16thC Distraction - Corrichie

The Battle of Corrichie.

In 1562 Mary Stewart, Queen of Scots, had given her protestant half-brother, James Stewart, the title Earl of Moray in order to reward his service to the crown and to counterbalance the power of the conservative catholic Earl of Huntly who controlled most of north east Scotland. Huntly was not at all in the Queen’s favour due to his family’s feuds with other lords, but he squandered whatever chance he had to regain it by failing to appear before her in Aberdeen and submit and then allowing one of his son’s to shadow her progress to Inverness with a large band of armed men. At Inverness matters worsened when the Queen was initially refused entry to the castle which Huntly controlled. Huntly was called to account and ordered to give up the family castles at Findlater, Auchindoun and Strathbogie and appear before the Queens privy council. Huntly did not like the odds. He sent his wife to bargain for him. By now Mary had taken her full of him and had him declared an outlaw. She dispatched riders to take him at Strathbogie, but he managed to escape over the castle wall without so much as “boote or swerde” and made off for another of his holdings at Ruthven in Badenoch on the other side of the Cairngorms.

There he schemed and called his family and supporters to him, hoping to raise an army of 20,000 as he had boasted that he could a couple of years before. However, the winds had changed and many of his former allies sensed this and when the chips were down, failed to come out for him.

He set out from Ruthven towards Aberdeen in late October. He may have hoped that some would rally to him on his march and that his army would swell as it moved east. However only his sons Lord George, Sir John and Sir Adam Gordon, his cousin the Earl of Sutherland and some of his Gordon kin followed him – Black Alistair Gordon of Abergeldie, George Gordon of Blairdinnie and William Gordon of Terpersie. Others such as Abercrombie of Pitmedden, Douglas of Tilquillie, Irvine of Drum, Bisset of Lessendrum and Menzies of Pitfodels also joined. A glance at a map of the lands around dee and donside quickly gives the impression that none of these men were great landowners and even in a time when the countryside was more densely populated most of these others would have contributed only a few dozen men at best. Many stayed away and some, such as Gordon of Haddo, even joined the Queen’s forces. Thus, with between 500-800 men, Huntly reached Garlogie, about 12 miles from Aberdeen and camped not far from the loch of Skene.

Moray had not been idle. Whilst Huntly had been in the hills, he had summoned pike and shot from Lothian and Edinburgh to supplement the militia from Aberdeen, of which he was sheriff. He also had a unit of horse, bringing his total to near 2000 men. Learning of Huntly’s approach he sent the Earl of Errol, Lord Balqhuain and Lord Forbes with his mounted men to beat up Huntly’s camp at Garlogie in a dawn raid on the 28^th of October. Moray himself brought the foot from Aberdeen.

The raid forced Huntly to realise he did not have the strength to take on Moray and he began to retreat, back the way he came. He stuck to rough ground, hindering the cavalry and pikemen of his foe and made for high ground a few miles from his camp. He crossed a burn and turned at bay on a spur of the Hill o’Fare, probably around the Meikle Tap, which rises steeply above the surrounding country, hoping this would favour his troops and even the disparity in numbers.

Moray was now at hand, having followed with his foot. By mid-afternoon it was time to fight – there was little daylight left. His shot drove the Huntly’s men from their position, down the hill and to the west into the Howe of Corrichie. He sent his horse up to deal with them, his pike following.  The horse could not finish them off due to the boggy ground along the burn. But Huntly was now pinned, with steep ground at his back and his enemy close by. Moray sent in the Aberdeenshire men first, but perhaps due to former loyalties, perhaps faced by desperate men or even simply because of poor training and bad ground they broke and fled back and around the Lothian men. Huntly led his men forward, determined to follow up this small success, however the Edinburgh pike were steady and the Gordon’s could not get within range to use their hand weapons against the closed ranks of pike supported by the horse and shot. Now it was the Gordons turn to break and with nowhere to go they had little chance but to surrender and take their chances or die.

Some 200 or so of Huntly’s men lay dead amongst the heather. Over 120 were taken prisoner. The rest, dead at Garlogie or fled in ones and twos into the October gloom. The battle had lasted for under an hour. Huntly himself surrendered his sword and was taken before Moray. As he was led away he “sodenlie fawleth from his horse starke dedde…” succumbing to a seizure or heart failure. Bar the recriminations, it was all over.

Tomorrow… refighting the battle.