Qualla: Battle of Cromdale https://qualla.com/battle-of-cromdale 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/w/battle-of-cromdale-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Battle of Cromdale https://qualla.com/battle-of-cromdale Battle of Cromdale: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-of-cromdale/ Photo credit Scotland_location_map.svg: Eric Gaba, NordNordWest derivative work: Uwe Dedering, CC BY-SA 3.0. The ballad gets almost everything wrong. The Haughs of Cromdale celebrates a great Jacobite victory led by Montrose over twenty thousand of Cromwell's men, complete with Highland blows and fleeing Roundheads. In reality, the Battle of Cromdale was a Jacobite defeat, Montrose had been dead for forty years, and Cromwell had been in his grave for thirty-two. The poet James Hogg, who included the song in his Jacobite Reliques, called it 'the worst specimen of the truth of Scottish song that is to be met with.' He suspected it was two different ballads -- one about an earlier victory, one about the 1690 disaster -- stitched together as propaganda. The battlefield, on a hillside near the village of Cromdale in Strathspey, tells a more sober story.

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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/w/battle-of-cromdale-wp/gfjw-battle-of-cromdale-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle of Cromdale: An Army Running Out of Reasons https://qualla.com/battle-of-cromdale/ Photo credit Scotland_location_map.svg: Eric Gaba, NordNordWest derivative work: Uwe Dedering, CC BY-SA 3.0. After the Jacobite victory at Killiecrankie in 1689 and the costly stalemate at the Battle of Dunkeld, the Highland clans had returned home in low spirits. Their charismatic commander, Viscount Dundee, was dead. Sir Ewen Cameron assumed control of the remnant, and the chiefs wrot...

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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/w/battle-of-cromdale-wp/gfjw-battle-of-cromdale-an-army-running-out-of-reasons.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle of Cromdale: A General Who Would Not Listen https://qualla.com/battle-of-cromdale/ Photo credit Scotland_location_map.svg: Eric Gaba, NordNordWest derivative work: Uwe Dedering, CC BY-SA 3.0. Buchan advanced through Badenoch with 1,200 men, intending to march down Speyside into the Duke of Gordon's territory to gather reinforcements. Desertion whittled his force to 800. His Scottish officers warned him not to advance past Coulnakyle, near modern Nethybridge, but Bucha...

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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/w/battle-of-cromdale-wp/gfjw-battle-of-cromdale-a-general-who-would-not-listen.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle of Cromdale: Cavalry Across the Spey https://qualla.com/battle-of-cromdale/ Photo credit Scotland_location_map.svg: Eric Gaba, NordNordWest derivative work: Uwe Dedering, CC BY-SA 3.0. Sir Thomas Livingstone, commander of the Inverness garrison, moved fast. Accompanied by local Grant guides who knew every ford, his larger government force approached Cromdale from the opposite bank of the Spey. When the Jacobites saw them coming, they began to retreat. Livingsto...

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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/w/battle-of-cromdale-wp/gfjw-battle-of-cromdale-cavalry-across-the-spey.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle of Cromdale: The Pursuit to Loch an Eilein https://qualla.com/battle-of-cromdale/ Photo credit Scotland_location_map.svg: Eric Gaba, NordNordWest derivative work: Uwe Dedering, CC BY-SA 3.0. About a hundred men who had separated from the main Jacobite force crossed the Spey the following day. Pursued by Livingstone's troops, they were overtaken and dispersed on the moor of Granish near Aviemore, where some were killed. The survivors attempted to seize the island cast...

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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/w/battle-of-cromdale-wp/gfjw-battle-of-cromdale-the-pursuit-to-loch-an-eilein.mp3 0:06 5 full