Battle of Glen Affric

Loch Affric in Glen Affric

Date	1721
Location	Glen Affric, Scotland
Result	Clan Mackenzie & Clan MacRae victory

Belligerents

Clan Mackenzie
Clan Macrae
Murchison (sept)

Clan Ross

Commanders and leaders

Colonel Donald Murchison

William Ross, 6th of Easter Fearn

Strength

350 men
or 300 men

80 men
or "a small company"

Casualties and losses

Unknown

The Battle of Glen Affric took place in 1721 in Glen Affric, in the Scottish Highlands. It was fought between Government backed forces of the Clan Ross against rebel the forces of the Clan Mackenzie and their allies the Clan Macrae.

During the Jacobite rising of 1715 to 1719 the chiefs of the Highland Clan Ross had supported the British-Hanoverian Government. The rising of 1715 was ultimately defeated at the Battle of Sheriffmuir and another rising had been defeated at the Battle of Glenshiel in 1719, where troops from the Clan Ross had fought in support of the Government and defeated the likes of the Jacobite Clan Mackenzie. William Mackenzie, 5th Earl of Seaforth, chief of Clan Mackenzie, had been exiled in France for his part in the Jacobite rising of 1715 and had also returned briefly to Scotland to take part in the Jacobite rising of 1719, before returning to exile in France.

In 1720 two members of the Clan Ross - William Ross, 6th of Easter Fearn (ex-Provost of Tain) and his brother Robert Ross (ballie of Tain) - had been appointed factors on the estates of Mackenzie of Seaforth, Chisholm and Glenmoriston. The following year, in 1721, they went on an expedition to collect rents on these estates. The Rosses set off from Inverness with thirty armed men, picking up a further fifty armed men from Bernera Barracks. The Murchison family being a sept of the Clan Mackenzie, Colonel Donald Murchison was Mackenzie of Seaforth's factor who had been collecting rents and sending them to his master in France.

While on their journey to Mackenzie of Seaforth's lands in Kintail, the Rosses who were attended by just a small company of soldiers met three hundred men of the Clan Mackenzie and their allies the Clan Macrae in Glen Affric. Historian Alan Mackenzie says that the Rosses were "ambushed" at near Loch Affric. The Mackenzies and Macraes were commanded by Colonel Donald Murchison of Auchtyre and Lochalsh who had been sending the rents to Mackenzie of Seaforth in France.

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Wikipedia