Battle of the North Inch

[ThistleDown]

Who were the combatants at this famous battle? Two clans "Kay" and "Qwhewyl" are named in the historically reliable sources-- but who are they?

I would venture to suggest that "Clan Kay" is now generally identified as the Davidsons (Wyntoun's account names the clans involved in the battle as "Clachynnhe Qwhewyl, and "Clachinya" [Clann Dhaibhidh]), and Clan Qwhewyl is synonymous with "MacMillan".

Instead each chief sent his own representatives: thirty Davidsons on behalf of the Macintosh, and a like number of MacMillans to fight for Lochiel. Again, according to Wyntoun, a total of fifty men were slain at that battle; Shaw Farquharson, chief of the Davidsons escaped with his life by vaulting the barrier and swimming across the River Tay. Shortly after the battle Lochiel granted charters to a number of MacMillans for the lands previously in possession of the Macintosh (including a charter to John, and his son Gilchrist who led the clan at the Barrier Battle of Perth).

I am afraid, Rathdown, that there is no belief in the Davidsons as major participants in this battle, no matter the tales of the 19C and the arguments of a writer or two in the mid-20C.

Wyntoun's two clans bear names not recognised today but it is likely that the Clan Qwhewyl was the Lochaber confederation of Macgillonies, Macsorleys, Macmartins and Macmillans (no relationship with the Macmillans of Kintyre). By a major stretch of the 19C imagination the other party to the battle, the Clachinya, was by a few equated with the Clan Dhai and this was picked up by the popular romantics. These same also made the battle into one between two septs of the Clan Chattan -- the Clan Vurrich and the Clan Dhai.

What we know for fact today is that the Clan Dhai would have been unable to field the required thirty, that the Shaw son of Farquhar you mention was Shaw Mor, a Macintosh not a Davidson, and that he was assigned leadership by an aging Clan Chattan chief, Lachlan Mackintosh, and is buried at Doune in Rothiemurchus. We also know that before the battle Shaw was called macgillichrist mac Ian.

What we do not know -- because the several early writers are inconsistent -- is which of the two was the victor. But we can surmise it was the Clan Chattan because Shaw was rewarded with the lands of Rothiemurchus for his role. A gift of that enormous size and importance would certainly not have been made were he the loser. And, of course, he had to be alive to receive it. As further proof of victory, the fact is that the lands of Glen Loy and Loch Arkaig remained in the ownership of the Mackintosh until they were sold to Lochiel in the 17C.

There is a possibility that the small tribes of Lochaber were also of the old Clan Chattan, as were those who moved to Badenoch and became known as Clan Vurrich (Macpherson), Cattanach, Macdhai (Davidson), Macphail and Macbean. The Lochaber bunch remained on the old lands, but owed rent to Mackintosh, who had inherited the charters (both the Royal charter and that of the Lord of the Isles) through marriage to the Clan Chattan heiress. The conflict between those who left and those who remained behind began in the mid-13C, but continued for a further 300 years.

To quote Kinrara in translation from his MS of 1670: "After this conflict, all the Clanchattans (because of their good fortune in that fight under the leadership of Shaw Mackintosh) most strictly bound themselves and their posterity (an oath being added) by a new bond of service and subjection to...Lauchlan Mackintosh their chief...."

Of course, there is the story of Henry Wynd of Perth who was received into the arms of the Clan Chattan after the battle -- which means that he, too, was alive at the end of the conflict.

Lachlan09, the existence in Badenoch of the Gow descendants of the Perth blacksmith is well-known not as a sept of any clan, but as tenants of the early Macphersons. They were referred to as ghow Chruim as early as the late 15C.