Wars of the Three Kingdoms: Did the Gaels have a distinct form of warfare?

It is contended by Hill that one of the things that makes Celtic warfare is the enduring primitivism that withstood sustained contact with those with more civilised systems and failed to adapt.[[Hill Celtic Warfare pp3-4]]

However even Spalding who is hostile to the highlanders said of MacColla’s force that they were ‘1500 Irishis, brocht wp in Wast Flanderis, expert soldiouris’.[[Spalding, Memorialls p385]] Ballie also makes the assertion that they came ‘from the continent’.[[Robert Baillie, Letters, and journals: containing an impartial account of public transactions, civil, ecclesiastical, and military, in England and Scotland, from the beginning of the civil wars, in 1637, to the year 1662: Vol. 2. (Edinburgh, 1775.) 2 vols. Eighteenth Century Collections Online. Gale Group. p64]] Stevenson says that this is a false assumption but their performance certainly justified the mistake.[[Stevenson, Highland Warrior pp106-7]] This brings up the important point that large numbers of Highland and Irish soldiers gained experience in the Thirty years war then still raging in Europe. Gordon mentions that ‘The commons of the north are fund by experience (as our commanderes in Holland doeth testifie) to be more courageous and martial than those of the south’.[[Gordon, Britane’s Distemper p138]] The Dutch ‘mingle and blend the Scottish among them, which are like Beans and Peas among chaff. These are sure men, hardy and resolute, and their example holds up the Dutch.’[[Anon. English Eyewitness quoted in James Ferguson (ed.) Papers Illustrating the History of the Scots Brigade in the Service of the United Netherlands, 1572-1782 (Scotish History Society, Edinburgh, 1899) Vol.I 1572-1697, p309]] The Irish or Highlanders fighting for continental armies fought in the same manner as the troops of other nations whom they fought alongside. Regardless of whether they first had to give up their own style of fighting they came back with a considerable knowledge of the continental methods of warfare.  
 
The most well known example is MacKay’s regiment whose history was written by Robert Monro. Munro himself came from Cromarty on the Black Isle and can therefore be considered a Highlander himself; the Munros were in the army of the covenant at Auldearn.[[Fraser, Chronicles of the Frasers p294]] He nonetheless considered himself well enough versed in the Art of War to allow his travelogue to double as a military manual.[[Monro, His Expedition ppxv-xvi ; William S. Brockington ‘Robert Monro: Professional Soldier, Military Historian and Scotsman’ pp215-241 Steve Murdoch (ed.) Scotland and the Thirty Years War 1618-1648 (Brill, Leiden, 2001) p219]] The German press commented upon the exotic nature of the Highlanders or Irish and they might be compared to other oddities like Laplanders. However prolonged exposure to the German wars brought about a change in perception in Germany as Gaels became indistinguishable from every other soldier.[[Hartmut Ruffer and Katherin Zickerman ‘German Reactions to the Scots in the Holy Roman Empire during the Thirty Years War’ pp271-292 Steve Murdoch (ed.) Scotland and the Thirty Years War 1618-1648 (Brill, Leiden, 2001) p278, pp289-90]] The Influence of returnees from the wars of the continent upon the armies of the covenant is well documented. Monro became a leading general. It would be ridiculous to suggest that the same did not affect Gaelic warfare, the Irish served extensively in the armies of Spain. In the face of Irish and Gaels fighting on the continent in fine continental style Hill’s contention of Celtic resistance to influence seems hardly credible.