Qualla: Battle of Auldearn https://qualla.com/battle-of-auldearn en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:25 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/j/r/battle-of-auldearn-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Battle of Auldearn https://qualla.com/battle-of-auldearn Battle of Auldearn: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-of-auldearn/ Photo credit Edward Weller, Public domain. Some of his men had cleared damp powder charges by firing their muskets in the night. The sound carried across the fields to Auldearn, and the element of surprise -- Sir John Urry's entire plan -- evaporated into the Nairnshire darkness. What happened next, on 9 May 1645, was a battle shaped not by careful strategy but by improvisation, clan pride, and one of the most audacious bluffs in Scottish military history. The Marquess of Montrose, warned by his enemies' own carelessness, would turn a near-disaster into a complete victory.

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Image: Edward Weller | Public domain

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/j/r/battle-of-auldearn-wp/gfjr-battle-of-auldearn-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle of Auldearn: A Kingdom Tearing Itself Apart https://qualla.com/battle-of-auldearn/ Photo credit Scotland_location_map.svg: Eric Gaba, NordNordWest derivative work: Uwe Dedering, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Battle of Auldearn belonged to the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, the tangled web of civil conflicts that engulfed Scotland, England, and Ireland in the 1640s. Montrose held a commission from King Charles I to command Royalist forces in Scotland. His army was an improbable coali...

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Image: Scotland_location_map.svg: Eric Gaba, NordNordWest derivative work: Uwe Dedering | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/j/r/battle-of-auldearn-wp/gfjr-battle-of-auldearn-a-kingdom-tearing-itself-apart.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle of Auldearn: The Bluff at Dawn https://qualla.com/battle-of-auldearn/ Photo credit Edward Weller, Public domain. Urry advanced on Auldearn with four regiments of foot, Mackenzie clansmen under the Earl of Seaforth, the levies of the Earl of Sutherland, 800 local levies, and 400 cavalry -- a force substantially larger than Montrose's. Alerted by the accidental musket fire, Montrose deployed ...

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Image: Edward Weller | Public domain

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/j/r/battle-of-auldearn-wp/gfjr-battle-of-auldearn-the-bluff-at-dawn.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle of Auldearn: Honour as a Weapon https://qualla.com/battle-of-auldearn/ Photo credit Edward Weller, Public domain. Urry's infantry pushed forward against MacColla, who characteristically could not resist counter-charging. He was driven back, and the situation grew desperate. Montrose needed his Gordon cavalry to attack, but the horsemen, hidden in their hollow, could hear the battle without s...

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Image: Edward Weller | Public domain

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/j/r/battle-of-auldearn-wp/gfjr-battle-of-auldearn-honour-as-a-weapon.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle of Auldearn: The Bannermen Who Would Not Run https://qualla.com/battle-of-auldearn/ Photo credit Edward Weller, Public domain. As the Covenanter army disintegrated, one group refused to flee. Clan MacLennan, the hereditary standard bearers of the Mackenzies, stood their ground around the Cabar Feidh, the Mackenzie standard. Offered no quarter by the Gordon cavalry, Ruairidh Mac Gille Fhinnein, chief of t...

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Image: Edward Weller | Public domain

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/j/r/battle-of-auldearn-wp/gfjr-battle-of-auldearn-the-bannermen-who-would-not-run.mp3 0:06 5 full