Battle of Torran-Roy | |||||||
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Part of Sutherland – Sinclair feud | |||||||
Coats of arms of the Earl of Sutherland (left) and Earl of Caithness (right) | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Earldom of Caithness: Clan Sinclair Sutherlands of Duffus Clan Mackay |
Earldom of Sutherland : Clan Sutherland | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
George Sinclair Alexander Sutherland Iye Mackay |
Alexander Gordon Hugh Murray |
The Battle of Torran-Roy was a Scottish clan battle that took place in the year 1570 in the county of Sutherland, Scotland. It was fought between the forces of Alexander Gordon, 12th Earl of Sutherland (chief of Clan Sutherland) and the forces of George Sinclair, 4th Earl of Caithness (chief of the Clan Sinclair). The Earl of Sutherland's force consisted primarily of the Murrays (or Morays) of Aberscross who despite their name were not part of the Clan Murray in Atholl, but who were a sept of the Clan Sutherland, and who as the principal vassals of the Earl of Sutherland, were charged with the defense of the shire. The Earl of Caithness's forces consisted primarily of followers of Alexander Sutherland, 8th of Duffus who was a descendant of the old Sutherland Earls of Sutherland who had been ousted and replaced by the Gordons as earls in the early 16th-century.