Battle of Moyry Pass

Part of the Nine Years' War

Date	20 September – 9 October 1600
Location	near Jonesborough, County Armagh
Result	Indecisive English forces establish a garrison at Mountnorris but Mountjoy retreated in November 1600

Belligerents

Irish alliance

English Army

Commanders and leaders

Hugh O'Neill

Lord Mountjoy

Strength

3,000–4,000

4,000–5,000

Casualties and losses

1-200 killed

4-500 killed, 400 wounded, several hundred dead from disease

Coordinates: 54°03′50″N 6°23′06″W / 54.064°N 6.385°W / 54.064; -6.385

The Battle of Moyry Pass was fought during September and October 1600 in counties Armagh and Louth, in the north of Ireland, during the Nine Years' War. It was the first significant engagement of forces following the cessation of arms agreed in the previous year between the Irish leader Hugh O'Neill and the English Crown commander, the Earl of Essex.

The battle was fought by the armies of O'Neill and Lord Mountjoy, a follower of the late Earl of Essex. Mountjoy was determined to pierce O'Neill's heartland in central and western Ulster by the Moyry Pass. In the course of a two-week assault the English troops established a garrison near Armagh, taking heavy casualties, and Mountjoy retired with difficulty to Dundalk.

Mountjoy's strategy for putting down O'Neill's rebellion was gradually to constrict his territory in Ulster with a ring of fortified garrisons on the borders. To this end, he had landed seaborne forces at Derry in the north of the province and at Carrickfergus in the east of Ulster. In September 1600, Mountjoy moved north from Dublin and concentrated at Dundalk, in order to mount an expedition further into Ulster and re-establish a garrison at Armagh, which position had been evacuated by the English Crown forces after O'Neill's victory at the Battle of the Yellow Ford in 1598.

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