Battle of Aberdeen (1644)
Who Fought
Royalists: c.1,500 foot (Irish infantry under Mac Colla plus Keppoch clansmen), 80 horse; Covenanters: c.2,000 foot (Aberdeen Militia, Fife and Forbes regiments), 300 horse
History & Significance
The Battle of Aberdeen, also known as the Battle of Justice Mills and the Crabstane Rout, was an engagement in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms which took place outside the city of Aberdeen on 13 September 1644. During the battle, Royalist forces led by James Graham, Lord Montrose routed an army raised by the Covenanter-dominated Parliament of Scotland under Robert Balfour, 2nd Lord Balfour of Burleigh.
The battlefield was assessed to be inventoried and protected by Historic Scotland under the Scottish Historical Environment Policy of 2009, but it failed to meet one or more of the criteria.
After defeating the government forces commanded by Lord Elcho earlier in September 1644 at the Battle of Tippermuir, outside Perth, Montrose's forces had captured a large cache of weapons and munitions. He was not, however, able to hold Perth; many of the Highlanders forming his army immediately returned home with their plunder and a stronger government force under the Marquess of Argyll was approaching the town from the west. Montrose departed Perth on 4 September. He reached Dundee on 6 September and ordered the town's surrender, but its burgesses answered defiantly. Montrose's army was further depleted when Lord Kilpont, one of his commanders, was murdered by an associate, James Stewart of Ardvorlich; Kilpont's levies immediately disbanded. Rather than attempt to take Dundee by force, Montrose chose to head north in the hope of raising further recruits amongst the Marquess of Huntly's tenantry. With around 1,500 Irish infantry under Alasdair Mac Colla, a small number of Keppoch clansmen and around 80 horse, Montrose made a rapid advance, but found another government army blocking his path outside Aberdeen.
The Scottish government had ordered all available militia from the Mearns, Aberdeenshire and Banffshire to assemble at the city by 10 September; only the local Aberdeenshire contingents had arrived before Montrose. These comprised the 500-strong Aberdeen Militia and a number of levies from the surrounding area. The government commander, Lord Balfour of Burleigh, also had two regiments of regular soldiers, his own regiment, brought from Fife, and a newly raised Aberdeenshire regiment led by Lord Forbes. Including regulars and militia the Covenanter infantry may have totalled 2,000 men. There were also at least three troops of regular cavalry, commanded by Captain Alexander Keith, Sir William Forbes of Craigevar and Lord Lewis Gordon, along with further untrained 'fencibles'; government horse totalled around 300.
On the morning of 13 September 1644, the Covenanter force under Burleigh marched out of the town to meet the attackers. Burleigh's men drew up in a strong defensive position south-west of the town, on a steep ridge above the valley of the How Burn.
The ground they fought on
The site of Battle of Aberdeen (1644) lies on Unnamed Igneous Intrusion, Ordovician To Silurian, bedrock that formed in the Silurian. The rock here is felsic-rock.
- Covenanters: c.520 killed in the battle; Royalists: light casualties (no exact figure recorded); 118-160 civilians killed during the subsequent sack of Aberdeen
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- Battle of Aberdeen · Wikidata
- Battle of Aberdeen (1644) · Wikipedia