The Earl of Mar ordered the burning of Dunning village in Strathearn alongside Auchterarder and Blackford in November 1715, to deny shelter and supplies to Argyll's advancing government army. Dunning, a small village on the southern edge of Highland Perthshire, was destroyed by the Jacobites in one of the most morally discrediting acts of the rising. Hundreds of families were rendered homeless in a Scottish winter. The deliberate destruction of civilian property alienated moderate opinion and demonstrated Mar's strategic bankruptcy — he was devastating the country he claimed to be liberating. The burnings became infamous throughout Scotland and damaged the Jacobite cause.
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