Bannockburn Battlefield

Each major claim carries one of three labels. established means supported by primary records, official bodies or several independent reliable sources. shared means the core fact is sound but sources disagree on details, dates or interpretation. traditional means widely repeated but not traceable to a primary or independent source.

The outcome, dates and broad course of Bannockburn are well documented. There are four main narrative sources. The Life of Edward II (Vita Edwardi Secundi) and the Lanercost Chronicle are English and near-contemporary. Sir Thomas Grey's Scalacronica was written in the 1350s by the son of a knight who fought and was captured on the first day. John Barbour's poem The Bruce, written about 1375, gives by far the longest account but is a patriotic romance. None of them describes the ground precisely. The exact site therefore has to be reconstructed by matching their words to a landscape that drainage, farming, mining and housing have since transformed. This article relies heavily on the reconstruction by G. W. S. Barrow, in Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland (1965; 4th edn 2005), which remains the standard scholarly narrative, and sets the later archaeology beside it.

The landscape in 1314

Three zones. Barrow describes the country east and south of Stirling as three zones, fanning out from the castle. To the north and east lay the Carse of Stirling: flat, boggy ground of peat over clay, cut by the tidal Forth. Its southern edge is a steep bank at the 50- and 100-foot contours, running in a remarkably straight line south-east from Stirling. Above that bank lay an intermediate zone, two to three miles wide, of firmer, better-drained ground rising to about 300 feet. Beyond it to the west rose broken country and moorland, impassable for an army.

The pows. Water drained off the hills through the intermediate zone and across the carse to the Forth. On the carse it made its way through peat in many sluggish streams. These were called by the Celtic word pol, later "pow" in Scots. Place names in St Ninians parish still preserve them: Polmaise, Cocks-pow, Drypow, Powdrake, Powside, Powbridge and the Pelstream. In Bruce's time the whole carse was known in French as les Polles, "the pows". Barrow insists these were streams, not pools. He criticises the "pimply rash" of imaginary pools on many battle maps, which arose from mistranslating the name.

The road and the New Park. The main road from Edinburgh to Stirling, on the line of a Roman road, ran through the Torwood, crossed the Bannock Burn at Milton, and climbed into the New Park near the Borestone. Barrow, following the Revd Thomas Miller, argues that the New Park did not stretch right across the intermediate zone. East of it lay the lands of Balquhiderock, under corn since at least 1215, with a share of the "dryfield" above the bank and a share of the peaty carse below it. An army could not use the western hills or, with baggage, the carse. It had to come through the intermediate zone, ideally by the road.

Bannok. Where the Bannock Burn leaves its ravine and enters the carse stood an old inhabited place called Bannok. Its upland part, Ochtirbannok, later became Milton; its lower part was Skeoch, named after an obscure Irish saint, with a chapel of "Skeoch alias Bannockburn" and two mills. Barrow argues that the stream took its name from the place, not the reverse, and that the nucleus of Bannok is today's Bannockburn village.

What the battle was called

Barrow traces the name. The earliest English chronicles give the battle no name. Some southern English writers called it the "battle of Stirling". Scottish sources of the time called it the "battle of Bannok". Two English chroniclers of the 1320s and 1330s, John de Trokelowe and the canon of Bridlington, already used "Bannockburn"; Scottish writers adopted it later. Trokelowe placed the battle at "Bannokesmora", the muir of Bannok. A Welsh chronicle, probably the earliest surviving report, says it was fought y polles: in the Pows. For Barrow, a battle named after Bannok must have been fought near Bannok. He uses this to rule out Mackenzie's site far to the north in the "buckle of the Forth", nearer to Stirling and St Ninians than to Bannok.

The four candidate sites

Four sites. Barrow weighed four sites proposed by earlier writers:

• The traditional site at the Borestone, between Milton and St Ninians, where the monument stands. Barrow notes that W. M. Mackenzie disproved it, and every serious student since has agreed.
• The Dryfield of Balquhiderock, about three-quarters of a mile further east, proposed by Thomas Miller and Brigadier-General Carruthers.
• The Carse of Balquhiderock, the triangle between the Bannock Burn, the Pelstream and the 50-foot contour, proposed by General Sir Philip Christison. Barrow notes that the National Trust for Scotland had adopted this as most probable.
• Mackenzie's far-carse site around Muirton and Upper Taylorton, two to three miles north-east of the Borestone, which Barrow rejects.

Barrow's choice. Barrow bases his narrative "upon a belief that the main conflict, on 24 June, took place on the Dryfield". His reasons are these. Barbour says the English cavalry had crossed by daybreak to the "hard field", and that the battle was fought on a "plain hard field". The friar Robert Baston, captured by the Scots, wrote of a battle on the arida terra, the dry ground, of Stirling, which echoes the old name "dryfield". Grey, Barbour and the Life of Edward II agree that the battle began with the Scots simply advancing out of the wood; if the English had all been down on the carse, the Scots would have marched over half a mile before even coming in sight. And Barrow argues that no one in 1314 would have chosen to fight a heavy cavalry action on carseland. He accepts that the rear English brigades may still have been below the 50-foot contour when the fighting began, and that Barbour's "great straitness of the place" would fit the carse too.

The archaeology of 2011–14. shared The Battle of Bannockburn project, timed for the 700th anniversary, brought together GUARD Archaeology, the University of Glasgow's Centre for Battlefield Archaeology under Dr Tony Pollard, the National Trust for Scotland, Stirling Council, the University of Stirling and the Treasure Trove Unit, with metal detectorists and well over a thousand volunteers. It found few objects of the right date, which is normal for medieval battlefields, but the ones it did find came from the Carse. They included a medieval spur fragment at Redhall Farm, a stirrup on the Carse fields, a silver coin of Edward I or II near Cambuskenneth Abbey, medieval pottery showing the carse was farmed and lived on, and, in February 2014, a copper-alloy cross pendant from a horse harness of the early fourteenth century, probably from an English nobleman's horse. The team concluded that the main fighting on 24 June took place on the Carse, with the English pinned between the Pelstream to the north and the Bannock Burn to the south. Pollard described this as the first time physical evidence could be used to pinpoint the battle.

Where the debate stands. The two views are closer than they look. Barrow himself puts the English cavalry's night bivouac on the Carse of Balquhiderock, between the Pelstream, the Bannock Burn and the 50-foot contour, and puts the slaughter of the rout in the Bannock Burn gorge and the peat-bordered stretch below it. Stray English horse gear on the carse is therefore consistent with his account as well as with a carse battle. Historic Environment Scotland's Inventory entry, revised in 2023, treats both the Dryfield and the Carse as within the likely area of the second day. It says the Carse "currently (2023) has a stronger case", but that "neither can be ruled out on the basis of present knowledge". It places the first day at the New Park, noting that the visitor centre stands at the park's probable southern edge.

Barrow's reconstruction: before the battle

The challenge of Stirling. Barrow argues that no event in the whole war was less inevitable than Bannockburn. Bruce's strategy since 1307 had been to avoid pitched battle. In 1313 his brother Edward, besieging Stirling, agreed with its commander, Sir Philip Moubray, that the castle would surrender unless an English army came within three miles of it by midsummer 1314. Barrow sees the bargain as typical of Edward Bruce: chivalrous and foolish. It virtually forced Bruce to meet the English in the field.

The English army. Edward II summoned infantry from England and Wales totalling some 21,640 men, plus Irish forces, to gather at Wark on 10 June. How many came is unknown. Barrow follows J. E. Morris in suggesting perhaps 15,000 foot, and dismisses an estimate of only 5,000. The cavalry mattered more. From letters of protection, Morris and Barrow estimate some 2,000 to 2,500 mounted men; the Life of Edward II says "more than 2,000" armoured horse; Barbour's realistic figure is 3,000 barded horse. All but three English earls stayed away. Barrow rejects Morris's view that the English were untrained: they were led by veterans of the Welsh and Scottish wars, including Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, who had beaten Bruce at Methven and lost to him at Loudoun Hill.

The Scottish army. Bruce's army was almost entirely infantry, armed with long spears, axes and swords, with some bows. Its only cavalry was about 500 light horse under the Marischal, Sir Robert Keith. Barrow stresses there is no reliable evidence at all for Scottish numbers. Working from a population of perhaps 400,000, he suggests 7,000 to 10,000 in all, and perhaps 5,000 to 6,000 actual fighters in four brigades and the light horse. Barbour thought the Scots about a third as strong as the English.

The four brigades. On 22 June the Scots stood in the Torwood "as for retreat", then withdrew into the New Park. Thomas Randolph, earl of Moray, led the vanguard by St Ninians kirk, nearest Stirling. The king held the rear at the "entry", where the road came into the park. Between them were the brigades of Edward Bruce and of Walter the Stewart, whose young age meant that Sir James Douglas held the actual command. Barbour says the king's brigade included the men of Carrick, Argyll and the Isles, many under Angus Macdonald of Islay, and a large body from the lowlands. Bruce had the ground beside the road dug with small pits covered by sticks and grass, so that cavalry would have to bunch at the road.

The first day, 23 June

Bohun. Sir Philip Moubray rode out from Stirling to meet Edward II and warned that the New Park paths were blocked. He also pointed out that the castle was now technically relieved. But the vanguard under the earls of Gloucester and Hereford, who shared the command awkwardly, pressed on across the Bannock Burn and up towards the Scots, who seemed to be withdrawing. Sir Henry de Bohun, Hereford's nephew, saw the king of Scots, riding a small grey and armed with a hand-axe, and charged him. In Barbour's line, "Schir Henry myssit the nobill kyng". Bruce split his helmet and head with the axe, breaking the shaft. His captains rebuked him for the risk. Barrow stresses that the fight which followed at the entry was a serious engagement: Gloucester was unhorsed, and the English vanguard withdrew across the burn with real losses.

Clifford and Randolph. Meanwhile a separate cavalry force under Sir Robert Clifford and Sir Henry Beaumont rode round east of the New Park towards Stirling. Grey puts it at 300 men, Barbour at 800. Barrow notes that the English still did not believe the Scots would fight a pitched battle, so their purpose may simply have been to reach the castle or cut off a Scottish retreat. They got below St Ninians kirk unchallenged. Bruce rebuked Randolph that "a rose had fallen from his chaplet". Randolph led his spearmen out onto open arable and held off the knights, who, lacking archers, ended by hurling swords and maces into the schiltrom. Sir William Deyncourt was killed and Sir Thomas Grey, the chronicler's father, captured. Bruce refused to let Douglas go to Randolph's help. Barrow calls this fight "the crisis of the whole battle": it proved that a schiltrom could attack cavalry in the open and it blocked the way to the castle.

The night. The English needed water, rest and a place from which to attack in the morning. They took the dangerous decision to put the cavalry across the Bannock Burn onto the carse. Barbour says they broke down houses for timber to bridge the pows, and that men from the castle brought doors and windows. Grey says they spent the night in "an evil, deep marsh". The Scots, by Barrow's account, were themselves considering withdrawing to the Lennox. Grey says that Sir Alexander Seton, a Scottish knight in English service, came over in the night and told Bruce that the English had lost heart and could be beaten. Barbour sets the decision to fight in a council of the Scottish leaders.

The second day, 24 June

The advance. At first light, about a quarter past three by modern reckoning, Bruce spoke to his army. Abbot Bernard of Arbroath, his chancellor, who probably carried the Brecbennoch of St Columba (the Monymusk Reliquary) in the army, preserved a version of the speech. The Scots came out of the wood in echelon: Edward Bruce's brigade first, then Randolph's, then the Stewart's under Douglas. They knelt to pray. Barbour has Edward II say they kneel for mercy, and Sir Ingram de Umfraville, a former Guardian of Scotland, reply that they ask it from God, not from him.

The fighting. Gloucester charged Edward Bruce's schiltrom and was killed, along with Clifford, Sir Pain Tiptoft, Sir Edmund de Mauley and Sir John Comyn, son of the man Bruce had killed in 1306. Randolph and Douglas then attacked the rest of the English cavalry, packed together "all in a schiltrom", in Barbour's words. The English archers, mostly in the rear, came into action late on one flank and were scattered by Keith's light horse. Bruce then committed his own brigade of highlanders and islesmen. A crowd of camp followers, kept back in a hollow probably north of Coxet Hill, poured onto the field, and some English took them for a fresh army.

The rout. Pembroke and Sir Giles d'Argentan led Edward II from the field. Refused entry to Stirling Castle, he rode round through the King's Park and the Torwood towards Linlithgow, pursued by Douglas with sixty horse. D'Argentan turned back to die among the spears. The English army broke. Men drowned in the Forth, and the greatest slaughter came in the Bannock Burn gorge north of the village and in the peat below it. Barbour wrote that the burn was so "chargit" with men and horses that one could cross it dry. The Lanercost Chronicle says the name "Bannockburn" was on English lips for years afterwards.

After the battle. Bruce kept vigil over the body of the earl of Gloucester, his kinsman, and returned it and Clifford's body to England without conditions. He sent back Edward II's shield and privy seal. The earl of Hereford fled to Bothwell Castle, whose Scottish keeper made him prisoner; he was exchanged in October for Bruce's queen, his daughter Marjorie, his sister Mary and the blind Bishop Wishart. A body of Welsh infantry marched a hundred miles to Carlisle in good order. Stirling Castle surrendered and was razed. Barrow judges that the victory "rightly takes first place among the few decisive battles in the history of Scotland", but that the English escaped more cheaply than they deserved.

A victory that did not end the war

Bannockburn secured Bruce's kingship inside Scotland. By the tests of the age, Barrow writes, he now had legality by inheritance, by the people's acceptance and by God's judgement in battle. But England did not concede. The war went on for fourteen more years, through Scottish raids deep into northern England, the capture of Berwick in 1318, the Declaration of Arbroath in 1320 and the Weardale campaign of 1327. Only the Treaty of Edinburgh of 17 March 1328 recognised Scotland's independence.

Commemoration and the site today

A flagpole was raised at the Borestone in 1870. The land was bought by the Earl of Elgin in 1932 and passed to the National Trust for Scotland. A rotunda was built round the flagpole in 1962, and Charles d'Orville Pilkington Jackson's bronze equestrian statue of Bruce was unveiled in 1964. The first visitor centre opened in 1967; a new centre with a 3D battle experience opened for the 700th anniversary in 2014. The monument therefore stands near the edge of the New Park, where the first day's fighting began, but probably not where the main battle was fought.

• In Bruce's time the Carse of Stirling was called les Polles, "the pows", after its sluggish streams. Barrow argued that the "pools" on many battle maps never existed.
• The battle was named after a settlement, Bannok, not originally the stream. Scottish writers called it the "battle of Bannok" into the fifteenth century.
• The English cavalry spent the night before the main battle on the carse, using timber from the houses of Bannok to bridge the streams.
• At midsummer near Stirling there is little true darkness. Barrow reckons first light on 24 June 1314 came at about a quarter past three.
• An English Carmelite friar, Robert Baston, was brought north to celebrate an English victory in verse. Captured, he was made to write about the Scottish one instead.
• The cross pendant found on the Carse in 2014 probably came from the harness of an English nobleman's horse.
• The Earl of Hereford, captured after the battle, was traded for Bruce's wife and daughter, who had been prisoners in England since 1306.

• Myth: the monument marks where the battle was fought. It stands near the edge of the New Park, where the first day's fighting began. The main battle was almost certainly fought further east.
• Disputed: the site of the main battle on 24 June. Barrow argued for the Dryfield of Balquhiderock; the 2011–14 archaeology and Historic Environment Scotland lean to the Carse. Neither has been proved.
• Disputed: the size of the armies. There is no reliable Scottish figure, and English figures range from Barrow's 2,000–3,000 cavalry and perhaps 15,000 foot to much larger popular totals.
• Myth: the carse was full of pools. Barrow showed that les Polles meant sluggish streams, not pools.
• Myth: Bannockburn ended the war. Peace came only in 1328.
• Disputed: the details of Bohun's death and of the speeches. They come mainly from Barbour's poem and Abbot Bernard's later version.