Pullyhour
Battle Site (16th Century)
Site Name Pullyhour
Classification Battle Site (16th Century)
Canmore ID 8347
Site Number ND15SW 12
NGR ND 1150 5462
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/8347
- Council Highland
- Parish Halkirk
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Caithness
- Former County Caithness
ND15SW 12 1150 5462.
(ND 1150 5462) Site of Conflict between the Clans Gunn and McIver AD. 1594 (NAT)
OS 6" map, Caithness, 2nd ed., (1907)
This battle was fought in 1594 between the clans Gunn and McIver. The latter is said to have encamped on an eminence near Pulleyhour, where the remains of a circular embankment (ND15SW 3) is still to be seen and is pointed out as the site of the camp. Another of the same is said to have stood about 1/4 mile to the E (ND15SW 11); its site was pointed out by Mr McLeod (R McLeod, Pulleyhour). The McIvers were defeated.
This battlefield was pointed out to Captain Gunn (Braehour) in 1835 at which date none of it had been cultivated (heaps of stone were then to be seen which marked the graves) but it is now in cultivation and none of the graves are to be seen.
Capt Gunn says that he has read and heard many accounts of this battle but never heard nor saw anything about a camp being there (ND15SW 11) except by the present occupants of Pullyhour.
(This seems to be a case of tumuli or field clearance heaps being associated with a historic clan conflict. The romantic account of the conflict is probably due to the imagination of Mr McLeod (R McLeod, Pulleyhour)).
Name Book 1872.
