The march back to Scotland began on 6th December; it was winter and the Macpherson regiment had its quota of sick men which were carried in carriages. It also had custody of the POWs taken. It was an orderly but hasty march because the Hanoverian Duke of Cumberland was just two days behind them. They reached Manchester on the 9th and moved on to Preston on the 12th where they rested for a day. It was somewhere in between where the regiment's first casualty was suffered -- James Smith, an invalid that was somehow left behind and was later transported to the plantations in America.

      On the 17th the Macphersons were the rear guard in the midst of a blizzard as they marched to Penrith. The Prince did not recognize the proximity of his pursuers and decided to review his troops on the 18th. A reconnaissance party from the Glengarry regiment led by Lord George determined that their pursuers were now Hanoverian regular dragoons and not militia and decided to make a stand. The Macpherson and Appin Stewart regiments were ordered to return to Clifton, a village two miles to the south where they joined the MacDonells of Glengarry. Later, Colonel Roy Stewart's Edinburgh regiment arrived to aid in the defence but when the Prince learned of the contemplated action, he commanded them all to retreat to Penrith.

      Lord George chose to ignore that order because the Highlanders were already in musket range and a retreat would have exposed the wounded. The dismounted dragoons in contact numbered about 500 and Lord George recognized that the terrain favoured an ambush by Highland infantry. It was now past sunset but the moon broke through clouds from time to time to provide good light. The Highland regiments numbered about 1000 and were deployed behind hedges or dykes as shown on the map below such that they were hidden from, but could see, the dragoons. Musket fire was exchanged and at the appropriate time, the Highlanders cut through the hedges with their dirks or scaled the dykes and charged the dragoons with their claymores drawn. In the dark most of the fire went over the attackers' heads and the dragoons didn't have time to reload before they were within sword range. In the case of the Macpherson regiment, no fewer than 14 of their swords shattered when they struck the steel skullcaps that the dragoons were wearing. However, their dirks worked. The surviving dragoons retreated but the Highlanders were ordered not to pursue. On the following morning they marched to Penrith in good order. The dragoons had lost between 40 and 100 killed; the Highlanders substantially fewer. Three Badenoch men were killed and three wounded but ten who chose to pursue the retreating dragoons were taken prisoner.

      The army reached Carlisle on the 18th where they rested for a day departing on the 20th for Glasgow. The Manchester Regiment was left to defend Carlisle along with the wounded but they were forced to surrender on the 30th. At the nightly halt at Dumfries on the 22nd the Prince held a council of war in which he outlined his intentions for continuing the insurrection based on letters he had received. He told them that a powerful French army was enroute to Scotland and that he ordered the capture of Stirling and Edinburgh Castles using the newly organized Mackintosh and Fraser regiments under the command of Lord John Drummond. He promised full pay and reequipment for the troops at Glasgow but he also instituted harsh measures against plundering and desertion. The next day the march continued up Nithdale and reached the town of Lesmahago two days later where Christmas was celebrated by plundering it in retaliation for the arrest of Donald Macdonald of Moidart back in September 1745 as he was returning to Edinburgh with dispatches.