Battle of Inverkeithing 1651
Outline: officially registered battlefield boundary. Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 20 July 1651 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1651 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | Early modern (1500–1799) | derived from year |
| Location | Scotland | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Wars of the Three Kingdoms | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Commonwealth of England, Kingdom of Scotland | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 56.0481, -3.4158 | Wikidata P625 |
| Official record | HES Inventory BTL23 | OGL v3 |
| Registered area | 949.6 ha | OGL v3 |
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. The Scots sent forces to pen the English in and the English reinforced their landing.
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; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Battlefield boundary: 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. See also this battlefield on Battlefields of Britain.
Nearby battles
- Battle of Kinghorn 1332 · 12 km
- Battle of Raith 596 · 16 km
- Battle of Linlithgow Bridge 1526 · 16 km
- Siege of Leith 1560 · 17 km
- Cleanse the Causeway 1520 · 18 km
- Battle of Boroughmuir 1335 · 19 km
Other battles of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms
- Battle of Mauchline Muir 1648
- Battle of Stirling (1648) 1648
- Siege of Dublin (1649) 1649
- Battle of Carbisdale 1650
- Battle of Dunbar (1650) 1650
- Battle of Worcester 1651
- Battle of Dalnaspidal 1654
- Battle of the Severn 1655
All 20 battles of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms →
Browse more: battles in Scotland · Europe · Early modern battles