Qualla: Siege of Stirling Castle (1746)

Siege of Stirling Castle (1746): Introduction

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit AllyD at English Wikipedia, Public domain. On the morning of 30 January 1746, the French engineer Mirabel de Gordon finally opened fire on Stirling Castle from a battery he had built atop Gowan Hill. He had three of his six heavy guns in position. Inside the castle, the experienced Irish veteran William Blakeney was waiting for him. Blakeney's counter-battery fire was immediate and devastatingly accurate. In less than half an hour, the Jacobite battery was abandoned. One of de Gordon's cannons was found afterward to have been struck nine times by government shot, the gouges, as one observer recorded, 'of surprising depth.' The siege of Stirling Castle was effectively over within twenty-eight minutes of its only serious shot. Two days later, the Jacobites were marching for Inverness.

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Siege of Stirling Castle (1746): The Strongest Place in Scotland

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Stirling Castle was always going to be the hardest target of the 1745 Rising. It controlled the narrow waist of Scotland where the Forth could be crossed and the Highlands could be reached, a position of such strategic value that whoever held it effectively held the country. Its ...

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Siege of Stirling Castle (1746): An Army Without Siege Guns

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit AllyD at English Wikipedia, Public domain. The fundamental Jacobite problem was that they had never been equipped to take a fortress. They had failed at Edinburgh Castle despite holding the city for almost two months. Carlisle, a decaying medieval relic defended by 80 elderly army pensioners, had surrendered only when the...

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Siege of Stirling Castle (1746): Falkirk, Then Stalemate

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit AllyD at English Wikipedia, Public domain. On 17 January, a relief force under Henry Hawley marched up from Edinburgh and was defeated by Lord George Murray at Falkirk Muir, a confused battle in falling light and heavy snow. It was a Jacobite victory but a hollow one; Hawley's army re-formed in Edinburgh and the strategic...

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Siege of Stirling Castle (1746): The St Ninians Explosion

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit AllyD at English Wikipedia, Public domain. When de Gordon's guns were silenced on 30 January, news arrived that Cumberland was advancing north from Edinburgh. Charles saw a chance for a decisive battle and asked Lord George Murray to prepare a plan. The clan chiefs replied that large numbers of Highlanders had drifted hom...

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Siege of Stirling Castle (1746): After the Withdrawal

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit AllyD at English Wikipedia, Public domain. Cumberland's army advanced along the coast, supplied by sea, and reached Aberdeen on 27 February. The Battle of Culloden followed on 16 April and lasted less than an hour. About 1,500 survivors gathered at Ruthven Barracks, where Charles ordered them to disperse, promising to ret...

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