Was this the most chaotic Jacobite battle of them all?

The Herald Scotland

19-07-2025

But now historian Geoff Bailey has dug deep into a forgotten cache of letters and contemporary first-hand accounts to paint a fuller picture of the chaotic few hours in January 1746 when Falkirk became the stage a narrow Jacobite victory but which he regards as more of a 'no-score draw battle' in a three-part drama.
The Young Pretender, Charles Edward Stuart, led the 1745 Jacobite Rising
The newly uncovered material has been included in an updated book which explores in meticulous detail the bloody and at times farcical clash between Jacobites loyal to Charles Edward Stuart and their foe, the British government troops led by Lieutenant General Henry Hawley.
No mere skirmish, the clash of forces on the barren hill above the town was the largest confrontation between Jacobite supporters and Hanoverian Government troops - entertainment for thousands of 'fight fans' who had come to watch.
Yet despite its scale and importance, there is little to show for it – just one small stone monument marks the area where, on a sleet-driven January day almost 280 years ago, thousands gathered to fight over Bonnie Prince Charlie's claim to the British throne.
The Battle of Falkirk Muir monument (Image: © Copyright Euan Nelson and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Licence)
Sandwiched between the last battle to be fought on English soil, in December 1745 Clifton Moor, near Preston, when Jacobite forces overwhelmed the Duke of Cumberland's troops, and the brutal bloodbath of Culloden, the Battle of Falkirk Muir played a key role in changing the course of Scottish history.
For although considered to be a narrow victory for the Jacobites – even though they didn't realise it at the time - it also gave government troops the ideal opportunity to better understand their previously effective battle tactics.
Having sussed out at Falkirk how to handle the so-called Highland Charge – the shock tactic of advancing, firing shots and then, in a maelstrom of shouts and cries, violently attacking with swords and dirks – the Government forces now had a vital advantage for their next confrontation, Culloden.
The Jacobites, meanwhile, limped from the battlefield with little to show for their efforts other than 50 dead and 80 wounded. Their poor command and at times shambolic co-ordination of men had magnified fractures within their hierarchy.
Soon there would squabbles, fall outs and Bonnie Prince Charlie would take to his sick bed.
It set the scene, says Geoff, for the collapse that lay ahead.
'Prestonpans was a home victory, Culloden was an away victory for the Hanovarians,' he says.
Henry Hawley led the Government forces at the Battle of Falkirk Muir (Image: Christian Friedrich Zincke, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
'Victory and major defeats tend to be what interests people. And Falkirk was more of a no score draw, which is why it tends to be overlooked.
'But,' he adds, 'it was a turning point.
'Two days after the battle, the Jacobites lost around 2000 men to desertion.
'They hadn't followed victory with victory, and people became more and more disillusioned. The saying 'to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory' could easily have been written for Falkirk'.
Having studied the battle in depth for the first edition of his book, published 30 years ago, he was staggered to uncover previously unnoticed letters and accounts of events before and after the fighting tucked amid other material at the National Library of Scotland.
Packed with detail and written by people who were there at the time, they have now been added to his new and updated version of his book, 'Falkirk or Paradise! The Battle of Falkirk Muir'.
Among them is a letter written by a student of medicine, vividly describing efforts to save the lives of the dying and wounded.
It offered insight not only into the heat of battle, but the excitement the prospect of bloody battle ignited among the general population, which saw thousands of thrill seekers make their way to Falkirk just to watch.
After defeat at Culloden Bonnie Prince Charlie went into hiding before escaping to France
'He had come from Edinburgh to watch his friends fighting and writes about using the town's old grammar school as a makeshift hospital, with the teachers' desks used for surgery,' says Geoff.
'What makes it really interesting, is that his letters were written within a week of the battle, whereas most accounts were written by exiles – most of the Jacobite supporters end up in Italy, France and Holland - long after.'
Remarkably, the medic was just one of around 3000 spectators who had travelled from around central Scotland just to watch the bloodshed.
Their descent on the town, along with 8000 military men on either side, would have had a profound impact on Falkirk's local population of around 2,500 people, who found themselves and their food supplies overwhelmed.
'The carnival atmosphere that was developing in Falkirk was not to everyone's liking,' Geoff adds.
'Food prices continued to rocket as demand from the huge numbers of outsiders rose.
'The optimism of the government army and the host of visitors was not shared by the inhabitants who had just endured almost two weeks of occupation.'
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For locals, the day of battle on 17 January 1746 not only brought the chance to wrestle their town back from thousands of battle 'tourists' and Jacobite followers, but also to cash in.
The aftermath of the fighting ignited scenes of looting from the dead and wounded and, later, remarkable entrepreneurship as locals sought to recoup some of their losses from the bloody events on their doorsteps.
'The local community was devastated, the Jacobites had been living off them for nearly three weeks, the spectators also needed feeding: it was a dreadful time for the local people,' says Geoff.
'But, there was a tourist trade as a result after it, and they were paid for showing people around the battle site.'
Lochaber No More – Prince Charlie leaving Scotland', an 1863 painting by the artist John Blake MacDonald (Image: Public Domain)
Those who chose to visit within hours of the fighting ending were met by a odd sight: from a distance, the battlefield that appeared to be covered with grazing, if a little static, sheep.
'As they got closer, they realised it was actually bodies that had been stripped bare overnight by the local people. All their clothes were stolen and the bodies had turned white because this was January and it was extremely cold.
'Folk took clothes, canons, weapons.
'One person was hauled up by the local church; he had gone to the battle site the day after and prised the horseshoes off the dead horses to reuse the iron.
'The problem for the church was not that he was stealing the iron, but because he did it on the Sabbath.'
The battle itself was relatively brief and evolved almost into a comedy of errors, not helped when the powerful Jacobite-supporting MacDonald clan managed to get lost on the battlefield and miss a chunk of fighting.
'They were fighting along the ridge of a hill, went the wrong way and couldn't see where the battle was, so stood around chatting to each other,' says Geoff.
'To be fair, it was the 4th of January, there was heavy sleet, it was dark and there were hills all over the place.
'They also accidentally charged men on their own side and slaughtered them, including some presbyterian ministers.'
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The Hanoverian army, meanwhile, had camped on soggy ground to the south-west of the town, and rose to fight only to find their gunpowder damp from the sleet and tents sagging and sodden.
But, adds Geoff: 'Everything that went wrong for the Hanoverians at Falkirk would then go wrong for the Jacobites at Culloden.'
The Jacobite army deployed Highlanders at the front line and Lowland infantry in support at the second, intent on using their Highland Charge tactics to slaughter their foe.
Bonnie Prince Charlie depicted leading his troops to battle at Culloden (Image: Archive)
It would see the Government dragoons charge into Jacobite musket fire and then, in the chaos of smoke from their guns and the fearsome cries and yells of the shirtless clans, be met by long daggers and claymores thrust into the bellies of the government horses and their riders.
Hawley's troops suffered large losses – not helped when horses churned up the soft ground, leaving rear guns stuck and unable to respond to the Jacobite pressure.
But, says Geoff, events at Falkirk gave their commanders better understanding of Jacobite battle methods, so by the time Culloden came around, they knew precisely how best to respond.
Back at Falkirk, as the weather worsened, chaos shifted to the town where locals, already fed up at the impact of finding themselves in the centre of a monumental clash, now found their narrow lanes and wynds consumed by street-by-street, hand-to-hand fighting that raged for hours.
Within the town walls came high drama: Lord John Drummond, third in command of the Jacobites, rode his horse up the narrow Cow Wynd only to have it blasted from under him. Then, he took a bullet in the arm, and had to be dragged to safety.
Government troops captured at Battle of Falkirk Muir were held at Castle of Doune near Stirling
Later, a Hanoverian pistol retrieved by one excited Highlander would accidentally go off in his hands, fatally wounding Young Glengarry, commander of the MacDonell clan and leading to yet another rift among the Jacobite forces.
It would be 7.30pm before Bonnie Prince Charlie was able to enter the town.
Elements of the Battle of Falkirk Muir were almost too outlandish, says Geoff. 'There are things that, if you saw in a film, you'd say 'no way did that happen. But it did.'
Such as the tale of Blind Jack, a drummer with the misnamed Yorkshire Blues who was taken prisoner by the Jacobites. Despite his disability, he still managed to foil his captors, break free and make his escape.
Geoff Bailey's new book revisits the 1746 Battle of Falkirk Muir (Image: Geoff Bailey)
One Jacobite was captured after mistaking Hanoverian lines for his own. Irritated that they were not behaving more aggressively towards the enemy, he demanded to know 'why aren't you chasing the bastards?'.
Geoff says the reply was succinct: 'We are the bastards.'
'Falkirk or Paradise! The Battle of Falkirk Muir, 17 January 1746' will be launched at Falkirk Library on July 21.
Proceeds from the book will support The Battle of Falkirk Muir (1746) Trust, which aims to swap its virtual museum and battle library for a custom-built museum in Falkirk telling the full story of the forgotten battle and the Jacobite Risings.