Battle of Auldearn

Part of Wars of the Three Kingdoms

Date	May 9, 1645
Location	Auldearn, east of Nairn grid reference NH916554 Coordinates: 57°34′35″N 3°48′43″W / 57.57639°N 3.81194°W / 57.57639; -3.81194
Result	Royalist Victory

Belligerents

Royalist Irish
Highland Scots

Scottish Covenanters

Commanders and leaders

Lord Montrose
Alasdair MacColla
Manus O'Cahan

Sir John Urry

Strength

1300 foot,
250 cavalry

3600 foot,
300 cavalry

Casualties and losses

Light

1500

The Battle of Auldearn was an engagement of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It took place on 9 May 1645, in and around the village of Auldearn in Nairnshire. It resulted in a victory for the royalists led by Montrose and Alasdair MacColla over a Covenanter army under the command of Sir John Urry (or Hurry).

The pibroch Blár Allt Earrann commemorates the battle. The battlefield has been included in the Inventory of Historic Battlefields in Scotland and is protected by Historic Scotland under the Historic Environment (Amendment) Act 2011.

In mid-1644 after the Scottish Covenanters sided with the English Parliamentarians and intervened in the First English Civil War, the Earl of Montrose had been given a commission by King Charles I to command his forces in Scotland. After initial setbacks, he was able to raise an army consisting of Irish regiments and Highlanders. Most of the Covenanter army had been sent into England, and Montrose began to threaten Covenanter control over the Highlands.

On 2 February 1645, Montrose won a complete victory over the pro-Covenanter Clan Campbell and its leader, the Earl of Argyll, at the Battle of Inverlochy. He then attempted to attack the Covenanter forces in the Lowlands, but found that many of his Highlanders were drifting home with plunder and the Covenanters were too strong. He fell back to the northeast, hoping to recruit more forces. In particular, he needed the support of Clan Gordon, who could provide at least some cavalry.

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