A Brief Military History
By Cathy Wood
‘If You Had Been Whaur I Had Been…’
Over the years the reputation grew of the Mackays as the ideal soldier – sober, God fearing, disciplined, brave and physically hardy. The Laird could rely on his clansmen for recruitment, and military service offered the chance of improvement and adventure.
Lieutenant General Hugh Mackay was born in Scourie about 1640 and joined the army in 1660. He rose to become the Commander in Chief of the army in Scotland for William and Mary. Many other Highlanders remained loyal to the Catholic King, James VII and II and became the nucleus of a Jacobite party. In 1689 at Killiecrankie the government forces, led by Lieutenant General Hugh Mackay, were defeated by these Highlanders, led by ‘Bonnie Dundee’, who died in the battle. They in turn were crushed later the same year at Dunkeld.
The song ‘Killiekrankie’ is an account of this battle while the song ‘Bonnie Dundee’ recalls the ‘Rebel’ leader, John Graham of Claverhouse from a ‘Rebel’ point of view.
The Union of Parliaments
The Act of Union unified the Parliaments of Scotland and England in 1707. In the same year the Mackays were described as one of the loyal clans, the head of which, Lord Reay, received a pension from the Crown of £300 until 1831. In the Jacobite Rebellions of 1715 and 1745 most of the Mackays fought on the government side, but seventeen Mackays found themselves prisoners of war after Culloden, nine of whom were transported to Barbados.
Some of Robb Don’s work displays Jacobite sympathies which he was summoned to explain before Lord Reay. Attitudes and allegiances in these times were not as simple as they may seem to us looking back. Individuals were strongly tied by the decisions of their Chief and tacksmen in times of war and dispute.
Scourie - 2000
Hugh Mackay and Michael Mackay with a portrait of General Hugh Mackay. The oldest and the youngest male Mackays in the village. Unveiling of General Hugh Mackay Memorial Cairn.
Kindly donated by: Mrs Ray Mackay ED51Q6
Jacobite Gold
In his account of a tour through Sutherland in 1760 Bishop Pococke being entertained by a Mr Forbes was shown the grave of a Frenchman killed in an engagement which took place near Tongue three weeks before Culloden. The Sheerness man of war ‘Captain Obrian’ chased the sloop ‘Hazard’ which had on board 150 men and £13,000 for the Pretender. The sloop ran ashore accidentally and Forbes with eight local men held them at bay until the part of a regiment stationed nearby arrived. The rebels surrendered and were carried off on board the man-of-war.
To this day there are rumours that there is more gold to be found somewhere around or in the Kyle of Tongue – perhaps at Loch Hakon. The story is told in the book by Farr Secondary School pupils and Alan Temperley – ‘Tales of the North Coast’.
During World War II - Bert Briersman, Canada, in Canadian military uniform. Bert was a farm-hand on Marion Mackay's farm in Canada. She and her husband treated him like a son and when they died they bequeathed him the farm.
Kindly donated by: Kim Campbell or Morrison ED31A18
Sutherland Fencibles and ‘Highlanders’
Men from Mackay Country formed the bulk of the 1st Sutherland Fencibles formed in 1759 and the Reay Fencibles raised in 1794. Fencible regiments were home defence regiments formed to combat the threat of invasion by France and Napoleon. Eight hundred men of the Reay Fencibles stationed in Ireland on 26th May 1798 routed a force of 4000 rebels at Tara Hill. They were disbanded in 1802 and incorporated into the 93rd Regiment of Foot, Sutherland Highlanders which had been formed in April 1799. Much of the regiment came from Strathnaver and was recruited under the old clan system. At an assembly of young men those volunteering were called forward and given a dram of whisky and some snuff.
In their illustrious history until amalgamated with the Argylls in 1881 the Sutherland Highlanders had a reputation for discipline and loyalty. General Stewart of Garth in his ‘Sketches of the Highlands’ says ‘In the words of a General Officer by whom the 93rd Sutherlands were once reviewed, they exhibit a perfect pattern of moral rectitude’.
In Donald MacLeod’s Gloomy Memories he tells the story of the Sutherland Highlanders when stationed at the Cape of Good Hope. ‘Anxious to enjoy the advantage of religious instruction in the tenets of their national church, and there being no religious service available to the garrison except the existing one of reading prayers to soldiers on parade, they formed themselves into a congregation, appointed elders of their own number and paid a stipend (collected among themselves) to a clergyman of the Church of Scotland.’ They collected money for charitable causes and sent money upwards of £500 to Sutherland where the need was great.
The Sutherland Highlanders amalgamated in 1881 to form the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.