Livingstone joined Mackay in Scotland in April 1689 during the 1689 Jacobite Rising; as cavalry, they were employed securing the roads between Inverness and Stirling and so missed the Jacobite victory of Killiecrankie in July. Despite this setback, Mackay and Livingstone gradually gained control; in 1690, they led separate forces in a co-ordinated campaign that ended in Livingstone's victory at Cromdale in May. They apparently wrote to each other in Dutch, presumably a precaution against interception by the Jacobites.