Siege of Fort Augustus (December 1745)

Who Fought

History & Significance

The first siege of Fort Augustus, at the SW end of Loch Ness, Scotland, took place in December 1745 and was part of the Jacobite rising of 1745.

A force of 600 men from the recently formed Independent Highland Companies, formed to support the British-Hanoverian government, liberated the fort from the Jacobite Clan Fraser of Lovat after a small skirmish. Apart from this slight skirmish there was no fighting in the siege and there were no casualties.

The Clan Fraser had originally supported the British Government during the Jacobite rebellion of 1715–1716. However, during the rebellion of 1745–1746 a large number of them supported the Jacobite cause. Shortly after the siege of Fort Augustus, Lord Loudoun with 600 men of the Independent Companies of Sutherland, Mackay, Grant and Munro went in search of Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat who was the chief of Clan Fraser. Lord Lovat had allowed his son to go off with a band of Frasers to join the Jacobite leader Prince Charles. The idea was that Lord Lovat would be 'made a hostage for the peaceable behaviour of his clan'. However Lord Lovat, who had originally agreed to this move, escaped from his home at Castle Downie, evading capture. This move was to stop any more of the Clan Fraser joining his son (the Master of Lovat) and the 300 Frasers who had already defected to the Jacobites. Lord Lovat made the excuse that 'he could not govern his son and some of the young men of his name'.

The ground they fought on

The site of Siege of Fort Augustus (December 1745) lies on Unnamed Igneous Intrusion, Neoproterozoic, bedrock that formed in the Neoproterozoic. The rock here is felsic-rock.

Frequently Asked Questions

Scheduled Monuments near Siege of Fort Augustus (December 1745)

Caledonian Canal, Fort Augustus to Loch Ness

Scheduled monument · Iron Age · ~0.1 mi

Caledonian Canal, Fort Augustus to Loch Ness is a navigable waterway constructed through the Great Glen, linking the Atlantic Ocean to the North Sea across the Scottish Highlands. The canal extends from Fort Augustus southwestward to Loch Ness, forming part of the larger Caledonian Canal system t…

Cherry Island, crannog, Inchnacardoch Bay, Loch Ness

Scheduled monument · Iron Age–Medieval · ~0.8 mi

Cherry Island is a crannog located in Inchnacardoch Bay on Loch Ness in Inverness-shire, Scotland. The site consists of an artificial island dwelling that was constructed and occupied across a considerable chronological span, from the Iron Age through the Medieval period. Crannog construction tec…

Des Colhoun / CC BY-SA 2.0 / Wikimedia Commons

Caledonian Canal,Kyltra Lock to Fort Augustus

Scheduled monument · Iron Age · ~1.3 mi

Caledonian Canal, Kyltra Lock to Fort Augustus is a section of the early nineteenth-century canal that links the Great Glen lochs of the Scottish Highlands. This engineering achievement was designed to provide a sheltered sea route for vessels and to develop the local economy of the region. The c…

Caledonian Canal,Kyltra Lock

Scheduled monument · ~2.2 mi

Kyltra Lock is a kyltra lock on the Caledonian Canal in Inverness-shire, Scotland. A kyltra lock is a specialised form of lock gate mechanism designed to manage water flow efficiently in canal systems, reflecting nineteenth-century innovations in hydraulic engineering. This lock forms part of the…

Caledonian Canal,Cullochy Lock to Kyltra Lock

Scheduled monument · ~3 mi

Caledonian Canal, Cullochy Lock to Kyltra Lock is a section of Scotland's most ambitious engineering achievement of the early nineteenth century. Constructed to link the Atlantic Ocean with the North Sea, this stretch of the canal connects two of its principal locks near Fort Augustus in Invernes…

Caledonian Canal,Cullochy Lock

Scheduled monument · ~3.9 mi

Cullochy Lock is a lock forming part of the Caledonian Canal in Inverness-shire, Scotland. The lock was constructed as one of a series of hydraulic structures engineered by Thomas Telford to connect the Atlantic Ocean with the North Sea, reducing the need for vessels to navigate around Cape Wrath…

Other Jacobite Risings Battles

Battles near Siege of Fort Augustus (December 1745)

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• Siege of Fort Augustus (December 1745) · Wikipedia