The Battle of Kilsyth, 1645: Montrose’s Summit

Background

After Alford, Montrose swept into the Lowlands. Baillie was ordered to bring him to battle but was overruled at every turn by the Committee of Estates (Argyll among them), who forced a fatal flank march across the royalist front.

The battle

As the Covenanter column strung out across broken, boggy ground, fighting broke out prematurely — MacLean infantry in the cottages clashed with the flanking column. Montrose flung his Highlanders and horse into the disordered marching column before it could form, and the army disintegrated. The retreat became a massacre, many driven into the Dullatur Bog.

Outcome & significance

Kilsyth annihilated the last Covenanter field army and briefly made Montrose master of Scotland. But it was the high-water mark, not a turning point: within a month he was surprised and crushed at Philiphaugh, and the King’s cause was already doomed at Naseby.

The battlefield today

On the Inventory of Historic Battlefields; a commemorative cairn marks it, and part of the ground lies under Banton Loch, with an adjacent “Cavalry Park.”

The clans & people involved

• Royalist: MacDonald/MacColla’s Irish, MacLean, Gordon and Atholl men.
• Covenanter: Baillie’s regulars, Fife levies, and the Campbell interest of Argyll on the committee.

Sources

• Battle of Kilsyth — Wikipedia; Historic UK.