The pursuing cavalry were soon bogged down in the wet terrain and attempted a retreat, but were cut off by Sorley Boy, Hugh MacIlveal and his men.

In alliance with Sir Hugh MacFelim "Bacach" O'Niall of Edenduffcarrig (Shane's Castle, Randalstown) and accompanied by two companies of English shot "sent from the pale" and commanded by the newly appointed Senechel of Clandeboye, Captain Thomas Chatterton, the MacQuillans launched a devastating raid on the northern glens "to follow their revenge upon the Scots".

Sorley assembled a small force which threatened the main camp of the raiders sited on a broad ridge near Slieve na Orra.

Hugh MacFelim and Chatterton fled, but were hunted down and killed near the summit of Orra while the third commander of the raid, Rory Oge MacQuillan, sought refuge on a crannog at Loughgile, "but was pursued by one Owen Gar Magee, who swam to the island and slew him.

A dispatch from the Lords Justice Ireland, to the Privy Council, dated 29 April 1583, records Hugh McFelim's death on a raid, "slain by the Scots".

[5] The primary source for many of the quotes given in the traditional account is the MacDuffee Manuscript, a history compiled by a man called McDuffee, circa 1714.