⚔ Battlefields of Britain

Siege of Inverness 1649

Siege of Inverness: Inverness Castle
Image: QuintusPetillius, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Marker: recorded battle location (no official boundary).

Key facts

Date22 February 1649 – 26 February 1649Wikidata
Date (year)1649Wikidata P580 start time
Century17th centuryderived
PeriodCivil Warsderived
CountryScotlandderived

About the battle

The siege of Inverness took place in 1649 as part of the 17th-century Scottish Civil War that was, in turn, part of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.

On 5 February 1649, Charles II had been proclaimed king after his father's execution. It was decided that Charles and his allies who were in exile should again try to recover the kingdom, in connection with the plans of the exiled James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose. As a result a rising took place in the north of Scotland under Colonel Hugh Fraser, who was joined by John Munro of Lemlair, Thomas Mackenzie of Pluscarden and Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromarty.

On 22 February they entered Inverness, where they expelled the garrison of Inverness Castle and afterwards demolished the walls and fortifications. On 26 February a council of war was held. Here they framed certain enactments by which they took the customs and excise of the six northern counties of Scotland into their own hands. Soon afterwards General David Leslie, Lord Newark was sent north to attack them. The clans then retreated from Inverness back into Ross-shire.

Visiting the battlefield

Location

  • Recorded location (Wikidata; may be approximate): 57.4764, -4.2253

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Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Siege of Inverness (1649) (revision 1370741989), 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).

Nearby battlefields

Browse more: battles in Highland · battles in Scotland · Civil Wars · 17th century battles

Further reading