Battle of Glen Shiel - Battle

Battle

After moving around for one month, the Spaniards had learned by the beginning of June that Ormonde would never come. In spite of this, they gathered clansmen for a last action, with a total of 1,000 troops.

On 5 June, British government forces composed of both English and Scottish soldiers under General Joseph Wightman came from Inverness to block their march. They consisted of 850 infantry, 120 dragoons and 4 mortar batteries. A detailed plan of the battlefield and the movements of the opposing forces was drawn up soon after the battle by John Henry Bastide, a subaltern in Montague's regiment who subsequently had a long career as a military engineer. They confronted the Jacobites at Glen Shiel, just a few miles from Loch Duich, on 10 June, near the Five Sisters hills. The Galician regiment occupied the top and the front of one of the hills, to their advantage, while the Jacobite Scots manned barricades on the sides.

The engagement began between about five and six o'clock when the left wing of the British government army advanced against Lord George Murray's position on the south side of the river. The position was first shelled by the mortar batteries and then attacked by four platoons of Clayton's regiment and Munro's. After some initial stubborn resistance, Lord George Murray's unsupported men were driven from their position and forced to retreat.

Once the Jacobite right wing had been dislodged, Wightman ordered his right wing to attack the Jacobite left.

The detachment, commanded by Lord Seaforth, was strongly positioned behind a group of rocks on the hillside. It was against them that Harrison's and Montigue's regiments were directed. Seaforth was reinforced by his own men under Sir John MacKenzie. Hard pressed, Seaforth sent for further reinforcements. Another group of men, under Rob Roy, went to his aid, but before it could reach him, his men gave way, and Seaforth himself was badly wounded.

Wightman concentrated his troops on the flanks, while the mortars battered the whole and pinned the Spaniards in their positions. Wightman's whole force was now directed toward the Jacobite centre.

The Spanish regulars stood their ground well, but found that most of their allies had deserted them, so they too retreated up the hill. Other clans followed and left their allies retreating uphill.

Historian Peter Simpson states that the battle raged for three hours but the superior power of the government grenadiers along with the aggressive forays of the Munro Independent Company won the day for the government. At 9 o'clock in the evening, they surrendered, three hours after the start of the combat, while the remaining Jacobites fled into the fog, to escape execution as traitors.

The Jacobites were poorly provisioned and armed, and when the expected Jacobite support from the Lowlanders was minimal, spirits fell completely. The Rising was abandoned and the Jacobites dispersed to their homes.

The mountain in Glen Shiel on which the battle took place is called Sgurr na Ciste Duibhe, it has a subsidiary peak which was named Sgurr nan Spainteach (The Peak of the Spaniards) in honour of the Spanish forces who fought admirably in the battle.