BattlefieldsBalquhidder Sweep — MacGregor Outlaws 1608
English Civil War

Balquhidder Sweep — MacGregor Outlaws 1608

1608
Scotland
Era
English Civil War
Battle Type
Pitched Battle
Location
Scotland
Status
Unregistered
The Combatants

Who Fought

Defeated
MacGregor families
Forces
MacGregor families in Balquhidder
VS
Victor
Government forces (Drummond and Murray)
Forces
Government forces with Drummond and Murray neighbours
Outcome
MacGregor families cleared or driven further underground in Balquhidder; proscription actively enforced
The Battle

History & Significance

Balquhidder in Perthshire — the glen later associated with Rob Roy MacGregor — was one of the principal havens for proscribed MacGregors after Glenfruin. In 1608 government forces conducted operations through Balquhidder to clear MacGregor families who had settled there under assumed names or the protection of sympathetic landlords. MacGregors living in Balquhidder were compelled to move or were arrested. The sweeps through Balquhidder in the 1600s established the pattern of MacGregor dispersal across Perthshire that continued for the rest of the seventeenth century.

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