The Battle of Clachnaharry was a Scottish clan battle fought in 1454 on the south bank of the Beauly Firth at Clachnaharry, on the outskirts of Inverness, between the Clan Munro and the Clan Mackintosh, who formed part of the Chattan Confederation. The immediate cause was a dispute over "road collop", a customary passage toll levied in the Scottish Highlands, which the Clan Mackintosh demanded from the Clan Munro as the latter were returning home from a cattle raid in Perthshire. The Munros, led by John Munro, Tutor of Foulis, had gathered some 300 to 350 chosen men, descended upon Strathardle in revenge for an earlier insult, laid the country waste, slew some of the inhabitants and carried off their cattle. On the return journey, the Mackintosh chief or his representative met the Munros and demanded a share of the plunder as was customary, but the two sides could not agree on the proportion, and Mackintosh refused what was offered, insisting on a far larger share.
The Munros continued on their way and sent a detachment of between forty and fifty men ahead with the spoil. With his remaining force John Munro took up a position on a small level ground near Clachnaharry, hard by the ferry of Kessock, and prepared to fight. A fierce and bloody engagement followed. According to the earliest account by Sir Robert Gordon, written in 1630, the Mackintosh chief was slain along with most of his company, and the Munros carried the day despite suffering their own losses. The Wardlaw Manuscript of about 1674 similarly records that the Laird of Mackintosh fell, together with his brother and second son, and that the Mackintoshes lost some 200 men before the rest fled. The later Mackintosh of Kinrara account of 1679 disputes this, stating that the chief himself was not present and that it was his grandson Malcolm Mackintosh who led the Mackintosh force.
John Munro was gravely wounded and left among the dead on the field. He was subsequently found and taken to the house of Lord Lovat, where he was nursed back to health. As a consequence of his injuries his hand or arm was mutilated, and he was thereafter known as John Baclamhach. The Wardlaw Manuscript records that this act of care by the Frasers of Lovat laid the foundation of lasting friendship between the Frasers and the Munros. A monument at Clachnaharry today commemorates the battle.
According to Sir Robert Gordon's account of 1630, after the Mackintosh force overtook the Munros at Clachnaharry beside Inverness, John Munro swiftly sent fifty of his men home to Ferindonald with the spoil and then encouraged the remainder to stand and fight; there ensued what Gordon describes as a "cruel conflict" in which the Mackintosh chief was killed along with most of his company, while John Munro himself was left for dead on the field, only to be rescued by Lord Lovat and cured of his wounds, thereafter bearing the name John Baclamhach on account of his mutilated hand.
Mackintosh chief or his grandson's force lost approximately 200 men according to the Wardlaw Manuscript, including the Laird of Mackintosh, his brother and second son; the Munros also suffered losses and John Munro was severely wounded
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