A great part of the Colquhouns' force consisted in cavalry, which could not act in the boggy ground.

They were said to have disputed the field manfully, but were at length completely routed, and a merciless slaughter was exercised on the fugitives, of whom betwixt two and three hundred fell on the field and in the pursuit.

If the MacGregors lost, as is averred, only two men slain in the action, they had slight provocation for an indiscriminate massacre.

It is said that their fury extended itself to a party of students for clerical orders, who had imprudently come to see the battle.

Some doubt is thrown on this fact, from the indictment against the chief of the clan Gregor being silent on the subject, as is the historian Johnston, and a Professor Ross, who wrote an account of the battle twenty-nine years after it was fought.