Forrest, a seat of the Earl Marshal, and 
 the house of Muchells, belonging to Lord 
 Fraser ; but Aboyne, hearing of a rising in the 
 south, returned to Aberdeen. 
 
 As delay woidd be dangerous to his cause in 
 the present conjuncture, he crossed the Dee on 
 the 14th of June, his army amounting alto- 
 gether probably to about 3,000 horse and foot, 1 
 with the intention of occupying Stonehaven, 
 and of issuing afresh the king's proclamation 
 at the market cross of that burgh. He pro- 
 ceeded as far as Muchollis, or Muchalls, the seat 
 of Sir Thomas Burnet of Leyes, a Covenanter, 
 where he encamped that night. On hearing of 
 his approach, the Earl Marshal and Montrose 
 posted themselves, with 1,200 men, and some 
 pieces of ordnance which they had drawn from 
 Dunnottar castle, on the direct road which 
 Aboyne had to pass, and waited his approach. 
 
 8 Spalding, vol. i. p. 205. 
 
 9 Troubles, vol. i. p. 206. 
 
 1 Spalding, vol. i. p. 207. — Gordon of Kotliiemay. 
 vol. ii. p. 26S. — Gordon of Ruthven, in his abridg- 
 ment of Britane's Distemper (Spald. Club ed.), p. 206, 
 makes the number 5,000. 
 
 Although Aboyne was quite aware of the 
 position of the Earl Marshal, instead of endea- 
 vouring to outflank him by making a detour to 
 the right, he, by Colonel Gun's advice, crossed 
 the Meagre hill next morning, directly in the 
 face of his opponent, who lay with his forces 
 at the bottom of the hill. As Aboyne de- 
 scended the hill, the Earl Marshal opened a 
 heavy fire upon him, which threw his men into 
 complete disorder. The Highlanders, unaccus- 
 tomed to the fire of cannon, were the first to 
 retreat, and in a short time the whole army 
 gave waj r . Aboyne thereupon returned to 
 Aberdeen with some horsemen, leaving the 
 rest of the army to follow ; but the High- 
 landers took a homeward course, carrying along 
 with them a large quantity of booty, which 
 they gathered on then' retreat. The disastrous 
 issue of " the Eaid of Stonehaven," as this 
 affair has been called, has been attributed, with 
 considerable plausibility, to treachery on the 
 part of Colonel Gun, to whom, on account of 
 his great experience, Aboyne had intrusted the 
 command of the army. 2 
 
 On his arrival at Aberdeen, Aboyne held s 
 council of war, at which it was determined to 
 send some persons into the Mearns to collect 
 the scattered remains of his army, for, with the 
 exception of about 180 horsemen and a few foot 
 soldiers, the whole of the fine army which he 
 had led from Aberdeen had disappeared ; but 
 although the army again mustered at Leggets- 
 den to the number of 4,000, they were pre- 
 vented from recrossing the Dee and joining 
 his lordship by the Marshal and Montrose, 
 who advanced towards the bridge of Dee with 
 all their forces. Aboyne, hearing of their ap- 
 proach, resolved to dispute with them the 
 passage of the Dee, and, as a precautionary 
 measure, blocked up the entrance to the bridge 
 of Dee from the south by a thick wall of turf, 
 beside which he placed 100 musketeers upon 
 the bridge, under the command of Lieutenant- 
 Colonel Johnstone, to annoy the assailants from 
 the small turrets on its 'sides. The viscount 
 was warmly seconded in his views by the citi- 
 zens of Aberdeen, whose dread of another hos- 
 tile visit from the Covenanters induced them to 
 
 - Spalding, vol. i. p. 208. Gordon of Rothiemay, 
 vol. ii. p. 272. Britane's Distemper, p. 2-1. 
 
BATTLE AT THE BRIDGE OF DEE. 
 
 175 
 
 afford him every assistance in their power, and 
 it is recorded that the women and children 
 even occupied themselves in carrying provi- 
 sions to the army during the contest. 
 
 The army of Montrose consisted of ahout 
 2,000 foot and 300 horse, and a large train of 
 artillery. The forces which Lord Aboyne 
 had collected on the spur of the occasion 
 were not numerous, but he was superior in 
 cavalry. His ordnance consisted only of four 
 pieces of brass cannon. Montrose arrived at 
 the bridge of Dee on the 18th of June, and, 
 without a moment's delay, commenced a furious 
 cannonade upon the works which had been 
 thrown up at the south end, and which he 
 kept up during the whole day without produc- 
 ing any material effect. Lieutenant-colonel 
 Johnstone defended the bridge with deter- 
 mined bravery, and his musketeers kept up a 
 galling and well-directed fire upon their assail- 
 ants. Both parties reposed during the short 
 twilight, and as soon as morning dawned Mon- 
 trose renewed his attack upon the bridge, with 
 an ardour which seemed to have received a 
 fresh impulse from the unavailing efforts of 
 the preceding day ; but all his attempts were 
 vain. Seeing no hopes of carrying the bridge 
 in the teeth of the force opposed to him, he had 
 recourse to a stratagem, by which he succeeded 
 in withdrawing a part of Aboyne's forces from 
 the defence of the bridge. That force had, 
 indeed, been considerably impaired before the 
 renewal of the attack, in consequence of a party 
 of 50 musketeers having gone to Aberdeen to 
 escort thither the body of a citizen named John 
 Forbes, who had been killed the preceding 
 day ; to which circumstance Spalding attri- 
 butes the loss of the bridge ; but whether the 
 absence of this party had such an effect upon 
 the fortune of the day is by no means clear. 
 The covenanting general, after battering unsuc- 
 cessfully the defences of the bridge, ordered 
 a party of horsemen to proceed up the river 
 some distance, and to make a demonstration as 
 if they intended to cross. Aboyne was com- 
 pletely deceived by this manoeuvre, and sent 
 the whole of his horsemen from the bridge 
 to dispute the passage of the river with those 
 of Montrose, leaving Lieutenant-colonel John- 
 stone and his 50 musketeers alone to protect 
 the bridge. Montrose having thus drawn his 
 
 opponent into the snare set for him, imme- 
 diately sent back the greater part of his horse, 
 under the command of Captain Middleton, with 
 instructions to renew the attack upon the 
 bridge with redoubled energy. This officer lost 
 no time in obeying these orders, and Lieutenant- 
 colonel Johnstone having been wounded in the 
 outset by a stone torn from the bridge by a shot, 
 was forced to abandon its defence, and he and 
 his party retired precipitately to Aberdeen. 
 
 "When Aboyne saw the colours of the Cove- 
 nanters flying on the bridge of Dee, he fled with 
 great haste towards Strathbogie, after releasing 
 the lairds of Purie Ogilvy and Purie Fodder- 
 inghame, whom he had taken prisoners, and 
 carried with him from Aberdeen. The loss on 
 either side during the conflict on the bridge 
 was trifling. The only person of note who fell 
 on Aboyne's side was Seaton of Pitmedden, a 
 brave cavalier, who was killed by a cannon 
 shot while riding along the river side with 
 Lord Aboyne. On that of the Covenanters 
 was slain another valiant gentleman, a brother 
 of Ramsay of Balmain. About 14 persons of 
 inferior note were lulled on each side, including 
 some burgesses of Aberdeen, and several were 
 wounded. 
 
 Montrose, reaching the north bank of the 
 Dee, proceeded immediately to Aberdeen, 
 which he entered without opposition. So ex- 
 asperated were Montrose's followers at the 
 repeated instances of devotedness shown by 
 the inhabitants to the royal cause, that they 
 proposed to raze the town and set it on fire ; 
 but they were hindered from carrying their 
 design into execution by the firmness of Mon- 
 trose. The Covenanters, however, treated the 
 inhabitants very harshly, and imprisoned many 
 who were suspected of having been concerned 
 in opposing their passage across the Dee ; but 
 an end was put to these proceedings in conse- 
 quence of intelligence being brought on the fol- 
 lowing day (June 20th) of the treaty of paci- 
 fication which had been entered into between 
 the king and Ms subjects at Berwick, upon the 
 1 8th of that month. On receipt of this news, 
 Montrose s,ent a despatch to the Earl of Sea- 
 forth, who was stationed with his army on the 
 Spey, intimating the pacification, and desiring 
 him to disband his army, with which order he 
 instantly complied. 
 
176 
 
 GENEBAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 The articles of pacification were preceded by 
 a declaration on trie part of trie king, in which, 
 he stated, that although he could not conde- 
 scend to ratify and approve of the acts of the 
 Glasgow General Assembly, yet, notwithstand- 
 ing the many disorders which had of late been 
 committed, he not only confirmed and made 
 good whatsoever his commissioner had granted 
 and promised, but he also declared that all mat- 
 ters ecclesiastical should be determined by the 
 assembhes of the kirk, and matters civil by 
 the parliament and other inferior judicatories 
 estabbshed by law. To settle, therefore, " the 
 general distractions " of the kingdom, his ma- 
 jesty ordered that a free general assembly 
 should be held at Edinburgh on the 6th August 
 following, at which he declared his intention, 
 " God willing, to be personally present;" and 
 he moreover ordered a parhament to meet at 
 Edinburgh on the 20th of the same month, for 
 ratifying the proceedings of the general assem- 
 bly, and settling such other matters as might 
 conduce to the peace and good of the kingdom 
 of Scotland. By the articles of pacification, it 
 was, inter alia, provided that the forces in 
 Scotland should be disbanded within forty- 
 eight hours after the publication of the de- 
 claration, and that all the royal castles, forts, 
 and warlike stores of every description, should 
 be delivered up to his majesty after the said 
 pubbcation, as soon as he should send to 
 receive them. Under the seventh and last 
 article of the treaty, the Marquis of Huntly 
 and his son, Lord Gordon, and some others 
 who had been detained prisoners in the castle 
 of Edinburgh by the Covenanters, were set at 
 liberty. 
 
 It has been generally supposed that neither 
 party had any sincere intention to observe the 
 conditions of the treaty. Certain it is, that the 
 ink with which it was written was scarcely dry 
 before its violation was contemplated. On the 
 one hand, the king, before removing his army 
 from the neighbourhood of Berwick, required 
 the heads of the Covenanters to attend him there, 
 obviously with the object of gaining them over 
 to his side ; but, with the exception of three 
 commoners and three lords, Montrose, Lou- 
 don, and Lothian, they refused to obey. It 
 was at this conference that Charles, who ap- 
 parently had great persuasive powers, made 
 
 a convert of Montrose, who from that time 
 determined to desert his associates in arms, 
 and to place himself under the royal standard. 
 The immediate strengthening of the forts of Ber- 
 wick and Carlisle, and the provisioning of the 
 castle of Edinburgh, were probably the sugges- 
 tions of Montrose, who would, of course, be 
 intrusted with the secret of his majesty's de- 
 signs. The Covenanters, on the other hand, 
 although making a show of disbanding their 
 army at Dunse, in reabty kept a considerable 
 force on foot, which they quartered in different 
 parts of the country, to be in readiness for the 
 field on a short notice. The suspicious conduct 
 of the king certainly justified this precaution. 
 
 The general assembly met on the day fixed 
 upon, but, instead of attending in person as he 
 proposed, Charles appointed the Earl of Tra- 
 quair to act as his commissioner. After abobsh- 
 ing the articles of Perth, the book of canons, the 
 liturgy, the high commission and episcopacy, 
 and ratifying the late Covenant, the assembly 
 was dissolved on the 30th of August, and 
 another general assembly was appointed to be 
 held at Aberdeen on the 28th of July of the fol- 
 lowing year, 1640. The parliament met next 
 day, viz., on the last day of August, and as there 
 were no bishops to represent the third estate, 
 fourteen minor barons were elected in their 
 stead. His majesty's commissioner protested 
 against the vote and against farther proceedings 
 till the king's mind should be known, and the 
 commissioner immediately sent off a letter ap- 
 prising him of the occurrence. "Without wait- 
 ing for the king's answer, the parliament was 
 proceeding with a variety of bills for securing 
 the bberty of the subject and restraining the 
 royal prerogative, when it was unexpectedly 
 and suddenly prorogued, by an order from the 
 king, till the 2d of June in the following year. 
 
 If Charles had not ab-eady made up his mind 
 for war with his Scottish subjects, the conduct 
 of the parbament which he had just prorogued 
 determined him again to have recourse to arms 
 in vindication of his prerogative. He endea- 
 voured, at first, to enlist the sympathies of the 
 bulk of the EngHsh nation in his cause, but 
 without effect ; and his repeated appeals to his 
 EngHsh people, setting forth the rectitude of 
 his intentions and the justice of his cause, 
 being answered by men who questioned the 
 
THREATENED WAR BETWEEN ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND. 
 
 17? 
 
 one and denied the other, rather injured than 
 Krved him. The people of England were not 
 then in a mood to embark in a crusade against 
 the civil and religious liberties of the north; 
 and they had too much experience of the arbi- 
 trary spirit of the king to imagine that their 
 own liberties would be better secured by ex- 
 tinguishing the flame which burned in the 
 breasts of the sturdy and enthusiastic Cove- 
 nanters. 
 
 But notwithstanding the many discouraging 
 circumstances which surrounded him, Charles 
 displayed a firmness of resolution to coerce the 
 rebellious Scots by every means within his 
 reach. The spring and part of the summer of 
 1640 were spent by both parties in military 
 preparations. Eield-Marshal Sir Alexander 
 Leslie of Balgony, an old and experienced 
 officer who had been in foreign service, was 
 appointed generalissimo of the Scots army by 
 the war committee. When mustered by the 
 general at Choicelee, it amounted to about 
 22,000 foot and 2,500 horse. A council of 
 war was held at Dunse at which it was deter- 
 mined to invade England. Montrose, to whose 
 command a division of the army, consisting of 
 2,000 foot and 500 horse, was intrusted, was 
 absent when this meeting was held; but, 
 although his sentiments had, by this time, 
 undergone a complete change, seeing on his 
 return no chance of preventing the resolution 
 of the council, he dissembled his feelings and 
 openly approved of the plan. There seems to 
 be no doubt that in following this course he 
 intended, on the first favourable opportunity, 
 to declare for the king, and carry off such part 
 of the army as should be inclined to follow 
 him, which he reckoned at a third of the 
 whole. 3 
 
 The Earl of Argyle was commissioned by 
 the Committee of Estates to secure the west 
 and central Highlands. This, the eighth 
 Earl and first Marquis of Argyle, had suc- 
 ceeded to the title only in 1638, although 
 he had enjoyed the estates for many years 
 before that, as his father had been living in 
 Spain, an outlaw. He was born in 1598, 
 and strictly educated in the protestant faith as 
 established in Scotland at the Reformation. 
 
 3 VVishart's Memoirs, Edin. 1819, p. 24. 
 
 In 16 26 he was made a privy councillor, and 
 in 1634 appointed one of the extraordinary 
 lords of session. In 1638, at the General 
 Assembly of Glasgow, he openly went over to 
 the side of the Covenanters, and from that time 
 was recognised as their political head. Argyle, 
 in executing the task intrusted to him by the 
 committee, appears to have been actuated more 
 by feelings of private revenge than by an 
 honest desire to carry out the spirit of his 
 commission. The ostensible reason for his 
 undertaking this charge was his thorough ac- 
 quaintance with the Highlands and the High- 
 landers, and his ability to command the ser- 
 vices of a large following of his own. " But the 
 cheefe cause," according to Gordon of Rothie- 
 may, 4 "though least mentioned, was Argylle, 
 his spleene that he carryed upon the accompt 
 of former disobleedgments betwixt his family 
 and some of the Highland clans: therefore he 
 was glade now to gett so faire a colour of 
 revenge upon the publieke score, which he did 
 not lett slippe. Another reasone he had 
 besyde; it was his designe to swallow upp 
 Badzenoch and Lochaber, and some landes 
 belonging to the Mackdonalds, a numerous 
 trybe, but haters of, and aeqwally hated by 
 Argylle." He had some hold on these two 
 districts, as, in 1639, he had become security 
 for some of Huntly's debts to the latter's 
 creditors. Argyle managed to seduce from 
 their allegiance to Huntly the clan Cameron 
 in Lochaber, who bore a strong resentment 
 against their proper chief on account of some 
 supposed injury done to the clan by the former 
 marquis. Although they had little relish for 
 the Covenant, still to gratify their revenge, 
 they joined themselves to Argyle. A tribe 
 of the Macdonalds who inhabited Lochaber, 
 the Macranalds of Keppoch, who remained 
 faithful to Huntly, met with very different 
 treatment at the hands of Argyle, who devas- 
 tated their district and burnt down their chief's 
 dwelling at Keppoch. 
 
 During this same summer (July 1640), 
 Argyle, who had raised an army of about 5,000 
 men, made a devastating raid into the district 
 of Forfarshire belonging to the Earl of Airly. 
 He made first for Airly castle, about five 
 
 4 Scots Affairs, iii. 163. 
 
178 
 
 GENEBAL H1ST0EY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 miles north of Meigle, which, in the absence 
 of the earl in England, was held by his son 
 Lord Ogilvie, who had recently maintained it 
 against Montrose. When Argyle came up, 
 Ogilvie saw that resistance was hopeless, and 
 abandoned the castle to the tender mercy of 
 the enemy. Argyle without scruple razed the 
 place to the ground, and is said to have shown 
 himself so " extremely earnest" in the work of 
 demolition " that he was seen taking a hammer 
 in his hande and knocking down the hewed 
 work of the doors and windows till he did 
 sweat for heat at his work." 5 Argyle's men 
 carried off all they could from the house and 
 the surrounding district, and rendered useless 
 what they were compelled to leave behind. 
 
 From Airly, Argyle proceeded to a seat be- 
 longing to Lord Ogilvie, Forthar in Glenisla, 
 the " bonnie house o' Airly," of the well-known 
 song. Here he behaved in a manner for which 
 it would be difficult for his warmest supporters 
 to find the shadow of an excuse, even taking 
 into consideration the roughness of the times. 
 The place is said by Gordon to have been " no 
 strength," so that there is still less excuse for 
 his conduct. He treated Forthar in the same 
 way that he did Airly, and although Lady 
 Ogilvie, who at the time was close on her con- 
 finement, asked Argyle to stay proceedings 
 until she gave birth to her infant, he without 
 scruple expelled her from the house, and pro- 
 ceeded with his work of destruction. Not 
 only so, however, but " the Lady Drum, Dame 
 Marian Douglas, who lived at that time in 
 Kelly, hearing tell what extremity her grand- 
 child, the Lady Ogilvy, was reduced to, did 
 send a commission to Argyle, to whom the said 
 Lady Drum was a kinswoman, requesting that, 
 with his license, she might admit into her own 
 house, her grandchild, the Lady Ogilvy, who 
 at that time was near her delivery; but Argyle 
 would give no license. This occasioned the 
 Lady Drum for to fetch the Lady Ogilvie to 
 her house of Kelly, and for to keep her there 
 upon all hazard that might follow." 
 
 At the same time Argyle " was not forgetful 
 to remember old quarrels to Sir John Ogilvie 
 of Craigie." He sent a sergeant to Ogilvie's 
 hoiiao to warn him to leave it, but the sergeant 
 
 5 GorJon of Rothiemay, iii. 165. 
 
 thought Argyle must have made some mistake, 
 as he found it no more than a simple unfortified 
 country house, occupied only by a sick gentle- 
 woman and some servants. The sergeant re- 
 
 First Marquis of Argyle. 
 
 turned and told this to Argyle, who waxed 
 wroth and told him it was his duty simply to 
 obey orders, commanding him at the same time 
 to return and " deface and spoil the house." 
 After the sergeant had received his orders, 
 Argyle was observed to turn round and repeat 
 to himself the Latin political maxim Abscin- 
 dantur qui nos pertmbant, " a maxime which 
 many thought that he practised accurately, 
 which he did upon the account of the proverb 
 consequential thereunto, and which is the rea- 
 son of the former, which Argyle was remarked 
 likewise to have often hi his mouth as a choice 
 aphorism, and well observed by statesmen, 
 Quod 17107^1 non mordent." 
 
 Argyle next proceeded against the Earl of 
 Athole, who, with about 1,200 followers, was 
 lying in Breadalbane, ready to meet him. 
 Argyle, whose army was about five times the 
 size of Athole's, instead of giving fight, man- 
 aged by stratagem to capture Athole and some 
 of his friends, whom he sent to the Committee 
 of Estates at Edinburgh. 
 
MONTEOSE GOES OVER TO THE KING. 
 
 n\> 
 
 Argyle, after having thus gratified his private 
 revenge and made a show of quieting the 
 Highlands, returned to the lowlands. 6 
 
 On the 20th of August General Leslie crossed 
 the Tweed with his army, the van of which 
 was led by Montrose on foot. This task, 
 though performed with readiness and with 
 every appearance of good will, was not volun- 
 tarily undertaken, but had been devolved upon 
 Montrose by lot ; none of the principal officers 
 daring to take the lead of their own accord in 
 such a dangerous enterprise. There can be 
 no doubt that Montrose was insincere in his 
 professions, and that those who suspected him 
 were right in thinking that in his heart he 
 was turned Eoyalist, 7 a supposition which his 
 correspondence with the king and his subse- 
 quent conduct fully justify. 
 
 Although the proper time had not arrived 
 for throwing off the mask, Montrose im- 
 mediately on his return to Scotland, after 
 the close of this campaign, began to concert 
 measures for counteracting the designs of the 
 Covenanters ; but his plans were embarrassed by 
 some of his associates disclosing to the Cove- 
 nanters the existence of an association which 
 Montrose had formed at Cumbernauld for sup- 
 porting the royal authority. A great outcry 
 was raised against Montrose in consequence, 
 but his influence was so great that the heads 
 of the Covenanters were afraid to show any 
 severity towards him. On subsequently dis- 
 covering, however, that the king had written 
 him letters which were intercepted and forcibly 
 taken from the messenger, a servant of the 
 Earl of Traquair, they apprehended him, along 
 with Lord Napier of Merchiston, and Sir 
 George Stirling of Keith, his relatives and in- 
 timate friends, and imprisoned them in the 
 castle of Edinburgh. On the meeting of the 
 parliament at Edinburgh in July, 1641, which 
 was attended by the king in person, Montrose 
 demanded to be tried before them, but his appli- 
 cation was rejected by the Covenanters, who 
 obtained an order from the parliament prohib- 
 iting hira from going into the king's presence. 
 After the king had returned to England, Mon- 
 trose and his fellow-prisoners were liberated, 
 
 6 See Gordon of Bothiemay, iii. 163 et seq. Spal- 
 ding, i. 290. 
 
 7 Guthrie's Memoirs, p. 70. 
 
 and he, thereupon, went to his own castle, 
 where he remained for some time, ruminating 
 on the course he should pursue for the relief 
 of the king. The king, while in Scotland at 
 this time, conferred honours upon several of 
 the covenanting leaders, apparently for the 
 purpose of conciliation, Argyle being raised to 
 the dignity of a marquis. 
 
 Although Charles complied with the de- 
 mands of his Scottish subjects, and heaped 
 many favours and distinctions upon the heads 
 of the leading Covenanters, they were by no 
 means satisfied, and entered fully into the 
 hostile views of their brethren in the south, 
 with whom they made common cause. Having 
 resolved to send an army into England to join 
 the forces of the parliament, which had come 
 to an open rupture with the sovereign, they 
 attempted to gain over Montrose to their side 
 by offering him the post of lieutenant-general of 
 their army, and promising to accede to any 
 demands he might make; but he rejected all 
 their offers; and, as an important crisis was at 
 hand, he hastened to England in the early part 
 of the. year 1643, in company with Lord 
 Ogilvie, to lay the state of affairs before the 
 king, and to offer him his advice and service 
 in such an emergency. Charles, however, 
 either from a want of confidence in the judg- 
 ment of Montrose, who, to the rashness and 
 impetuosity of youth, added, as he was led to 
 believe, a desire of gratifying his personal 
 feelings and vanity, or overcome by the calcu- 
 lating but fatal policy of the Marquis of Ham- 
 ilton, who deprecated a fresh war between 
 the king and his Scottish subjects, declined to 
 follow the advice of Montrose, who had offered 
 to raise an army immediately in Scotland to 
 support him. 
 
 A convention of estates called by the Cove- 
 nanters, without any authority from the king, 
 met at Edinburgh on the 22d of June, 1643, 
 and he soon perceived from the character and 
 proceedings of this assembly, the great majority 
 of which were Covenanters, the mistake he had 
 committed in rejecting the advice of Montrose, 
 and he now resolved, thenceforth, to be guided 
 in his plans for subduing Scotland by the 
 opinion of that nobleman. Accordingly, at a 
 meeting held at Oxford, between the king and 
 Montrose, in the month of December, 1643, 
 
180 
 
 GENERAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 ■when the Soots army was about entering 
 England, it was agreed that -the Earl of An- 
 trim, an Irish nobleman of great power and 
 influence, who then lived at Oxford, should be 
 sent to Ireland to raise auxiliaries with whom 
 he should make a descent on the west parts of 
 Scotland in the month of April following ; — 
 that the Marquis of Newcastle, who commanded 
 the royal forces in the north of England, should 
 furnish Montrose with a party of horse, with 
 which he should enter the south of Scotland, 
 — that au application should be made to the 
 King of Denmark for some troops of German 
 horse; and that a quantity of arms should be 
 transported into Scotland from abroad. 8 
 
 Instructions having been given to the Earl 
 of Antrim to raise the Irish levy, and Sir 
 •James Cochran having been despatched to the 
 continent as ambassador for the king, to procure 
 foreign aid, Montrose left Oxford on his way 
 to Scotland, taking York and Durham in his 
 route. Near the latter city he had an inter- 
 view with the Marquis of Newcastle for the 
 purpose of obtaining a sufficient party of horse 
 to escort him into Scotland, but all he could 
 procure was about 100 horse, badly appointed, 
 with two small brass field pieces. 9 The Mar- 
 quis sent orders to the Icing's officers, and to 
 the captains of the militia in Cumberland and 
 Westmoreland, to afford Montrose such assist- 
 ance as they could, and he was in consequence 
 joined on his way to Carlisle by 800 foot and 
 three troops of horse, of Cumberland and 
 Northumberland militia. With this small 
 force, and about 200 horse, consisting of noble- 
 men and gentlemen who had served as officers 
 in Germany, Erance, or England, Montrose 
 entered Scotland on the 13th of April, 1644. 
 He had not, however, proceeded far, when a 
 revolt broke out among the English soldiers, 
 who immediately returned to England. In 
 spite of this discouragement, Montrose pro- 
 ceeded on with his small party of horse 
 towards Dumfries, which surrendered to him 
 without opposition. After waiting there a few 
 clays, hi expectation of hearing some tidings 
 respecting the Earl of Antrim's movements, 
 without receiving any, he retired to Carlisle, 
 
 » Wisliart. 
 
 9 The Dnehess of Newcastle says, in the memoirs of 
 iier husband, that the number was 210. 
 
 to avoid being surprised by the Covenanters, 
 large bodies of whom were hovering about in 
 all directions. 
 
 To aid the views of Montrose, the king had 
 appointed the Marquis of Huntly, on whose 
 fidelity he could rely, his lieutenant-general 
 in the north of Scotland. He, on hearing 
 of the capture of Dumfries by Montrose, 
 immediately collected a considerable body of 
 horse and foot, consisting of Highlanders and 
 lowlanders, at Kincardine-O'Neil, with the 
 intention of crossing the Cairn-a-Mount ; but 
 being disappointed in not being joined by 
 some forces from Perthshire, Angus, and the 
 Mearns, which he expected, he altered his steps, 
 and proceeded towards Aberdeen, which he 
 took. Thence he despatched parties of his 
 troojDS through the counties of Aberdeen and 
 Banff, which brought in quantities of horses 
 and arms for the use of his army. One 
 party, consisting of 120 horse and 300 foot, 
 commanded by the young laird of Drum and 
 his brother, young Gicht, Colonel Nathaniel 
 Gordon and Colonel Donald Farqnharson and 
 others, proceeded to the town of Montrose, 
 which they took, killed one of the bailies, made 
 the provost prisoner, and threw some cannon 
 into the sea as they could not carry them away. 
 But, on hearing that the Earl of Kinghorn was 
 advancing upon them with the forces of Angus, 
 they made a speedy retreat, leaving thirty of 
 their foot behind them prisoners. To protect 
 themselves against the army of the Marquis of 
 Huntly, the inhabitants of Moray, on the north 
 of the Spey, raised a regiment of foot and 
 three companies of horse, which were quartered 
 in the town of Elgin. 
 
 When the convention heard of Huntly's 
 movements, they appointed the Marquis of 
 Argyle to raise an army to quell this insurrec- 
 tion. He, accordingly, assembled at Perth 
 a force of 5,000 foot and 800 horse out of 
 Fife, Angus, Mearns, Argyle, and Perthshire, 
 with which he advanced on Aberdeen. Huntly, 
 hearing of his approach, fled from Aberdeen 
 and retired to the town of Banff, where, on 
 the day of his arrival, he disbanded his army. 
 The marquis himself thereafter retired to 
 Strathnaver, and took up his residence with 
 the' master of Reay. Argyle, after taking 
 possession of Aberdeen, proceeded northward 
 
 
MONTROSE ENTERS SCOTLAND IN DISGUISE. 
 
 181 
 
 and took the castles of Gicht and Kellie, made 
 the lairds of Gicht and Haddo prisoners and 
 sent them to Edinburgh, the latter being, along 
 with one Captain Logan, afterwards beheaded. 1 
 
 We now return to Montrose, who, after an 
 ineffectual attempt to obtain an accession of 
 force from the army of Prince Rupert, Count 
 Palatine of the Rhine, determined on again 
 entering Scotland with his little band. But 
 being desirous to learn the exact situation of 
 affairs there, before putting this resolution into 
 effect, he" sent Lord Ogilvie and Sir William 
 Rollock into Scotland, in disguise, for that 
 purpose. They returned in about fourteen 
 days, and brought a spiritless and melancholy 
 account of the state of matters in the north, 
 where they found all the passes, towns, 
 and forts,, in possession of the Covenanters, 
 and where no man dared to speak in favour 
 of the king. This intelligence was received 
 with dismay by Montrose's followers, who now 
 began to think of the best means of securing 
 their own safety. In this unpleasant conjunc- 
 ture of affairs, Montrose called them together 
 to consult on the line of conduct they should 
 pursue. Some advised him to return to Ox- 
 ford and inform his majesty of the hopeless 
 state of his affairs in Scotland, while others 
 gave an opinion that he should resign his com- 
 mission, and go abroad till a more favourable 
 opportunity occurred of serving the king ; 
 but the chivalroits and undaunted spirit of 
 Montrose disdained to follow either of these 
 courses, and he resolved upon the desperate 
 expedient of venturing into the very heart of 
 Scotland, with only one or two companions, in 
 the hope of being able to rally round his per- 
 son a force sufficient to support the declining 
 interests of his sovereign. 
 
 Having communicated this intention pri- 
 vately to Lord Ogilvie, he put under his charge 
 the few gentlemen who had remained faithful 
 to him, that he might conduct them to the 
 long ; and having accompanied them to a dis- 
 tance, he withdrew from them clandestinely, 
 leaving his servants, horses, and baggage behind 
 him, and returned to Carlisle. Having pre- 
 pared himself for his journey, Jie selected Sir 
 William Rollock, a gentleman of tried honour, 
 
 1 Gordon of Sallagh, p. 519. 
 
 and one Sibbald, to accompany him. Dis- 
 guised as a groom, and riding upon a lean, 
 worn-out horse, and leading another in his 
 hand, Montrose passed for Sibbald's servant, 
 in which condition and capacity he proceeded 
 to the borders. The party had not proceeded 
 far when an occurrence took place, which 
 considerably disconcerted them. Meeting with 
 a Scottish soldier, who had served under the 
 Marquis of Newcastle in England, he, after 
 passing Rollock and Sibbald, went up to the 
 marquis, and accosted him by his name. Mon- 
 trose told him that he was quite mistaken ; but 
 the soldier being positive, and judging that the 
 marquis was concerned in some important affair, 
 replied, with a countenance which betokened 
 a kind heart, " Do not I know my lord Mar- 
 quis of Montrose well enough ? But go your 
 way, and God be with you." 2 When Montrose 
 saw that he coidd not preserve an incognito 
 from the penetrating eye of the soldier, he gave 
 him some money and dismissed him. 
 
 This occurrence excited alarm in the mind 
 of Montrose, and made him accelerate his 
 journey. Within four days he arrived at the 
 house of Tullibelton, among the hills near the 
 Tay, which belonged to Patrick Graham ol 
 Inehbrakie, his cousin, and a royalist. N-i 
 situation was better fitted for concocting hts 
 plans, and for communicating with those clans 
 and the gentry of the adjoining lowlands who 
 stood well affected to the king, It formed, m 
 fact, a centre, or point d'appui to the royalists 
 of the Highlands and the adjoining lowlands, 
 from which a pretty regular conrmunicatiun 
 could be kept up, without any of those dangers 
 which would have arisen in the lowlands. 
 
 Eor some days Montrose did not venture to 
 appear among the people in the neighbourhood, 
 nor did he consider himself safe even in Tulli- 
 belton house, but passed the night in an obscure 
 cottage, and in the day-time wandered alone 
 among the neighbouring mountains, ruminating 
 over the strange peculiarity of his situation, and 
 waiting the return of his fellow-travellers, whom 
 he had despatched to collect intelligence on the 
 state of the kingdom. These messengers came 
 back to him after some days' absence, bringing 
 with them the most cheerless accounts of the 
 
 2 Wishart, p. 6-t 
 
182 
 
 GENEEAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 situation of the country, and of the persecu- 
 tions which the royalists suffered at the hands 
 of the Covenanters. Among other distressing 
 pieces of intelligence, they communicated to 
 Montrose the premature and unsuccessful at- 
 tempt of the Marquis of Huntly in favour of 
 the royal cause, and of his retreat to Strath- 
 naver to avoid the fury of his enemies. These 
 accounts greatly affected Montrose, "who "was 
 grieved to find that the Gordons, "who were 
 stern royalists, should be exposed, "by the aban- 
 donment of their chief, to the revenge of their 
 enemies ; "but he consoled himself with the 
 reflection, that as soon as he should be enabled 
 to unfurl the royal standard, the tide of fortune 
 would turn. 
 
 While cogitating on the course he should 
 pursue in this conjuncture, a report reached 
 him from some shepherds on the hills that a 
 body of Irish troops had landed in the West, 
 and was advancing through the Highlands. 
 Montrose at once concluded that these were 
 the auxiliaries whom the Earl of Antrim had 
 undertaken to send him four months before, 
 and such they proved to be. This force, which 
 amounted to 1,500 men, was under the com- 
 mand of Alexander Macdonald, son of Coll 
 Mac-Gillespic Macdonald of Iona, who had 
 been greatly persecuted by the family of Argyle. 
 Macdonald had arrived early in July, 1644, 
 among the Hebrides, and had landed and taken 
 the castles of Meigray and Kinloch Alan. He 
 had then disembarked his forces in Knoydart, 
 where he expected to, be joined by the Marquis 
 of Huntly and the Earl of Seaforth. As he 
 advanced into the interior, he despatched the 
 fiery cross for the purpose of summoning the 
 clans to his standard ; but, although the cross 
 was carried through a large extent of country, 
 even to Aberdeen, he was joined at first only 
 by the clan Donald, under the captain of clan 
 Eanald, and the laird of Glengary. The Mar- 
 quis of Argyle collected an army to oppose 
 the progress of Macdonald, and, to cut off 
 his retreat to Ireland, he sent some ships of 
 war to Loch Eishord, where Macdonald's fleet- 
 lay, which captured or destroyed them. This 
 loss, while it frustrated an intention Macdonald 
 entertained of returning to Ireland, in conse- 
 quence of the disappointment he had met with 
 in not being joined by the clans, stimulated 
 
 him to farther exertions in continuing his 
 march, in the hope of meeting Montrose. 
 
 As Macdonald was perfectly ignorant of 
 Montrose's movements, and thought it likely 
 that he might be still at Carlisle, waiting till 
 he should hear of Macdonald's arrival, he sent 
 letters to him by the hands of a confidential 
 friend, who resided in the neighbourhood of 
 Inchbrakie's house. This gentleman, who 
 knew nothing of Montrose's return to Scotland, 
 having luckily communicated to Mr. Graham 
 the secret of being intrusted with letters to his 
 kinsman, Montrose, Graham offered to see them 
 safely delivered to Montrose, though he should 
 ride to Carlisle himself. The gentleman in 
 question then delivered the letters to Graham, 
 and Montrose having received them, wrote an 
 answer as if from Carlisle, in which he requested 
 Macdonald to keep up his spirits, that he would 
 soon be joined by a seasonable reinforcement 
 and a general at their head, and he ordered 
 him with all expedition to march down into 
 Athole. In fixing on Athole as the place of 
 his rendezvous, Montrose is said to have been 
 actuated by an implicit reliance on the fidelity 
 and loyalty of the Athole-men, and by a high 
 opinion of their courage. They lay, besides, 
 under many obligations to himself, and he cal- 
 culated that he had only to appear among 
 them to command their services in the cause of 
 their sovereign. 
 
 When Macdonald received these instructions, 
 he marched towards Athole ; but in passing 
 through Badenoch he was threatened with an 
 attack by the Earls of Sutherland and Seaforth, 
 at the head of some of their people, and by the 
 Erasers, Grants, Eosses, and Monroes, and 
 other inhabitants of Moray, who had assembled 
 at the top of Strathspey; but Macdonald very 
 cautiously avoided them, and hastened into 
 Athole. On arriving in Athole, Macdonald 
 was coldly received by the people of that as 
 well as the surrounding country, who doubted 
 whether he had any authority from the king ; 
 and besides, they hesitated to place themselves 
 under the command of a person of neither 
 noble nor ancient lineage, and whom they con- 
 sidered an upstart. This indecision might 
 have proved fatal to Macdonald, who was 
 closely pressed in his rear by the army of 
 Argyle, had not these untoward deliberations 
 
THE ATHOLE-MEN JOIN MONTROSE, 
 
 183 
 
 been instantly put an end to by the arrival of 
 Montrose at Blair, where Macdonald had fixed 
 his head-quarters. Montrose had travelled 
 seventy miles on foot, in a Highland dress, 
 accompanied by Patrick Graham, his cousin, 
 as his guide. 3 His appearance was hailed by 
 his countrymen with every demonstration of 
 joy, and they immediately made him a spon- 
 taneous offer of their services. 
 
 Accordingly, on the following day, the 
 Athole-nien, to the number of about 800, con- 
 sisting chiefly of the Stewarts and Eobertsons, 
 put themselves under arms and flocked to the 
 standard of Montrose. Thus, in little more 
 than twenty-four hours, Montrose saw himself 
 at the head of a force of upwards of 2,000 men, 
 animated by an enthusiastic attachment to bis 
 person and to the cause which he had espoused. 
 The extraordinary contrast between his present 
 commanding position, and the situation in 
 which he was placed a few daj^s before, as a 
 forlorn wanderer among the mountains, pro- 
 duced a powerful effect upon the daring and 
 chivalrous spirit of Montrose, who looked for- 
 ward to the success of his enterprise with the 
 eagerness of a man who considered the destinies 
 of his sovereign as altogether depending upon 
 his individual exertions. Impressed with the 
 necessity of acting with promptitude, he did 
 not hesitate long as to the course he should 
 pursue. He might have immediately gone in 
 quest of Argyle, who had followed the army of 
 Macdonald, with slow and cautious steps, and 
 by one of those sudden movements which no 
 man knew better how to execute with advan- 
 tage, surprised and defeated his adversary; 
 but such a plan did not accord with the designs 
 of Montrose, who resolved to open the cam- 
 paign at once in the lowlands, and thus give 
 confidence to the friends and supporters of 
 the king. 
 
 The general opinion which the Lowlanders 
 of this period entertained regarding their up- 
 land neighbours was not very respectful. A 
 covenanting wit, in a poem which he wrote 
 against the bishops only a few years before, 
 says of one whose extraction was from the 
 other side of the Grampians, 
 
 " A bishop and a Highlandman, how can'st thou 
 honest be ? " 
 
 3 Wishart, p. 69. 
 
 as if these two qualifications were of them- ! 
 selves sufficient, without any known vice, to 
 put a man completely beyond the pale of virtue. 
 It seems, indeed, to have been a general belief 
 at the time that this primitive and sequestered 
 people, as they were avowedly out of the sav- 
 ing circle of the Covenant, were also out of the 
 limits of both law and religion, and therefore 
 hopelessly and utterly given up to all sorts of 
 wickedness. Not only were murder and rob- 
 bery among the list of offences which they 
 were accused of daily committing, but there 
 even seems to have been a popular idea that 
 sorcery was a prevailing crime amongst them. 
 They were also charged with a general inclina- 
 tion to popery, an offence which, from the 
 alarms and superstitions of the time, had now 
 come, in general phraseology, to signify a con- 
 densation of all others. Along with this hor- 
 rible notion of the mountaineers, there was not 
 associated the slightest idea of their ardent and 
 chivalrous character ; nor was there any general 
 sensation of terror for the power which they 
 undoubtedly possessed of annoying the peace- 
 ful inhabitants, and thwarting the policy of 
 the Low country, no considerable body of 
 Highlanders having been there seen in arms 
 for several generations. 
 
 In pursuance of his determination, Montrose 
 put his small army in motion the same day to- 
 wards Strathearn, in passing through which, he 
 expected to be joined by some of the inhabitants 
 of that and the adjoining country. At the 
 same time he sent forward a messenger with a 
 friendly notice to the Menzieses of his inten- 
 tion to pass through their country, but instead 
 of talcing this in good part they maltreated the 
 messenger and harassed the rear of his army. 
 This unprovoked attack so exasperated Mon- 
 trose, that he ordered his men, when passing 
 by Weem castle, which belonged to the clan 
 Menzies, to plunder and lay waste their lands, 
 and to burn their houses, an order which was 
 literally obeyed. He expected that this exam- 
 ple of summary vengeance would serve as a 
 useful lesson to 6 iter others, who might be dis- 
 posed to imitate the conduct of the Menzieses, 
 from following a similar course. Notwith- 
 standing the time spent in making these repri- 
 sals, Montrose passed the Tay with a part of 
 his forces the same evening, and the remainder 
 
IM 
 
 GENERAL HISTORY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 followed very early the next morning. He 
 had, at the special request of the Athole-men 
 themselves, placed them under the command 
 of his kinsman, Patrick Graham of InchbraMe, 
 and he now sent him forward with a select 
 party to reconnoitre. Inchbrakie soon returned 
 with information that he had observed a partjr 
 of armed men stationed upon the hill of 
 Buchanty. On inquiry, Montrose ascertained 
 that this body was commanded by Lord Eal- 
 pont, eldest son of the Earl of Menteith, and 
 by Sir John Drummond, son of the Earl of 
 Perth, both of whom were his relations. The 
 force in question, which consisted of about 500 
 men, was on its way to Perth to join the other 
 covenanting troops who were stationed there. 
 Montrose immediately marched up to this 
 body, with the intention, if he could not pre- 
 vail on them to join him, of attacking them, 
 but before he had approached sufficiently near, 
 Lord Kilpont, who had ascertained that Mon- 
 trose commanded, sent some of his principal 
 officers to him to ascertain what his object was 
 in thus advancing. Montrose having explained 
 his views and stated that he acted by the king's 
 authority, and having entreated them to return 
 to their allegiance, they and the whole of their 
 party immediately joined him. This new ac- 
 cession augmented Montrose's army to about 
 3,000 men. 
 
 Montrose now learned from his new allies 
 that the Covenanters had assembled their forces 
 in great numbers at Perth, and that the}^ lay 
 there waiting for his approach. The cove- 
 nanting army, in fact, was more than double 
 that of Montrose, amounting to about 6,000 
 foot and 700 horse, to which were attached 
 four pieces of artillery. Montrose, on the 
 other hand, had not a single horseman, and 
 but three horses, two of which were for his 
 own use, and the other for that of Sir William 
 Pollock, and besides he had no artillery. Yet 
 with such a decided disparity, Montrose re- 
 solved to march directly to Perth and attack 
 the enemy. He appears to have been influenced 
 in this resolution by the consideration of the 
 proximity of Argyle with his army, and 
 the danger in which he would be placed by 
 being hemmed in by two hostile armies : he 
 could expect to avoid such an embarrassment 
 only by risking an immediate engagement. 
 
 As the day was too far advanced to proceed 
 to Perth, Montrose ordered his men to bivouac 
 during the night about three miles from 
 Buchanty, and began his march by dawn of 
 day. As soon as Lord Elcho, the commander 
 of the covenanting army, heard of Montrose's 
 approach, he left Perth and drew up his army 
 on Tippermuir, a plain of some extent between 
 four and five miles west from the town. Re- 
 serving to himself the command of the right 
 wing, he committed the charge of the left to 
 Sir James Scott, an able and skilful officer, 
 who had served with great honour in the 
 Venetian army ; and to the Earl of Tullibar- 
 dine he intrusted the command of the centre. 
 The horse were divided and placed on each 
 wing with the view of surrounding the army 
 of Montrose, should he venture to attack them 
 in their position. As soon as Montrose per- 
 ceived the enemy thus drawn up in battle 
 array, he made the necessary dispositions for 
 attacking them. To counteract as much as 
 possible the danger arising to such a small 
 body of men, unprotected by cavalry, from the 
 extended line of the Covenanters, Montrose 
 endeavoured to make his line as extensive as 
 possible with safety, by limiting his files to 
 three men deep. As the Irish had neither 
 swords nor pikes to oppose the cavalry, they 
 were stationed in the centre of the line, and 
 the Highlanders, who were provided with 
 swords and Lochaber axes, were placed on the 
 wings, as better fitted to resist the attacks of 
 the cavalry. Some of the Highlanders were, 
 however, quite destitute of arms of every de- 
 scription, and it is related on the authority of 
 an eye-witness that Montrose, seeing their help- 
 less condition, thus quaintly addressed them : — 
 " It is true you have no arms ; your enemies, 
 however, have plenty. My advice, therefore, is, 
 that as there happens to be a great abundance 
 of stones upon this moor, every man should 
 provide himself, in the first place, with as 
 stout a stone as he can well manage, rush 
 up to the first Covenanter he meets, beat out 
 his brains, take his sword, and then, I be- 
 lieve, he will be at no loss how to proceed."* 
 This advice, as will be seen, was really acted 
 upon. As Montrose was almost destitute of 
 
 4 Gentleman's Mag., vol. xvi. p. 153. 
 
BATTLE OF TIPPEEMUIE. 
 
 185 
 
 powder, lie ordered the Irish forces to husband 
 their fire till they should come close to the 
 enemy, and after a simultaneous discharge 
 from the three ranks, (the front rank kneel- 
 ing,) to assail the enemy thereafter as they best 
 could. To oppose the left wing of the Cove- 
 nanters, commanded by Sir James Scott, Mon- 
 trose took upon himself the command of his 
 own right, placing Lord Kilpont at the head 
 of the left, and Macdonald, his major-general, 
 over the centre. 
 
 During the progress of these arrangements, 
 Montrose despatched an accomplished young 
 nobleman, named Drummond, eldest son of 
 Lord Maderty, with a message to the chiefs of 
 the Covenanters' army, entreating them to lay 
 down their arms and return to their duty and 
 obedience to their sovereign. Instead, how- 
 ever, of returning any answer to this message, 
 they seized the messenger, and sent him to 
 Perth under an escort, with an intimation that, 
 on obtaining a victory over his master, they 
 would execute him. Indeed, the probability of 
 a defeat seems never for a moment to have 
 entered into the imaginations of the Covenant- 
 ers, and they had been assured by Frederick 
 Carmichael, a minister who had preached to 
 them the same day, being Sunday, 1st Septem- 
 ber, " that if ever God spoke truth out of his 
 mouth, he promised them, in the name of God, 
 a certain victory that day." 5 
 
 There being no hopes, therefore, of an accom- 
 modation, both armies, after advancing towards 
 each other, remained motionless for a short 
 time, as if unwilling to begin the attack ; but 
 this state of matters was speedily put an end to 
 by the advance of a select skirmishing party 
 under the command of Lord Drummond, sent 
 out from the main body of the covenanting 
 army, for the double purpose of distracting the 
 attention of Montrose, and inducing his troops 
 to leave their ranks, and thus create confusion 
 among them ; but Montrose kept his men in 
 check, and contented himself with sending out 
 a few of his men to oppose them. Lord Drum- 
 mond, whom Baillie appears to have suspected 
 of treachery, and his party were routed at the 
 first onset, and fled back upon the main body 
 in great disorder. This trivial affair decided 
 
 5 Wishart, p. 77. 
 
 the fate of the day, for the Covenanters, many 
 of whom were undisciplined, seeing the unex- 
 pected defeat of Lord Drummond's party, be- 
 came quite dispirited, and began to show 
 symptoms which indicated a disposition for 
 immediate flight. The confusion into which 
 the main body had been thrown by the retreat 
 of the advanced party, and the indecision which 
 seemed now to prevail in the Covenanters' army 
 in consequence of that reverse, were observed 
 by the watchful eye of Montrose, who saw that 
 the favourable moment for striking a decisive 
 blow had arrived. He therefore gave orders to 
 his men to advance, who, immediately setting 
 up a loud shout, rushed forward at a quick pace 
 towards the enemy. They were met by a ran- 
 dom discharge from some cannon which the 
 Covenanters had placed in front of their army, 
 but which did little or no execution. When 
 sufficiently near, Montrose's musketeers halted, 
 and, as ordered, poured a volley into the main 
 rank of the Covenanters, which immediately 
 gave way. The cavalry of the Covenanters, 
 thereupon, issued from their stations and at- 
 tacked the royalists, who, in their turn, de- 
 fended themselves with singular intrepidity. 
 While the armed Highlanders made ample use 
 of their Locfiaber axes and swords, the Irish 
 steadily opposed the attacks of the horse with 
 the butt ends of their muskets ; but the most 
 effective annoyance which the cavalry met with 
 appears to have proceeded from the unarmed 
 Highlanders, who having supplied themselves 
 with a quantity of stones, as suggested by 
 Montrose, discharged them with well-directed 
 aim at the horses and their riders. The result 
 was, that after a short struggle, the cavalry were 
 obliged to make a precipitate retreat. While 
 this contest was going on, another part of 
 Montrose's army was engaged with the right 
 wing of the covenanting army, under Sir James 
 Scott, but although this body made a longer and 
 more determined resistance, and galled the party 
 opposed to them by an incessant fire of mus- 
 ketry, they were at last overpowered by the 
 Athole-men, who rushed upon them with then" 
 broad-swords, and cut down and wounded a 
 considerable number. The rout of the Cove- 
 nanters now became general. The horsemen 
 saved themselves by the fleetness of their 
 horses; but during the pursuit, which was kept 
 2 A 
 
186 
 
 GENEEAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 up to a distance of six or seven miles, many 
 hundreds of foot were killed, and a consider- 
 able number made prisoners, 6 some of ■whom 
 afterwards served in Montrose's army. The 
 loss on the side of Montrose appears to have been 
 very tri flin g. By this victory, and the subse- 
 quent capture of Perth, which he entered the 
 same day, Montrose was enabled to equip his 
 army with all those warlike necessaries of 
 which it had been so remarkably destitute in 
 the morning, and of which the Covenanters 
 left him an abundant supply. 7 
 
 CHAPTEE XIII. 
 
 a. D. 1644 (September)— 1645 (February). 
 
 British sovereign: — Charles I., 1625 — 1649. 
 
 Montrose crosses the Tay to Collace — Marches through 
 Angus and Mearns — Battle of Aberdeen — Supine- 
 ness of the Gordons — Movements of Argyle — Mon- 
 trose retreats through Badenoch — Second march of 
 Montrose to the north — Battle of Fyvie — Montrose 
 retreats to Strathbogie— Secession from his camp — 
 Montrose enters and wastes Breadalbane and Argyle 
 — Marches to Lochness — Argyle enters Loehaber — 
 Battle of Inverlochy. 
 
 Montrose now entertained confident expecta- 
 tions that many of the royalists of the sur- 
 rounding country who had hitherto kept aloof 
 would join him; but after remaining three days 
 at Perth, to give them an opportunity of rally- 
 ing round his standard, he had the mortifica- 
 tion to find that, with the exception of 
 Lords Dupplin and.Spynie, and a few gentle- 
 men from the Carse of Gowrie, who came to 
 him, his anticipations were not to be realized. 
 The spirits of the royalists had been too much 
 subdued by the severities of the Covenanters 
 for them all at once to risk their lives and for- 
 tunes on the issue of what they had long con- 
 sidered a hopeless cause; and although Mon- 
 trose had succeeded in dispersing one army 
 with a greatly inferior force, yet it was well 
 
 6 There is a great discrepancy between contemporary 
 writers as to the number killed. Wishart states it at 
 2,000; Spalding, at 1,300, and 800 prisoners; though 
 he says that some reckoned the number at 1,500 
 killed. Gordon of Sallagh mentions only 300. Gor- 
 don of Euthven, in Britane's Distemper, gives the 
 number at 2,000 killed and 1,000 prisoners. Baillie 
 says (vol. ii. p. 233, ed. 1841) that no quarter was 
 given, and not a prisoner was taken. 
 
 7 Britane's Distemper, p. 73. 
 
 known that that army was composed of raw 
 and undisciplined men, and that the Covenant- 
 ers had still large bodies of well-trained troops 
 in the field. 
 
 Thus disappointed in his hopes, and under- 
 standing that the Marquis of Argyle was fast 
 approaching with a large army, Montrose 
 crossed the Tay on the 4th of September, di- 
 recting his course towards Coupar-Angus, and 
 encamped at night in the open fields near Col- 
 lace. His object in proceeding northward was 
 to endeavour to raise some of the loyal clans, 
 and thus to put himself in a sufficiently strong 
 condition to meet Argyle. Montrose had given 
 orders to the army to march early next morn- 
 ing, but by break of day, and before the drums 
 had beat, he was alarmed by an uproar in the 
 camp. Perceiving his men running to their 
 arms in a state of fury and rage, Montrose, ap- 
 prehensive that the Highlanders and Irish had 
 quarrelled, immediately rushed in among the 
 thickest of the crowd to pacify them, but to his 
 great grief and dismay, he ascertained that the 
 confusion had arisen from the assassination of 
 his valued friend Lord Kilpont. He had fall- 
 en a victim to the blind fury of James Stewart 
 of Ardvoirlich, with whom he had slept the 
 same night, and who had long enjoyed his con- 
 fidence and friendship. According to Wishart, 
 wishing to ingratiate himself with the Cove- 
 nanters, he formed a design to assassinate Mon- 
 trose or his major-general, Macdonald ; and 
 endeavoured to entice Kilpont to concur in his 
 wicked project. He, therefore, on the night in 
 question, slept with his lordship, and having 
 prevailed upon him to rise and take a walk in 
 the fields before daylight, on the pretence of re- 
 freshing themselves, he there disclosed his hor- 
 rid purpose, and entreated his lordship to con- 
 cur therein. Lord Kilpont rejected the base 
 proposal with horror and indignation, which so 
 alarmed Stewart that, afraid lest his lordship 
 might discover the matter, he suddenly drew 
 his dirk and mortally wounded Kilpont. 
 Stewart, thereupon, fled, and thereafter joined 
 the Marquis of Argyle, who gave him a com- 
 mission in his army. 8 
 
 8 "Wishart, p. 84. — Stewart's descendant, the late 
 Robert Stewart of Ardvoirlich, gives an account of 
 the above incident, founded on a " constant tradition 
 in the family," tending to show that his ancestor was 
 not so much a man of base and treacherous character, 
 
M02TTE0SE MABCHES THEOUGH AXGUS AND MEABXS. 
 
 187 
 
 Montrose now marched upon Dundee, which 
 refused to surrender. Not wishing to waste 
 his time upon the hazardous issue of a siege 
 with a hostile army in his rear, Montrose pro- 
 ceeded through Angus and the Mearns, and in 
 the course of his route was joined by the Earl 
 of Airly, his two sons, Sir Thomas and Sir 
 David Ogilvie, and a considerable number of 
 their friends and vassals, and some gentlemen 
 from the Mearns and Aberdeenshire. This was 
 a seasonable addition to Montrose's force, which 
 had been greatly weakened by the absence of 
 some of the Highlanders who had gone home 
 to deposit their spoils, and b} r the departure of 
 Lord Kilpont's retainers, who had gone to Mon 
 teith with his corpse. 
 
 After the battle of Tippermuir, Lord Elcho 
 had retired, with his regiment and some fugi- 
 tives, to Aberdeen, where he found Lord 
 Burleigh and other commissioners from the 
 convention of estates. As soon as they heard 
 of the approach of Montrose, Burleigh, who 
 acted as chief commissioner, immediately as- 
 sembled the Eorbeses, the Frasers, and the 
 other friends of the covenanting interest, and 
 did everything in his power to gain over to his 
 side as many persons as he could from those 
 districts where Montrose expected assistance. 
 In this way Burleigh increased his force to 
 2,500 foot and 500 horse, but some of these, 
 consisting of Gordons, and others who were 
 obliged to take up arms, could not be relied 
 upon. 
 
 When Montrose heard of these preparations, 
 he resolved, notwithstanding the disparity of 
 force, his own army now amounting only to 
 
 as of "violent passions and singular temper." James 
 Stewart, it is said, was so irritated at the Irish, for com- 
 mitting some excesses on lands belonging to him, that 
 he challenged their commander, Macdonald, to single 
 combat. By advice of Kilpont, Montrose arrested both, 
 and brought abont a seeming conciliation. When 
 encamped at Collace, Montrose gave an entertain- 
 ment to his officers, on returning from which Ardvoir- 
 lich, "heated with drink, began to blame Kilpont for 
 the part he had taken in preventing his obtaining re- 
 dress, and reflecting against Montrose for not allowing 
 him what he considered proper reparation. Kilpont, 
 of course, defended the conduct of himself and his 
 relative, Montrose, till their argument came to high 
 words, and finally, from the state they were both in, 
 by an easy transition, to blows, when Ardvoirlich, with 
 his dirk, struck Kilpont dead on the spot." He fled, 
 leaving his eldest son, Henry, mortally wounded at 
 Tippermuir, on his death-bed. — Introd. to Legend of 
 Montrose. 
 
 1,500 foot and 44 horse, to hasten his march 
 and attack them before Argyle should come up. 
 On arriving near the bridge of Dee, he found 
 it strongly fortified and guarded by a consider- 
 able force. He did not attempt to force a pas- 
 sage, but, directing his course to the west, along 
 the river, crossed it at a ford at the Mills of 
 Drum, and encamped at Crathas that night 
 (Wednesday, 11th September). The Cove- 
 nanters, the same day, drew up their army at 
 the Two Mile Cross, a short distance from 
 Aberdeen, where they remained till Thursday 
 night, when they retired into the town. On 
 the same night, Montrose marched down Dee- 
 side, and took possession of the ground which 
 the Covenanters had just left. 9 
 
 On the following morning, viz., Friday, 13th 
 September, about eleven o'clock, the Covenant- 
 ers marched out of Aberdeen to meet Montrose, 
 who, on their approach, despatched a drummer 
 to beat a parley, and sent a commissioner 
 along with him bearing a letter to the pro- 
 vost and bailies of Aberdeen, commanding and 
 charging them to surrender the town, promis- 
 ing that no more harm should be done to it ; 
 " otherwise, if they would disobey, that then 
 he desired them to remove old aged men, 
 women, and children out of the way, and to 
 stand to their own peril." Immediately on 
 receipt of this letter, the provost called a meet- 
 ing of the council, which was attended by Lord 
 Burleigh, and, after a short consultation, an 
 answer was sent along with the commissioner 
 declining to surrender the town. On their 
 return the drummer was killed by the Cove- 
 nanters, at a place called Justice Mills ; which 
 violation of the law of nations so exasperated 
 Montrose, that he gave orders to his men not 
 to spare any of the enemy who might fall into 
 their hands. His anger at this occurrence is 
 strongly depicted by Spalding, who says, that 
 " he grew mad, and became furious and im- 
 patient." 
 
 As soon as Montrose received notice of the 
 refusal of the magistrates to surrender the town, 
 he made the necessary dispositions for attack- 
 ing the enemy. From his paucity of cavalry, 
 he was obliged to extend his line, as he had 
 done at Tippermuir, to prevent the enemy 
 
 9 Spalding, vol. ii. p. 405. 
 
GENEEAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 from surrounding or outflanking him with 
 their horse, and on each of his wings he posted 
 his small body of horsemen along with select 
 parties of musketeers and archers. To James 
 Hay and Sir Nathaniel Gordon he gave the 
 command of the right wing, committing the 
 charge of the left to Sir William Eollock, all 
 men of tried bravery and experience. 
 
 The Covenanters began the battle by a can- 
 nonade from their field-pieces, and, from their 
 co mm anding position, gave considerable annoy- 
 ance to the royal forces, who were very defi- 
 cient in artillery. After the firing had been 
 kept up for some time, Lord Lewis Gordon, 
 third son of the Marquis of Huntly, a young 
 man of a very ardent disposition, and of a vio- 
 lent and changeable temper, who commanded 
 the left wing of the Covenanters, having ob- 
 tained possession of some level ground where 
 his horse could act, made a demonstration to 
 attack Montrose's right wing ; which being ob- 
 served by Montrose, he immediately ordered 
 Sir William Eollock, with his party of horse, 
 from the left wing to the assistance of the right. 
 These united wings, which consisted of only 
 44 horse, not only repulsed the attack of a 
 body of 300, but threw them into complete 
 disorder, and forced them to retreat upon the 
 main body, leaving many dead and wounded 
 on the field. Montrose restrained these brave 
 cavaliers from pursuing the body they had 
 routed, anticipating that their services might 
 be soon required at the other wing ; and he 
 was not mistaken, fpr no sooner did the cove- 
 nanting general perceive the retreat of Lord 
 Lewis Gordon than he ordered an attack to be 
 made upon the left wing of Montrose's army ; 
 but Montrose, with a celerity almost unex- 
 ampled, moved his whole cavalry from the 
 right to the left wing, which, falling upon the 
 flank of their assailants sword in hand-, forced 
 them to fly, with great slaughter. In this 
 affair Montrose's horse took Forbes of Craigie- 
 var and Forbes of Boyndlie prisoners. 
 
 The unsuccessful attacks on the wings of 
 Montrose's army had in no shape affected the 
 future fortune of the day, as both armies kept 
 their ground, and were equally animated with 
 nopes of ultimate success. Vexed, but by no 
 means intimidated by their second defeat, the 
 gentlemen who composed Burleigh's horse con- 
 
 sulted together as to the best mode of renewing 
 the attack ; and, being of opinion that the suc- 
 cess of Montrose's cavalry was owing chiefly to 
 the expert musketeers, with whom they were 
 interlined, they resolved to imitate the same 
 plan, by mixing among them a select body of 
 foot, and renewing the charge a third time, 
 with redoubled energy. But this scheme, 
 which might have proved fatal to Montrose, if 
 tried, was frustrated by a resolution he came 
 to, of making an instant and simultaneous 
 attack upon the enemy. Perceiving their 
 horse still in great confusion, and a consider- 
 able way apart from their main body, he deter- 
 mined upon attacking them with his foot before 
 they should get time to rally ; and galloping 
 up to his men, who had been greatly galled by 
 the enemies' cannon, he told them that there 
 was no good to be expected by the two armies 
 keeping at such a distance — that in this way 
 there was no means of distinguishing the 
 strong from the weak, nor the coward from 
 the brave man, but that if they would once 
 make a home charge upon these timorous and 
 effeminate striplings, as he called Burleigh's 
 horse, they would never stand their attack. 
 " Come on, then," said he, " my brave fellow- 
 soldiers, fall down upon them with your swords 
 and muskets, drive them before you, and make 
 them suffer the punishment due to their perfidy 
 and rebellion." 1 These words were no sooner 
 uttered, than Montrose's men rushed forward 
 at a quick pace and fell upon the enemy, sword 
 in hand. The Covenanters were paralyzed 
 by the suddenness and impetuosity of the 
 attack, and, turning their backs, fled in the 
 utmost trepidation and confusion, towards 
 Aberdeen. The slaughter was tremendous, as 
 the victors spared no man. The road leading 
 from the field of battle to Aberdeen was strewed 
 with the dead and the dying ; the streets of 
 Aberdeen were covered with the bodies, and 
 stained with the blood of its inhabitants. 
 " The lieutenant followed the chase into Aber- 
 deen, his men hewing and cutting down all 
 manner of men they could overtake, within the 
 town, upon the streets, or in the houses, and 
 round about the town, as our men were fleeing, 
 with broad swords, but (i. e. without) mercy 
 
 1 Wisbart, p. 89. 
 
BATTLE AND SACK OF ABERDEEN. 
 
 189 
 
 or renieid. Their cruel Irish, seeing a man 
 •well clad, would first tyr (strip) him, and save 
 his clothes unspoiled, syne kill the man." 2 
 In fine, according to this writer, who was an 
 eye-witness, the town of Aberdeen, which, but 
 a few years before, had suffered for its loyalty, 
 was now, by the same general who had then 
 oppressed it, delivered up by him to be indis- 
 criminately plundered by his Irish forces, for 
 having espoused the same cause which he him- 
 self had supported. For four days did these 
 men indulge in the most dreadful excesses, 
 "and nothing," continues Spalding, was "heard 
 but pitiful howling, crying, weeping, mourning, 
 through all the streets." Yet Guthry says 
 that Montrose " shewed great mercy, both 
 pardoning the people and protecting then' 
 goods." 3 
 
 It is singular, that although the battle con- 
 tinued for four hours without any determ in ate 
 result, Montrose lost very few men, a circum- 
 stance the more extraordinary as the cannon of 
 the Covenanters were placed upon advantageous 
 ground, whilst those of Montrose were rendered 
 quite ineffective by being situated in a position 
 from which they could not be brought to bear 
 upon the enemy. An anecdote, characteristic 
 of the bravery of the Irish, and of their cool- 
 ness in enduring the privations of war, has 
 been preserved. During the cannonade on the 
 side of the Covenanters, an Irishman had his 
 leg shot away by a cannon ball, but which 
 kept still attached to the stnmp by means of 
 a small bit of skin, or flesh. His comrades-in- 
 arms being affected with his disaster, this brave 
 man, without betraying any symptoms of pain, 
 thus cheerfully addressed them : — " This, my 
 companions, is the fate of war, and what none 
 of us ought to. grudge : go on, and behave as 
 becomes you ; and, as for me, I am certain my 
 lord, the marquis, will make me a trooper, as 
 I am now disabled for the foot service." Then, 
 taking a knife from his pocket, he deliberately 
 opened it, and cut asunder the skin which 
 retained the leg, without betraying the least 
 emotion, and delivered it to one of his com- 
 panions for interment. As soon as this cour- 
 ageous mar. was able to mount a horse, his 
 wish to become a trooper was complied with, 
 
 8 Spalding, vol. 
 
 Memo 
 
 in which capacity he afterwards distinguished 
 himself. 4 
 
 Hoping that the news of the victory he had 
 obtained would create a strong feeling in his 
 favour among the Gordons, some of whom had 
 actually fought against him, under the com- 
 mand of Lord Lewis Gordon, Montrose sent a 
 part of his army towards Kintore and Inver- 
 ury, the following day, to encourage the people 
 of the surrounding country to declare for him ; 
 but he was sadly disappointed in his expecta- 
 tions. The fact is, that ever since the appoint- 
 ment of Montrose as lieutenant-general of the 
 kingdom, — an appointment which trenched 
 upon the authority of the Marquis of Huntly as 
 lieutenant of the north, — the latter had become 
 quite lukewarm in the cause of his sovereign ; 
 and, although he was aware of the intentions 
 of his son, Lord Lewis, to join the Covenanters, 
 he quietly allowed him to do so without re- 
 monstrance. But, besides being thus, in some 
 measure, superseded by Montrose, the marquis 
 was actuated by personal hostility to him on 
 account of the treatment he had formerly 
 received from him ; and it appears to have been 
 partly to gratify his spleen that he remained a 
 passive observer of a struggle which involved 
 the very existence of the monarchy itself. 
 Whatever may have been Huntly's reasons for 
 not supporting Montrose, his apathy and in- 
 difference had a deadening influence upon his 
 numerous retainers, who had no idea of taking 
 the field but at the command of their chief. 
 
 As Montrose "saw no possibility of opposing 
 the powerful and well-appointed army of Ar- 
 gyle, which was advancing upon him with 
 slow and cautious steps, disappointed as he had 
 been of the aid which he had calculated upon, 
 he resolved to march into the Highlands, and 
 there collect such of the clans as were favour- 
 ably disposed to the royal cause. Leaving 
 Aberdeen, therefore, on the 16th of September, 
 with the remainder of his forces, he joined the 
 camp at Kintore, whence he despatched Sir 
 William Bollock to Oxford to inform the king 
 of the events of the campaign, and of his 
 present situation, and to solicit him to send 
 supplies. 
 
 We must now advert to the progress of 
 
 4 Wishart, p. 91. 
 
190 
 
 GENERAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 Argyle's army, the slow movements of which 
 form an unfavourable contrast with the rapid 
 marches of Montrose's army. On the 4th of 
 September, four days after the battle of Tip- 
 permuir, Argyle, who had been pursuing the 
 Irish forces under Macdonald, had arrived with 
 his Highlanders at Stirling, where, on the 
 following day, he was joined by the Earl of 
 Lothian and his regiment, which had shortly 
 before been brought over from Ireland. After 
 raising some men in Stirlingshire, he marched 
 to Perth upon the 10th, where he was joined 
 by some Fife men, and Lord Bargenny's and 
 Sir Frederick Hamilton's regiments of horse, 
 which had been recalled from Newcastle for 
 that purpose. With this increased force, which 
 now consisted of about 3,000 foot and two 
 regular cavalry regiments, besides ten troops 
 of horse, Argyle left Perth on the 14th of 
 September for the north, and in his route 
 was joined by the Earl Marshal, Lords Gor- 
 don, Fraser, and Crichton, and other Covenant- 
 ers. He arrived at Aberdeen upon the 19th 
 of September, where he issued a proclamation, 
 declaring the Marquis of Montrose and his 
 followers traitors to religion and to their king 
 and country, and offering a reward of 20,000 
 pounds Scots, to any person who should bring 
 in Montrose dead or alive. 6 Spalding laments 
 with great pathos and feeling the severe hard- 
 ships to which the citizens of Aberdeen had 
 been subjected by these frequent visitations of 
 hostile annies, and alluding to the present oc- 
 cupancy of the town by Argyle, he observes 
 that " this multitude of people lived upon free 
 quarters, a new grief to both towns, whereof 
 there was quartered on poor old Aberdeen 
 Argyle's own three regiments. The soldiers 
 had their baggage carried, and craved nothing 
 but house-room and fire. But ilk captain, 
 with twelve gentlemen, had free quarters, (so 
 long as the town had meat and drink,) for two 
 ordinaries, but the third ordinary they furnished 
 themselves out of their own baggage and pro- 
 visions, having store of meal, molt and sheep, 
 carried with them. But, the first night, they 
 drank out all the stale ale in Aberdeen, and 
 lived upon wort thereafter." 6 
 
 Argyle was now within half a day's march 
 
 6 SpaldiDg, vol. ii. p. 414. 6 Idem. 
 
 of Montrose, but, strange to tell, he made no 
 preparations to follow him, and spent two or 
 three days in Aberdeen doing absolutely 
 nothing. After spending this time in inglori 
 ous supineness, Aigyle put his army in motion 
 in the direction of Kintore. Montrose, on 
 hearing of his approach, concealed his cannon 
 in a bog, and leaving behind him some of his 
 heavy baggage, made towards the Spey with 
 the intention of crossing it. On arriving at 
 the river, he encamped near the old castle of 
 Eothiemurchus ; but finding that the boats used 
 in passing the river had been removed to the 
 north side of the river, and that a large armed 
 force from the country on the north of the 
 Spey had assembled on the opposite bank to 
 oppose his passage, Montrose marched his 
 army into the forest of Abernethy. Argyle 
 only proceeded at first as far as Strathbogie ; 
 but instead of pursuing Montrose, he allowed 
 his troops to waste their time in plundering 
 the properties and laying waste the lands of 
 the Gordons in Strathbogie and the Enzie, 
 under the very eyes of Lord Gordon and Lord 
 Lewis Gordon, neither of whom appears to have 
 endeavoured to avert such a calamity. Spald- 
 ing says that it was " a wonderful unnaturalitie 
 in the Lord Gordon to suffer his father's lands 
 and friends in his own sight to be thus wreckt 
 and destroyed in his father's absence;" but 
 Lord Gordon likely had it not in his power to 
 stay these proceedings, which, if not done at 
 the instigation, may have received the appro- 
 bation of his violent and headstrong younger 
 brother, who had joined the Covenanters' stand- 
 ard. On the 27th of September, Argyle mus- 
 tered his forces at the Bog of Gicht, when they 
 were found to amount to about 4,000 men; but 
 although the army of Montrose did not amount 
 to much more than a third of that number, 
 and was within twenty miles' distance, he did 
 not venture to attack him. After remaining a 
 few days in Abernethy forest, Montrose passed 
 through the forest of Bothiemurchus, and follow- 
 ing the course of the Spey, marched through 
 Badenoch to Athole, which he reached on 1st 
 October. 
 
 "When Argyle heard of the departure of 
 Montrose from the forest of Abernethy, he 
 made a feint of following him. He accord- 
 ingly set his army in motion along Spey-side, 
 
MOXTEOSE EETEEATS TO STEATHBOGIE. 
 
 191 
 
 and crossing the river himself 'with a few horse, 
 marched up some distance along the north 
 hank, and recrossed, when he ordered his troops 
 to halt. He then proceeded to Eorres to at- 
 tend a committee meeting of Covenanters to 
 concert a plan of operations in the north, at 
 which the Earl of Sutherland, Lord Lovat, the 
 sheriff of Moray, the lairds of Balnagown, 
 Innes and Pluscardine, and many others were 
 present. From Forres Argyle went to Inver- 
 ness, and after giving some instructions to Sir 
 Mungo Camphell of Lawers, and the laird of 
 Buchanan, the commanders of the regiments 
 stationed there, he returned to his array, which 
 he marched through Badenoch in pursuit of 
 Montrose. From Athole Montrose sent Mae- 
 donald with a party of 500 men to the "Western 
 Highlands, to invite the laird of Maclean, the 
 captain of clan Banald, and others to join him. 
 Marching down to Dunkeld, Montrose him self 
 proceeded rapidly through Angus towards 
 Brechin and Montrose. 7 
 
 Although some delay had been occasioned 
 in Montrose's movements hy his illness for a 
 few days in Badenoch, this was fully compen- 
 sated for by the tardy motions of Argyle, who, 
 on entering Badenoch, found that his vigilant 
 antagonist was several days' march a-head of 
 him. This intelligence, however, did not in- 
 duce him in the least to accelerate his march. 
 Hearing, when passing through Badenoch, that 
 Montrose had been joined by some of the in- 
 habitants of that country, Argj-le, according to 
 Spalding, " left nothing of that country un- 
 destroyed, no not one four footed beast ; " and 
 Athole shared a similar fate. 
 
 At the time Montrose entered Angus, a com- 
 mittee of the estates, consisting of the Earl 
 Marshal and other barons, was sitting in Aber- 
 deen, who, on hearing of his approach, issued 
 on the 10th of October a printed order, to which 
 the Earl Marshal's name was attached, ordain- 
 ing, under pain of being severely fined, all 
 persons, of whatever age, sex, or condition, 
 having horses of the value of forty pounds 
 Scots or upwards, to send them to the bridge 
 of Dee, which was appointed as the place of 
 rendezvous, on the 14th of October, by ten 
 o'clock, a. ji., with riders fully equipped and 
 
 7 Guthry, p. 231. 
 
 armed. With the exception of Lord Gordon, 
 who brought three troops of horse, and Captain 
 Alexander Keith, brother of the Earl Marshal, 
 who appeared with one troop at the appointed 
 place, no attention was paid to the order of the 
 committee by the people, who had not yet 
 recovered from their fears, and their recent 
 sufferings were still too fresh in their minds to 
 induce them again to expose themselves to the 
 vengeance of Montrose and his Irish troops. 
 
 After refreshing his army for a few days in 
 Angus, Montrose prepared to cross the Gram- 
 pians, and march to Strathbogie to make 
 another attempt to raise the Gordons ; but, 
 before setting out on his march, he released 
 Forbes of Craigievar and Forbes of Boyndlie, 
 on their parole, upon condition that Craigievar 
 should procure the liberation of the young laird 
 of Drum and his brother from the jail of Edin- 
 burgh, failing which, Craigievar and Boynd- 
 lie were both to deliver themselves up to him 
 as prisoners before the 1st of November. This 
 act of generosity on the part of Montrose was 
 greatly admired, more particularly as Craigievar 
 was one of the heads of the Covenanters, and 
 had great influence among them. In pursu- 
 ance of his design, Montrose marched through 
 the Mearns, and upon Thursday, the 17th of 
 October, crossed the Dee at the Mills of Drum, 
 with his whole army. In his progress north, 
 contrary to his former forbearing policy, he 
 laid waste the lands of some of the leading 
 Covenanters, burnt their houses, and plundered 
 their effects. He arrived at Strathbogie on the 
 19th of October, where he remained till the 
 27th, without being able to induce any con- 
 siderable number of the Gordons to join him. 
 It was not from want of inclination that they 
 refused to do so, but they were unwilling 
 to incur the displeasure of their chief, who 
 they knew was personally opposed to Mon- 
 trose, and who felt indignant at seeing a man 
 who had formerly espoused the cause of the 
 Covenanters preferred before him. Had Mon- 
 trose been accompanied by any of the Marquis 
 of Huntly's sons, they might have had influence 
 enough to have induced some of the Gordons 
 to declare for him ; but the situation of the 
 marquis's three sons was at this time very pecu- 
 liar. The eldest son, Lord Gordon, a young 
 man " of singular worth and accomplishments." 
 
192 
 
 GENERAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 was with Argyle, his uncle by the mother's 
 side ; the Earl of Aboyne, the second son, was 
 shut up in the castle of Carlisle, then in a state 
 of siege ; and Lord Lewis Gordon, the third 
 son, had, as we have seen, joined the Cove- 
 nanters, and fought in their ranks. 
 
 In this situation of matters, Montrose left 
 Strathbogie on the day last mentioned, and 
 took up a position in the forest of Fyvie, 
 where he despatched some of his troops, who 
 took possession of the castles of Fyvie and 
 Tollie Barclay, in which he found a good sup- 
 ply of provisions, which was of great service to 
 his army. During his stay at Strathbogie, 
 Montrose kept a strict outlook for the enemy, 
 and scarcely passed a night without scouring 
 the neighbouring country to the distance of 
 several miles with parties of light foot, who 
 attacked straggling parties of the Covenanters, 
 and brought in prisoners from time to time, 
 without sustaining any loss. These petty 
 enterprises, while they alarmed their enemies, 
 gave an extraordinary degree of confidence to 
 Montrose's men, who were ready to undertake 
 any service, however difficult or dangerous, if 
 he only commanded them to perform it. 
 
 When Montrose crossed the Dee, Argyle 
 was several days' march behind him. The 
 latter, however, reached Aberdeen on the 24th 
 of October, and proceeded the following morn- 
 ing towards Kintore, which he reached the 
 same night. Next morning he marched for- 
 ward to Inverury, where he halted at night. 
 Here he was joined by the Earl of Lothian's 
 regiment, which increased his force to about 
 2,500 foot, and 1,200 horse. In his progress 
 through the comities of Angus, Kincardine, 
 Aberdeen, and Banff, he received no accession 
 of strength, from the dread which the name 
 and actions of Montrose had infused into the 
 minds of the inhabitants of these counties. 
 
 The sudden movements of Argyle from Aber- 
 deen to Kintore, and from Kintore to Inverury, 
 form a remarkable contrast with the slowness 
 of his former motions. He had followed Mon- 
 trose through a long and circuitous route, the 
 greater part of which still bore recent traces of 
 his footsteps, and instead of showing any dispo- 
 sition to overtake his flying foe, seemed rather 
 inclined to keep that respectful distance from 
 him so congenial to the mind of one who, 
 
 " willing to wound," is " yet still afraid to 
 strike." But although this questionable poliey 
 of Argyle was by no means calculated to raise 
 his military fame, it had the effect of throwing 
 Montrose, in the present case, off his guard, 
 and had well-nigh proved fatal to him. The 
 rapid march of Argyle on Kintore and Inverury, 
 in fact, was effected without Montrose's know- 
 ledge, for the spies he had employed concealed 
 the matter from him, and while he imagined 
 that Argyle was still on the other side of the 
 Grampians, he suddenly appeared within a very 
 few miles of Montrose's camp, on the 28th of 
 October. 
 
 The unexpected arrival of Argyle's army did 
 not disconcert Montrose. His foot, which 
 amounted to 1,500 men, were little more than 
 the half of those under Argyle, while he had only 
 about 50 horse to oppose 1,200. Yet, with 
 this immense disparity, he resolved to await the 
 attack of the enemy, judging it inexpedient, 
 from the want of cavalry, to become the assail- 
 ant by descending into the plain where Argyle's 
 army was encamped. On a rugged eminence 
 behind the castle of Fyvie, on the uneven 
 sides of which several ditches had been cut 
 and dikes built to serve as farm fences, Mon- 
 trose drew up his little but intrepid host ; but 
 before he had marked out the positions to be 
 occupied by his divisions, he had the misfor- 
 tune to witness the desertion of a small body 
 of the Gordons, who had joined him at Strath- 
 bogie. They, however, did not join Argyle, 
 but contented themselves with withdrawing 
 altogether from the scene of the ensuing action. 
 It is probable that they came to the determina- 
 tion of retiring, not from cowardice, but from 
 disinclination to appear in the field against 
 Lord Lewis Gordon, who held a high com- 
 mand in Argyle's army. The secession of the 
 Gordons, though in reality a circumstance of 
 trifling importance in itself, (for had they re- 
 mained, they would have fought unwillingly, 
 and consequently might net have had sufficient 
 resolution to maintain the position which would 
 have been assigned them,) had a disheartening 
 influence upon the spirits of Montrose's men, 
 and accordingly they found themselves unable 
 to resist the first shock of Argyle's numerous 
 forces, who, charging them with great impetuo- 
 sity, drove them up the eminence, of a consider- 
 
BATTLE OF FYVIE, 
 
 193 
 
 able part of which Argyle's army got possession. 
 In this critical conjuncture, when terror and de- 
 spair seemed about to obtain the mastery over 
 hearts to which fear had hitherto been a 
 stranger, Montrose displayed a coolness and 
 presence of mind equal to the dangers which 
 surrounded bim. Animating them by his pre- 
 sence, and by the example which he showed in 
 risking his person in the hottest of the fight, 
 he roused their courage by putting them fur- 
 ther in mind of the victories they had achieved, 
 and how greatly superior they were in bravery 
 to the enemy opposed to them. After this 
 emphatic appeal to their feelings, Montrose 
 turned to Colonel O'Kean, a young Irish gentle- 
 man, highly respected by the former for his 
 bravery, and desired hi m, with an air of the 
 most perfect sang froid, to go down with such 
 men as were readiest, and to drive these fel- 
 lows (meaning Argyle's men), out of the ditcher, 
 that they might be no more troubled with 
 them. O'Kean quickly obeyed the mandate, 
 and though the party in the ditches was 
 greatly superior to the body he led, and was, 
 moreover, supported by some horse, he drove 
 them away, and captured several bags of 
 powder which they left behind them in their 
 hurry to escape. This was a valuable acquisi- 
 tion, as Montrose's men had spent already al- 
 most the whole of their ammunition. 
 
 "While O'Kean was executing this brilliant 
 affair, Montrose observed five troops of horse, 
 under the Earl of Lothian, preparing to attack 
 his 50 horse, who were posted a little way up 
 the eminence, with a small wood in their rear. 
 H3, therefore, without a moment's delay, or- 
 dered a party of musketeers to their aid, who, 
 having interlined themselves with the 50 horse, 
 kept up such a galling fire upon Lothian's 
 troopers, that before they had advanced half 
 way across a field which lay between them and 
 Montrose's horse, they were obliged to wheel 
 about and gallop off. 
 
 Montrose's men became so elated with their 
 success that they could scarcely be restrained 
 from leaving their ground and making a gen- 
 eral attack upon the whole of Argyle's army ; 
 but although Montrose did not approve of this 
 design, he disguised his opinion, and seemed 
 rather to concur in the views of his men, telling 
 them, however, to be so far mindful of their 
 
 duty as to wait till he should see the fit mo- 
 ment for ordering the attack. Argyle remained 
 till the evening without attempting anything 
 farther, and then retired to a distance of about 
 three miles across the Spey; his men passed 
 the night under arms. The only person of 
 note killed in these s kir mishes was Captain 
 Keith, brother of the Earl Marshal. 
 
 Kext day Argyle resolved to attack Mon- 
 trose, with the view of driving him from his 
 position. He was induced to come to this de- 
 termination from a report, too well founded, 
 which had reached him, that Montrose's army 
 was almost destitute of ammunition ; — indeed, 
 he had compelled the inhabitants of all the 
 sui'rounding districts to deliver up every article 
 of pewter in their possession for the purpose 
 of being converted into ammunition ; but this 
 precarious supply appears soon to have been 
 exhausted. 8 On arriving at the bottom of 
 the hill, he changed his resolution, not judg- 
 ing it safe, from the experience of the pre- 
 ceding day, to hazard an attack. Montrose, 
 on the other hand, agreeably to his original 
 plan, kept his ground, as he did not deem it 
 advisable to expose his men to the enemy's cav- 
 alry by descending from the eminence. With 
 the exception of some trifling skirmishes be- 
 tween the advanced posts, the main body of 
 both armies remained quiescent during the 
 whole day. Argyle again retired in the even- 
 ing to the ground he had occupied the pre- 
 ceding night, whence he returned the following 
 day, part of which was spent in the same man- 
 ner as the former ; but long before the day had 
 expired he led off his army, "upon fair day 
 light," says Spalding, " to a considerable dis- 
 tance, leaving Montrose to effect his escape un- 
 molested." 
 
 Montrose, thus left to follow any course he 
 pleased, marched off after nightfall towards 
 Strathbogie, plundering Turriff and Eothiemay 
 house in his route. He selected Strathbogie as 
 the place of his retreat on account of the rugged- 
 ness of the country and of the numerous dikes 
 with which it was intersected, which would 
 prevent the operations of Argyle's cavalry, and 
 where he intended to remain till joined by 
 Macdonald, whom he daily expected from the 
 
 8 ^Yishart, p. 100. 
 
194 
 
 GENEBAL H1ST0EY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 Highlands with a reinforcement. When Ar- 
 gyle heard of Montrose's departure on the fol- 
 lowing morning, heing the last day of October, 
 he forthwith proceeded after him with his 
 army, thinking to bring him to action in the 
 open country, and encamped at Tullochbeg on 
 the 2d of November, where he drew out his 
 army in battle array. He endeavoured to bring 
 Montrose to a general engagement, and, in 
 order to draw him from a favourable position 
 he was preparing to occupy, Argyle sent out a 
 skirmishing party of his Highlanders ; but they 
 were soon repulsed, and Montrose took posses- 
 sion of the ground he had selected. 
 
 Baffled in all his attempts to overcome Mon- 
 trose by force of arms, Argyle, whose talents 
 were more fitted for the intrigues of the cabinet 
 than the tactics of the field, had now recourse 
 to negotiation, with the view of effecting the 
 ruin of his antagonist. Eor this purpose he 
 proposed a cessation of arms, and that he and 
 Montrose should hold a conference, previous to 
 which arrangements should be entered into for 
 their mutual security. Montrose knew Argyle 
 too well to place any reliance upon his word, 
 and as he had no doubt that Argyle would take 
 advantage, during the proposed cessation, to 
 tamper with his men and endeavour to with- 
 draw them from their allegiance, he called a 
 council of war, and proposed to retire without 
 delay to the Highlands. The council at once 
 approved of this suggestion, whereupon Mon- 
 trose resolved to march next night as far as 
 Badenoch ; and that his army might be able to 
 accomplish such a long journey within the time 
 fixed, he immediately sent off all his heavy bag- 
 gage under a guard, and ordered his men to 
 keep themselves prepared as if to fight a battle 
 the next day. 9 Scarcely, however, had the 
 carriages and heavy baggage been despatched, 
 when an event took place which greatly dis- 
 concerted Montrose. This was nothing less 
 than the desertion of his friend Colonel Sib- 
 bald and some of his officers, who went over 
 to the enemy. They were accompanied by Sir 
 William Forbes of Craigievar, who, having been 
 unable to fulfil the condition on which he was 
 to obtain his ultimate liberation, had returned 
 two or three days before to Montrose's camp. 
 
 '■> Wishart, p. 102. 
 
 This distressing occurrence induced Montrose 
 to postpone his march for a time, as he was 
 quite certain that the deserters would commu- 
 nicate his plans to Argyle. Ordering, there- 
 fore, back the baggage he had sent off, he 
 resumed his former position, in which he 
 remained four days, as if he there intended to 
 take up his winter quarters. 
 
 In the meantime Montrose had the mortifi- 
 cation to witness the defection of almost the 
 whole of his officers, who were very numerous, 
 for, with the exception of the Irish and High- 
 landers, they outnumbered the privates from 
 the Lowlands. The bad example which had 
 been set by Sibbald, the intimate friend of 
 Montrose, and the insidious promises of pre- 
 ferment held out to them by Argyle, induced 
 some, whose loyalty was questionable, to adopt 
 this course ; but the idea of the privations to 
 which they would be exposed in traversing, 
 during winter, among frost and snow, the 
 dreary and dangerous regions of the Highlands, 
 shook the constancy of others, who, in different 
 circumstances, would have willingly exposed 
 their lives for their sovereign. Bad health, 
 inability to undergo the fatigue of long and 
 constant marches — these and other excuses 
 were made to Montrose as the reasons for crav- 
 ing a discharge from a service which had now 
 become more hazardous than ever. Montrose 
 made no remonstrance, but with looks of high 
 disdain which betrayed the inward workings 
 of a proud and unsubdued mind, indignant at 
 being thus abandoned at such a dangerous 
 crisis, readily complied with the request of 
 every man who asked permission to retire. The 
 Earl of Airly, now sixty years of age and in 
 precarious health, and his two sons, Sir Thomas 
 and Sir David Ogilvie, out of all the Low- 
 landers, alone remained faithful to Montrose, 
 and could, on no account, be prevailed upon to 
 abandon him. Among others who left Mon- 
 trose on this occasion, was Sir Nathaniel Gor- 
 don, who, it is said, went over to Argyle's camp 
 in consequence of a concerted plan between 
 him and Montrose, for the purpose of detaching 
 Lewis Gordon from the cause of the Covenant- 
 ers, a conjecture which seems to have originated 
 in the subsequent conduct of Sir Nathaniel 
 and Lord Lewis, who joined Montrose the 
 following year. 
 
MONTROSE MARCHES UPON BBEADALBANE AND ARGYLE. 
 
 If). 1 ) 
 
 Montrose, now abandoned by all his Low- 
 land friends, prepared for Ms march, prepara- 
 tory to which he sent off his baggage as 
 formerly ; and after lighting some fires for the 
 purpose of deceiving the enemy, took his 
 departure on the evening of the 6th of Novem- 
 ber, and arrived about break of day at Balveny. 
 After remaining a few days there to refresh his 
 men, he proceeded through Badenoch, and 
 descended by rapid marches into Athole, where 
 he was joined by Macdonald and John Muid- 
 artach, the captain of the Clanranald, the latter 
 of whom brought 500 of his men along with 
 him. He was also reinforced by some small 
 parties from the neighbouring Highlands, whom 
 Macdonald had induced to follow him. 
 
 In the meantime Argyle, after giving orders 
 to his Highlanders to return home, went him- 
 self to Edinburgh, where he " got but small 
 thanks for his service against Montrose." 1 
 Although the Committee of Estates, out of 
 deference, approved of his conduct, which some 
 of his flatterers considered deserving of praise 
 because he "had shed no blood;" 2 yet the 
 majority had formed a very different estimate 
 of his character, during a campaign which had 
 been fruitful neither of glory nor victory. 
 Confident of success, the heads of the Cove- 
 nanters looked upon the first efforts of Mon- 
 trose in the light of a desperate and forlorn 
 attempt, rashly and inconsiderately undertaken, 
 and which they expected would be speedily 
 put down ; but the results of the battles of 
 Tippermuir, Aberdeen, and Eyvie, gave a new 
 direction to their thoughts, and the royalists, 
 hitherto contemned, began now to be dreaded 
 and respected. In allusion to the present 
 " posture of affairs," it is observed by Guthry, 
 that " many who had formerly been violent, 
 began to talk moderately of business, and what 
 was most taken notice of, was the lukewarm- 
 ness of many amongst the ministry, who now 
 in their preaching had begun to abate much of 
 their former zeal." 3 The early success of Mon- 
 trose had indeed caused some misgivings in 
 the minds of the Covenanters ; but as they all 
 hoped that Argyle would change the tide of war, 
 they showed no disposition to relax in their 
 
 Spalding, vol. ii. p. 287. 2 Guthry, p. 134. 
 a Memoirs, pp. 134—5. 
 
 severities towards those who were suspected of 
 favouring the cause of the king. The signal 
 failure, however, of Argyle's expedition, and 
 his return to the capital, quite changed, as we 
 have seen, the aspect of affairs, and many of 
 those who had been most sanguine in their 
 calculations regarding the result of the struggle, 
 began now to waver and to doubt. 
 
 While Argyle was passing his time in Edin- 
 burgh, Montrose was meditating a terrible 
 blow at Argyle himself to revenge the cruelties 
 he had exercised upon the royalists, and to give 
 confidence to the clans in Argyle's neighbour- 
 hood. These had been hitherto prevented from 
 joining Montrose's standard from a dread of 
 Argyle, who having always a body of 5,000 or 
 6,000 Highlanders at command, had kept them 
 in such complete subjection that they dared not, 
 without the risk of absolute ruin, espouse the 
 cause of their sovereign. The idea of curbing 
 the power of a haughty and domineering chief 
 whose word was a law to the inhabitants of 
 an extensive district, ready to obey his cruel 
 mandates at all times, and the spirit of revenge, 
 the predominating characteristic of the clans, 
 smoothed the difficulties which presented 
 themselves in invading a country made almost 
 inaccessible by nature, and rendered still more 
 unapproachable by the severities of winter. 
 The determination of Montrose having thus 
 met with a willing response in the breasts of 
 his men, he lost no time in putting them in 
 motion. Dividing his army into two parts, 
 he himself marched with the main body, con- 
 sisting of the Irish and the Athole-men, to 
 Loch Tay, whence he proceeded through 
 Breadalbane. The other body, composed of 
 the clan Donald and other Highlanders, he 
 despatched by a different route, with instruc- 
 tions to meet him at an assigned spot on the 
 borders of Argyle. The country through which 
 both divisions passed, being chiefly in posses- 
 sion of Argyle's kinsmen or dependants, was 
 laid waste, particularly the lands of Campbell 
 of Glenorchy. 
 
 When Argyle heard of the ravages com- 
 mitted by Montrose's army on the lands of his 
 kinsmen, he hastened home from Edinburgh 
 to his castle at Inverary, and gave orders for 
 the assembling of his clan, either to repel any 
 attack that might be made on his own country, 
 
190 
 
 GENERAL HISTORY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 or to protect his friends from future aggression. 
 It is by no means certain that he anticipated 
 an invasion from Montrose, particularly at such 
 a season of the year, and he seemed to imagine 
 himself so secure from attack, owing to the 
 intricacy of the passes leading into Arg3de, that 
 although a mere handful of men could have 
 effectually opposed an army much larger than 
 that of Montrose, he took no precautions to 
 guard them. So important indeed did he 
 himself consider these passes to be, that he 
 had frequently declared that he would rather 
 forfeit a hundred thousand crowns, than that 
 an enemy should know the passes by which an 
 armed force could penetrate into Argyle. 4 
 
 While thus reposing in fancied security in 
 his impregnable stronghold, and issuing his 
 mandates for levying his forces, some shepherds 
 arrived in great terror from the hills, and brought 
 him the alarming intelligence that the enemy, 
 whom he had imagined were about a hundred 
 miles distant, were within two miles of his 
 own dwelling. Terrified at the unexpected 
 appearance of Montrose, whose vengeance he 
 justly dreaded, he had barely self-possession 
 left to concert measures for his own personal 
 safety, by taking refuge on board a fishing 
 boat in Loch Fyne, in which he sought his 
 way to the Lowlands, leaving his people and 
 country exposed to the merciless will of an 
 enemy thirsting for revenge. The inhabitants 
 of Argyle beiug thus abandoned by their 
 chief, made no attempt to oppose Montrose, 
 who, the more effectually to carry his plan for 
 pillaging and ravaging the country into execu- 
 tion, divided his army into three parties, under 
 the respective orders of the captain of clan 
 Ranald, Macdonald, and himself. For up- 
 wards of six weeks, viz., from the 13th of 
 December, 1644, till nearly the end of Janu- 
 ary following, these different bodies traversed 
 the whole country without molestation, burn- 
 ing, wasting, and destroying every tiling which 
 came within their reach. Nor were the people 
 themselves spared, for although it is men- 
 tioned by one writer that Montrose " shed 
 no Hood in regard that all the people 
 (following their lord's laudable example) deli- 
 vered themselves by flight also," 6 it is evident 
 
 4 Wishart, p. 107. 
 
 1 Guthry, p. 13«. 
 
 from several contemporary authors that the 
 slaughter must have been immense. 6 In fact, 
 before the end of January, the face of a single 
 male inhabitant was not to be seen throughout 
 the. whole extent of Argyle and Lorn, the 
 whole population having been either driven 
 out of these districts, or taken refuge in dens 
 and caves known only to themselves. 
 
 Having thus retaliated upon Argyle and his 
 people in a tenfold degree the miseries which 
 he had occasioned in Lochaber and the adjoin- 
 ing countries, Montrose left Argyle and Lorn, 
 passing through Glencoe and Lochaber on his 
 way to Lochness. On his march eastwards he 
 was joined by the laird of Abergeldie, the Far- 
 quharsons of the Braes of Mar, and by a party 
 of the Gordons. The object of Montrose, by 
 this movement, was to seize Inverness, which 
 was then protected by only two regiments, in 
 the expectation that its capture would operate 
 as a stimulus to the northern clans, who had 
 not yet declared themselves. This resolution 
 was by no means altered on reaching the head 
 of Lochness, where he learned that the Earl of 
 Seaforth was advancing to meet him. with an 
 army of 5,000 horse and foot, which he re- 
 solved to encounter, it being composed, with 
 the exception of two regular regiments, of raw 
 and undisciplined levies. 
 
 While proceeding, however, through Aber- 
 tarf, a person arrived in great haste at Kilcum- 
 min, the present fort Augustus, who brought 
 him the surprising intelligence that Argyle had 
 entered Lochaber with an army of 3,000 men ; 
 that he was burning and laying waste the 
 country, and that Iris head-quarters were at the 
 old castle of Inverlochy. After Argyle had 
 effected his escape from Inverary, he had gone 
 to Dumbarton, where he remained till Mon- 
 trose's departure from his territory. While 
 there, a body of covenanting troops who had 
 served in England, arrived under the command 
 of Major-general Baillie, for the purpose of 
 assisting Argyle in expelling Montrose from 
 Ms bounds ; but on learning that Montrose 
 had left Argyle, and was marching through 
 Glencoe and Lochaber, General Baillie deter- 
 mined to lead his army in an easterly direction 
 
 6 Spalding, vol. ii. p. 442; Wishart, p. 108— Red 
 Boole of Clanranald. 
 
MONTROSE MARCHES TO INVERLOCHY. 
 
 197 
 
 through the Lowlands, with the intention of 
 intercepting Montrose, should he attempt a 
 descent. At the same time it was arranged 
 between Baillie and Argyle that the latter, 
 who had now recovered from his panic in con- 
 sequence of Montrose's departure, should re- 
 turn to Argyle and collect his men from their 
 hiding-places and retreats. As it was not im- 
 probable, however, that Montrose might renew 
 his visit, the Committee of Estates allowed 
 Baillie to place 1,100 of his soldiers at the 
 disposal of Argyle, who, as soon as he was 
 able to muster his men, was to follow Mon- 
 trose's rear, yet so as to avoid an engagement, 
 till Baillie, who, on hearing of Argyle's advance 
 into Lochaber, was to march suddenly across 
 the Grampians, should attack Montrose in 
 front. To assist ln'm in levying and organiz- 
 ing his clan, Argyle called over Campbell of 
 Auchinbreck, his kinsman, from Ireland, who 
 had considerable reputation as a military com- 
 mander. In terms of bis instructions, there- 
 fore, Argyle had entered Lochaber, and had 
 advanced as far as Inverlochy, when, as we 
 have seen, the news of his arrival was brought 
 to Montrose. 
 
 Montrose was at first almost disinclined, 
 from the well-known reputation of Argyle, to 
 credit this intelligence, but being fully assured 
 of its correctness from the apparent sincerity of 
 his informer, he lost not a moment in making 
 up his mind as to the course he should pursue. 
 He might have instantly marched back upon 
 Argyle by the route he had just followed ; but 
 as the latter would thus get due notice of his 
 approach, and prepare himself for the threat- 
 ened danger, Montrose resolved upon a differ- 
 ent plan. The design he conceived could 
 only have originated in the mind of such a 
 bold and enterprising commander as Mon- 
 trose, before whose daring genius difficulties 
 hitherto deemed insurmountable at once disap- 
 peared. The idea of carrying an army over 
 dangerous and precipitous mountains, whose 
 wild and frowning aspect seemed to forbid the 
 approach of human footsteps, and in the middle 
 of winter, too, when the formidable perils of 
 the journey were greatly increased by the snow, 
 however chimerical it might have seemed to 
 other men, appeared quite practicable to Mon- 
 trose, whose sanguine anticipations of the ad- 
 
 vantages to be derived from such an extra- 
 ordinary exploit, more than counterbalanced, 
 in his mind, the risks to be encountered. 
 
 The distance between the place where Mon- 
 trose received the news of Argyle's arrival and 
 Inverlochy is about thirty miles ; but this dis- 
 tance was considerably increased by the devious 
 track which Montrose followed. Marching 
 along the small river Tarf in a southerly direc- 
 tion, he crossed the hills of Lairie Thierard, 
 passed through Glenroy, and after traversing the 
 range of mountains between the Olen and Ben 
 Nevis, he arrived in Glennevis before Argyle 
 had the least notice of his approach. Before 
 setting out on his march, Montrose had taken 
 the wise precaution of placing guards upon the 
 common road leading to Inverlochy, to prevent 
 intelligence of his movements being carried to 
 Argyle, and he had killed such of Argyle's 
 scouts as he had fallen in with in the course of 
 his march. This fatiguing and unexampled 
 journey had been performed in little more than 
 a night and a day, and when, in the course of 
 the evening, Montrose's men arrived in Glen- 
 nevis, they found themselves so weary and 
 exhausted that they could not venture to attack 
 the enemy. They therefore lay under arms all 
 night, and refreshed themselves as they best 
 could till next morning. As the night was 
 uncommonly clear, it being moonlight, the ad- 
 vanced posts of both armies kept up a small 
 fire of musketry, which led to no result. 
 
 In the meantime Argyle, after committing 
 his army to the charge of his cousin, Campbell 
 of Auchinbreck, with his customary prudence, 
 went, during the night, on board a boat in the 
 loch, excusing himself for this apparent pusil- 
 lanimous act by alleging his incapacity to enter 
 the field of battle in consequence of some con- 
 tusions he had received by a fall two or three 
 weeks before ; but his enemies averred that 
 cowardice was the real motive which induced 
 him to take refuge in his galley, from which 
 he witnessed the defeat and destruction of his 
 army. This somewhat suspicious action of 
 Argyle — and it was not the only time he pro- 
 vided for his personal safety in a similar man- 
 ner — is accounted for in the following ( 1 iron- 
 ical) way by the author of Britane's Distemper 
 (p. 100) :- 
 
 " In this confusion, the commanders of there 
 
198 
 
 GENEEAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 armie liglites wpon this resolution, not to hazart 
 the niarquisse owne persone ; for it seems not 
 possible that Ardgylle himselfe, being a noble- 
 man of such eminent qualitie, a man of so deepe 
 and profund judgement, one that knew so weell 
 what belongeth to the office of a generall, that 
 any basse motion of feare, I say, could make 
 him so wnsensible of the poynt of honour as is 
 generally reported. Nether will I, for my owne 
 pairt, belieue it ; but I am confident that those 
 barrones of his kinred, wha ware captanes 
 and commanderes of the armie, feareing the 
 euent of this battelle, for diuers reasones ; and 
 one was, that Allan M'Collduie, ane old fox, 
 and who was thought to be a seer, had told 
 them that there should be a battell lost there 
 by them that came first to seike battell ; this 
 was one cause of there importunitie with him 
 that he should not come to battell that day ; 
 for they sawe that of necessitie they most feght, 
 and woidd not hazart there cheife persone, 
 urgeing him by force to reteire to his galay, 
 which lay hard by, and committe the tryall of 
 the day to them ; he, it is to be thought, with 
 great difficultie yeelding to there request, 
 leaues his cusine, the laird of Auchinbreike, a 
 most walorous and braue gentleman, to the 
 generall commande of the armie, and takes with 
 himselfe only sir James Eollocke, his brother 
 in lawe, sir Jhone TVachope of Nithrie, Mr. 
 Mungo Law, a preacher. It is reported those 
 two last was send from Edinburgh with him 
 to beare witnesse of the expulsion of those 
 rebelles, for so they ware still pleased to terme 
 the Eoyalistes." 
 
 It would appear that it was not until the 
 morning of the battle that Argyle's men were 
 aware that it was the army of Montrose that 
 was so near them, as they considered it quite 
 impossible that he should have been able to 
 bring his forces across the mountains ; they 
 imagined that the body before them consisted 
 of some of the inhabitants of the country, who 
 had collected to defend their properties. But 
 they were undeceived when, in the dawn of the 
 morning, the warlike sound of Montrose's 
 trumpets, resounding through the glen where 
 they lay, and reverberating from the adjoining 
 hills, broke upon their ears. This served as 
 the signal to both armies to prepare for battle. 
 Montrose drew out his army in an extended 
 
 line. The right wing consisted of a regiment 
 of Irish, under the command of Macdonald, 
 his major-general ; the centre was composed of 
 the Athole-men, the Stuarts of Appin, the Mac- 
 donalds of Glencoe, and other Highlanders, 
 severally under the command of Clanranald, 
 M'Lean, and Glengary ; and the left wing con- 
 sisted of some Irish, at the head of whom was the 
 brave Colonel O'Kean. A body of Irish was 
 placed behind the main body as a reserve, under 
 the command of Colonel James M'Donald, alias 
 O'Neill. The general of Argyle's army formed 
 it in a similar manner. The Lowland forces 
 were equally divided, and formed the wings, 
 between which the Highlanders were placed. 
 Upon a rising ground, behind this line, General 
 Campbell drew up a reserve of Highlanders, 
 and placed a field-piece. Within the house of 
 Inverlochy, which was only about a pistol-shot 
 from the place where the army was formed, he 
 planted a body of 40 or 50 men to protect the 
 place, and to annoy Montrose's men with dis- 
 charges of musketry. 7 The account given by 
 Gordon of Sallagh, that Argyle had transported 
 the half of his army over the water at Inver- 
 lochy, under the command of Aucliinbreck, 
 and that Montrose defeated this division, while 
 Argyle was prevented from relieving it with 
 the other division, from the intervening of 
 " an arm of the sea, that was interjected betwixt 
 them and him," 8 is probably erroneous, for the 
 circumstance is not mentioned by any other 
 writer of the period, and it is well known, that 
 Argyle abandoned his army, and witnessed its 
 destruction from his galley, — circumstances 
 which Gordon altogether overlooks. 
 
 It was at sunrise, on Sunday, the 2d of 
 February, 1645, that Montrose, after having 
 formed his army in battle array, gave orders to 
 his men to advance upon the enemy. The left 
 wing of Montrose's army, under the command of 
 O'Kean, was the first to commence the attack, 
 by charging the enemy's right. This was imme- 
 diately followed by a furious assault upon the 
 centre and left wing of Argyle's army, by 
 Montrose's right wing and centre. Argyle's 
 right wing not being able to resist the attack 
 of Montrose's left, turned about and fled, which 
 
 7 Spalding, vol. ii. p. 4-14. 
 
 8 Continuation, p. 522. 
 
BATTLE OF LNVEKLOCHY. 
 
 199 
 
 circumstance had such a discouraging effect on 
 the remainder of Argyle's troops, that after 
 discharging their muskets, the whole of them, 
 including the reserve, took to their heels. The 
 rout now became general. An attempt was 
 made by a body of about 200 of the fugitives, 
 to throw themselves into the castle of Inver- 
 lochy, but a party of Montrose's horse pre- 
 vented them. Some of the flying enemy 
 directed their course along the side of Loch- 
 Eil, but all these were either killed or drowned 
 
 in the pursuit. The greater part, however, 
 fled towards the hills in the direction of Argyle, 
 and were pursued by Montrose's men, to the dis- 
 tance of about eight miles. As no resistance 
 was made by the defeated party in their flight, 
 the carnage was very great, being reckoned at 
 1,500 men. Many more would have been cut 
 j off had it not been for the humanity of Mon- 
 trose, who did every thing in his power to save 
 I the unresisting enemy from the fury of his men, 
 I who were not disposed to give quarter to the 
 
 Inverlochy Castle. — From 11'CuIloch's celebrated picture in the Edinburgh National Gallery. 
 
 unfortunate Campbells. Having taken the 
 castle, Montrose not only treated the officers, 
 who were from the Lowlands, with kindness, 
 but gave them their liberty on parole. 
 
 Among the principal persons who fell on 
 Argyle's side, were the commander, Campbell 
 of Auchinbreck, Campbell of Lochnell, the 
 eldest son of Lochnell, and his brother, Colin ; 
 M'Dougall of Eara and his eldest son; Major 
 Menzies, brother to the laird, (or Prior as he 
 was called) of Achattens Parbreck ; and the 
 provost of the church of Kilmun. The loss 
 on the side of Montrose was extremely trifling. 
 The number of wounded is indeed not stated, 
 but he had only three privates killed. He 
 sustained, however, a severe loss in Sir Thomas 
 Ogilvie, son of the Earl of Airly, who died a 
 
 few da}'s after the battle, of a wound he 
 received in the thigh. Montrose regretted the 
 death of this steadfast friend and worthy man, 
 with feelings of real sorrow, and caused his 
 body to be interred in Athole with due solem- 
 nity. 9 Montrose imniediatety after the battle 
 sent a messenger to the king with a letter, 
 giving an account of it, at the conclusion of 
 which he exultingly says to Charles, " Give me 
 I leave, after I have reduced this country, and 
 | conquered from Dan to Beersheba, to say to 
 | your Majesty, as David's general to his master, 
 | Come thou thyself, lest this country be called 
 by my name." When the king received this 
 letter, the royal and parliamentary commis- 
 
 9 Spalding, vol. ii. p. H5. — "Wishart, p. Ill, et 
 seq.— Guthry, p. 140. 
 
200 
 
 GENEEAL histoey of the highlands. 
 
 sioners were sitting at ITxbridge negotiating 
 the terms of a peace ; but Charles, induced by 
 the letter, imprudently broke off the negotia- 
 tion, a circumstance which led to his ruin. 
 
 CHAFTEB XIV. 
 
 a.i>. February — September, 1645. 
 
 British sovereign :— Charles I., 1025—16-19. 
 
 Montrose marches to Inverness and Elgin, wasting 
 the lands of the Covenanters — Enters and plunders 
 Banff- -Deputation from Aberdeen — Death of Donald 
 Farquharson — Montrose imposes a tax of £10,000 
 on Aberdeen — Enters and burns Stonehaven — De- 
 feats Hurry's horse at Fettercairn — Marches to 
 Brechin and Dunkeld — Storms and captures Dundee 
 — Montrose's retreat from Dundee — Movements of 
 General Baillie — Battle of Auldearn — Montrose's 
 after-movements — Battle of Alford — General Baillie 
 and the Committee of Estates retreat to Stirling — 
 Montrose marches to Aberdeen — Montrose marches 
 south — Is joined by more Highlanders — Threatens 
 Perth — Retreats to Dunkeld — Again moves south 
 — Baillie joined by the men of Fife — Montrose at 
 Alloa — Maclean burns Castle Campbell — Montrose 
 goes towards Stirling — DilFerences among the Cove- 
 nanters — Battle of Kilsyth — Montrose enters Glas- 
 gow — Submission of the nobility and the western 
 counties — Submission of Edinburgh — Montrose ap- 
 pointed Lieutenant-governor of Scotland — Deser- 
 tion of Highlanders — Battle of Philipkaugh. 
 
 When the disastrous news of the battle of 
 Inverlochy reached Edinburgh, the Estates 
 were thrown into a state of great alarm. They 
 had, no doubt, begun to fear, before that event, 
 and, of course, to respect the prowess of Mon- 
 trose, but they never could have been made to 
 believe that, within the space of a few days, 
 a well-appointed army, composed in part of 
 veteran troops, would have been utterly defeated 
 by a force so vastly inferior in point of num- 
 bers, and beset with difficulties and dangers to 
 which the army of Argyle was not exposed. 
 Nor were the fears of the Estates much allayed 
 by the appearance of Argyle, who arrived at 
 Edinburgh to give them an account of the 
 affair, " having his left arm tied up in a scarf, 
 as if he had been at bones-breaking." 1 It is 
 true that Lord Balmerino made a speech before 
 the assembly of the Estates, in which he 
 affirmed, that the great loss reported to be 
 sustained at Inverlochy " was but the inven- 
 tion of the malignants, who spake as they 
 
 1 Guthry, p. 141. 
 
 .wished," and that " upon his honour, not more 
 than thirty of Argyle's men had been killed;" 2 
 but as the disaster was well known, this device 
 only misled the weak and ignorant. Had 
 Montrose at this juncture descended into the 
 Lowlands, it is not improbable that his presence 
 might have given a favourable turn to the state 
 of matters in the south, where the king's 
 affairs were in the most precarious situation; but 
 such a design does not seem to have accorded 
 with his views of prolonging the contest in 
 the Highlands, which were more suitable than 
 the Lowlands to his plan of operations, and to 
 the nature of his forces. 
 
 Accordingly, after allowing his men to re- 
 fresh themselves a few days at Inverlochy, 
 Montrose returned across the mountains of 
 Lochaber into Badenoch, " with displayed 
 banner." Marching down the south side of 
 the Spey, he crossed that river at Balchastel, 
 and entered Moray without opposition. He 
 proceeded by rapid strides towards the town 
 of Inverness, which he intended to take pos- 
 session of; but, on arriving in the neighbour- 
 hood, he found it garrisoned by the laird of 
 Lawers' and Buchanan's regiments. As he did 
 not wish to consume his time in a siege, he 
 immediately altered his course and inarched in 
 the direction of Elgin, issuing, as he went along, 
 a proclamation in the king's name, calling 
 upon all males, from 16 to 60 years of age, to 
 join liim immediately, armed as they best 
 could, on foot or on horse, and that under 
 pain of fire and sword, as rebels to the king. 
 In consequence of this threat Montrose was 
 joined by some of the Moray-men, including 
 the laird of Grant and 200 of his followers; 
 and, to show an example of severity, he 
 plundered the houses and laid waste the estates 
 of many of the principal gentlemen of the dis- 
 trict, carrying off, at the same time, a largo 
 quantity of cattle and effects, and destroying 
 the boats and nets which they fell in with on 
 the Spey. 3 
 
 Whilst Montrose was thus laying waste part 
 of Moray, a committee of the Estates, consist- 
 ing of the Earl of Seaforth, the laird of Innes, 
 Sir Eobert Gordon, the land of Pluscardine, 
 and others, was sitting at Elgin; these, on 
 
 - Idem. 
 
 ' Spalding, vol. ii. p. 447. 
 
ELGIN DESERTED AND BASELY USED. 
 
 201 
 
 hearing of his proceedings, prohibited the 
 holding of the fair which was kept there 
 annually on Fasten's eve, and to which 
 many merchants and others in the north 
 resorted, lest the property brought there for 
 sale might fall a prey to Montrose's army. 
 They, at the same time, sent Sir Eobert Gor- 
 don, Mackenzie of Pluscardine, and Tunes of 
 Luthers, to treat with Montrose, in name of 
 the gentry of Moray, most of whom were then 
 assembled in Elgin ; but he refused to enter 
 into any negotiation, offering, at the same time, 
 to accept of the services of such as would join 
 him and obey him as the king's lieutenant. 4 
 Before this answer had been communicated to 
 the gentry at Elgin, they had all fled from the 
 town in consequence of hearing that Montrose 
 was advancing upon them with rapidity. The 
 laird of Innes, along with some of his friends, 
 retired to the castle of Spynie, possessed by 
 his eldest son, which was well fortified and pro- 
 vided with every necessary for undergoing a 
 siege. The laird of Duffus went into Suther- 
 land. As soon as the inhabitants of the town 
 saw the committee preparing to leave it, most 
 of them also resolved to depart, which they 
 did, carrying along with them their principal 
 effects. Some went to Inverness, and others 
 into Ross, but the greater part went to the 
 castle of Spynie, where they sought and ob- 
 tained refuge. 
 
 Apprehensive that Montrose might follow 
 up the dreadful example he had shown, by 
 burning the town, a proposal was made to, and 
 accepted by him, to pay four thousand merks 
 to save the town from destruction; but, on 
 entering it, which he did on the 19th of Feb- 
 ruary, his men, and particularly the laird of 
 Grant's party, were so disappointed in their 
 hopes of plunder, in consequence of the inhab- 
 itants having carried away the best of their 
 effects, that they destroyed every article of 
 furniture which was left. 
 
 Montrose was joined, on his arrival at 
 Elgin, by Lord Gordon, the eldest son of the 
 Marquis of Huntly, with some of his friends 
 and vassals. This young nobleman had been 
 long kept in a state of durance by Argyle, his 
 uncle, contrary to his own wishes, and now, 
 when an opportunity had for the first time 
 4 Gordon's Continuation, p. 522. 
 
 occurred, he showed the bent of his inclination 
 by declaring for the king. 
 
 On talcing possession of Elgin, Montrose 
 gave orders to bring all the ferry-boats on the 
 Spey to the north side of the river, and he 
 stationed sentinels at all the fords up and 
 down, to watch any movements which might 
 be made by the enemies' forces in the south. 
 
 Montrose, thereupon, held a council of war, 
 at which it was determined to cross the Spey, 
 march into the counties of Banff and Aberdeen, 
 by the aid of Lord Gordon, raise the friends 
 and retainers of the Marquis of Huntly, 
 and thence proceed into the Mearns, where 
 another accession of forces was expected. Ac- 
 cordingly, Montrose left Elgin on the 4th of 
 March with the main body of his army, towards 
 the Bog of Gicht, accompanied by the Earl of 
 Seaforth, Sir Robert Gordon, the lairds of 
 Grant, Pluscardine, Findrassie, and several 
 other gentlemen who " had come in to him " 
 at Elgin. To punish the Earl of Findlater, 
 who had refused to join him, Montrose sent 
 the Farquharsons of Braemar before him, across 
 the Spey, who plundered, without mercy, the 
 town of Cullen, belonging to the earl. 
 
 After crossing the Spey, Montrose, either 
 apprehensive that depredations would be com- 
 mitted upon the properties of his Moray 
 friends who accompanied him, by the two 
 regiments which garrisoned Inverness, and the 
 Covenanters of that district, or having received 
 notice to that effect, he allowed the Earl of 
 Seaforth, the laird of Grant, and the other 
 Moray gentlemen, to return home to defend 
 their estates ; but before allowing them to de- 
 part, he made them take a solemn oath of 
 allegiance to the king, and promise that they 
 should never henceforth take up arms against 
 his majesty or his loyal subjects. At the same 
 time, he made them come under an engage- 
 ment to join him with all their forces as soon 
 as they cordd do so. The Earl of Seaforth, 
 however, disregarded his oath, and again joined 
 the ranks of the Covenanters. In a letter 
 which he ■wrote to the committee of Estates at 
 Aberdeen, he stated that he had yielded to 
 Montrose through fear only, and he avowed 
 that he would abide by " the good cause to 
 his death." 5 
 
 5 Spalding, vol. ii. p. 301. 
 2 c 
 
202 
 
 GENEKAL HISTOBY OF THE HIGHLANDS 
 
 On Montrose's arrival at Stratkbogie, or 
 Gordon castle, Lord Graham, his eldest son, a 
 most promising youth of sixteen, became un- 
 well, and died after a few clays' illness. The 
 loss of a son who had followed him in his 
 campaigns, and shared with him the dangers 
 of the field, was a subject of deep regret to 
 Montrose. "While Montrose was occupied at 
 the death-bed of his son, Lord Gordon was 
 busily employed among the Gordons, out of 
 whom he speedily raised a force of about 500 
 foot, and 160 horse. 
 
 With this accession to his forces, Montrose 
 left Strathbogie and marched towards Banff, 
 on his route to the south. In passing by the 
 house of Cullen, in Boyne, the seat of the Earl 
 of Eindlater, who had fled to Edinburgh, and 
 left the charge of the house to the countess, a 
 party of Montrose's men entered the house, 
 which they plundered of all its valuable con- 
 tents. They then proceeded to set the house 
 on fire, but the countess entreated Montrose 
 to order his men to desist, and promised that 
 if her husband did not come to Montrose 
 and give him satisfaction within fifteen days, 
 she would pay him 20,000 merks, of which 
 sum she instantly paid down 5,000. Montrose 
 complied with her request, and also spared 
 the lands, although the earl was " a great 
 Covenanter." Montrose's men next laid waste 
 the lands in the Boyne, burnt the houses, 
 and plundered the minister of the place of all 
 his goods and effects, including his books. 
 The laird of Boyne. shut himself up in his 
 stronghold, the Crag, where he was out of 
 danger ; but he had the misfortune to see his 
 lands laid waste and destroyed. Montrose 
 then went to Banff, which he gave up to indis- 
 criminate plunder. His troops did not leave a 
 vestige of moveable property in the town, and 
 they even stripped to the skin every man they 
 met with in the streets. Thej also burned two 
 or three houses of little value, but not a drop 
 of blood was shed. 
 
 From Banff Montrose proceeded to Turriff, 
 where a deputation from the town council of 
 Aberdeen waited upon him, to represent the 
 many miseries which the loyal city had suf- 
 fered from its frequent occupation by hostile 
 armies since the first outbreaking of the unfor- 
 tunate troubles which molested the kingdom. 
 
 They further represented, that such was the 
 terror of the inhabitants at the idea c f another 
 visit from his Irish troops, that all the men 
 and women, on hearing of his approach, had 
 made preparations for abandoning the town, 
 and that they would certainly leave it if they 
 did not get an assurance from the marquis of 
 safety and protection. Montrose heard the 
 commissioners patiently, expressed his regret 
 at the calamities which had befallen their town, 
 and bade them not be afraid, as he would take 
 care that none of his foot, or Irish, soldiers 
 should come within eight miles of Aberdeen ; 
 and that if he himself should enter the town, 
 he would support himself at his own expense. 
 The commissioners returned to Aberdeen, and 
 related the successful issue of their journey, to 
 the great joy of all the inhabitants. 6 
 
 Whilst Montrose lay at Turriff, Sir Nathaniel 
 Gordon, with some troopers, went to Aberdeen, 
 which he entered on Sunday, the 9th of March, 
 on which day there had been " no sermon in 
 either of the Aberdeens," as the ministers had 
 fled the town. The keys of the churches, gates, 
 and jail were delivered to hinr by the magis- 
 trates. The following morning Sir Nathaniel 
 was joined by 100 Irish dragoons. After re- 
 leasing some prisoners, he went to Torry, and 
 took, after a slight resistance, 1,800 muskets, 
 pikes, and other arms, which had been left in 
 charge of a troop of horse. Besides receiving- 
 orders to watch the town, Sir Nathaniel was 
 instructed to send out scouts as far as Cowie 
 to watch the enemy, who were daily expected 
 from the south. When reconnoitring, a skir- 
 mish took place at the bridge of Dee, in which 
 Captain Keith's troop was routed. Finding 
 the country quite clear, and no appearance of 
 the covenanting forces, Gordon returned back 
 to the army, which had advanced to Fren- 
 draught. No attempt was made upon the 
 house of Frendraught, which was kept by the 
 young viscount in absence of his father, who 
 was then at Muchallis with his godson, Lord 
 Fraser ; but Montrose destroyed 60 ploughs 
 of land belonging to Frendraught within the 
 parishes of Forgue, Inverkeithnie, and Drum- 
 blade, and the house of the minister of Forgue, 
 with all the other houses, and buildings, and 
 
 6 Spalding, vol. ii. p. 45'2. 
 
ACCESSIONS TO MONTBOSE FKOM ABEEDEEN. 
 
 203 
 
 their contents. Nothing, in fact, was spared. 
 AH the cattle, horses, sheep, and other do- 
 mestic animals, were carried off, and the whole 
 of Frendraught's lands were left a dreary and 
 uninhahitable waste. 
 
 From Pennyburn, Montrose despatched, on 
 the 10th of March, a letter to the authorities of 
 Aberdeen, commanding them to issue an order 
 that all men, of whatever description, between 
 the age of sixteen and sixty, should meet him 
 equipped in their best arms, and such of them 
 as had horses, mounted on the best of them, on 
 the 15th of March, at his camp at Inverury, un- 
 der the pain of fire and sword. In consequence 
 of this mandate he was joined by a considerable 
 number of horse and foot. On the 12th of 
 March, Montrose arrived at Kintore, and took 
 up his own quarters in the house of John 
 Cheyne, the minister of the place, whence he 
 issued an order commanding each parish within 
 the presbytery of Aberdeen, (with the excep- 
 tion of the town of Aberdeen,) to send to him 
 two commissioners, who were required to bring 
 along with them a complete roll of the whole 
 heritors, feuars, and liferenters of each parish. 
 His object, in requiring such a list, was to 
 ascertain the number of men capable of serving, 
 and also the names of those who should refuse 
 to join him. Commissioners were accordingly 
 sent from the parishes, and the consequence was, 
 that Montrose was joined daily by many men 
 who would not otherwise have assisted him, but 
 who were now alarmed for the safety of their 
 properties. While at Kintore, an occurrence 
 took place which vexed Montrose exceedingly. 
 
 To reconnoitre and watch the motions of the 
 enemy, Montrose had, on the 12th of March, 
 sent Sir Nathaniel Gordon, along with Donald 
 Farquharson, Captain Mortimer, and other 
 well-mounted cavaliers, to the number of about 
 80, to Aberdeen. This party, receiving no 
 enemy in the neighbourhood of Aberdeen, 
 utterly neglected to place any sentinels at the 
 gates of the town, and spent their time at 
 their lodgings in entertainments and amuse- 
 ments. This careless conduct did not pass 
 unobserved by some of the Covenanters in the 
 town, who, it is said, sent notice thereof to 
 Major-general Hurry, the second in command 
 under General Baillie, who was then lying at the 
 North Water Brido-e with Lord Balcarras's and 
 
 other foot regiments. On receiving this intelli- 
 gence, Hurry put himself at the head of 16C 
 horse and foot, taken from the regular regi- 
 ments, and some troopers and musketeers, and 
 rode off to Aberdeen in great haste, where he 
 arrived on the 15th of March, at 8 o'clock in the 
 evening. Having posted sentinels at the gates 
 to prevent any of Montrose's party from escap- 
 ing, he entered the town at an hour when they 
 were all carelessly enjoying themselves in their 
 lodgings, quite unapprehensive of such a visit. 
 The noise in the streets, occasioned by the 
 tramping of the horses, was the first indication 
 they had of the presence of the enemy, but it 
 was then too late for them to defend themselves. 
 Donald Farquharson was lolled in the street, 
 opposite the guard-house ; " a brave gentle- 
 man," says Spalding, " and one of the noblest 
 captains amongst all the Highlanders of Scot- 
 land, and the king's man for life and death." 
 The enemy stripped him of a rich dress he had 
 put on the same day, and left his body lying 
 naked in the street. A few other gentlemen 
 were killed, and some taken prisoners, but 
 the greater part escaped. Hurry left the town 
 next day, and, on his return to Baillie's camp, 
 entered the town of Montrose, and earned off 
 Lord Graham, Montrose's second son, a boy of 
 fourteen years of age, then at school, who, 
 along with his teacher, was sent to Edinburgh, 
 and committed to the castle. 
 
 The gentlemen who had escaped from Aber- 
 deen returned to Montrose, who was greatly 
 offended at them for their carelessness. The 
 magistrates of Aberdeen, alarmed lest Montrose 
 should inflict summary vengeance upon the 
 town, as being implicated in the attack upon 
 the cavaliers, sent two commissioners to Kin- 
 tore to assure him that they were in no way con- 
 cerned in that affair. Although he heard them 
 with great patience, he gave them no satisfac- 
 tion as to his intentions, and they returned to 
 Aberdeen without being able to obtain any 
 promise from him to spare the town. Montrose 
 contented himself with making the merchants 
 furnish him with cloth, and gold and silver- 
 lace, to the amount of £10,000 Scots, for the 
 use of his army, which he held the magistrates 
 bound to pay, by a tax upon the inhabitants. 
 " Thus," says Spalding, " cross upon cross 
 upon Aberdeen." 
 
204 
 
 GENEEAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 When Sir Nathaniel Gordon and the re- 
 mainder of his party returned to Kintore, 
 Montrose despatched, on the same day (March 
 16th), a body of 1,000 horse and foot, the latter 
 consisting of Irish, to Aberdeen, under the com- 
 mand of Macdonald, his major-general. Many 
 of the inhabitants, alarmed at the approach of 
 this party, and still having the fear of the Irish 
 before their eyes, were preparing to leave the 
 town; but Macdonald relieved their apprehen- 
 sions by assuring them that the Irish, who 
 amounted to 700, should not enter the town; 
 he accordingly stationed them at the Bridge 
 of Dee and the Two Mile Cross, he and his 
 troopers alone entering the town. With the 
 exception of the houses of one or two " remark- 
 able Covenanters," which were plundered, Mac- 
 donald showed the utmost respect for private 
 property, a cireumstance which obtained for 
 him the esteem of the inhabitants, who had 
 seldom experienced such kind treatment before. 
 
 Having discharged the last duties to the 
 brave Farquharson and his companions, Mac- 
 donald left Aberdeen, on March 18th, to join 
 Montrose at Durris; but he had not proceeded 
 far when complaints were brought to him that 
 some of his Irish troops, who had lagged 
 behind, had entered the town, and were plun- 
 dering it. Macdonald, therefore, returned 
 immediately to the town, and drove, says 
 Spalding, " all these rascals with sore skins 
 out of the town before him." 7 
 
 Before leaving Kintore, the Earl of Airly 
 was attacked by a fever, in consequence of 
 which, Montrose sent him to Lethintie, the 
 residence of the earl's son-in-law, under a guard 
 of 300 men; but he was afterwards removed 
 to Strathbogie for greater security. On ar- 
 riving, March 17th, at Durris, in Kincardine- 
 shire, where he was joined by Macdonald, 
 Montrose burnt the house and offices to the 
 ground, set fire to the grain, and swept away 
 all the cattle, horses, and sheep. He also 
 wasted such of the lands of Eintry as belonged 
 to Forbes of Craigievar, to punish him for the 
 breach of his parole; treating in the same way 
 the house and grain belonging to Abercrombie, 
 the minister of Fintry, who was " a main 
 Covenanter." On the 19th, Montrose entered 
 
 ' Vol. ii. p. 457. 
 
 Stonehaven, and took up his residence in the 
 house of James Clerk, the pi ivost of the town. 
 Here learning that the Covenanters in the 
 north were troubling Lord Gordon's lands, he 
 despatched 500 of Gordon's foot to defend 
 Strathbogie and his other possessions; but he 
 still retained Lord Gordon himself with his 
 troopers. 
 
 On the day after his arrival at Stonehaven, 
 Montrose wrote a letter to the Earl Marshal, 
 who, along with sixteen ministers, and some 
 other persons of distinction, had shut himself 
 up in his castle of Dunottar. The bearer of 
 the letter was not, however, suffered to enter 
 within the gate, and was sent back, at the 
 instigation probably of the earl's lady and 
 the ministers who were with him, without 
 an answer. Montrose then endeavoured, by 
 means of George Keith, the Earl Marshal's 
 brother, to persuade the latter to declare for 
 the king, but he refused, in consequence of 
 which Montrose resolved to inflict summary 
 vengeance upon him, by burning and laying 
 waste his lands and those of his retainers in 
 the neighbourhood. Acting upon this deter- 
 mination, he, on the 21st of March, set fire to 
 the houses adjoining the castle of Dunottar, 
 and burnt the grain which was stacked in the 
 barn-yards. Even the house of the minister 
 did not escape. He next set fire to the town 
 of Stonehaven, sparing only the house of the 
 provost, in which he resided; plundered a ship 
 which lay in the harbour, and then set her 
 on fire, along with all the fishing boats. The 
 lands and houses of Cowie shared the same 
 hard fate. Whilst the work of destruction 
 was going on, it is said that the inhabitants 
 appeared before the castle of Dunottar, and, 
 setting up cries of pity, implored the earl to 
 save them from ruin, but they received no 
 answer to their supplications, and the earl wit- 
 nessed from his stronghold the total destruction 
 of the properties of his tenants and dependents 
 without making any effort to stop it. After 
 he had effected the destruction of the barony 
 of Dunottar, Montrose set fire to the lands of 
 Fetteresso, one-fourth part of which was burnt 
 up, together with the whole corn in the yards. 
 A beautiful deer park was also burnt, and its 
 alarmed inmates were all taken and killed, as 
 well as all the cattle in the barony. Montrose 
 
HUEEY'S HOESE DEFEATED AT FETTEECAIEN. 
 
 '205 
 
 Dunottar Castle in the 17th century. — From tflezer's Theatrum Scotice (1693). 
 
 uext proceeded to Drumlaithie and Urie, be- 
 longing to John Forbes of Leslie, a leading 
 Covenanter, where he committed similar depre- 
 dations. 
 
 Montrose, on the following day, advanced 
 to Fettercairn, where he quartered his foot 
 soldiers, sending out quarter-masters through 
 the country, and about the town of Montrose, 
 to provide quarters for some troopers; but, as 
 these troopers were proceeding on their journey, 
 they were alarmed by the sudden appearance 
 of some of Major-general Hurry's troops, who 
 had concealed themselves within the plantation 
 of Halkerton. These, suddenly issuing from 
 the wood, set up a loud shout, on hearing 
 which the troopers immediately turned to the 
 right about and went back to the camp. This 
 party turned out to be a body of 600 horse, 
 under the command of Hurry himself, who had 
 left the head-quarters of General Baillie, at 
 Brechin, for the purpose of reconnoitring Mon- 
 trose's movements. In order to deceive Hurry, 
 who kept advancing with his 600 horse, Mon- 
 trose placed his horse, which amounted only 
 to 200, and which he took care to line with some 
 expert musqueteers, in a prominent situation, 
 and concealed his foot in an adjoining valley. 
 This ruse had the desired effect, for Hurry 
 imasniiing that there were no other forces at 
 
 hand, immediately attacked the small body of 
 horse opposed to him; but he was soon un- 
 deceived by the sudden appearance of the 
 foot, and forced to retreat with precipitation. 
 Though his men were greatly alarmed, Hurry, 
 who was a brave officer, having placed himself 
 in the rear, managed to retreat across the 
 North Esk with very little loss. 
 
 After this affair Montrose allowed his men 
 to refresh themselves for a few days, and, on 
 the 25th of March, put his army in motion in 
 the direction of Brechin. On hearing of his 
 approach, the inhabitants of the town concealed 
 their effects in the castle, and in the steeples 
 of churches, and fled. Montrose's troops, 
 although they found out the secreted goods, 
 were so enraged at the conduct of the inhab- 
 itants that they plundered the town, and burnt 
 about sixty houses. 
 
 From Brechin, Montrose proceeded through 
 Angus, with the intention either of fighting 
 Baillie, or of marching onwards to the south. 
 His whole force, at this time, did not exceed 
 3,000 men, and, on reaching Kirriemuir, his 
 cavalry was greatly diminished by his having 
 been obliged to send away about 160 horse- 
 men to Strathbogie, under Lord Gordon and 
 his brother Lewis, to defend their father's pos- 
 sessions against the Covenanters. Montro.se 
 
206 
 
 GENEBAL H1STOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS. 
 
 proceeded with his army along the foot of the 
 Grampians, in the direction of Dunkeld, where 
 he intended to cross the Tay in the sight of 
 General Baillie, who commanded an army 
 greatly superior in numbers ; hut, although 
 Montrose frequently offered him battle, Baillie, 
 contrary, it is said, to the advice of Hurry, as 
 often declined it. On arriving at the water of 
 Isla, the two armies, separated by that stream, 
 remained motionless for several days, as if un- 
 determined how to act. At length Montrose 
 sent a trumpeter to Baillie offering him battle ; 
 and as the water could not be safely passed by 
 his army if opposed, Montrose proposed to al- 
 low Baillie to pass it unmolested, on condition 
 that he would give him his word of honour 
 that he would fight without delay; but Baillie 
 answered that he would attend to his own 
 business himself, and that he would fight when 
 he himself thought proper. The conduct of 
 Baillie throughout seems altogether extraordi- 
 nary, but it is alleged that he had no power to 
 act for himself, being subject to the directions 
 of a council of war, composed of the Earls 
 of Crawford and Cassilis, Lords Balmerino, 
 Kirkcudbright, and others. 8 
 
 As Montrose could not attempt to cross the 
 water of Isla without cavalry, in opposition to 
 a force so greatly superior, he led his army off 
 in the direction of the Grampians, and marched 
 upon Dunkeld, of which he took possession. 
 Baillie being fully aware of his intention to 
 cross the Tay, immediately withdrew to Perth 
 for the purpose of opposing Montrose's passage ; 
 but, if Montrose really entertained such an in- 
 tention after he had sent away the Gordon 
 troopers, he abandoned it after reaching Dun- 
 keld, and resolved to retrace his steps north- 
 wards. Being anxious, however, to signalize 
 liimself by some important achievement before 
 he returned to the north, and to give confi- 
 dence to the royalists, he determined to sur- 
 prise Dundee, a town which had rendered 
 itself particularly obnoxious to him for the re- 
 sistance made by the inhabitants after the 
 battle of Tippermuir. Having sent off the 
 weaker part of his troops, and those who were 
 lightly armed, with his heavy baggage, along 
 the bottom of the hills with instructions to 
 
 8 Spalding, vol. ii. p. 4G2. 
 
 meet him at Brechin, Montrose himself, at the 
 head of about 150 horse, and 600 expert mus- 
 keteers, 9 left Dunkeld on April 3d about mid- 
 night, and marched with such extraordinary 
 expedition that he arrived at Dundee Law at 
 10 o'clock in the morning, where he encamped. 
 Montrose then sent a trumpeter into the town 
 with a summons requiring a surrender, promis- 
 ing that, in the event of compliance, he would 
 protect the lives and properties of the inhabit- 
 ants, but threatening, in case of refusal, to set 
 fire to the town and put the inhabitants to 
 the sword. Instead of returning an answer to 
 this demand, the town's people put the mes- 
 senger into prison. This insult was keenly 
 felt by Montrose, who immediately gave orders 
 to his troops to storm the town in three differ- 
 ent places at once, and to fulfil the threat 
 which he had held out in case of resistance. 
 The inhabitants, in the mean time, made such 
 preparations for defence as the shortness of the 
 time allowed, but, although they fought brave- 
 ly, they could not resist the impetuosity of 
 Montrose's troops, who, impelled by a spirit of 
 revenge, and a thirst for plunder, which Dun- 
 dee, then one of the largest and most opulent 
 towns in Scotland, offered them considerable 
 opportunities of gratifying, forced the inhabit- 
 ants from the stations they occupied, and 
 turned the cannon which they had planted in 
 the streets against themselves. The contest 
 however, continued in various quarters of the 
 town for several hours, during which the town 
 was set on fire in different places. The whole 
 of that quarter of the town called the Bonnet 
 Hill fell a prey to the flames, and the entire 
 town would have certainly shared the same 
 fate had not Montrose's men chiefly occupied 
 themselves in plundering the houses and filling 
 themselves with the contents of the wine cel- 
 lars. The sack of the town continued till the 
 evening, and the inhabitants were subjected to 
 every excess which an infuriated and victorious 
 soldiery, maddened by intoxication, could in- 
 flict. 
 
 This melancholy state of tilings was, how- 
 ever, fortunately put an end to by intelligence 
 having been brought to Montrose, who had 
 viewed the storming of the town from the 
 
 a Montrose Bcdivivtis, p. 61. 
 
MONTROSE'S RETEEAT FROM DUNDEE. 
 
 207 
 
 neighbouring height of Dundee Law, that 
 General Baillie was marching in great haste 
 down the Carse of Gowrie, towards Dundee, 
 with 3,000 foot and 800 horse. On receiving 
 this news from his scouts, Montrose gave im- 
 mediate orders to his troops to evacuate Dun- 
 dee, but so intent were they upon their booty, 
 that it was with, the utmost difficulty they 
 could be prevailed upon to leave the town, 
 and, before the last of them could be induced 
 to retire, some of the enemy's troops were 
 within gun-shot of them. The sudden appear- 
 ance of Baillie's army was quite unlooked-for, as 
 Montrose had been made to believe, from the 
 reports of his scouts, that it had crossed the 
 Tay, and was proceeding to the Forth, when, 
 in fact, only a very small part, which had been 
 mistaken by the scouts for the entire army of 
 Baillie, had passed. 
 
 In this critical conjuncture, Montrose held 
 a council of war, to consult how to act under 
 the perilous circumstances in which he was 
 now placed. The council was divided between 
 two opinions. Some of them advised Mon- 
 trose to consult his personal safety, by rid- 
 ing off to the north with his horse, leaving 
 the foot to their fate, as they considered it 
 utterly impossible for him to carry them off in 
 their present state, fatigued, and worn out as 
 they were by a march of 24 miles during the 
 preceding night, and rendered almost incapable 
 of resisting the enemy, from the debauch they 
 had indulged in during the day. Besides, they 
 would require to march 20 or even 30 miles, 
 before they could reckon themselves secure 
 from the attacks of their pursuers, a journey 
 which it was deemed impossible to perform, 
 without being previously allowed some hours 
 repose. In this way, and in no other, urged 
 the advocates of this view, might he expect 
 to retrieve matters, as he could, by his presence 
 among his friends in the north, raise new 
 forces ; but that, if he himself was cut off, the 
 king's affairs would be utterly ruined. The 
 other part of the council gave quite an opposite 
 opinion, by declaring that, as the cause for 
 which they had fought so gloriously was now 
 irretrievably lost, they should remain in their 
 position, and await the issue of an attack, 
 judging it more honourable to die fighting in 
 defence of their king, than to seek safetv in an 
 
 ignominious flight, which would be rendered 
 still more disgraceful by abandoning their 
 unfortunate fellow-warriors to the mercy of a 
 revengeful foe. 
 
 Montrose, however, disapproved of both 
 these plans. He considered the first as unbe- 
 coming the generosity of men who had fought 
 so often side by side ; and the second he 
 thought extremely rash and imprudent. He, 
 therefore, resolved to steer a middle course, 
 and, refusing to abandon his brave companions 
 in arms in the hour of danger, gave orders 
 for an immediate retreat, in the direction 
 of Arbroath. This, however, was a mere 
 manoeuvre to deceive the enemy, as Montrose 
 intended, after nightfall, to march towards the 
 Grampians. In order to make his retreat more 
 secure, Montrose despatched 400 of his foot, 
 and gave them orders to march as quickly as 
 possible, without breaking their ranks. These 
 were followed by 200 of his most expert 
 musketeers, and Montrose himself closed the 
 rear with his horse in open rank, so as to 
 admit the musketeers to interline them, in case 
 of an attack. It was about six o'clock in the 
 evening when Montrose began his retreat, at 
 which hour the last of Baillie's foot had reached 
 Dundee. 
 
 Scarcely had Montrose begun to move, when 
 intelligence was received by Baillie, from some 
 prisoners he had taken, of Montrose's inten- 
 tions, which was now confirmed by ocular 
 proof. A proposal, it is said, was then made 
 by Hurry, to follow Montrose with the whole 
 army, and attack him, but Baillie rejected it ; 
 and the better, as he thought, to secure Mon- 
 trose, and prevent his escape, he divided his 
 army into two parts, one of which he sent off 
 in the direction of the Grampians, to prevent 
 Montrose from entering the Highlands ; and 
 the other followed directly in the rear of 
 Montrose. He thus expected to be able to 
 cut off Montrose entirely, and to encourage 
 his men to the pursuit, he offered a reward 
 of 20,000 crowns to any one who should bring 
 him Montrose's head. Baillie's cavalry soon 
 came wp with Montrose's rear, but they were so 
 well received by the musketeers, who brought 
 down some of them, that they became very 
 cautious in their approaches. The darkness of 
 the night soon put an end to the pursuit, and 
 
208 
 
 GENEEAL HISTOEY OF THE HIGHLANDS 
 
 Montrose continued unmolested his march to 
 Arbroath, in the neighbourhood of which he 
 arrived about midnight. His troops had now 
 marched upwards of 40 miles, 17 of which 
 they had performed in a few hours, in the 
 face of a large army, and had passed two nights 
 and a day without sleep ; but as their safety 
 might be endangered by allowing them to 
 repose till daylight, Montrose entreated them 
 to proceed on their march. Though almost 
 exhausted with incessant fatigue, and over- 
 powered with drowsiness, they readily obeyed 
 the order of their general; and, after a short 
 halt, proceeded on their route in a northwesterly 
 direction. They ■ arrived at the South Esk 
 early in the morning, which they crossed, at 
 sunrise, near Carriston Castle. 
 
 Montrose now sent notice to the party which 
 he had despatched from Dunkeld to Brechin, 
 with his baggage, to join him, but they had, 
 on hearing of his retreat, already taken refuge 
 among the neighbouring hills. Baillie, who 
 had passed the night at Forfar, now considered 
 that he had Montrose completely in his power ; 
 but, to his utter amazement, not a trace of 
 Montrose was to be seen next morning. Little 
 did he imagine that Montrose had passed 
 close by him during the night, and eluded 
 Iris grasp. Chagrined at this unexpected dis- 
 appointment, Baillie, without waiting for his 
 foot, galloped off at full speed to overtake 
 Montrose, and, with such celerity did he travel, 
 that he was close upon Montrose before the 
 latter received notice of his approach. The 
 whole of Montrose's men, with the exception 
 of a few sentinels, were now stretched upon 
 the ground, in a state of profound repose, and, 
 so firmly did sleep hold their exhausted frames 
 in its grasp, that it was with the utmost diffi- 
 culty that they could be aroused from their 
 slumbers, or made sensible of their danger. 
 The sentinels, it is said, had even to prick 
 some of them with their swords, before they 
 could be awakened, 1 and when at length the 
 sleepers were aroused they effected a retreat, 
 after some skirmishing, to the foot of the 
 Grampians, about three miles distant from their 
 camp, and retired, thereafter, through Glenesk 
 into the interior without further molestation. 
 
 1 Montrose Redivivus, p. 65. 
 
 This memorable retreat is certainly one of 
 the most extraordinary events which occurred 
 during the whole of Montrose's campaigns. 
 It is not surprising, that some of the most 
 experienced officers in Britain, and in France 
 and Germany, considered it the most splendid 
 of all Montrose's achievements. 2 
 
 Being now secure from all danger in the 
 fastnesses of the Grampians, Montrose allowed 
 his men to refresh themselves for some days. 
 Whilst enjoying this necessary relaxation from 
 the fatigues of the field, intelligence was brought 
 to Montrose that a division of the covenanting 
 army, under Hurry, was in full march on Aber- 
 deen, with an intention of proceeding into 
 Moray. Judging that an attack upon the pos- 
 sessions of the Gordons would be one of Hurry's 
 objects, Montrose despatched Lord Gordon with 
 Ms horse to the north, for the purpose of assist- 
 ing his friends in case of attack. 
 
 It was not in the nature of Montrose to re- 
 main inactive for any length of time, and an 
 occurrence, of which he had received notice, 
 had lately taken place, which determined him 
 to return a second time to Dunkeld. This was 
 the escape of Viscount Aboyne, and some other 
 noblemen and gentlemen, from Carlisle, who, 
 he was informed, were on their way north to 
 join him. Apprehensive that they might be 
 interrupted by Baillie's troops, he resolved to 
 make a diversion in their favour, and, by draw- 
 ing off the attention of Baillie, enable them th6 
 more effectually to elude observation. Leaving, 
 therefore, Macdonald, with about 200 men, to 
 beat up the enemy in the neighbourhood of 
 Coupar-Angus, Montrose proceeded, with the 
 remainder of his forces, consisting only of 500 
 foot and 50 hoTse, to Dunkeld, whence he 
 marched to Crieff, which is about 17 miles 
 west from Perth. It was not until he had ar- 
 rived at the latter town that Baillie, who, after 
 his pursuit of Montrose, had returned to Perth 
 with his army, heard of this movement. As 
 Baillie was sufficiently aware of the weakness 
 of Montrose's force, and as he was sure that, 
 with such a great disparity, Montrose would 
 not risk a general engagement, he endeavoured 
 to surprise him, in the hope either of cutting 
 him off entirely, or crippling him so effectually 
 
 2 Wishart, p. 127. 
 
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