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Glenshiel

Battle Site (18th Century), Shieling Hut(S) (Post Medieval), Structure(S) (Period Unknown)

Site Name Glenshiel

Classification Battle Site (18th Century), Shieling Hut(S) (Post Medieval), Structure(S) (Period Unknown)

Alternative Name(s) Glen Shiel; Battle Of Glenshiel; Colonel Wightman's Grave

Canmore ID 12005

Site Number NG91SE 1

NGR NG 9944 1325

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/12005

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
Canmore Disclaimer. © Copyright and database right 2024.

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Administrative Areas

  • Council Highland
  • Parish Glenshiel
  • Former Region Highland
  • Former District Skye And Lochalsh
  • Former County Ross And Cromarty

Archaeology Notes

NG91SE 1 9944 1325

(NG 9944 1325) Site of the Battle of Glenshiel AD. 1719 (NAT)

Colonel Wightman's Grave (NAT)

OS 6" map, Ross-shire, 2nd ed., (1905)

The Battle of Glenshiel was fought on the 10th June 1719 between Highland Jacobites, supported by Spanish troops, under the Marquis of Tullibardine; and Government troops, supported by Dutch and Swiss, under General Wightman. The Jacobites were defeated.

Advancing from the west, the Jacobites took up a position at the narrowest part of the gorge, where they threw a barricade across the road and erected stone breastworks on the face of Spanish Hill - named after the Spanish troops who manned them - to the north of the road. Traces of these breastworks still remain. The remainder of the Jacobite army defended the hillock opposite Spanish Hill on the south side of the river.

Wightman's troops, approaching from the east, had little difficulty in driving the Jacobites back from these positions and scattering them in retreat. (Information from a map of the battle drawn by Lt. J Bastide, see A H Millar 1883)

This battle prevented the projected Jacobite uprising. 'Colonel Wightman's Grave', published on the OS Map, is certainly not that of Wightman who long survived the battle. Only three officers - one British and two Dutch - and eighteen men were killed on the Government side, and Jacobite losses were even lighter. The grave of the one British Officer, Captain Downes of Montague's Regiment, is by the river, on the south side and just above the gorge. Local tradition maintains two burial places for the Spanish dead - Eilean nan Gall (NG 9320) and by the old church at Clachan Duich (NG92SW 3) which the Jacobites had used as a hospital.

Rev. John MacRae (NSA 1845), the sole authority for the OS publication of both the battle site and 'Colonel Wightman's Grave', in his extremely inaccurate account of the battle, says that 'the green mounds which cover the graves of the slain' could be distinguished at the scene of the battle in 1836.

New Statistical Account (NSA, Rev J MacRae) 1845; Name Book 1874; W K Dickson 1895; Marchioness of Tullibardine 1908; J J Galbraith 1928; I C Taylor 1965; Information from Murdo McCrea (Formally of Lub an Eorna) and J Ross (Achnagart, Glenshiel).

The two stone breastworks on the E face of Spanish Hill at NG 9930 1333 measure 13.0m and 0.8m high. They are crudely constructed and incorporate the natural boulders which abound on the hill. No trace of the graves or the barricade across the road remain.

Visited by OS, (N K B) 3 October 1966.

Activities

Field Visit (21 April 1997 - 2 May 1997)

In addition to the features relating to the battle, on a terrace in the E-facing hillslope two-thirds of the way up to the top of the knoll, are the stone footings of a round-ended shieling hut aligned NE/SW c6m by c3m over 'walls' c0.4m wide and c0.15m high. Another is c4m by c2m, a third is c3.5m by c2.m, both aligned E/W and a third, aligned NE/SW, is c4m by c 2.5m.

It is possible that Bastide has recorded the larger shieling hut on his contemporary record of the battle.

Information from NTS: KIN001 & KIN016 (JH and JW April/May 1997)

NTS Survey

Excavation (2 June 2018 - 9 June 2018)

NG 9944 1325 As part of the National Trust for Scotland’s Thistle Camp volunteer programme an excavation was undertaken, 2 – 9 June 2018, on the battlefield at Glenshiel, which forms part of the NTS Kintail Estate.

Three small trenches were excavated within the scheduled area on Spanish Hill. Trench 1 within the polygonal enclosure was 4m long by 2m and quickly came down onto subsoil. Trench 2 was 5m long by 4m wide over a possible shieling structure and Trench 3 was over an entrenchment constructed by the Spanish troops. The latter appeared to show a stone-built terrace that must have been fronted by a dry stone breastwork wall. In addition, a metal detecting transect was investigated both within and outside the scheduled area.

Archive: NTS, Highland HER and NRHE (intended)

Funder: National Trust for Scotland

Derek Alexander – The National Trust for Scotland

(Source: DES Volume 19)

Excavation (31 May 2019 - 10 June 2019)

NG 9944 1325 Excavation work was conducted on the battlefield at Glenshiel (Canmore ID: 12005) which forms part of the National Trust for Scotland’s Kintail estate. The work was carried out by volunteer archaeologists as part of a Trust Thistle Camp. Further excavation was carried out on the three small trenches that had been opened in 2018 within the scheduled area on Spanish Hill. Trench 1 within the polygonal enclosure was 4 x 2m and quickly came down onto subsoil. Trench 2 was 5m long by 4m wide over a possible shieling structure and Trench 3 over an entrenchment constructed by the Spanish troops. The latter appeared to show a stone built terrace that must have been fronted by a drystone breastwork wall. In addition, a metal detecting transect was investigated both within and outside the scheduled area. The only significant metal detecting find from within the scheduled area was a flattened musket ball found at the foot of a large bedrock outcrop below Trench 3 at NG 99321 13326.

On the S side of the River Shiel metal detecting transects covered the slopes up to the summit where the Jacobite right wing had been positioned. On the N facing slope at the foot of the largest vertical cliff face at NG 99723 13051 were recovered seven sherds of coehorn mortar shell from four separate finds spots. All the find spots were in a line within 2m.

Archive: NTS, SMR and NRHE (intended)

Funder: The National Trust for Scotland

Derek Alexander – The National Trust for Scotland

(Source: DES Vol 20)

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