The Battle of the Shirts, known in Scottish Gaelic as Blàr na Léine and also called the Battle of Kinloch-Lochy, was a clan battle fought in July 1544 in the Great Glen, at the northern end of Loch Lochy. The conflict arose from a dispute over the chiefship of Clan Macdonald of Clanranald. Hugh Fraser, 3rd Lord Lovat, uncle of one of the warring claimants, Ranald Galda, had joined forces with the Earl of Huntly, chief of Clan Gordon and Lieutenant of the North, bringing over four hundred of his best men. Together they marched to Inverlochy in Lochaber and successfully established Ranald's control over Moidart by taking Castle Tioram. However, the Earl of Huntly subsequently decided to split his forces from the Frasers and returned to his own territory, perhaps suggesting that both commanders believed the MacDonalds were no longer a serious threat.
With Huntly's departure, the MacDonalds, who had been stalking the invaders but holding back owing to numerical inferiority, moved swiftly to outflank Lovat. They fell upon the unsuspecting Frasers on an area of wild marshland to the north of Loch Lochy. Although Lovat and his Frasers were outnumbered and he might have fought a rearguard action to cover his escape, he instead chose to lead his men into a pitched battle. The encounter proved catastrophic for the Frasers: Lovat was killed along with his son and heir and hundreds of his men. The battle ended in a stalemate of near-total annihilation, with only five Frasers and eight MacDonalds surviving the day. The battle took its name from the tradition that the heat of the day caused the Highlanders to remove their heavy chainmail coats and fight in their shirts, though some non-Gaelic commentators have disputed this interpretation, suggesting the name may instead refer to the marshy ground on which the fighting took place.
The MacDonalds had patiently shadowed the Fraser and Gordon force throughout the expedition but held back while they remained numerically inferior; when Huntly's departure thinned the enemy column, they struck swiftly, outflanking Lovat and falling upon the unsuspecting Frasers on wild marshland north of Loch Lochy. Rather than conducting a rearguard action to save his men, Lovat led them into a pitched battle, a decision that cost him his own life, that of his son and heir, and the lives of hundreds of his followers, leaving only five Frasers and eight MacDonalds alive at the end of the day.
Lovat killed along with his son and heir and hundreds of men; only five Frasers and eight MacDonalds survived
Clan Macdonald of Clanranald and Clan Cameron versus Clan Fraser (over four hundred men under Lord Lovat) and Clan Grant allies
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