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Battle of Cavan 1690

Marker: recorded battle location (no official boundary).

Key facts

Date (year)1690Wikidata P585 point in time
Century17th centuryderived
PeriodJacobite & laterderived
CountryIrelandderived
War / conflictWilliamite War in IrelandWikidata

About the battle

The Battle of Cavan took place in Cavan, Ireland on 11 February 1690 between forces of Williamite and Jacobite troops during the Williamite War in Ireland. It ended in a victory for the Williamites who captured, sacked and burned the town of Cavan before withdrawing to their forwarding base at Belturbet and further afield Enniskillen.

The Williamite commander over Ennisskillen (Inniskillinger) cavalry troops was Colonel William Wolseley had been instructed by his overall commander Marshal Schomberg to observe and harry Cavan, as Jacobites were using it as a forwarding base to launch relief raids across Ulster for Jacobite forces. At the time Cavan was one of the few remaining settlements in Ulster still loyal to James II of Ireland. The Duke of Berwick led a reinforcement to the Jacobite garrison commanded by Brigadier John Wauchope.

Wolseley left Belturbet with a force of 1,200 infantry and 300 cavalry. He hoped to catch the Jacobites by surprise by using a roundabout route to cross the River Annalee via Bellanacargy but his expedition was spotted by a Jacobite outpost and word passed on to Cavan of its approach.

Visiting the battlefield

Location

  • Approximate location: the point for Cavan, the place Wikidata gives as the battle’s location: 53.9910, -7.3601

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Directions (Google Maps) OpenStreetMap

Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Cavan (revision 1374074737), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; condensed by selecting paragraphs and trimming at sentence boundaries; citations removed. No text added.

Battle location from Wikidata (CC0).

Nearby battlefields

Other battles of the Williamite War in Ireland

All battles of the Williamite War in Ireland →

Browse more: battles in Ireland · Jacobite & later · 17th century battles

Further reading