The Skirmish of Tongue was a conflict that took place in March 1746 near Tongue

Tongue, Highland

Tongue is a coastal village in northwest Highland, Scotland, in the western part of the former county of Sutherland. It lies on the east shore above the base of the Kyle of Tongue and north of the mountains Ben Hope and Ben Loyal...

 in the Scottish Highlands. It was part of the Jacobite Rising of 1745

Jacobite Rising of 1745

The Jacobite rising of 1745, often referred to as "The 'Forty-Five," was the attempt by Charles Edward Stuart to regain the British throne for the exiled House of Stuart. The rising occurred during the War of the Austrian Succession when most of the British Army was on the European continent...

.

Background

On the 25th March 1746 a French ship named the Le Prince Charles

HMS Hazard (1744)

HMS Hazard was a 14-gun sloop launched in 1744. She was captured in late 1745 by Jacobite forces in Montrose harbour and was sailed to Dunkirk and was renamed Le Prince Charles....

, formerly HMS Hazard, which was carrying money and supplies for the Jacobite leader Charles Edward Stuart

Charles Edward Stuart

Prince Charles Edward Louis John Casimir Sylvester Severino Maria Stuart commonly known as Bonnie Prince Charlie or The Young Pretender was the second Jacobite pretender to the thrones of Great Britain , and Ireland...

 ran into the Kyle of Tongue while being pursued by the British frigate . During the night the crew and soldiers disembarked carrying the money, however the following day Captain George Mackay, son of the chief of the Clan Mackay

Clan MacKay

Clan Mackay is an ancient and once powerful Scottish clan from the far north of the Scottish Highlands, but with roots in the old kingdom of Moray. They were a powerful force in politics beginning in the 14th century, supporting Robert the Bruce. In the centuries that followed they were...

, who supported the British government confronted them at a place named Drum Nan Coup and after a short fight Mackay captured the men and the money.

The battle

An account of the fight was reported in the London Gazette

London Gazette

The London Gazette is one of the official journals of record of the British government, and the most important among such official journals in the United Kingdom, in which certain statutory notices are required to be published...

 of the 15th April 1746:

Aberdeen, April 6. Captain Mackay, Lord Reay’s son, and Sir Henry Munro, son of the late Sir Robert, both Captains in Lord Loudon's regiment

Loudon's Highlanders

Loudon's Highlanders, or the Earl of Loudon's Regiment of Foot, was an infantry regiment of the British Army.The great bravery of the 42nd Highlanders and the admirable service which they rendered at the Battle of Fontenoy in 1745, made the Government anxious to avail themselves still further of...

, are just come hither with letters from Captain O’Brian of Sheerness man of war, now off this place giving an account that after chasing the Le Prince Charles above 56 leagues he drove her ashore and obliged the French and Spaniards who were in her to quit her and to land, which they did with five chests of money to the value of £12,000 and upwards, in order to join the rebels; but the Lord Reay (Mackay) in whose country they were landed and whose house Captain Mackay, Sir Henry Munro, Lord [?Captain] Charles Gordon, and Captain MacLeod with some others of Lord Loudon’s regiment were, with about 80 men of said regiment, who had been driven thither by the rebels, marched out and attacked them, and after killing three or four, and dangerously wounding eight, took the remaining 156, officers, soldiers, and sailors prisoners, who were immediately embarked on board the Sheerness, and the prize with the Highland officers and men who made the capture are now here.....The money that was landed out of the Hazard sloop, was taken by Lord Reay

Lord Reay

Lord Reay, of Reay in the County of Caithness, is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. Lord Reay is the hereditary Clan Chief of Clan Mackay, whose lands in Strathnaver and northwest Sutherland were known as the Reay Country. The land was sold to the Earls of Sutherland in the 18th century...

 ‘s men

Aftermarth and significance

Historian Angus Mackay in the Book of Mackay writes of the significance of the Skirmish of Tongue as having more to do with the overthrow of Charles Edward Stuart at Culloden than is generally realized. By the fact that money and supplies had been cut off that were destined for the Jacobites. In the aftermarth of the conflict at Tongue the Mackays continued to fight against the Jacobite rebels in the Highlands, defeating the Jacobite Mackenzie, Earl of Cromarty at the Battle of Littleferry.