Action at Boat of Garten 1645

Who Fought

History & Significance

The Battle of Auldearn was an engagement of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It took place on 9 May 1645, in and around the village of Auldearn in Nairnshire. It resulted in a victory for the royalists, led by the Marquess of Montrose and Alasdair MacColla, over Sir John Urry and an army raised by the Covenanter-dominated Scottish government.

The pibroch Blár Allt Earrann commemorates the battle. The battlefield has been included in the Inventory of Historic Battlefields in Scotland and is protected by Historic Scotland under the Historic Environment (Amendment) Act 2011.

In mid-1644, after the Scottish Committee of Estates decided to intervene in the First English Civil War on the Parliamentarian side, Montrose had been given a commission by King Charles I to command his forces in Scotland. After initial setbacks, he was able to raise an army consisting partly of Highlanders and partly of professional troops sent by Confederate Ireland at the instigation of the Marquess of Antrim. Most of the Covenanter army had been sent into England, and Montrose began to threaten Covenanter control over the Highlands.

On 2 February 1645, Montrose won a complete victory over the pro-Covenanter Clan Campbell and its leader, the Earl of Argyll, at the Battle of Inverlochy. He then attempted to attack the Covenanter forces in the Lowlands, but found that many of his Highlanders were drifting home with plunder and the Covenanters were too strong. He fell back to the northeast, hoping to recruit more forces. In particular, he needed the support of Clan Gordon, who could provide at least some cavalry.

The Covenanters divided their forces. While Lieutenant General William Baillie remained based in Perth, he sent a detachment commanded by Sir John Urry to the north. Urry was an experienced soldier who had deserted the English Parliamentarians to join the Royalists in 1643, but had changed sides once again to join the Covenanters after their success at the Battle of Marston Moor in 1644.

Montrose, meanwhile, had made a couple of feints towards the Lowlands, but was unable to challenge Baillie's large army. On 18 April, he heard that Urry's army was threatening the Gordon lands. Montrose marched north to Skene, where he was rejoined on 30 April by Alasdair MacColla, who had been recruiting fresh forces in the western Highlands, and several contingents of Gordons. From Skene, Montrose advanced against Urry, who was near Elgin.

As the area about Elgin was Covenanter in sympathy, Urry had plenty of information about Montrose's approach. He withdrew westwards, hoping to lure Montrose into a position where he could launch a surprise counter-attack. His army consisted of four regiments of foot commanded by Colonels Loudoun, Lothian, Buchanan and Sir Mungo Campbell of Lawers, the Mackenzies under the Earl of Seaforth, the levies of the Earl of Sutherland, 800 other local levies and 400 cavalry.

The ground they fought on

The site of Action at Boat of Garten 1645 lies on Grampian Group, bedrock that formed in the Neoproterozoic. The rock here is psammite and semipelite.

Frequently Asked Questions

Scheduled Monuments near Action at Boat of Garten 1645

Tom Pitlac, Motte

Scheduled monument · Medieval · ~0.5 mi

Tom Pitlac Motte is a medieval motte located in Inverness-shire, Scotland, and is protected as a scheduled monument by Historic Environment Scotland. The motte sits on bedrock of the Grampian Group, a Neoproterozoic formation composed primarily of psammite and semipelite, metamorphic rocks that f…

Castle Roy

Scheduled monument · ~3.6 mi

Castle Roy is a motte-and-bailey castle situated near Nethy Bridge in Inverness-shire, dating to the early medieval period, likely the twelfth or thirteenth century. The monument comprises a substantial earthwork mound surmounted by a timber or stone fortification, typical of Norman defensive arc…

Loch Nan Carraigean, cairns 40m S of

Scheduled monument · ~4 mi

Loch Nan Carraigean cairns, located 40 metres south of the loch in Inverness-shire, is a Bronze Age burial monument comprising a group of stone cairns. The site lies on bedrock of the Grampian Group, Neoproterozoic psammite and semipelite formations that characterise much of the Scottish Highland…

Finlarig, chapel and enclosure 300m W of

Scheduled monument · Medieval · ~4 mi

Finlarig chapel and enclosure is a medieval religious site situated in Morayshire, three hundred metres west of the settlement from which it takes its name. The monument comprises a chapel structure and its surrounding enclosure, typical of the small rural sanctuaries that served local communitie…

Aviemore, cairn 25m SW of 24 Muirton

Scheduled monument · ~5.4 mi

Aviemore cairn, 25 metres south-west of 24 Muirton, is a funerary monument in Inverness-shire, built from stone gathered from the landscape above bedrock of Grampian Group psammite and semipelite, which was formed in the Neoproterozoic era. The cairn is part of a larger funerary landscape typical…

Inverlaidnan Old House

Scheduled monument · ~5.5 mi

Inverlaidnan Old House is a scheduled monument located in Inverness-shire, Scotland. The site sits upon bedrock of the Moine Supergroup, a Neoproterozoic formation of gneissose psammite and gneissose semipelite that gives the surrounding landscape its characteristic steep, rocky terrain. This anc…

Other English Civil War Battles

Battles near Action at Boat of Garten 1645

Explore the landscape around Inverness-shire

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• The Inventory of Historic Battlefields - Battle of Auldearn · Historic Environment Scotland (Historic Scotland)
• 8 June (on this day) · jacobitewars.com
• Battle of Auldearn · Wikipedia