Qualla: Battle of Glentaisie https://qualla.com/battle-of-glentaisie en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:13 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/g/9/battle-of-glentaisie-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Battle of Glentaisie https://qualla.com/battle-of-glentaisie Battle of Glentaisie: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-of-glentaisie/ Photo credit Handiwork.Pro, CC BY-SA 4.0. At about half past three on the morning of 2 May 1565, in the first grey light over the Antrim coast, the Galloglass infantry of Shane O'Neill went uphill at a run. The MacDonnell host on the ridge above modern Ballycastle had time only to fumble for their weapons. By full dawn, somewhere between six and seven hundred MacDonnell men were dead, two brothers of the clan's chief were prisoners, a third lay killed at a standing stone below Breen Wood, and the Scottish foothold in the Glens of Antrim had been shattered. The battle would not be the end of the MacDonnells. But it was the end of their dominance.

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/g/9/battle-of-glentaisie-wp/gcg9-battle-of-glentaisie-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle of Glentaisie: Scotsmen in Irish Glens https://qualla.com/battle-of-glentaisie/ Photo credit Handiwork.Pro, CC BY-SA 4.0. The MacDonnells of Dunnyveg were a Scottish family with their base on the Hebridean island of Islay, but for generations they had been settling the Glens of Antrim, just sixteen miles across the North Channel. To them it made perfect sense. The Glens spoke the same Gaelic, traded...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/g/9/battle-of-glentaisie-wp/gcg9-battle-of-glentaisie-scotsmen-in-irish-glens.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle of Glentaisie: A Road Cut Through Wood in a Week https://qualla.com/battle-of-glentaisie/ Photo credit Handiwork.Pro, CC BY-SA 4.0. What followed was a piece of military theatre. Shane assembled around two thousand men at the tower house of Feadan near Newry, an army of cavalry, longbowmen, redshanks, Galloglass, kerns, and gunners, and moved with extraordinary speed. He kept Easter at Feadan to disguise the ...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/g/9/battle-of-glentaisie-wp/gcg9-battle-of-glentaisie-a-road-cut-through-wood-in-a-week.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle of Glentaisie: The Ridge and the River https://qualla.com/battle-of-glentaisie/ Photo credit Handiwork.Pro, CC BY-SA 4.0. Ballycastle in 1565 was barely a town, but the geography that mattered is still legible today. Shane's army camped in what is now the centre of the modern town, between the Diamond and the River Tow, with full access to water. He drove the MacDonnells onto the higher ground at Ra...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/g/9/battle-of-glentaisie-wp/gcg9-battle-of-glentaisie-the-ridge-and-the-river.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle of Glentaisie: Seven Hundred Dead and Two Brothers Taken https://qualla.com/battle-of-glentaisie/ Photo credit Handiwork.Pro, CC BY-SA 4.0. The retreat became a rout, and the rout became slaughter. Shane's secretary Gerrot Flemming put the dead at between six and seven hundred. James of Dunnyveg, the clan chief, took a wound in the early fighting that would kill him two months later in captivity at Castle Crocke near...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/g/9/battle-of-glentaisie-wp/gcg9-battle-of-glentaisie-seven-hundred-dead-and-two-brothers-taken.mp3 0:06 5 full Battle of Glentaisie: The Long Aftermath https://qualla.com/battle-of-glentaisie/ Photo credit Handiwork.Pro, CC BY-SA 4.0. Shane O'Neill did not live to enjoy his victory. He was assassinated two years later by his own MacDonnell nephews, a final twist in a story already full of them. But the breaking of the Scottish lordship of the Glens at Glentaisie shaped everything that came after. Sorley Boy, f...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/g/9/battle-of-glentaisie-wp/gcg9-battle-of-glentaisie-the-long-aftermath.mp3 0:06 6 full