The last true clan battle in Scotland may have been fought not over honour or territory in the Highlands, but over a bankruptcy. By the 1670s, George Sinclair, 6th Earl of Caithness, was so deeply in debt that he sold his estates and resigned his titles to his principal creditor, Sir John Campbell of Glenorchy. When the 6th Earl died around 1675, George Sinclair of Keiss -- the rightful heir by blood -- refused to accept that his family's inheritance had been signed away to a Campbell. On 13 July 1680, the two clans met in a ravine near Wick called Altimarlach, and the Sinclairs discovered that grievance is no substitute for training.
Glenorchy set off from Taymouth Castle in Perthshire with 500 well-armed men, marching north through the Highlands to claim what he considered legally his. Sinclair of Keiss, hearing that the Campbells had reached Braemore on the borders of Caithness, resolved to meet them in the open field rather than wait behind walls. He gathered roughly 800 followers -- though some accounts claim as many as 1,500. The numbers were misleading. Many of Sinclair's men were old, untrained, and, as the historian James Tait Calder recorded, "totally destitute of any knowledge of military tactics." The Campbells, by contrast, were experienced, disciplined, and armed for a fight they had planned.
The battle was brief and savage. At Altimarlach's narrow ravine, Glenorchy's men held the stronger position and charged with a fury that broke the Sinclair ranks almost immediately. The retreating Sinclairs were driven into the River Wick, where more died under Campbell blades than had fallen on the field itself. Estimates of Sinclair dead range from 80 to 200 -- among them David Sinclair and Major Sinclair of Thura, along with many other men of local standing. A ballad published by Calder in 1861 recorded the grief that followed: "The shrieking mother wrung her hands, / The maiden tore her hair, / And all was lamentation loud, / And terror, and despair."
Glenorchy occupied Caithness after the battle, levying rents and taxes and subjecting the population to what historians describe as grievous oppression. But military victory proved insufficient. Sinclair of Keiss, having failed to reclaim his inheritance by force, turned to the courts -- and there he prevailed. The legal system awarded him the title of Earl of Caithness. Glenorchy, "by every rank abhorred," eventually fled south across the Ord of Caithness. The man who won the battle lost the war, and the man who lost the battle got his coronet back.
The Battle of Mulroy in 1688, fought between the Mackintoshes and MacDonalds, is sometimes cited as the last clan battle. But the Mackintoshes had official government support and their force included troops from an Independent Highland Company -- making it a quasi-official military operation rather than a purely private clan affair. Altimarlach, fought eight years earlier without government involvement on either side, has a stronger claim to be the last true battle between Scottish clans. A piper named Finlay MacIver, of the Clan MacIver sept that fought alongside the Campbells, is said to have composed the bagpipe tune Bodach-na-briogais to commemorate the fight. The tune The Braes of Glenorchy also took its name from the battle. Music outlasted the blood on the riverbank.
Located at 58.456N, 3.147W near Wick, Caithness, at the northern tip of the Scottish mainland. The battlefield lies in the ravine of Altimarlach near the River Wick. Best viewed at 2,000-4,000 ft AGL. Nearest airport: Wick (EGPC) 3 nm northeast. Castle Sinclair Girnigoe, the ruined Sinclair stronghold, is visible on the coast nearby.