The Battle of Kringen, 26th August 1612  
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Georg Nielsen Strømdal: The Battle of Kringen

In 1612 a force it is now thought of some 300* Scots (the initial Norwegian Report said 550 Scots were defeated by 450 Militia, but by the 1789 Norwegian accounts had inflated the Scots number to 900) arrived in Gudbrandsdalen under the command of acting Lieutenant Colonel (substantive Captain, later Major) Alexander Ramsay ¹  with a company of 100 from the south of Scotland, a company of 100 Caithness men led by Captain George Sinclair ² of Stirkoke (for many years George Sinclair was thought to be the leader and Ramsay was forgotten) and another company of 100 men led by Captain George Hay  ³.  George Sinclair was a captain in Samuel Cockburn's regiment in Sweden 1610-12, and had recruited for James Spens for the Swedish Army 1611-12.  He was allegedly accused of forcibly taking children and servants onto the transport ships. Alexander Ramsay recruited with Robert Kerr and Captain George Hay ³ (also of Samuel Cockburn's regiment), and had sailed from Dundee with his company. They were simply passing through the valley intent on reaching Sweden, which was then at war with Norway and Denmark over the territory of Kalmar in the south of Scandinavia.  Their passage through Norway had been peaceful ¤ since their landing at the Isfjorden on the coast of Romsdal and Møre, and they could not have anticipated what awaited

Adolph Tidemand / Morten Müller: Sinclairs landing i Romsdal, painted 1976
them at Kringen.  They did not know that young men conscripted from the valley had been massacred in the Kalmar conflict, and that the farmers from Gudbrandsdalen were determined to resist them.  Plans had been laid for an ambush, and the ambush was to be triggered by local girl, Guri, who was to watch the column as it made its slow passage along the old King’s road. 

Photo courtesy of Per-2-Peer
The 1912 Memorial with the carving of Pillarguri at the battle site

To further distract the Scots from the ambush preparations, tradition adds that a man rode sitting backwards on his horse.  Once the right moment arrived, Guri, watching from the mountain top above Otta blew a blast on her lur, a long wooden horn, or perhaps a buckhorn, traditional to the area.  Local tales have it that the ambush started with logs and rocks crashing down on the Scots from the steep mountainside and blocking the road preventing advance or withdrawal, and Norwegian folklore records that  George Sinclair was felled with a silver bullet from a single musket shot fired by Berdon Sejelstad.  450 farmers fell on the Scots with their axes and scythes and fierce hand-to-hand conflict ensued that left the river running red with blood.  

Weapons in the Gudbrandsalen War Museum at Kvam 

Photo courtesy of Jon Selfors, Verthuset Sinclair, Kvam
The 1789 †Marker of  Oberst "Colonel" Sinclair's Grave and Battle details:
"Epitaph
Here under rests
Colonel Georg Sinkler
Fallen at Kringlen in the Year 1612 with the number
of  900 Scots who were crushed like clay pots by the smaller number of 300 farmers from Læsjö, Waage, Froen. The farmers' leader was Berdon Sejelstad from Ringeboe, Sogn"