During the Killing Time of the early 1680s, a group of Covenanters led by James Cleland ambushed a government party escorting prisoners through the Enterkin Pass in the hills above Thornhill in Dumfriesshire. Several prisoners were freed and a government soldier killed. It was a rare Covenanting offensive success during the period of maximum repression and demonstrated that even in the darkest years, armed resistance continued in the moorland country of the south-west.
One government soldier killed; prisoners freed
Covenanting band c.30-50; government escort under Creighton
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