A significant amount of money and urgent…

April 1746 CE

A significant amount of money and urgent supplies had been captured from the Jacobites by forces under Captain Hugh Mackay following the Skirmish of Tongue, and a strong force of Jacobites had been sent north in an attempt to recover the supplies.

This Jacobite force comprises some of their best fighting men; the MacGregors, Coll Macdonnell of Barrisdale, the Mackinnons and the Jacobite Mackenzies under George Mackenzie, 3rd Earl of Cromartie.

This force had arrived too late to be of any assistance to their allies who had been captured at the Skirmish of Tongue.

William Sutherland, 17th Earl of Sutherland, is loyal to the Hanoverian government, but he had not raised and armed his clan quickly enough to take action against Charles Edward Stuart.

This had led to a suspicion in London that Sutherland might be disloyal.

However, the Jacobites also question Sutherland's loyalty, and the Jacobite Earl of Cromartie is sent with five hundred men against the Earl of Sutherland.

Cromartie's force stormed Dunrobin Castle; the Earl of Sutherland narrowly escaped them through a back door of the castle.

The Earl of Cromartie and his force decide to rejoin the main Jacobite force under Prince Charles at Inverness.

However he and his men are attacked with vigor at Little Ferry by two Independent Highland Companies, one from the Clan Sutherland and one from the Clan Mackay, led by Ensign John Mackay of Moudale.

Believing that all of Sutherland's followers had dispersed, the Jacobite officers had allowed their men to march ahead of them, confident that they, the officers on horseback, could quickly catch up with the marching men.

However, there are still some Sutherland men in the hills above Dunrobin.

Led by Ensign Mackay, the Sutherland men come down from the hills near Golspie, attacking into the gap between the rebel officers and their soldiers.

Most of the Jacobite officers are captured; many of the men are killed, and the rest are driven onto the beach, where several are drowned trying to swim Loch Fleet.

Most of Cromartie's men are either killed or taken prisoner, thus denying the Prince much needed reinforcements.

Cromartie, who had been captured and detained at Dunrobin Castle, wis put on a vessel that carries him to London.

Cromartie, along with Lord Kilmarnock, Lord Lovat, and Lord Balmerino will all be impeached of high treason, tried, and condemned.

Cromartie will later be pardoned, but the others will be executed.

Despite this victory, some in the government in London ae still inclined to associate the Sutherlands with the Cromartie rebels that they had defeated.

The Earl of Sutherland will spend several years before his death in 1750 attempting to obtain compensation from the government for the damage done to his estates by the rebels.