The Battle of Philiphaugh 1645
This must be one of the spookiest, eeriest places I have visited in Scotland. Located deep in the Philiphaugh Estate, this monument to Covenanter battle is a stone-cobbled cairn, 20 foot high and 18 yards around the base. It stands on an earthwork from the battle. Associated with it are two 13th century moulded bases, parts of a 17th century tombstone, and an armorial panel bearing the arms of Sir John Murray, who erected the monument in 1848.
Battle of Philiphaugh, 1645
The memorial is inscribed,
‘Erected by Sir John Murray to the memory of the Covenanters who fought and gained the Battle of Philiphaugh on the 13th September 1645’
Philiphaugh was a fierce and bloody battle fought on 13th September 1645, between the Royalist army of the Marquis of Montrose and the Covenanter army of Sir David Leslie. The result was a devastating defeat for Montrose.
who became leader of the Royalist campaign 1644–1645
Who were the Covenanters?
The Covenanters were supporters of a Scottish Presbyterian faith, which was under threat from Charles I and the Royalists were supporters of the Crown and willing to defend the King’s rule.
The Covenanters were supporters of the National Covenant 1638. This was a solemn agreement inaugurated by Scottish churchmen on 28 February 1638, in the Greyfriars’ churchyard, Edinburgh.
They were against by King Charles I to impose a new liturgy and prayer book upon the Church of Scotland. Many leading nobles took the opportunity to align themselves with the movement in protest at the King’s attempts to weaken the political power of the Scottish aristocracy.
Rioting at a church service in Scotland against the use of the Anglican prayer Book.
The Covenanters became the leading religious and political force in Scotland and they dominated the Glasgow Assembly of 1638, at which they defied the King and abolished Episcopacy from the Kirk.
The Battle of Philiphaugh – 1645
Montrose had arrived at Philiphaugh on 12th September 1645, and he camped in a secure position at the junction of the Ettrick and Yarrow rivers. Leslie had marched back into Scotland and unknown to Montrose, he was camped nearby between Selkirk and Galashiels.
Montrose had perhaps 1500 infantry and a few cavalry but the Covenanter force not only outnumbered the royalists, it comprised a large proportion of seasoned troops.
Montrose’s army was weakened as the Highland and Irish troops under MacColla had gone back home. Alastair MacColla had decided he wanted to renew his personal campaign in the west and he left the Royalist camp taking with him all the Irish, except those who remained loyal under Magnus O’Cahan.
Border lords Roxburgh, Home, Traquair and Douglas had come to Montrose, after the successful defeat of the Convenanters at the Battle of Kilsyth to make their peace and declare their loyalty to the King.
Montrose believed this would be a good opportunity to take the Royalist campaign south, gambling on the declared loyalty of these border lords. However, it was only the Earl of Douglas who kept his promise to Montrose but the 1200 men whom he gathered were untrained and inexperienced.
Lord Traquair sent his son Lord Linton to Montrose with a troop of horse but there is strong evidence to show that his only contribution was to betray the Royalists before the battle of Philiphaugh.
Home and Roxburgh, having declared their loyalty to Montrose, were supposed to be recruiting for Montrose but in reality they allowed themselves to be captured by the Covenanters. They lost no time in updating the Covenanters on the position and the weakness of the Royalist force.
Montrose’s infantry were at Philiphaugh, while he and many of his officers and some cavalry were across the river in Selkirk. When the engagment began many failed to get back across the river in time. The Royalists had been caught entirely unaware. Montrose jumped on the first horse he could find and galloped down the brae towards Philiphaugh.
When he got there he found Magnus O’Cahan’s Irish bravely manning the breastworks and holding back almost ten times their number of mounted troopers. Montrose gathered as many cavalry as he could, around 50, and led a series of frantic charges upon the Covenant horse, desperate to try to relieve the defenders of the breastworks.
For a short time this plan worked and momentarily the Covenanter advance was checked. The Royalist horse could not sustain this effort for long however and soon their casualties began to rise. The sheer weight of the Covenanting horse then began to tell and Montrose’s small band could do no more.
Montrose was distraught at the plight of the Irish and he resolved to mount one last suicidal charge on their assailants. The small group remaining with him, however, advocated withdrawal, arguing that as long as Montrose remained alive, the Royalist cause in Scotland would also.
Realising that what they said was true Montrose gave way and the small party led him from the field. As they fled the Irish were standing resolute but with mounting casualties. It was only a matter of time until they would be overwhelmed.
The Massacre of the Loyal Irish
Montrose knew that he was leaving the flower of his army on the field; the loyal Irish, who in the last 12 months had swept aside every force the Covenanters could put in the field against them. He knew he was leaving them to their fate and it was something which would haunt him for the rest of his life.
The Irish eventually agreed to surrender under terms agreed with their senior surviving officer Adjutant Stewart and they were promised quarter upon surrender of their arms.
However, the Clergy of the Covenant claimed that the Irish were unworthy of such terms and demanded that the thousands of Covenant slain in the previous conflicts should be avenged. Leslie was initially against it but gave way to the pressure from the Clergy.
The unarmed Irish were marched to the courtyard of Newark Castle and slaughtered to a man. The bodies were buried in a mass grave in nearby Slain Man’s Lea.
Of all the atrocities which were perpetrated by both sides during the civil war, some believe that surely none could be as base as the slaughter which took place, after an act of surrender, upon the Irish at Philiphaugh.
After this the Covenanter troop came upon a group of 300 helpless camp followers near the battlefield, many of them Irish women and children, and slaughtered them too.
Montrose attempted to raise another army in the Highlands, but was unable to take the field against Leslie’s army. After fighting a guerilla campaign over the following winter and spring, he received orders from King Charles (who was now himself a prisoner) to lay down his arms.
He fled and went into exile. Montrose would return to Scotland four years later but he suffered a disastrous defeat at the Battle of Carbisdale in April 1650. He fled to the presumed safety of Ardveck Castle.
Ardverck Castle
But his fate was sealed, he was betrayed by the MacLeods of Assynt for a large sum of money. It led to his barbaric execution in Edinburgh at the hands of the Covenanters.
The betrayal and arrest of Montrose at Ardverck Castle, Assynt
The Marquis looked so handsome as he was walked through the crowds in his regal clothes the day before his execution. that the crowds did not jeer but had looked on in sad astonishment.
He was hanged on 21st May 1650 at the Mercat Cross in Edinburgh. He was 37 years old. The hangman in tears as he pushed him off the scaffold. His body was left to hang for three hours, then his limbs cut off and sent for public display in Stirling, Aberdeen, Perth and Glasgow.
His head was cut off, fixed on a spike on the Tolbooth, and it remained there for eleven years until Argyll’s head took its place. The rest of Montrose’s body was buried in a box on the Burgh-Moor.
After the restoration of Charles II, Montrose’s remains were dug up and given honourable interment in the High Kirk of St Giles, where a noble monument marks the grave today.
A souvenir of Montrose’s hanging: His right arm (seen front and back) and sword. The arm was nailed at the gate of Dundee, later was carried off to England, and was never buried with his remains.
How to get there – the monument is located within Philiphaugh Estate, near Selkirk in the Scottish Borders. Entrance to the estate is off the A708.
Sat Nav coordinates : 55.54065,-2.88903 or 55°32’26.35N, 2°53’20.54W
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