The Battles of Tillieangus & Craibstone, 1571: The Corrichie of the Forbes

Background

Two battles the same year in the same feud, the national quarrel of Mary’s civil war laid over a local one: the Catholic Gordons backed Queen Mary, the Protestant Forbes the infant James VI.

Tillieangus, 10 October 1571

A Gordon force under Sir Adam Gordon of Auchindoun met the Forbes under “Black Arthur” Forbes at the White Hill of Tillyangus. The Gordons won and Black Arthur was killed.

Craibstone, 20 November 1571

Six weeks later, at the approach to Aberdeen, Sir Adam Gordon beat the Master of Forbes in about an hour and took him prisoner. The crushing double defeat is why 1571 is remembered as “the Corrichie of the Forbes” — a mirror of Corrichie (1562), where it had been the Gordons who suffered catastrophe. The phrase is a comparison, not a place.

The sites today

Tillyangus has traditional burial cairns; the medieval Crabstane boundary stone survives on Hardgate in Aberdeen, near a plaque — the built-over field around it. Neither is on the HES Inventory.

The clans & people involved

• Clan Gordon — Sir Adam Gordon of Auchindoun, victorious in both.
• Clan Forbes — Black Arthur killed at Tillieangus; the Master of Forbes captured at Craibstone.

Sources

• Battle of Tillieangus & Craibstone — Wikipedia; the Diurnal of Occurrents.