The Skirmish of Loch Ailort was a conflict that took place on 9 May 1746 at Loch Ailort, in the district of Moidart, Scottish Highlands and was part of the Jacobite rising of 1745.
On 9 May 1746, almost a month after the Jacobite defeat at the Battle of Culloden, a skirmish took place at Loch Ailort, Moidart between a group of Jacobites from the Clan Macdonald of Clanranald who were led by their chief, the Young Ranald MacDonald, against a British-Hanoverian Government force.[1] It was one of the last armed conflicts of the Jacobite rising.[1]
Background
The Young Ranald MacDonald is supposed to have gone to France shortly after the Jacobite defeat at the Battle of Culloden in April 1746.[3] However, it is clear that he secretly lingered in his own country for at least eighteen months after, mainly in the wilds of Moidart, which were apparently fraught with the greatest peril.[3]
At this time the Western Highlands of Scotland were coming under the attention of the Royal Navy and also the Campbell of Argyll Militia who supported the Government.[2] This attention was started by Captain John Fergusssone and the shore parties of his bomb vessel HMS Furnace.[2] Furgussone first cruised the Sea of the Hebrides and The Minch and then worked his way north, taking prisoners at the Isle of Canna and the Isle of Barra.[2] He then proceeded east and burnt everything of value on the Isle of Raasay.[2]
The skirmish
On May 9, Fergussone sailed up the mainland Loch Nevis and burnt the new house of MacDonald of Barisdale.[2] On the same day when Fergussone searched the caves of Loch Ailort, he came under fire from 500 men who were under the command of Young Clanranald.[2] The Young Clanranald was almost the last armed representative of the Jacobite cause, and had also been one of the first.[2]
British-Hanoverians
Jacobites