Battle of the North Inch

Part of Clan Cameron-Clan Mackintosh feud

Perth's North Inch in modern times, looking southeast towards the city's eastern edge.

Date	late September 1396
Location	North Inch, Perth, Scotland grid reference NO11752397 Coordinates: 56°24′0″N 3°25′48″W / 56.40000°N 3.43000°W / 56.40000; -3.43000
Result	Chattan (Mackintosh) victory

Belligerents

Chattan Confederation or Clan Mackintosh

"Clan Kay" (Camerons or Davidsons?)

Strength

Casualties and losses

The Battle of the North Inch (also known as the Battle of the Clans) was a staged battle between the Chattan Confederation and the "Clan Kay" in September 1396. Thirty men were selected to represent each side in front of spectators that included King Robert III of Scotland and his court, on land that is now the North Inch park in Perth, Scotland.

The Chattan Confederation killed all but one of their opponents, at a cost of 19 deaths on their own side, and were awarded the victory. It is not clear whom they were fighting: it may have been their traditional enemies Clan Cameron or it may have been Clan Davidson, in an internal dispute for precedence in the Chattan line of battle in future campaigns against the Camerons.

According to historian Alexander Mackintosh Shaw, Clan Chattan was composed of MacKintoshes, MacPhersons, Davidsons, MacGillivrays and Macbeans, while Marshall's History of Perth states that "it is generally accepted that the Clan Chattan were the MacKintoshes, but, as always happens with the unfortunate, no sept or clan is willing to claim kindred with the Clan Kay". Some historians identify Clan Kay with Clan Cameron, whose feud with the Chattans would last 360 years.

More recent historians, however, have suggested that the battle was an internal dispute between two clans from within Clan Chattan over who should take precedence in order of battle. This dispute had almost given the Camerons victory at the Battle of Invernahavon (1370 or 1386).

At the King's insistence, David Lindsay, 1st Earl of Crawford and Dunbar, had attempted to get the two feuding clans to settle their differences amicably. This failed, however, which led the two chiefs to put forth the notion of a trial by combat between members of the two parties, with the monarch awarding honours to the victors and a pardon to the defeated.

The clansmen agreed, and on a Monday morning in late September the clans marched through the streets of Perth, "to the sound of the pibroch and armed with bows and arrows, swords, targes, knives and axes," to the western banks of the River Tay. Barriers were erected on three sides of the Inch, in an attempt to keep spectators off the battlefield, with the Tay forming the natural fourth side to the north. The Gilded Arbour summerhouse of the Dominican Friary, which afforded those inside an excellent view of the Inch, was adapted into a grandstand for the King and his entourage.

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Wikipedia