Battle of Glen Fruin
Who Fought
Clan Gregor and Clan Cameron allies (armed with hagbuts, pistols, murrions, mailcoats, axes, two-handed swords, and darlochs) versus Clan Colquhoun and its allies
History & Significance
The Battle of Glen Fruin was a Scottish clan battle fought on 7 February 1603 between the Clan Gregor and its allies on one side, and the Clan Colquhoun and its allies on the other. The Clan Gregor (or MacGregor) and Clan Colquhoun were at feud due to the MacGregors carrying out raids on the Colquhoun's lands. The Colquhouns gained royal support and raised an army against the MacGregors. However, during the subsequent battle of Glen Fruin, the Colquhouns were comprehensively defeated. Glen Fruin is in the Loch Lomond area, in the county of Dunbartonshire, Scotland. In the aftermath of the battle royal policy punished the MacGregors for 150 years.
Archibald Campbell, 7th Earl of Argyll, was responsible for keeping the Clan Gregor under restraint and in January 1593 he had received a commission to charge all those of the surname MacGregor for not keeping the peace. On 5 March 1594 he became bound so that he should keep himself and all those answerable to him to keep his Majesty's peace under surety of £20,000. In July 1596, upon paying a sum of money into the royal treasury, he received a commission as the King's lieutenant in the bounds of Clan Gregor "wherever situated". Subsequently, on 22 April 1601 Allaster MacGregor of Glenstra, chief of Clan Gregor, gave Argyll who was the King's lieutenant, a bail-bond for the whole clan, one clause of which was that any offence committed by the clan was to be understood as a forfeiture of any lands that they possessed. However, despite this, Argyll, instead of repressing the Clan Gregor used his power over them to stimulate them into various acts of aggression against Alexander Colquhoun of Luss, chief of Clan Colquhoun. Among the Luss Papers, there are lists of items stolen by the MacGregors from the Colquhouns in the year 1594 and in other years previous to this up to 1600, showing how much the Colquhouns had suffered from the MacGregors.
In 1602 the MacGregors began to make more formidable inroads into the lands of Luss and Colquhoun of Luss complained to King James VI of Scotland who despite having passed an Act of Parliament forbidding the carrying of arms, granted permission to Colquhoun and his tenants to wear various offensive weapons. However, the right granted to Colquhoun and his followers to carry arms seems to have caused resentment from the MacGregors and resulted in the conflicts at both Glenfinlas and Glen Fruin. In 1602, Colquhoun made a complaint to the King against Argyll, who as the King's lieutenant in the bounds of Clan Gregor, had permitted the latter and others to commit outrages upon him and his tenants. Argyll was fined under the terms of the bond, but was later acquitted of the charge brought against him because Colquhoun had failed to prove it.
The ground they fought on
The site of Battle of Glen Fruin lies on Southern Highland Group, bedrock that formed in the Middle Cambrian. The rock here is psammite and pelite.
Allaster MacGregor of Glenstrae advanced into Colquhoun territory at the head of a large force that included Clan Cameron allies, all armed with hagbuts, pistols, murrions, mailcoats, axes, two-handed swords, and darlochs; despite the Colquhouns having received a royal commission of lieutenancy and permission to bear arms following their dramatic appeal to King James VI at Stirling, where female relatives had presented the bloodied shirts of the dead and wounded from the Glenfinlas raid, the Colquhouns were comprehensively defeated in the ensuing battle in Glen Fruin.
- Not specified in the sources
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything a full report reveals about Battle of Glen Fruin
This page covers Battle of Glen Fruin. A full Aubrey report for the area pulls together this battle alongside scheduled monuments and everything else the record holds within a few miles:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Scheduled Monuments near Battle of Glen Fruin
Battles near Battle of Glen Fruin
Explore the landscape around Dunbartonshire
Aubrey generates in-depth historical research for any location in the UK — drawing on Domesday records, scheduled monuments, Victorian OS maps, geological data and archaeological archives to tell the full story of a place.
- Battle of Glen Fruin · Wikipedia
- List of battles by geographic location · Wikipedia