The Lochaber axe, also called a Jeddart axe, was a Scottish war axe that came into use around 1600. It took many incarnations, although all of them had a few elements in common. The Lochaber was a heavy weapon, which was used by foot soldiers, for a defense against cavalry and as a pike against infantry . Like most other polearms of the time, it consisted of two parts: the shaft and blade. The shaft was usually some five or six feet long, and mounted with a blade of about eighteen inches in length which usually resembled a bardiche or voulge in design. The blade was attached in two places and often had a sharp point coming off of the top. In addition a hook (or cleek) was attached to the reverse, supposedly used for scaling walls. Another use for the hook on the rear, was to hook the cavalry off of their horses. To implement this, as the cavalry charged, the highlanders would suddenly change formation, into a formation with clear channels through it. The horses would naturally go into these channels, and the foot soldiers would hook the cavalry off of their horses, and then behead them. By around 1767, the Lochaber axe was used mainly as a ceremonial weapon by the town guard of Edinburgh, Scotland.

Pole weapons | Axes

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