Qualla: Battle of Glen Shiel https://qualla.com/battle-of-glen-shiel en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:24 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/h/j/battle-of-glen-shiel-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Battle of Glen Shiel https://qualla.com/battle-of-glen-shiel Battle of Glen Shiel: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-of-glen-shiel/ Photo credit Nigel Brown, CC BY-SA 2.0. One of the peaks above Glen Shiel carries an unusual name: Sgurr nan Spainteach, the Peak of the Spaniards. It commemorates not a tourist visit but a military disaster. On 10 June 1719, three hundred Spanish soldiers found themselves dug into the slopes of this remote Highland valley, fighting alongside a thousand Jacobite clansmen against a government army that had no intention of losing. By nightfall the rising was over, the Spanish were surrendering, and the Jacobite cause had suffered another defeat in a glen so narrow that retreat was nearly impossible.

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Image: Nigel Brown | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/h/j/battle-of-glen-shiel-wp/gfhj-battle-of-glen-shiel-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle of Glen Shiel: A Mediterranean Gambit in the Mist https://qualla.com/battle-of-glen-shiel/ Photo credit Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0. The 1719 rising was not born in Scotland but in Madrid. Cardinal Giulio Alberoni, chief minister to Philip V of Spain, conceived a two-pronged invasion of Britain as part of the War of the Quadruple Alliance. The main fleet of twenty-seven warships and five thousand troops would ...

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Image: Diliff | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/h/j/battle-of-glen-shiel-wp/gfhj-battle-of-glen-shiel-a-mediterranean-gambit-in-the-mist.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle of Glen Shiel: The Narrows of Glen Shiel https://qualla.com/battle-of-glen-shiel/ Photo credit Peter Tillemans, Public domain. By June, the Jacobite force had gathered roughly a thousand Highlanders from clans including the MacGregors, Mackenzies, and Camerons. Their position in Glen Shiel was strong on paper -- steep slopes on both sides of the River Shiel, with the Spanish marines holding the high grou...

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Image: Peter Tillemans | Public domain

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/h/j/battle-of-glen-shiel-wp/gfhj-battle-of-glen-shiel-the-narrows-of-glen-shiel.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle of Glen Shiel: Surrender on the Mountainside https://qualla.com/battle-of-glen-shiel/ Photo credit Shaundd, CC BY-SA 4.0. As darkness fell, the Highlanders melted into the mountains -- an option available to men who knew every corrie and deer path. The Spanish had no such advantage. Cut off in a foreign country, unable to speak the language, and with no line of retreat, the three hundred marines sur...

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Image: Shaundd | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/h/j/battle-of-glen-shiel-wp/gfhj-battle-of-glen-shiel-surrender-on-the-mountainside.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle of Glen Shiel: The Glen Remembers https://qualla.com/battle-of-glen-shiel/ Photo credit DocNowak, CC BY-SA 3.0. Glen Shiel today is a place of extraordinary emptiness. The A87 road follows the River Shiel through the narrows where Wightman's troops advanced, and the mountains rise steeply on both sides just as they did in 1719. The battlefield has been designated as one of the Historic Sco...

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Image: DocNowak | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/f/h/j/battle-of-glen-shiel-wp/gfhj-battle-of-glen-shiel-the-glen-remembers.mp3 0:06 5 full