During the battle, Montrose's Royalist forces routed an army of the Covenanter-dominated Scottish government under John Wemyss, Lord Elcho.

[1] Under the terms of the 1643 Solemn League and Covenant, the Scottish Parliament, dominated by a hardline Presbyterian faction known as the Covenanters, had agreed to intervene on the Parliamentarian side in the First English Civil War.

The Royalist party, fearing that the Scots intervention would prove decisive, sought to find ways of tying down troops in Scotland to prevent them assisting the English Parliamentarians.

With the majority of its best troops with Leslie in England, the Scottish government hastily assembled an army to defend the town under the overall command of John Wemyss, Lord Elcho and James Murray, Earl of Tullibardine.

[2] While Tullibardine and Elcho had two small regiments of relatively inexperienced regular troops, most of their men were untrained levies: the order to assemble at Perth only went out four days before the battle.

The traditional historiography of the battle suggests that Elcho had up to 7,000 infantry and 800 cavalry, the latter being considered the "cream of the army",[4] along with local militia and a number of small frame guns.

[7] Montrose commanded the right wing, made up of Inchbrackie's Athollmen, himself: in the centre he placed the Irish under Mac Colla, backed with the Badenoch men.

My advice to you therefore is that as there happens to be a great abundance of stones upon this moor, every man should provide himself, in the first place, with as stout a one as he can manage, rush up to the first Covenanter he meets, beat out his brains, take his sword, and then I believe he will be at no loss how to proceed!

[6] Montrose then gave an order to charge, and Mac Colla's experienced troops moved forward, clashing violently with the largely untrained militia making up Tullibardine's infantry: the first and second ranks rapidly lost their composure and began to fall back.

[11] The dead included several prominent gentry: Captain David Grant, who had led the Perth militia, William Forbes the Laird of Reires, Patrick Oliphant of Bachilton, and George Haliburton of Kelior.