walkhighlands

This forum is for general discussion about walking and scrambling... If writing a report or sharing your experiences from a route, please use the other boards.

Highest Scottish Battlefield?

Highest Scottish Battlefield?


Postby hailiamdigby » Sat Mar 23, 2013 5:21 pm

I was up Ben Geary - on Skye - today and I noticed this cairn with a plaque detailing a battle that had taken place some 500 - or so - years ago. It was something to do with the Macleod clan and Trotternish vs Waternish, on the moorland of this sub 2000-feet marilyn.
It got me thinking, what is the highest altitude in Scotland where a battle has taken place? I wouldn't imagine somewhere as high up as Ben Nevis etc because really, what is the point in fighting all the way up there? I might be wrong though. I'd be very interested to know if someone knows an answer to this one.
Thank you in advance.
User avatar
hailiamdigby
Mountain Walker
 
Posts: 468
Munros:221   Corbetts:92
Fionas:73   Donalds:47
Sub 2000:173   
Joined: Aug 28, 2011
Location: Aberdeenshire

Re: Highest Scottish Battlefield?

Postby RicKamila » Sat Mar 23, 2013 5:47 pm

Me and Kamila had an argument on top of the Corbett - Morrone. Thats nearly Munro height, so you could say thats a pretty high up "battlefield"....
User avatar
RicKamila
Mountaineer
 
Posts: 2358
Munros:5   Corbetts:5
Fionas:3   
Sub 2000:16   
Joined: Jul 17, 2010
Location: Aberdeenshire

Re: Highest Scottish Battlefield?

Postby hailiamdigby » Sat Mar 23, 2013 5:49 pm

lol, I was thoroughly expecting an answer like that. Thanks for making me smile :lol:
User avatar
hailiamdigby
Mountain Walker
 
Posts: 468
Munros:221   Corbetts:92
Fionas:73   Donalds:47
Sub 2000:173   
Joined: Aug 28, 2011
Location: Aberdeenshire

Re: Highest Scottish Battlefield?

Postby Lenore » Sat Mar 23, 2013 7:38 pm

In Glen Shiel soldiers came over the Sisters ridge, though how high up they were fighting I don't know. The areas that's being 'preserved' there as the actual site of the battle is much lower down.
User avatar
Lenore
Mountaineer
 
Posts: 586
Munros:13   Corbetts:4
Fionas:1   
Sub 2000:1   
Joined: Apr 22, 2012
Location: the Netherlands

Re: Highest Scottish Battlefield?

Postby NickyRannoch » Sun Mar 24, 2013 1:26 am

Lenore wrote:In Glen Shiel soldiers came over the Sisters ridge, though how high up they were fighting I don't know. The areas that's being 'preserved' there as the actual site of the battle is much lower down.


Sgurr nan Spainteach was the route of escape for Spanish soldiers from the battle of Glen Shiel that took place down by the river.

The battle of the one eyed woman at coire nan creich where the ungrateful macdonald swine threw a peace offering back in the macleods face may well be the highest.

another contender might be the battle commemorated by dianas cairn near beinn alligin.

there used to be a thread on here that listed the highest house, tree, road etc. not sure if battlesite was on it. not sure if there would be much as in the olden days people quite rightly knew the foolishness of mucking about up hills and avoided it if possible.
User avatar
NickyRannoch
Mountain Walker
 
Posts: 1739
Munros:224   Corbetts:3
Fionas:4   Donalds:1
Sub 2000:9   
Islands:17
Joined: Aug 21, 2009
Location: Carse of Gowrie, Perthshire

Re: Highest Scottish Battlefield?

Postby hailiamdigby » Sun Mar 24, 2013 7:51 am

Thanks for the replies.
I was thinking this morning about the battle of Glen Trool but that was more Scots pushing logs and stuff down the hillside, rather than actually fighting up there.
No silliness intended but has it been known that someone with the surname Macleod refuses outright to set foot in a McDonald's food outlet? I would be both surprised and not surprised.
User avatar
hailiamdigby
Mountain Walker
 
Posts: 468
Munros:221   Corbetts:92
Fionas:73   Donalds:47
Sub 2000:173   
Joined: Aug 28, 2011
Location: Aberdeenshire

Re: Highest Scottish Battlefield?

Postby Caberfeidh » Sun Mar 24, 2013 8:29 am

Glen Shee was a place notorious for skirmishes, ambushes, etc., dunno about actual set battles. The Bloody Stone in Harta Corrie on Skye had a battle rage around it, that is fairly highish. And the Battle of Invercauld at Braemar, at the beginning of the 18th Century must be about a thousand feet above sea level. I'm sure the various Lairigs were all ambush points. There was a battle on Ben Nevis, low down near the glen, on Sronn Nevis. There are articles from it in the wee museum in Fort Bill, along with a sword which was found in a cave near Loch Treig - still clutched in the boney grip of a severed skeletal arm!
User avatar
Caberfeidh
Stravaiging
 
Posts: 8367
Joined: Feb 5, 2009

Re: Highest Scottish Battlefield?

Postby hailiamdigby » Sun Mar 24, 2013 9:11 am

Thanks for the reply, Caberfeidh. Again, that's more interesting-information there. Invercauld seems pretty high up. Very evocative sentence with the severed arm :)
I wanted to PM you to say thanks for the post because I hate filling up threads with "thanks for the reply" statements. As a matter of fact though, I've always been curious to know who your profile photo is of? I thought it might have been John Muir but I can't find that photo, if it was him. I think I've also seen someone on this site with the same picture.
User avatar
hailiamdigby
Mountain Walker
 
Posts: 468
Munros:221   Corbetts:92
Fionas:73   Donalds:47
Sub 2000:173   
Joined: Aug 28, 2011
Location: Aberdeenshire

Re: Highest Scottish Battlefield?

Postby Caberfeidh » Sun Mar 24, 2013 10:11 am

hailiamdigby wrote: I've always been curious to know who your profile photo is of? I thought it might have been John Muir but I can't find that photo, if it was him.

That picture on my profile is a lifeboat coxswain, Henry Freeman, from Whitby in North Yorkshire, he survived the lifeboat disaster in 1861.
I myself, as has been said on this site before, am a fifty-stone Fijian woman. :D
User avatar
Caberfeidh
Stravaiging
 
Posts: 8367
Joined: Feb 5, 2009

Re: Highest Scottish Battlefield?

Postby NickyRannoch » Sun Mar 24, 2013 1:02 pm

hailiamdigby wrote:Thanks for the replies.
I was thinking this morning about the battle of Glen Trool but that was more Scots pushing logs and stuff down the hillside, rather than actually fighting up there.
No silliness intended but has it been known that someone with the surname Macleod refuses outright to set foot in a McDonald's food outlet? I would be both surprised and not surprised.


as a MacCrimmon of Borreraig, heriditary pipers to the Clan MacLeod and a sept of Clan MacLeod i refuse to set foot in MacDonalds. Thats only cos the food is shite though.
User avatar
NickyRannoch
Mountain Walker
 
Posts: 1739
Munros:224   Corbetts:3
Fionas:4   Donalds:1
Sub 2000:9   
Islands:17
Joined: Aug 21, 2009
Location: Carse of Gowrie, Perthshire

Re: Highest Scottish Battlefield?

Postby hailiamdigby » Sun Mar 24, 2013 1:11 pm

NickyRannoch wrote:as a MacCrimmon of Borreraig, heriditary pipers to the Clan MacLeod and a sept of Clan MacLeod i refuse to set foot in MacDonalds. Thats only cos the food is shite though.


:lol: :lol:
User avatar
hailiamdigby
Mountain Walker
 
Posts: 468
Munros:221   Corbetts:92
Fionas:73   Donalds:47
Sub 2000:173   
Joined: Aug 28, 2011
Location: Aberdeenshire

Re: Highest Scottish Battlefield?

Postby Caberfeidh » Tue Mar 26, 2013 10:20 am

I suppose it doesn't count as a high altitude battle, but Montrose, famed as a military tactician, marched his army across the roof of Scotland to come down on Inverlochy Castle near Fort William from a totally unexpected direction, thus catching his enemies looking the wrong way, and routed them in spectacular fashion.
" 2nd February 1645: Montrose learned that Archibald, Eighth Earl and First Marquis of Argyll, had assembled a force of 3,000 men at Inverlochy (near Fort William). In an epic countermarch,
Montrose's army passed through the mountains to a spot above Inverlochy Castle, from where they came and set upon the Covenanters. Alasdair MacDonald and Manus O'Cahan, commanding the Irish division, were stationed on the flanks of the army while the center was divided into three lines. The Irish charged first, defeating the Lowland infantry, followed by the center, which broke the Covenanters' ranks and captured the castle. An injured Argyll watched from the decks of a galley as about 1,300 of his men were slaughtered as they attempted to flee the field. Among the slain was Campbell of Auchinbreck who was beheaded by Alasdair MacDonald."
User avatar
Caberfeidh
Stravaiging
 
Posts: 8367
Joined: Feb 5, 2009

Re: Highest Scottish Battlefield?

Postby Arthurs Eat » Tue Apr 02, 2013 1:22 pm

[as a MacCrimmon of Borreraig, heriditary pipers to the Clan MacLeod and a sept of Clan MacLeod i refuse to set foot in MacDonalds. Thats only cos the food is shite though.[/quote]

Well done that MacCrimmon! MacDonald's or Burger King, there can be only one! But given the currnt 'Shergar' crisis there should be none. Now Krispy Creme, there's a thought.
User avatar
Arthurs Eat
Munro compleatist
 
Posts: 639
Munros:234   Corbetts:29
Fionas:14   Donalds:31
Sub 2000:23   Hewitts:35
Wainwrights:32   Islands:16
Joined: Aug 1, 2011
Location: Edinburgh




Can you help support Walkhighlands?


Our forum is free from adverts - your generosity keeps it running.
Can you help support Walkhighlands and this community by donating by direct debit?



Return to General discussion

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: iain_atkinson_1986 and 8 guests