Political Propaganda At Cromdale

In the popular folk song “The Haughs of Cromdale” we find one of the strangest pieces of political propaganda in Scotland. It surrounds the Battle of Cromdale in 1690, the final act of the very first Jacobite Rising and is believed to have been written shortly after the event.

By the end of April 1690, the Jacobite army had won a great victory at Killiecrankie before suffering a devastating defeat at Dunkeld. Their troops weren’t professional soldiers, so many had dispersed back home to work on their land and were due to be called back up for a campaign later in the year. That left around 800 men under Thomas Buchan who had been advised to hold fast in the relative safety of the Cairngorms until that time came.

Unfortunately, Buchan disregarded that advice and marched through the mountain passes until he was abruptly halted by a much larger government force at Cromdale. His army tried to retreat but it was too late, the Jacobites were forced to fight and quickly defeated. Only a thick fog that suddenly fell saved them from being entirely annihilated, although around 100 men were caught near Aviemore.

The rising was finally snuffed out at Cromdale, but that’s not what the folk song claims. Following the lyrics, it declares that the Great Montrose boldly set upon 20,000 of Cromwell’s men, listing a host of Highland Clans all fighting together. With only 500 government forces surviving to flee to Aberdeen, the rest lay on the Haughs of Cromdale.

It’s pure propaganda to show what could happen if all the clans fought together, although it appears to have been written by two different authors. The first half of the song implies a terrible Jacobite loss, while the mood shifts in the second. To add to the song’s confusion, the Marquis of Montrose had died in 1650, 40 years before the battle and Cromwell just 8 years later, without the pair ever fighting each other!