Battle of Sheriffmuir
battle at the height of the 1715 Jacobite Rising in England and Scotland
The Battle of Sheriffmuir (Scottish Gaelic: Blàr Sliabh an t-Siorraim, [pl̪ˠaɾ ˈʃʎiəv əɲ ˈtʲʰirˠəm]) was an engagement in 1715 at the height of the Jacobite rising in Scotland. The battlefield has been included in the Inventory of Historic Battlefields in Scotland and protected by Historic Scotland under the Scottish Historical Environment Policy of 2009. Sheriffmuir is a remote elevated plateau of moorland lying between Stirling and Auchterarder on the north fringe of the Ochil Hills.
Background
John Erskine, 6th Earl of Mar, standard-bearer for the Jacobite cause in Scotland, mustered Highland chiefs, and, on 6 September, declared James Francis Edward Stuart (the "Old Pretender") as King of Scots. With an army of about 12,000 men Mar proceeded to take Perth, and commanded much of the northern Highlands. Following unsuccessful skirmishes against John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll (based at Stirling), Mar was eventually persuaded to lead his full army south, on 10 November. Spies informed Argyll of Mar's actions, and he moved his army of about 4,000 to Sheriffmuir, near Dunblane. The two armies met on the battlefield on 13 November 1715.
Battle
Argyll was seriously outnumbered by the Jacobite army (which was somewhat diminished from its previous numbers), and his left wing, commanded by General Thomas Whetham, was far shorter than the Jacobites' opposing right. Argyll's right wing attacked, and managed to drive the Highlanders back, but Whetham's soldiers were overpowered by a much larger force.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Battle of Sheriffmuir” is battle at the height of the 1715 Jacobite Rising in England and Scotland. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Battle, Sheriffmuir and battle, not as a finished interpretation.
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Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2744242. The Library of Congress control number is sh85121365. Authority coordinates are 56.195, -3.910. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1715 and 2009.
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This entry incorporates text from “Battle of Sheriffmuir” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.