The great event of the fifteenth century was the Battle of Harlaw, which took place in 1411 at no great distance from the site of the Battle of Barra. It was really a conflict between Celt and Saxon, and was a despairing effort on the part of the dispossessed native population to re-establish themselves in the Lowlands. The Highlanders were led by Donald of the Isles, who gathering the clansmen of the northern Hebrides, Ross and Lochaber, and sweeping through Moray and Strathbogie, arrived at the Garioch on his way to Aberdeen. The burghers placed themselves under the leadership of the Earl of Mar (Alexander Stewart, son of the Wolf of Badenoch), a soldier who had seen much service in various parts of the world. The provost of the city, Robert Davidson, led forth a body of his fellow-citizens and joined Mar’s forces at Inverurie, within three miles of the Highlanders’ camp. The two forces were unequally matched—Donald having 10,000 men and Mar only a tenth of that number, but of these many were mail-clad knights on horseback and armed with spears. It was a fiercely contested battle and lasted till the darkness of a July night. The slaughter on both sides was great, but the tide of barbarism was driven back. The Highlanders retreated whence they came and the county of Aberdeen was saved from the imminent peril of a Celtic recrudescence. This is the only really memorable battle associated with Aberdeenshire soil. Its “red” field, on which so many prominent citizens shed their life-blood (Provost Davidson and Sir Alexander Irvine of Drum being of the number), was long remembered as a dreary and costly victory. Another battle of much less significance was that of Corrichie, fought in Queen Mary’s reign in 1562 on the eastern slope of the Hill of Fare, not far from Banchory. It was a contest between James Stewart (the Regent Murray, and half-brother of the Queen) and the Earl of Huntly. Huntly was defeated and slain, and his son, Sir John Gordon, who was taken prisoner, was afterwards executed at Aberdeen. Queen Mary, it is said, was a spectator both of the battle and of the execution.