⚔ Battlefields of Britain

Siege of Fort William 1746

Siege of Fort William: Fort William (old fort photo)
Image: Erskine Beveridge (d.1920), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Marker: recorded battle location (no official boundary).

Key facts

Date20 March 1746 – 3 April 1746Wikidata
Date (year)1746Wikidata P580 start time
Century18th centuryderived
PeriodJacobite & laterderived
CountryScotlandderived
War / conflictJacobite rising of 1745Wikidata
ParticipantsJacobitism, Kingdom of Great BritainWikidata

About the battle

The siege of Fort William took place in the Scottish Highlands during the 1745 Jacobite Rising, from 20 March to 3 April 1746.

On 1 February 1746, the Jacobites abandoned the siege of Stirling Castle and withdrew to Inverness to wait for spring. This period was used to reduce government strongpoints in the Highlands, including Blair Castle and Fort Augustus; after its surrender on 1 March, they moved onto Fort William.

Advance elements of the Jacobite force arrived outside the fort on 8 March; operations began on 20 March but made little progress. When the Duke of Cumberland and his army left Aberdeen in early April, the besiegers were recalled to Inverness and the siege abandoned.

Visiting the battlefield

Location

  • Recorded location (Wikidata; may be approximate): 56.8214, -5.1077

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Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Siege of Fort William (revision 1370741269), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; condensed by selecting paragraphs; citations removed. No text added.

Battle location from Wikidata (CC0).

Nearby battlefields

Other battles of the Jacobite rising of 1745

All battles of the Jacobite rising of 1745 →

Browse more: battles in Highland · battles in Scotland · Jacobite & later · 18th century battles

Further reading