The Great Raid of 1545
In 1545, a MacDonald-led force stormed Urquhart. Over the next month they systematically stripped the castle and Glen Urquhart of everything of value. The loot was carried away down the Great Glen. They burned what they could not take.
The Payback
The 1545 raiding party targeted the territory of the Laird of Grant, owner of Urquhart, who had fought against the MacDonalds at Blàr na Lèine, the Battle of the Swampy Meadow in Gaelic.
They Even Took the Locks
The plunder stripped from the castle included:
&bul; Tuelf feddir beddis, with the bowstairs, blancattis and schetis [twelve feather beds with bolsters, blankets and sheets]
&bul; Five pottis, sax pannys, two brew calderovnis, ane bascyn, sax speittis [five pots, six pans, two brewing vats, one basin, six roasting spits]
&bul; Lokkis, durris, zettis, burdis, beddis, chearis, formes [locks, doors, iron gates, tables, beds, chairs, benches]
&bul; Thre grite boittis [three great boats]
Gael Force
The Great Raid was the final MacDonald attack on the castle. The first had been in 1395 when Donald MacDonald, the Lord of the Isles, seized Urquhart as he extended his power east from Scotland's western seaboard. Over the next 150 years, the castle was
devastated by raids and periods of occupation as the MacDonalds and the Crown struggled for control.
Renaissance Raiders
The MacDonald Lords of the Isles presided over a Gaelic cultural renaissance in the Western Highlands and Islands. Their rule, almost independent of the Crown, provided the stability needed for Gaelic art, music and poetry to reach new heights of sophistication. Their downfall brought chaos and conflict to the Highlands, the Age of the Forays, Linn nan Creach.
The MacDonalds' Takeaway Menu
3,337 sheep · 2,355 cattle · 2,204 goats · 1,700 sacks of oats · 750 sacks of barley · 371 horses · 122 pigs · 64 geese · 2 oxen
( photo caption )
An artist's impression of the Great Raid of 1545.
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