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Also on this day in Scottish history, October 2nd 1721 saw the little known Battle of Coille Bhan.

This was more of a skirmish in real terms, but history recall it as a battle, to me the numbers involved make it less so. 

The background was that government forces had failed to take the lands of Mackenzie of Seaforth. The taxes being collected by Mackenzie's factor, Donald Murchison were being sent to Mackenzie himself who was living in exile in France for his part in the '15 Jacobite uprising, after which his lands were forfeited to the crown. It was decided that a second attempt should be made to seize Mackenzie of Seaforth's estates.

This time 160 soldiers of Colonel Kirk's regiment left under the command of a Captain McNeil, who unlike their predecessors who had been ambushed in Glen Affric, McNeil took a longer but easier route from Inverness to Dingwall then onto Strath-Garve and Loch Carron. 

Mackenzie's force were led by Colonel Donald Murchison who had led the ambush at Glen Affric, and I bloody wish my spell check didn't keep trying to make me say Africa instead of Affric!!! 

Anyway the Colonel marched his men up a mountain pass called Mam Attadale, a "gallant" relative, named Kenneth Murchison volunteered to attempt an ambush with a small party of 13 at Coille Bhan (White Wood), while the bulk of the party should remain where they were. 

Captain McNeil with 18 men of his government force advanced on Kenneth Murchison's position.  They received fire in which several of the government troops were wounded and one was killed. McNeil persisted in attacking his enemy and eventually he defeated them and Kenneth Murchison's men withdrew, as they were unable to resist any further, there is no mention of the Jacobite's losses.

The long and short of it is, although Captain McNeil had defeated this advance force, he soon heard of the larger group of Mackenzies waiting at Attadale under the command of Donald Murchison, unwilling to take on these men, who also held the high ground McNeil, himself wounded retreated and headed back to Inverness. 

Kenneth Murchison quickly rejoined Colonel Donald on Mam Attadale, with the cheering intelligence that one salvo of thirteen guns had repelled the hundred and sixty red-coats. No further attempts were made on Mackenzie of Seaforth's lands.

This episode confirmed the view in the south that the Jacobite clans equated with banditry and disorder, but Donald Murchison was also a bold man, reading on, in the History of The Mackenzies he appeared in Edinburgh two years later with £200 in back rents, looking for someone to take it over to France, he was not so stupid as to make himself conspicuous and is said to have been wearing "the garb of a lowlander", he did however spend two weeks in the capital, and although he was a wanted man went unmolested during this time. 

Mackenzie of Seaforth, also known as William dubh MacKenzie or Black MacKenzie, was later pardoned and returned returned to Scotland in 1726, he died in 1740. During the '45 uprising, such was the split across The Highlands one of his sons fought on the Hanoverian side in the campaign, whereas a large part of the Clan Mackenzie followed the chief's cousin George Mackenzie, 3rd Earl of Cromartie chose to fight for the Jacobite cause. 

The pics shows the expanse of land that Clan MacKenzie enjoyed as their own, the second their clan crest with the motto Luceo Non Uro (I shine, not burn). MacCoinneach the Gaelic name for the clan means son of the fair bright one.

You read excerpts, or indeed the whole book, The History of the  MacKenzies on the RLS web page here https://digital.nls.uk/histories-of-scottish-families/archive/95042754?mode=transcription.