SHOT, SHELL AND SPRUE: the material remains of the battle of Glenshiel
The battle of Glenshiel was the only pitched battle fought during the 1719 Jacobite uprising. It was fought between the Jacobites under the earl of Tullibardine against a force of British government troops under the command of General Joseph Wightman. The Jacobites are recorded to have had around 1,200 highlanders along with 240 Spanish regulars. The government forces consisted of 850 infantry, 130 highlanders, 120 dragoons and a battery of coehorn mortars. Although casualties appear to have been relatively low on both sides, the Jacobites were defeated and were forced to withdraw, leaving the Spanish troops to surrender on the following day.
One of the most interesting aspects of Glenshiel is the fact that the battle was surveyed in detail and plans were produced by a military surveyor, John Henry Bastide, whose regiment (Monatgue’s) was at the battle on 10 June 1719. There are three versions of Bastide’s plan available in the National Library of Scotland, each of which shows slightly different details. These maps are very good at displaying the varied topography of the battlefield and the position and movement of the troops thereon. They also show a polygonal enclosure on the summit of the spur, Spanish Hill, the two ‘breastworks’ to the east and the ‘barricade’ blocking the approach to the bridge.
It is the survival of traces of these features on the ground, especially the breastworks, that has led to the spur of Spanish Hill being designated as a
