Battle of Torran Dubh 1517
Marker: recorded battle location (no official boundary).
Key facts
| Date (year) | 1517 | Wikidata P585 point in time |
|---|---|---|
| Century | 16th century | derived |
| Period | Tudor & early Stuart | derived |
| Country | Scotland | derived |
About the battle
The Battle of Torran Dubh also known as the Battle of Torran-dow or the Battle of Torran Du was a Scottish clan battle that was fought in 1517 in Sutherland, in the Scottish Highlands.
There are two very different accounts of this battle. The first was written by 17th-century historian Sir Robert Gordon, 1st Baronet, who himself was a younger son of Alexander Gordon, 12th Earl of Sutherland, and it describes a battle fought between the Earl of Sutherland's forces who defeated the Clan Mackay of Strathnaver. The Earldom of Sutherland having recently passed to the Gordon family through marriage. However, this version of events is disputed. Firstly, late 19th-century historian Sir William Fraser states that Alexander Sutherland, who according to Gordon led the Earl of Sutherland's force at the battle, was in prison for the whole year of 1517 when the battle is supposed to have taken place. Secondly, early 20th-century historian Angus Mackay states that the battle was actually fought between the Clan Mackay, who were defeated, but who had fought against the Murrays of Aberscross, the Clan Ross and the Clan Gunn, and cited a historic manuscript as his source.
Visiting the battlefield
Location
- Recorded location (Wikidata; may be approximate): 58.0030, -4.1790
Battlefields are often on private farmland: please keep to public rights of way and respect landowners.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Torran Dubh (revision 1370591298), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; condensed by selecting paragraphs and trimming at sentence boundaries; citations removed. No text added.
Battle location from Wikidata (CC0).