Battle of Inverkeithing 1651
Outline: officially registered battlefield boundary.
Key facts
| Date (year) | 1651 | Wikidata P585 point in time |
|---|---|---|
| Century | 17th century | derived |
| Period | Civil Wars | derived |
| Country | Scotland | derived |
| War / conflict | Wars of the Three Kingdoms | Wikidata |
| Participants | Commonwealth of England, Kingdom of Scotland | Wikidata |
| Local authority | Fife | HES |
| Registered area | 949.6 ha | HES |
| HES inventory reference | BTL23 | HES |
| Designated | 2011-11-30 | HES |
| Last amended | 2012-12-14 | HES |
About the battle
The Battle of Inverkeithing was fought on 20 July 1651 between an English army under John Lambert and a Scottish army led by James Holborne as part of an English invasion of Scotland. The battle was fought near the isthmus of the Ferry Peninsula, to the south of Inverkeithing, after which it is named.
An English Parliamentary regime had tried, convicted, and executed Charles I, who was king of both Scotland and England in a personal union, in January 1649. The Scots recognised his son, also named Charles, as king of Britain and set about recruiting an army. An English army, under Oliver Cromwell, invaded Scotland in July 1650. The Scottish army, commanded by David Leslie, refused battle until 3 September when it was heavily defeated at the Battle of Dunbar. The English occupied Edinburgh and the Scots withdrew to the choke point of Stirling. For nearly a year all attempts to storm or bypass Stirling, or to draw the Scots out into another battle, failed. On 17 July 1651 1,600 English soldiers crossed the Firth of Forth at its narrowest point in specially constructed flat-bottomed boats and landed at North Queensferry on the Ferry Peninsula.
Visiting the battlefield
Location
- Local authority: Fife
- Approximate centre of registered area: 56.0303, -3.4139
- Registered area: 949.6 hectares
Battlefields are often on private farmland: please keep to public rights of way and respect landowners.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Inverkeithing (revision 1379029786), 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.
Contains Historic Environment Scotland and OS data © Historic Environment Scotland and Crown Copyright and database right 2026, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
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Other battles of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms
- Battle of Aberdeen 1644
- Battle of Tippermuir 1644
- Battle of Alford 1645
- Battle of Annan Moor 1645
- Battle of Auldearn 1645
- Battle of Inverlochy 1645
- Battle of Kilsyth 1645
- Battle of Philiphaugh 1645
- Battle of Aberdeen 1646
- Battle of Lagganmore 1646
All battles of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms →
Browse more: battles in Scotland · Civil Wars · 17th century battles