Battle of Cloughleagh

On 4 June 1643, roughly two hundred and fifty Irish Confederates under the Earl of Castlehaven and Viscount Muskerry surged through the Funcheon and Blackwater rivers to destroy one thousand seven hundred Royalists led by Sir Charles Vavasour. The small force struck the Royalist rear guard near Cloghleagh castle, killing about six hundred men and shattering the larger army that had just massacred the castle's occupants. Vavasour fled south toward Castlelyons while Castlehaven and Muskerry rode through the wounded field, turning a desperate local defence into a decisive Confederate victory.