Battle Begins

 
By mid-afternoon, on Sunday 20th July both sides were locked in an effective stalemate. Eventually a small boat arrived at North Queensferry with news. Cromwell was waiting for Leslie to head South from Torwood so he would not be sending reinforcements to Lambert. Lambert greeted this news by launching an attack.

His strong right wing of cavalry charged up the slope of Muckle Hill and routed Brechins’s cavalry and Augustin’s moss-troopers.

This action led Holbourne’s forces into a trap. The Scottish infantry and Browne’s cavalry swept down-hill to attack Lambert’s weaker left wing and Lambert’s infantry, hoping to outflank Lambert’s right-wing cavalry and cut off them off from his main force. But they were halted by musket fire from Bramson’s dragoons, and the weight of Overton’s reserves who emerged from the hollow and now threatened to outflank the Scottish infantry.

Perhaps on seeing the emergence of Overton’s reserves, Holbourne retreated, taking the rear-guard of his forces with him.

The lowland infantry managed to escape, as did some of the cavalry – probably those that were chased off Muckle Hill by Lambert’s initial assault. They probably headed west back towards Stirling. Sir John Browne was captured and later died of his wounds – his cavalry would have been engulfed in the battle with Lambert’s infantry.

The main battle was effectively over after an engagement that had lasted about fifteen minutes.