14/10/2025
The Battle of Faughart took place on this day (14 October) in 1318 in Co. Louth. In his article for Irish Heritage News, Dean Litchfield gives a detailed account of the clash between an Anglo-Irish army – largely of Norman descent and loyal to King Edward II of England – and the combined Scottish and Irish forces led by Edward Bruce of Scotland. Bruce had been inaugurated king of Ireland, though his title was never widely recognized beyond his Ulster stronghold.
There are very few reliable sources on the course of the battle itself but we know that the opposing armies met close to the Hill of Faughart, just 5km north of Dundalk.
According to Barbour’s pro-Scottish narrative, Bruce’s advisers and knights counselled him not to engage in battle immediately but to wait for reinforcements that were on their way. On the other hand, the Lanercost Chronicle tells us that Bruce “came to the town of Dundalk with … a great army of Scots which had newly arrived in Ireland to enable him to invade and lay waste that land”, seemingly indicating that the reinforcements had already joined with Bruce and his comrades.
This account also mentions the presence of his “Irish adherents” but does not elaborate on their role during the battle. Barbour claims that the Gaelic Irish did not participate in the fighting but instead positioned themselves on top of the Hill of Faughart, where they watched the battle unfold. The implication is that the Scottish defeat was not due to tactical errors on their part but due to the treachery of the Irish. Barbour, a Scotsman, was, after all, writing for a domestic audience (most of all the King of Scots) and, therefore, needed to play up the reluctance of the Irish to fight.
Barbour and most other early sources are in agreement that the Scots were quickly overcome by their enemy during the battle. The Lanercost Chronicle’s account of the movements of Bruce’s army and his allies provides one of the clearest descriptions of the battle:
“they were in three columns at such a distance from each other that the first was done with before the second came up, and then the second before the third, with which Edward was marching, could render any aid. Thus the third column was routed, just as the two preceding ones had been. Edward fell at the same time and was beheaded after death …”
An Irish tract, the Cath Fhochairte Brighite, however, tells a different story. It claims that the Gaelic Irish army, positioned near the brow of the hill to the north, faced an initial bombardment of arrows, followed by a heavy cavalry charge on the “Galls of Meath and Gaels” – gall meaning foreigner in reference to the Norman origins of the de Lacys and Gael meaning Irish – positioned in the centre, on the slope. Subsequently, this central battalion, along with the Scottish battalion positioned at the foot of the hill nearest to Dundalk to the south, rallied and launched a counter-attack, driving the enemy back. Bruce’s men were then joined by another body of forces from the north, presumably the reinforcements, which enabled them to push the battered Anglo-Irish troops back even further.
According to this account, a lull in the fighting occurred and the Scottish soldiers, sure of victory, briefly stopped to rest. As Bruce walked among the dead strewn across the bloody battlefield, he was approached by
“a shameless idiot, enveloped in a bundle of straw ropes, instead of clothing … This demented fellow held in his hand an iron ball to which a long chain was attached one end of which was tied round his waist, and there displayed many frantic and very trifling tricks… until finding an opportunity of the King [Edward Bruce], he gave him a stroke of the ball on the head by which he scattered his brains around. After this act, he ran as fast as he could across the side of the hill, in the direction whence he came.”
Although this account in the Cath Fhochairte Brighite is certainly entertaining, serious doubts arise regarding its authenticity. Seán Duffy has made the compelling argument that the tract does not have a medieval origin, as previously assumed, but is instead a forgery composed c.1845. While some of its content was drawn from genuine medieval chronicles via modern published texts, other parts were deliberately fabricated.
The tale of Bruce’s early triumph, followed by his treacherous slaying while at rest, only emerged in the late 16th century. In contrast, all contemporary records indicate that Bruce was killed “honourably” during the fighting by John Maupas of the Drogheda contingent. The Annales Hiberniae add that Maupas’ dead body was subsequently found over Bruce’s body, suggesting he was quickly cut down by Scottish soldiers enraged at the felling of their leader.
Most of the nobles who had followed Bruce into battle are also reported to have been slain at Faughart, including Mac Ruaidhrí, king of Insi-Gall (the Hebrides) and Mac Domnaill, king of Argyle, according to the Irish Annals of the Four Masters and the Annals of Ulster.
Read Dean’s full account of the battle here: https://irishheritagenews.ie/1318-battle-of-faughart-and-edward-bruce/
📸: In recent years, this marble plaque was placed at the head of Edward Bruce’s reputed grave in Faughart (© Dean Litchfield).
