One of the largest collections of Scottish Ballads & Scots Folk Songs, lyrics, celtic music and downloads available on the internet.
Traditional Celtic Music, Scottish Songs & Border Ballads
Scots' musician, songwriter, & balladeer.
Hazel
Song History
Braes O'
Killiecrankie
A simple brief
thought on Scottish
Independance.

Were the outdated
union not of some very
high value to England and
the English, why would
they fight so to try to
keep it?

There are only so many
slices to a pie, for one to
have more, another must
have less.

Lastly - to those Scottish
"Loyalists" - to whom are
you loyal?
Scots royalty died in the
1700's so it can be no
Scots crown - And
certainly not it appears to
those who came before,
that bled for Scotland
and her freedom !  
In the words
of Burns, as he
wrote from the heart.

Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled,
Scots, wham Bruce has aften led,
Welcome to your gory bed,
Or to victorie.

Now's the day, and now's the hour;
See the front o' battle lour;
See approach proud Edward's power,
Chains and slaverie.

Wha would be a traitor-knave?
Wha can fill a coward's grave?
Wha sae base as be a Slave?
Let him turn and flie:

Wha for Scotland's king and law,
Freedom's sword will strongly draw,
Free-man stand, or free-man fa',
Let him follow me.

By Oppression's woes and pains!
By your Sons in servile chains!
We will drain our dearest veins,
But they shall be free!

Lay the proud Usurpers low!
Tyrants fall in every foe!
Liberty's in every blow!
Let us Do - or Die!!!

Choose your destiny.


There In 1689, after William of Orange
(William III) had landed on the shores of
England ousting King James II from the dual
thrones of England and Scotland, the Scottish Highland
clans were to a great extent sympathetic to their former
King.  When John Graham of Claverhouse and Viscount
Dundee ("Bluidy Clavers" to his enemies; "Bonnie
Dundee" to his supporters) raised the Royal standard for
King James II, most of the Highland Chiefs joined this
"Jacobite" revolution (so named from the Latin for James,
Jacobus) largely through the influence of Sir Ewen
Cameron of Lochiel, XVII Captain and Chief of Clan
Cameron.  During the prior winter, before Dundee had
"arrived on the scene," Sir Ewen had been engaged in
forming a confederation of clans loyal to James and had
written to or met every chief of importance.  When,
therefore, Dundee came to Lochaber, Sir Ewen was able to
give him an exact estimate of the support he was likely to
receive.

A force of about 1,800 men and a few horse had joined
Dundee when he heard that General Mackay of Scourie, in
command of the governmental troops, was advancing
towards Inverness.  Bonnie Dundee was determined to
intercept Mackay near Blair Atholl and, regardless of the
disparity in numbers, bring him to battle.  Many of the
clans, including 500 additional Camerons, had not yet
arrived ("the day arranged for the general gathering of the
clans had not yet arrived.")  Dundee had ordered these
reinforcements to follow "with all haste."

Sir Ewen had only his Lochaber men with him, numbering
about 240, but he dispatched his eldest son, John and
several others to Morvern, Sunart, Ardnamurchan and the
surrounding districts to bring his adherents from these
places with all speed.  Dundee, however, was so anxious
to have Sir Ewen along with him that he requested him to
follow with the small body of Camerons he then had,
leaving orders for his son to follow with the others as soon
as possible.  Sir Ewen, with this "small band," overtook
Dundee just before he entered Atholl, where they were
soon joined by about 300 Irish under the command of
Major-General Cannon.  Proceeding on their way, they
arrived at Blair Castle on July 27th.  Intelligence reports
soon related that Mackay had just entered the Pass of
Killiecrankie, heading towards the Atholl Basin.  
Strategically the pass was of great importance, as it
controlled a crucial north-south route through the
Highlands.

Dundee, after meeting with the Highland Chiefs in a war
council, marched at the head of his troops to meet the
enemy, never halting until they were within a musket shot
of Mackay's army, which numbered about 3,500 foot and
two troops of horse.  These men were mostly Lowland
Scots and veterans of the Dutch wars.  Just left of the
center, which consisted of the few horse Dundee
commanded and forty of his "old troops," Sir Ewen took
up his position at the head of the Camerons.  Though there
were great intervals between Dundee's battalions and a
large void space left in the center, the line could not
possibly be "stretched" so as to equal that of the enemy.  
Wanting men to fill up the void in the center, Sir Ewen was
not only obliged to fight Mackay's own regiment, which
stood directly opposite to him, but also had his flank
exposed to the fire of Leven's battalion . Ewen he had not
men enough to engage all these forces, consequently he
thereafter suffered greatly.  Further diminishing his
Cameron forces of only 240 men was that 60 were sent as
Dundee's advance guard.  As for the composition of the
"Camerons" they consisted of those obviously with the
surname of Cameron, in addition to a large body of
MacMartins being led by their cheiftain.  "Tannachy" was
also present, along with "Glendessary" and a number of
others including the "tribes" of Lonoch.

By the time Dundee got his army in order it was well on in
the afternoon, and his men, aggravated by the fire of the
enemy from the low ground, were anxious to be led into
action.  One delay was inevitable, namely the sun, which
was shinning straight in their faces; they were held back
until near sunset.  During this interval Sir Ewen visited his
Camerons and appealed personally to each of them, every
one of whom declared in turn that they should conquer or
die that day.  A rare description of the Chief of Clan
Cameron has been preserved in "The Grameid," a
first-hand Latin composition by James Philip of
Almerieclose: "A helmet covers his head, to his side is
girt a double-edged brand, blood red plumes float on his
crest.  A cuirass of leather, harder than adamant, girds his
breast and on his left arm hangs his shield.  His tartan
hose are gartered round his calf, mail covers his
shoulders, and a brazen plate his back.  All of his trappings
are rigid with solid brass, and throw back to the clouds
reflected light.  His very look so fierce, might fright the
boldest foe.  His savage glance, and the swarthy hue of his
Spanish countenance, his flashing eyes, his beard and
moustache curls as the moon's horns, or the handle of the
tongs, might terrify the bands of half-human
Sycambrians."   

At seven o'clock Dundee gave the order to advance, upon
which the Highlanders dropped their plaids and
haversacks and advanced.  Sir Ewen, after ordering his
men to follow Dundee's command, seems to have been
much encumbered by the use of what were described as
"the only pair of shoes in his clan."  Not being able to keep
pace with his men, he commended them to the protection
of God, sat down by the way and deliberately pulling off
the footwear that crippled him.  He had the agility to get up
to his men as they were drawing their swords, in close
quarters with the enemy.  "It is incredible with what
intrepidity the Highlanders endured the enemy's fire; and
though it grew more terrible on their nearer approach, yet
they, with a wonderful resolution, kept up their own, as
they were commanded, till they came up to their very
bosoms, and then pouring it in upon them all at once, like
one great clasp of thunder, they threw away their guns
and fell in pell-mell among the thickest of them with their
broadswords. After this the noise seemed hushed; and the
fire ceasing on both sides, nothing was heard for some
few moments but the sullen and hollow clashes of
broadswords, with the dismal groans and cries of dying
and wounded men."

Sir Ewen was "attended" on this occasion by the son of
his foster-brother (who had saved him at the battle of
Achdalieu by receiving the shot intended for his Chief in
his own mouth.)  "This faithful adherent followed him like
his shadow, ready to assist him with  his sword, or cover
him from the shot of his enemy.  Soon after the battle
began the chief missed his friend from his side.  Turning
round to look what had become of him, Ewen saw him
lying on his back with his breast pierced by an arrow.  He
had hardly breath before he expired to tell Lochiel that
seeing an enemy, a Highlander in General Mackay's army,
aiming at him with a bow and arrow from the rear, he
sprung behind him and thus sheltered him from instant
death.  The men of Lochaber's charge made it through to
the enemy line, where Mackay's foot were "swept away
by the furious onset of the Camerons."  Of the 240
reported Cameron men who took the field at Killiecrankie,
one half perished in the battle, mainly from the flanking
fire by Levin's battalion.  The contemporary song "The
Battle of Killiecrankie" related: "Sir Evan Dhu, and his men
true, Came linking up the brink, man: The Hogan Dutch
they feared such, They bred a horrid stink, then."

Unfortunately, Dundee fell at the close of the battle,
mortally wounded by a shot about two handbreadths
within his armor, on the lower part of his left side.  The
Highlanders, though they had to mourn the loss of about
one third of their army, secured a complete victory.  Few
of the enemy escaped, but having lost their brilliant
commander, the war may be said to have ended - before it
was well commenced - by a Highland victory; perhaps the
most brilliant on record.  One hundred and fifty years later
poets were still telling the tale of that great victory in the
Pass of Killiecrankie.