The Battle of Tarbat was a Scottish clan engagement fought on the Tarbat peninsula in Easter Ross, most commonly dated to 1486, though the exact date is uncertain and the conflict may have occurred at some point in the 1480s before the Battle of Aldy Charrish. The feud between Clan Mackay and Clan Ross arose from a scramble over disputed lands, with conflicting accounts placing the blame on both sides: the Blackcastle MS holds that the Rosses had made a predatory incursion into Mackay territory, while Sir Robert Gordon states that the Mackays had often molested the lands of the Rosses with incursions and invasions. The raiding party, led by Angus Roy Mackay of Strathnaver, ninth chief of Clan Mackay, had crossed into Ross-shire and was fiercely attacked by the gathered forces of Clan Ross on the Tarbat peninsula.
Many of the Mackay raiders were killed in the fighting before the survivors sought sanctuary in the church at Tarbat, near the village of Portmahomack. The Rosses pursued them into the church, killing further men, and then set fire to the building, slaying all those who remained inside, including Angus Roy Mackay himself. Archaeology has lent credence to the account, as investigations at Tarbat Old Church revealed that the medieval church known as Church 4 had suffered a major fire, with sandstone internally scorched to a bright orange and charcoal from possible roof timbers or thatch found in the nave near the crypt entrance.
The destruction of Angus Roy Mackay and his raiding party was avenged swiftly. His son John (Iain) Riabhach Mackay invaded Ross lands in 1487, and this campaign culminated in the Battle of Aldy Charrish at the head of the Kyle of Sutherland, where Alexander Ross of Balnagown and many of his kinsmen were slaughtered. Clan Ross never really recovered from that subsequent defeat.
A contemporary poem recorded the grim conclusion of the fighting on the Tarbat peninsula, with the Lady Christian asking how the battle went and William replying that forty Mackays were dead or wounded and the survivors cornered in the Tarbat church, with their father guarding the door with his broad axe; the Rosses then set fire to the building, burning to death all those sheltering within, including the Mackay chief Angus Roy Mackay himself.
Many Mackays killed in the fighting and the remainder burned to death in Tarbat church, including Angus Roy Mackay; Ross casualties not recorded in the sources
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