After the Jacobite victory at Killiecrankie, to guard against any Jacobite move on Perth the Privy Council of Scotland ordered the Earl of Angus’s Regiment on 12 August 1689 to march from their billets in Doune and Dunblane to Dunkeld, a small market town on the north bank of the River Tay.
There, only 3 months after its formation and with no battle experience the Regiment showed its mettle in a staunch defence against a hugely superior number of Jacobite troops.
Arriving in Dunkeld on Saturday 17th August, It was considered that the town would be unable to hold out against the impending attack of some three thousand Jacobite opponents jubilant and confident after their earlier victory.
The following day the Cameronians set about fortifying Dunkeld Cathedral tower and the Duke of Atholl’s mansion, Dunkeld House.
On Wednesday 21st August the whole Jacobite army ‘crowded the hills’, and the commanding officer of the Cameronians, Lieutenant Colonel William Cleland, skilfully withdrew his outposts and limited his defensive line to the church and the mansion house.
When the Highlanders advanced in their traditional charge (‘a sharp trot, a discharge of firelocks and then a wild gallop with the sword on the men lining the dykes’) , the Cameronian defenders repeatedly drove them back with pikes and halberts. These proving to be excellent weapons at close quarters.
Fierce fighting raged until eleven o’clock that night, when the Highland army fled to the hills, leaving three hundred dead.
Sadly, Lieutenant Colonel Cleland, who had so masterfully conducted the defence, was killed in action. His body lies buried in the nave of the Cathedral, beneath a simple stone bearing only his name.
Although the Battle of Dunkeld was a relatively small event, its impact was significant in that it helped determine Scotland’s evolution as a Presbyterian nation.