University of Virginia Library

In 1411, Donald of the Isles marched towards Aberdeen, the inhabitants of which were in dreadful alarm at the near approach of this marauder and his fierce hordes: but their fears were allayed by the speedy appearance of a well-equipped army, commanded by the Earl of Mar, who bore a high military character, assisted by many brave knights and gentlemen in Angus and the Mearns. Advancing from Aberdeen, Mar marched by Inverury, and descried the Highlanders stationed at the village of Harlaw, on the water of Ury near its junction with the Don. Mar soon saw that he had to contend with tremendous odds, but although his forces were, it is said, as one to ten to that opposed to him, he resolved, from the confidence he had in his steel-clad knights, to risk a battle. Having placed a small but select body of knights and men-at-arms in front, under the command of the constable of Dundee and the sheriff of Angus, the Earl drew up the main strength of his army in the rear, including the Murrays, the Straitons, the Maules, the Irvings, the Lesleys, the Lovels, the Stirlings, headed by their respective chiefs. The Earl then placed himself at the head of this body. At the head of the Islesmen and Highlanders was the Lord of the Isles, subordinate to whom were Mackintosh and Maclean and other Highland chiefs, all bearing the most deadly hatred to their Saxon foes. On a signal being given, the Highlanders and Islesmen, setting up those terrific shouts and yells which they were accustomed to raise on entering into battle, rushed forward upon their opponents: but they were received with great firmness and bravery by the knights, who, with their spears levelled, and battle-axes raised, cut down many of their impetuous but badly armed adversaries. After the Lowlanders had recovered themselves from the shock which the furious onset of the High-landers had produced, Sir James Scrymgeour, at the head of the knights and bannerets who fought under him, cut his way through the thick columns of the Islesmen, carrying death everywhere around him: but the slaughter of hundreds by this brave party did not intimidate the Highlanders, who kept pouring in by thousands to supply the place of those who had fallen. Surrounded on all sides, no alternative remained for Sir James and his valorous companions but victory or death, and the latter was their lot. The constable of Dundee was amongst the first who suffered, and his fall so encouraged the Highlanders, that seizing and stabbing the horses, they thus unhorsed their riders, whom they despatched with their daggers. In the mean time the Earl of Mar, who had penetrated with his main army into the very heart of the enemy, kept up the unequal contest with great bravery, and, although he lost during the action almost the whole of his army, he continued the fatal struggle with a handful of men till nightfall. The disastrous result of this battle was one of the greatest misfortunes which had ever happened to the numerous respectable families in Angus and the Mearns. Many of these families lost not only their head, but every male in the house. Andrew Lesley, third Laird of Balquhain, is said to have fallen, with six of his sons (the Laurus Lesleana says eleven, and that he himself fell some years after in a battle at Brakoe, killed by the sheriff of Angus, 1420.) Isabel Mortimer, his wife, founded a chaplainry in the Chapel of Garioch, and built a cross called Leslie's Cross, to their memory. Besides Sir James Scrymgeour, Sir Alexander Ogilvy, the sheriff of Angus, with his eldest son George Ogilvy, Sir Thomas Murray, Sir Robert Maule of Panmure, Sir Alexander Irving of Drum, Sir William Abernethy of Salton, Sir Alexander Straiton of Lauriston, James Lovel, and Alexander Stirling, and Sir Robert Davidson, provost of Aberdeen, with five hundred men-at-arms, including the principal gentry of Buchan, and the greater part of the burgesses of Aberdeen who followed their provost, were among the slain. The Highlanders left nine hundred men dead on the field of battle, including the chiefs, Maclean and Mackintosh. This memorable battle was fought on the eve of the feast of St. James the Apostle, the 24th day of July, in the year 1411, “and from the ferocity with which it was contested, and the dismal spectacle of civil war and bloodshed exhibited to the country, it appears to have made a deep impression on the national mind. It fixed itself in the music and poetry of Scotland; a march, called ‘the Battle of Harlaw,’ continued to be a popular air down to the time of Drummond of Hawthornden, and a spirited ballad, on the same event, is still repeated in our age, describing the meeting of the armies, and the deaths of the chiefs, in no ignoble strain.” Mar and the few brave companions in arms who survived the battle, were so exhausted with fatigue and the wounds they received, that they were obliged to pass the night on the field of battle, where they expected a renewal of the attack next morning; but when morning dawned, they found that the Lord of the Isles had retreated, during the night, by Inverury and the hill of Benachie. To pursue him was impossible, and he was therefore allowed to retire, without molestation, and to recruit his exhausted strength. The site of the battle is thus described in the manuscript Geographical Description of Scotland collected by Macfarlane, and preserved in the Advocates' Library [Vol. i. p. 7.]: “Through this parish (the Chapel of Garioch, formerly called Capella Beatæ Mariæ Virginis de Garryoch) runs the king's highway from Aberdeen to Inverness, and from Aberdeen to the high country. A large mile to the east of the church lies the field of an ancient battle called the battle of Harlaw, from a country town of that name hard by. This town, and the field of battle, which lies along the king's highway upon a moor, extending a short mile from south-east to north-west, stands on the northeast side of the water of Urie, and a small distance therefrom. To the west of the field of battle, about half a mile, is a farmer's house called Legget's Den, hard by, in which is a tomb, built in the form of a malt-steep, of four large stones, covered with a broad stone above, where, as the country people report, Donald of the Isles lies buried, being slain in the battle, and therefore they call it commonly Donald's Tomb.” This is an evident mistake, as it is well known that Donald was not slain. Mr. Tytler conjectures with much probability that the tomb alluded may be that of the chief of Maclean or Mackintosh, and he refers, in support of this opinion, to Macfarlane's Genealogical Collections, in which an account is given of the family of Maclean, and from which it appears that Lauchlan Lubanich had, by Macdonald's daughter, a son, called Eachin Rusidh ni Cath, or Hector Rufus Bellicosus, who commanded as lieutenantgeneral under the Earl of Ross at the battle of Harlaw, when he and Irving of Drum, seeking out one another by their armorial bearings on their shields, met and killed each other. This Hector was married to a daughter of the Earl of Douglas.

The Count's death was occasioned by his incautiously drinking cold spring water, he being then over-heated, whilst shooting on the hills.

Fetterneir, once a summer seat of the bishops of Aberdeen. Wallace is said to have slept there one night; hence part of it is called Wallace's Tower. At the Reformation this manor was given to the Lesleys of Balquhain (pronounced Balwine), for their assistance to the Earl of Huntly in protecting the Cathedral of Aberdeen from the fury of the Reformers. It is the burial-place of the Lesleys.

The family of the Lesleys is five hundred and eighty years' standing; Sir George, the founder, having got the lands of Balquhain from King David the Second in 1340. There had been four counts of this family, the last now living (1650) at the Emperor's court. The first of these counts was Walter, youngest son to John, tenth laird of Balquhain, by his third wife, who having, in A.D. 1634, killed Count Wallenstein, the Emperor's general, was made a colonel of the Guards, created Count Lesley, Field Marshal, Privy Councillor, Governor of Sclavonia, and by Leopold the First sent ambassador to Constantinople, having just before been made Knight of the Golden Fleece. He died in 1667, at Vienna.

About half a mile to the south-east of the church is to be seen the old ruinous Castle of Balquhain. In it Queen Mary spent a day on her journey to the north, which terminated in the battle of the Corrichie. The only remains of the building are a few shattered fragments of the court or quadrangle of which it at one time consisted, and the noble square tower or keep, which was erected about the year 1530 to replace the more ancient castle, which had been burned down in a memorable feud with the Forbeses in the year 1526.