Scottish history and heritage online
On 16 August 1745, two companies from the 2nd Battalion of Lieutenant-General James Sinclair’s 1st Regiment of Foot (Royal Scots), marching to reinforce the garrison of Fort William, were attacked by a party of Macdonalds at Highbridge in the first military engagement of the Jacobite Rising of 1745. Read more about the engagement at Highbridge […]
11 August 1332: In the first major battle of the Second War of Scottish Independence, a force of Disinherited Scots and English troops led by Scottish pretender Edward Balliol and Henry Beaumont heavily defeated a much larger pro-Bruce Scottish army commanded by Donald, Earl of Mar, at the Battle of Dupplin Moor outside Perth. Mar’s […]
On 10 August 1460, nine-year-old James III was crowned at Kelso Abbey just seven days after the death of his father, James II, at the siege of Roxburgh Castle. The reign of James III commenced with a prolonged minority that extended nearly ten years, during which Scotland was administered by various regents and factions vying […]
9 August 1757: The birth at Glendinning Farm, Dumfriesshire, of Scottish civil engineer Thomas Telford. Telford began his career as a mason and self-educated to become an architect. In 1786, he was appointed as the surveyor of public works for Shropshire, a role that involved the construction of various buildings and bridges. Among the structures […]
On August 8, 1503, King James IV married 13-year-old Margaret Tudor, the daughter of King Henry VII of England, at Holyrood Abbey in Edinburgh. The couple had six children, but only the future King James V survived infancy. This union, often referred to as the “thistle and the rose,” by the poet William Dunbar was […]
6 August 1514: Following the death of her husband James IV at the Battle of Flodden on 9 September 1513, Margaret Tudor, the sister of Henry VIII of England, married Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus, at Kinnoull in Perthshire. The marriage ceremony was held in secret and angered other powerful Scottish noble houses who […]
On 5 August 1598, during the Maclean-Macdonald feud and in a fight over territory on the Isle of Islay, Sir Lachlan Mor MacLean of Duart was defeated by his nephew, Sir James MacDonald of Dunnyveg, at the Battle of Traigh Ghruineard on Islay. Maclean was killed along with 300 of his clansmen in the fighting. […]
On 5 August 1704, the Parliament of Scotland’s Act of Security (also called the Act for the Security of the Kingdom) was given Royal Assent. The Act allowed the Scottish Parliament to choose a different Protestant monarch from England upon the death of Queen Anne, unless Scotland was granted complete freedom of trade and navigation, […]
On 5 August 1388, in a moonlit battle near Otterburn in Northumberland, a Scottish army under Sir James Douglas, 2nd Earl of Douglas, defeated an English force led by Sir Henry (Hotspur) Percy. Douglas was killed leading his men on foot, receiving 3 spear wounds and an axe blow, while Percy was captured by Sir […]
On 5 August 1600, an alleged attempt was made on the life of King James VI by the Ruthven family at Gowrie House in Perth. Both John Ruthven, 3rd Earl of Gowrie and his brother Alexander were killed during the strange incident, which became known as The Gowrie Conspiracy. Some historians suggest it may have […]