The Battle of Auldearn was an engagement of the The Scottish Civil War The Scottish Civil War of 1644_47 was part of wider conflict known as the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, which included the Bishops Wars, the English Civil War and Confederate Ireland. ...Scottish Civil War, which took place on May 9 is the 129th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (130th in leap years). ...May 9, Events February 15 _ English Civil War: New Model Army is founded officially June 14 _ English Civil War: Battle of Naseby _ 12,000 Royalist forces are beaten by 15,000 Parliamentarian soldiers June 28 _ English Civil War _ the Royalists lose Carlisle July 2: Fight at Alford, Aberdeenshire October 8: Jeanne Mance...1645, near the village of Auldearn in Nairn is a burgh in the Scottish Highlands, lying about fifteen miles east of Inverness. ...Nairnshire.

After plundering Location within the British Isles. ...Dundee on 4 April, the Royalist forces under the James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose (1612 _ 21 May 1650), was a Scottish nobleman and soldier, who initially joined the Covenanters in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, but subsequently supported King Charles I as the English Civil War developed. ...Marquis of Montrose retreated into the Highlands to escape Major_General Baillie's pursuing Covenanters. Baillie divided his forces. During May, his second_in_command, Colonel John Hurry, drew Montrose into country that was unfriendly to him near Nairn.

Hurry, with 3,500 Covenanter infantry and 400 horse, attempted to double back on himself, at night in thick mist, in an attempt to catch Montrose in a surprise attack. Hurry's soldiers discharging their muskets to clear damp powder is said to have alerted Montrose's sentries to the impending attack.

The village of Auldearn ran linearly along a roughly north-south road. Montrose deployed 500 of Alasdair MacColla (circa 1620 to 1647) was Scottish_Irish soldier. ...MacColla's Irishmen and Gordon is a traditional Scottish clan name (see Gordon clan) and it is now a common forename. ...Gordon clansmen on a low hill to the north-east of the village. The royal standard was placed with them in the hope that Hurry would mistake MacColla's position for the main body, which Montrose actually concealed behind a ridge to the south. This included a troop of 250 horse commanded by George Gordon, 2nd Marquess of Huntly (d. ...Lord Gordon. The Covenanters began marching up the slope towards MacColla. Unwilling to remain on the defensive, the Irishmen attacked prematurely, charging down the slope into the Covenanters.

Hurry's regiments held their ground and the Irish were driven back. Realising that MacColla was in danger of being overwhelmed, Montrose ordered Gordon to lead his cavalry in a charge against the Covenanter right flank. Captain Drummond, of the Moray horse regiment, in his haste to get his men to face about, ordered them to wheel in the wrong direction, pushing them into their own infantry. Gordon's cavalry hit the disordered Covenanter lines and routed their cavalry. Montrose's main force attacked the right flank while MacColla's men rallied and pushed forward in the center. Estimates suggest 1,500 Covenanters were killed in the battle and rout.

Back at Inverness Colonel Hurry court-martialled and shot Captain Drummond, the officer who had given the faulty order, then retreated with the remnants of his army to join Baillie at Cromar.