The march of the Cameronian regiment from Perth to Dunkeld in August 1689 was itself a fighting advance through hostile Jacobite-sympathising countryside. The regiment moved northward knowing a large Jacobite Highland army was somewhere ahead. Their arrival in Dunkeld preceded the Jacobite assault by only hours. The Cameronians — a regiment of Covenanting volunteers who sang psalms before battle and flogged their own officers for swearing — immediately began fortifying the town, barricading streets and loopholing buildings. Their colonel, William Cleland, conducted this defensive preparation with remarkable speed and thoroughness. The fortification work done in those few hours was the key to their survival in the subsequent battle.
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