Battle of Arklow ( 1649 ) The Battle of Arklow took place at Glascarrig on the coast road through Arklow in County Wicklow during November 1649 . It was fought between the armies of Confederate Ireland ( allied with the Royalist s ) , and the English Parliamentarians during the Irish Confederate Wars . Background . By late October 1649 , the Irish had suffered a number of major defeats at the hands of the army of the English Parliament - a defeat at the Battle of Rathmines , and the loss of the important towns of Drogheda and Wexford . Ormonde was keen to regain the initiative . In October , he received word ( via Castlehaven , via his sister ' s footman ) that a column of English soldiers was preparing to march from Dublin to Wexford to reinforce Cromwell ' s troops in the south . This presented the Irish leadership with a chance to engage the Parliamentarians without risking too many soldiers . Murrough O ' Brien , the Baron of Inchiquin , and Theobald Taaffe ( who had fought on opposite sides at the Battle of Knocknanuss only two years before ) were given command of a force of 2 , 500 . This operation was of particular importance to the credibility of Inchiquin : he was distrusted by the majority Catholic population of Ireland due to a number of atrocities he had committed in the previous years of fighting , and in the autumn of 1649 many of the Protestant soldiers in Munster formerly loyal to him had mutinied and joined with the forces of Parliament . He now had a chance to regain some standing ; it was more or less Inchiquin ' s last throw of the dice . The English soldiers under Major Nelson left Dublin in the last days of October . As he proceeded through the Wicklow Mountains his soldiers were harassed by tories though these attacks did not substantially hinder the force . In the meantime , Inchiquin prepared an ambush a little to the south of the town of Arklow , where the hills come close to the sea . A log barricade was placed across the road to Wexford and 1 , 000 infantry men were deployed behind it or otherwise concealed by the roadside . Nelson , however , heard a rumour that an ambush was planned and so moved his force using a more roundabout route , hoping to avoid Inchiquin ’ s army . Inchiquin realised what was happening , and swiftly moved his cavalry to intercept the New Model soldiers . Most of his infantry however could not keep up , and thus did not take part in the fighting . The battle . As Inchiquin ’ s largely mounted force came into view , the English hurriedly deployed on a beach , their backs to the sea . As the Irish were ordering themselves in preparation for an attack , the 350 English horse charged , hoping to catch the enemy by surprise , but were successfully repulsed on two occasions . After the second failed charge , Inchiquin launched a full cavalry assault on the horsemen . Demoralised and outnumbered , the English horse fled back towards the infantry , with the Irish in pursuit . The highly disciplined English infantry opened up their ranks to allow their own horse to pass through , after which the gaps in the ranks were closed once more . Inchiquin ’ s charging cavalry now unexpectedly found that the retreating horse had disappeared , to be replaced by a mass of pike - heads and levelled musket barrels . Close range musket fire tore into the Irish cavalry , throwing them into disorder and leaving the beach bloodstained . The English cavalry then counter - attacked , forcing the Irish to retreat . Nelson then resumed his march into Wexford unmolested . Consequences . The Battle of Arklow was a relatively small battle , and thus the failure of the Irish forces to cripple Nelson ' s New Model force was a demoralising setback but little more . For Inchiquin , however , the consequences were more serious . The battle had presented an opportunity for him to regain the trust of his countrymen , both Catholic and Protestant . His failure to defeat the numerically smaller English force left Inchiquin disgraced . After the battle , Inchiquin returned to Munster , where there were still a number of companies loyal to him , but these were routed by Broghill in March the next year . Shortly afterwards Inchiquin fled to the continent .