Battle of the Shirts 1544
Outline: officially registered battlefield boundary. Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Year | 1544 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
|---|---|---|
| Era | Early modern (1500–1799) | derived from year |
| Location | Scotland | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| Coordinates | 57.0303, -4.8189 | Wikidata P625 |
| Official record | HES Inventory BTL29 | OGL v3 |
| Registered area | 893.7 ha | OGL v3 |
About the battle
The Battle of the Shirts (Scottish Gaelic: Blàr na Léine, also the Battle of Kinloch-Lochy) was a Scottish clan battle that took place in 1544 in the Great Glen, at the northern end of Loch Lochy. The Clan Macdonald of Clanranald and their allies the Clan Cameron fought the Clan Fraser and men from Clan Grant. The battlefield has been included and protected by Historic Scotland in their Inventory of Historic Battlefields in Scotland.
Clan tradition of the clans involved and all histories written since the period have stated that the name was derived from the fact that the day was so hot that both sides threw off their chainmail hauberks and Plaids, fighting in their shirts.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of the Shirts (revision 1370602259), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Battlefield boundary: contains Historic Environment Scotland and OS data © Historic Environment Scotland and Crown Copyright and database right 2026, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. See also this battlefield on Battlefields of Britain.
Nearby battles
- Battle of Lochaber 1429 · 11 km
- Stand-off at the Fords of Arkaig 1665 · 14 km
- Battle of Mulroy 1688 · 14 km
- Siege of Fort Augustus (December 1745) 1745 · 15 km
- Siege of Fort Augustus (1746) 1746 · 15 km
- Highbridge Skirmish 1745 · 17 km
Browse more: battles in Scotland · Europe · Early modern battles