1641–42 Irish Rebellion 1642–49 1649–53 Cromwellian Conquest The Battle of Dungan's Hill took place in County Meath, in eastern Ireland on 8 August 1647.
In August, the Confederate Leinster army under Thomas Preston was attempting to take Dublin from the English Parliamentarian garrison under Michael Jones, when it was intercepted by the Roundheads and forced to give battle.
Preston was a veteran of the Thirty Years' War, where he had been a commander of the Spanish garrison at Leuven, but had no experience of open warfare or handling cavalry.
As a result, Preston tried to move his cavalry along a narrow covered lane (site of the present-day main road), where they were trapped and subjected to enemy fire without being able to respond.
With the Confederate army spread out and in confusion, Jones' troops fell in amongst them causing the demoralised Irish cavalry to flee the field, leaving the remainder of Preston’s infantry unsupported.
The Confederate army’s infantry were primarily equipped with pikes and heavy muskets and trained to stand in tercios in the Spanish manner.
Some of the Irish infantry, Scottish Highlanders ("redshanks") brought to Ireland by Alasdair MacColla, managed to charge and break through Jones’ men and escape into a nearby bog, where the English cavalry could not follow.