Battle of Torran Dubh
Who Fought
Sutherland side (under Alexander Sutherland, John Murray and William Mackames) versus John Mackay of Strathnaver with forces from Strathnaver, Assynt, Eddrachillis and the west and north-west isles, according to Gordon's account
History & Significance
The Battle of Torran Dubh also known as the Battle of Torran-dow or the Battle of Torran Du was a Scottish clan battle that was fought in 1517 in Sutherland, in the Scottish Highlands.
There are two very different accounts of this battle. The first was written by 17th-century historian Sir Robert Gordon, 1st Baronet, who himself was a younger son of Alexander Gordon, 12th Earl of Sutherland, and it describes a battle fought between the Earl of Sutherland's forces who defeated the Clan Mackay of Strathnaver. The Earldom of Sutherland having recently passed to the Gordon family through marriage. However, this version of events is disputed. Firstly, late 19th-century historian Sir William Fraser states that Alexander Sutherland, who according to Gordon led the Earl of Sutherland's force at the battle, was in prison for the whole year of 1517 when the battle is supposed to have taken place. Secondly, early 20th-century historian Angus Mackay states that the battle was actually fought between the Clan Mackay, who were defeated, but who had fought against the Murrays of Aberscross, the Clan Ross and the Clan Gunn, and cited a historic manuscript as his source. Angus Mackay also agreed with Fraser's observations about Alexander Sutherland being in prison when the battle is supposed to have taken place.
John Sutherland, 9th Earl of Sutherland, chief of the Clan Sutherland died in 1514. He was succeeded by his sister, Elizabeth Sutherland, 10th Countess of Sutherland. Elizabeth would go on to marry Adam Gordon, the second son of George Gordon, 2nd Earl of Huntly, chief of the powerful Clan Gordon in 1517. Adam and Elizabeth's son Alexander Gordon would become the heir to the Earldom of Sutherland and chiefship of the Clan Sutherland.
The Battle of Torran Dubh took place because John Mackay, 11th of Strathnaver, chief of Clan Mackay, and later the brother in law of Alexander Sutherland (Elizabeth's younger half-brother) was against the Gordon family taking over as Earls of Sutherland. According to historian Sir Robert Gordon (1580–1656), Elizabeth persuaded her younger half-brother, Alexander Sutherland, to resist Mackay, as this battle took place before Alexander Sutherland had married Mackay's sister.
According to Sir Robert Gordon, many on the Mackay side were killed, but few on the Sutherland side. An account of the battle was written in the book Conflicts of the Clans published by the Foulis Press in 1764, written from a manuscript from the time of King James VI of Scotland (Sir Robert Gordon's A Genealogical History of the Earldom of Sutherland).
Adam Gordon, first of that surname, Earl of Sutherland having married Elizabeth Sutherland, heiress of that country, took journey to Edinburgh, the year of God 1517, to dispatch some affairs there, which did concern the settling of his estate, leaving the commandment of the country, in his absence, to Alexander Sutherland (base brother to his wife Elizabeth) and to John Murray of Abirscors; which John Mackay of Strathnaver, understanding (having now appeased his civil discords at home, by the death of his uncle Neil) this occasion, in the very change of surnames in Sutherland, to try if he could gain anything by spoiling that country; and thereupon assembling together all the forces of Strathnaver, Assynt and Eddrachillis, with all such as he could purchase out of the west and north-west isles of Scotland, invades the country of Sutherland with all hostility, burning and spoiling all before him.
The ground they fought on
The site of Battle of Torran Dubh lies on Unnamed Igneous Intrusion, Late Silurian To Early Devonian, bedrock that formed in the Early Devonian. The rock here is mafic igneous-rock.
According to Sir Robert Gordon's account, at the height of the fighting at Torran Dubh, John Mackay personally chose the ablest men from his host and led them back into the conflict after his vanguard had been driven in, renewing a fight described as more cruel than before; in the end, after long resistance, the Sutherland men obtained the victory, and of those who returned to fight with Mackay, few escaped, with Mackay himself getting away only very hardly, while 216 of the Strathnaver men lay dead in the field besides those slain in the chase.
- Gordon records 216 Strathnaver men killed in the field plus further casualties in the chase, and 38 Sutherland men slain; Neil MacIan MacAngus of Assynt also slain
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