The 300th anniversary of the Battle of Glenshiel on 10th June 2019 was commemorated with a ceremony on the battle site attended by government ministers, historians and the modern day chiefs of the clans who participated.
This is the least remembered of the five main Jacobite risings that took place between 1689 and 1745/46. But Glenshiel, now more or less forgotten, was a significant engagement in its day driven in large measure by the politics of continental Europe, especially in Spain, where the new monarchy was anxious to destabilise the even newer Hanoverian royal house that had just ascended the British throne. A force of over 1000 Jacobites, many of them Spanish marines, were led by Lord George Murray in the latest of several attemptes to restore the Stuart monarchy. They were supported by George Keith, the Earl Marischal, who came from Spain, where he had been exiled since the Fifteen, together with other exiled chiefs who came from France, including the Marischal’s brother, Field Marshal James Keith, the Marquis of Tullubardine, Tullibardine’s brother Lord George Murray (who led the Jacobite force), Donald Cameron of Locheil (the famous “Gentle Locheil”) and the Earl of Seaforth, chief of the Mackenzies.
The ceremony, which commemorated the dead of both sides, was attended by Fiona Hyslop, the Culture Secretary, on behalf of the Government (pictured, laying a wreath at the cairn.) The well known archaeologist and broadcaster, Neil Oliver, represented the National Trust for Scotland, of which he is President and which is now the owner of the battlefield site.
Conicidentally there had been a significant archaeological find on the battlefield site just days before the ceremony, when excavations unearthed an untouched musket ball and, more importantly, the remains of a mortar shell. This was the first time such a weapon had been deployed on British soil and it confirms suspicions aroused by the discovery of what appeared to be smaller mortar shell fragments on the north side of the river last year. It is believed these shells were fired at Lord George Murray, the Jacobite general, who had positioned himself on a prominent knoll on the south side of the River Shiel.
The failure of the ‘Nineteen discouraged the Jacobites and ended their hopes for a generation. However, it brought Field Marshal Wade to Scotland, whose management the British Government believed would bring us to heel. To illustrate the old Scots axiom that it’s an ill wind that blows no good, however, we have much to thank Wade for in the extensive road building he undertook across the Highlands.