Battle of Killiecrankie 1689 by Stuart Reid

Author:Stuart Reid
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Modern / 16th Century
ISBN: 9781526709967
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2018-04-30T04:00:00+00:00

The Haughs of Cromdale 1 May 1690

Buchan’s position was an outwardly strong one, with most of his army encamped on rising ground by Lethendy Castle, situated about a mile back from the right or east bank of the swift flowing river Spey and separated from it by a broad and fairly boggy area of flat haughland, or alluvial plain. The impression given is that the camp was pretty loosely spread about. Keppoch and his people certainly insisted on camping further to the north around the nearby village of Dalchapple and as a result they were to play no real part in the battle. Between the main camp and Ballachastell was a known ford over the Spey hard by Cromdale kirk, and Buchan’s officers discovered two other usable crossing points a short distance above and below the main one. All three were picketed with detachments of forty-five men apiece under two officers named Brodie and Grant, whose names suggest they were local men and therefore acquainted with the area. The picquets in turn were supported by a main guard of 240 men under an un-named lieutenant colonel which was posted by a watermill on the Cromdale Burn, at what is now the village of Cromdale about halfway between the river and the main camp. Outwardly, it was all done very much by the book. If the pickets were attacked they were to give warning, and then would fall back on the main guard which would in turn resist long enough to allow the army to be roused and formed into a battle-line. Unfortunately, and possibly because Buchan was an infantryman, he failed to take account of the likelihood that Livingstone might drive in the outposts with his cavalry so quickly as to frustrate any delaying action.

So indeed, it turned out. Livingstone was determined not to let the rebels escape. He and has men had been operating in the area for nearly a year by then, and with the aid of some local guides from Grant’s Regiment he was confident enough to march them directly across the hills under cover of darkness. At about 02.00 hours on the morning of 1 May he arrived on the hill above Ballachastell. There half an hour’s rest was allowed to his men while Captain Grant explained the layout of the rebel camp by reference to the campfires clearly visible below them, and then, as he proudly related, he ‘called the officers together, and told them my resolution, so that they might examine the soldiers, if they were able to do it, who unanimously told me they would stand by me to the last man, and desired me earnestly to go on.’9 They might be tired after the long approach march over rough country and in the dark, but they sensed that victory was finally at hand.

With Grant and his company leading the way, the dragoons, then descended the valley of ‘Auchinarrow’, or Allt an Fhithich to the ford by Cromdale kirk. The outpost there was duly tripped and local tradition says the bells in the kirk were rung to warn the rebels.

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