Battle of the Shirts
Who Fought
Clan Macdonald of Clanranald and Clan Cameron versus Clan Fraser (over four hundred men under Lord Lovat) and Clan Grant allies
History & Significance
The Battle of the Shirts (Scottish Gaelic: Blàr na Léine, also the Battle of Kinloch-Lochy) was a Scottish clan battle that took place in 1544 in the Great Glen, at the northern end of Loch Lochy. The Clan Macdonald of Clanranald and their allies the Clan Cameron fought the Clan Fraser and men from Clan Grant. The battlefield has been included and protected by Historic Scotland in their Inventory of Historic Battlefields in Scotland.
Clan tradition of the clans involved and all histories written since the period have stated that the name was derived from the fact that the day was so hot that both sides threw off their chainmail hauberks and Plaids, fighting in their shirts.
The chiefship of the Clan Macdonald of Clanranald was in dispute. Hugh Fraser, 3rd Lord Lovat, chief of Clan Fraser of Lovat, was the uncle of one of the warring claimants, Ranald Galda (the stranger), whose cause he supported. Lovat with over four hundred of his best men joined up with the Earl of Huntly, chief of Clan Gordon, who was the Lieutenant of the North. They intended to crush the MacDonalds and make Ranald the chief. The combined Fraser and Gordon force marched to Inverlochy, in Lochaber and they successfully established Ranald's control over Moidart by taking Castle Tioram.
The Earl of Huntly decided to split his forces from the Frasers and returned to his own territory. The expedition being cut short, Fraser, Lord Lovat led his men up the Great Glen towards Glenmoriston. This decision to divide their forces for their return journey might indicate that Lovat and Huntly thought that the MacDonalds were no longer a threat.
The MacDonalds had been stalking the invaders but had held back because they were numerically inferior. However, with Huntly's men gone, the MacDonalds moved swiftly to outflank Lovat, falling upon the unsuspecting Frasers on an area of wild marshland to the north of Loch Lochy. The battle became known as Blar-ne-leine which means the field of the shirts because the heat of the day caused the Highlanders to take off their heavy chainmail coats and fight in their shirts. That translation is however disputed by some non-Gaelic commentators, who assert that it really refers to the marshy ground.
Lovat and his Frasers were outnumbered, but he could have fought a rearguard action to cover his escape. Instead, Lovat led his men into a pitched battle. Lovat was killed along with his son and heir, and hundreds of men. The battle ended in a stalemate with only 5 Frasers and 8 MacDonalds surviving the day.
Lovat and his son were later buried at Beauly Priory. For the most part the Earl of Huntly focused his attention in other parts of Scotland thereafter, as a result of which John MacDonald, Cameron of Lochiel, and the chiefs of Glengarry, Keppoch, and Glencoe were free to spend the month of April 1545 sacking the regions near Urquhart Castle, destroying what they did not take. Parliament attempted to summon John to answer accusations of treason several times beginning in September, but John did not respond. No records suggest that Parliament ever successfully called to account the Captain of Clanranald, who finally died unrepentant in 1584.
The ground they fought on
The site of Battle of the Shirts lies on Old Red Sandstone Supergroup, bedrock that formed in the Late Devonian. The rock here is conglomerate, sandstone, siltstone and mudstone.
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
Frequently Asked Questions
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- Battle of the Shirts · Wikipedia
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