Battlefields›Donald Dubh's Rebellion, 1545
Tudor

Donald Dubh's Rebellion, 1545

1545
Argyll, Scotland
Era
Tudor
Battle Type
Campaign
Location
Argyll, Scotland
Status
Unregistered
The Combatants

Who Fought

Defeated
Donald Dubh and allied Isles clans/Henry VIII's faction
VS
Victor
No decisive military victor; the rebellion collapsed on Donald Dubh's death
Forces involved

Planned force of roughly 10,000 (8,000 raised by Donald Dubh plus 2,000 from Henry VIII); actual force that sailed numbered approximately 2,000 men

Outcome
Donald Dubh promised to raise 8,000 men and 180 galleys (with 2,000 more from Henry VIII), but only around 2,000 men actually sailed for Scotland; the force made no major territorial gains, and Donald Dubh retreated to Ireland where he died of fever in late 1545, after which the rebellion lost coordination and collapsed.
The Battle

History & Significance

Donald Dubh's Rebellion, 1545 was a Tudor campaign, fought in the area of Argyll, Scotland in 1545. No decisive military victor; the rebellion collapsed on Donald Dubh's death prevailed over Donald Dubh and allied Isles clans/Henry VIII's faction. Donald Dubh promised to raise 8,000 men and 180 galleys (with 2,000 more from Henry VIII), but only around 2,000 men actually sailed for Scotland; the force made no major territorial gains, and Donald Dubh retreated to Ireland where he died of fever in late 1545, after which the rebellion lost coordination and collapsed. The precise site is not recorded in the surviving sources, so the location shown is approximate.

Approximate location. The precise site is not recorded in the surviving sources, so the marker shows the best available identification.
The ground

The ground they fought on

The site of Donald Dubh's Rebellion, 1545 lies on Unnamed Igneous Intrusion, Late Silurian To Early Devonian, bedrock that formed in the Early Devonian. The rock here is felsic-rock.

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Overview
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Monuments
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Battlefields
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Roman Britain
The Roman roads, forts and towns near here, and the Iron Age people who held the land before Rome arrived.
Stat Accounts
The parish Statistical Accounts of the 1790s and 1830s, describing life, work and population here.
Civil War
The Civil War fighting, garrisons and recorded militaria in this area, woven into the arc of 1642 to 1651.
Geology
The bedrock beneath the site, its age and rock type, reaching back hundreds of millions of years.
Local Names
What the street and field names around here actually mean, and the history buried inside them.
Historical Maps
Ordnance Survey maps from the 1800s, layered over the location as it stands today.
Literature
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Legal
The protected sites nearby and the metal-detecting, access and treasure laws that apply to this ground.
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Protected heritage nearby

Scheduled Monuments near Donald Dubh's Rebellion, 1545

Glensanda Castle
Glensanda Castle
Scheduled monument · ~3 mi

Glensanda Castle is a ruined tower house situated in Argyllshire in the west of Scotland. The castle dates from the medieval period and represents the domestic fortified architecture characteristic of the Scottish Highlands and Islands during the later medieval centuries. The surviving remains co…

Appin,old parish church
Appin,old parish church
Scheduled monument · Medieval · ~6 mi

Appin Old Parish Church is a medieval parish church located in Argyllshire, Scotland, protected as a scheduled monument by Historic Environment Scotland. The church stands on bedrock of the Argyll Group, a Neoproterozoic succession of metamorphic rocks comprising psammite, semipelite and pelite,…

Eriska,crannog on S shore of
Eriska,crannog on S shore of
Scheduled monument · Iron Age–Medieval · ~6 mi

Eriska Crannog is an Iron Age to Medieval artificial island settlement located on the southern shore of Eriska in Argyllshire, Scotland. The site represents a type of dwelling common in prehistoric and early medieval Scotland, constructed as a man-made or partially artificial island platform buil…

Mike and Kirsty Grundy / CC BY-SA 2.0 / Wikimedia Commons
Loch Tearnait,crannog
Loch Tearnait,crannog
Scheduled monument · Iron Age–Medieval · ~6.9 mi

Loch Tearnait crannog is a fortified lakeside dwelling situated in Argyllshire, Scotland, which exhibits evidence of occupation spanning from the Iron Age through the Medieval period. The site comprises the submerged or partially submerged remains of a timber-built platform structure, characteris…

Achnamoine,cairn 275m NW of
Achnamoine,cairn 275m NW of
Scheduled monument · ~6.9 mi

Achnamoine Cairn is a prehistoric burial monument situated in Argyllshire, Scotland, standing 275 metres north-west of Achnamoine. The cairn is constructed upon bedrock of the Argyll Group, a suite of metamorphic rocks formed during the Neoproterozoic era, comprising psammite, semipelite and peli…

Lurga, lead mines, Gleann Dubh
Lurga, lead mines, Gleann Dubh
Scheduled monument · ~7.8 mi

Lurga lead mines in Gleann Dubh is a historic industrial site in Argyllshire, Scotland, where lead ore was extracted from the underlying Glenfinnan Group psammite bedrock. This metamorphic geology, formed during the Neoproterozoic era, provided the mineral-bearing strata that attracted mining act…

Airigh Shamhraidh,house,enclosures and field system
Scheduled monument · Post-Medieval · ~1.1 miles
Park, dun 350m N of
Scheduled monument · Iron Age · ~3.8 miles
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Simnel March into Yorkshire 1487
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In the same landscape

Battles near Donald Dubh's Rebellion, 1545

Battle of Gisors
1198
~1.1 miles away
Battle of Stalc, Appin
~5.1 miles away
Siege of Tralee
1920
~7.7 miles away
Alexander II's Campaign in Argyll, 1221-1222
1221
~7.9 miles away
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