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What They Don’t Say About the Battle of Bannockburn (1314)

Considering how famous the Battle of Bannockburn is in Scottish history, you would think historians would have agreed where it was fought decades upon decades ago. Well think again. The exact location of the battlefield has been debated for decades, but has the real location been found?

This is the Battle of Bannockburn visitor centre, just south of Stirling. A major tourist attraction today, it’s home to the statue of Robert the Bruce. Yet, despite what some may think, the Battle never took place here. Bruce was known to have camped here with his troops before the battle, but this is not the battle site.

In 2001, Stirling Council wanted to find out the exact location of the battle. They hired a team of historians, led by Fiona Watson, to find out. After digging through thousands of documents and endless theories, 4 possible locations emerged.

Watson pinpointed the Dryfield of Balquhidderock (Balquidrock)- now part of the playing fields at Bannockburn High School - as the most likely site where the battle took place. It’s under a mile north east of the visitor centre, and it’s the site that matches, according to Watson, most of the geographic details of the battlefield described by ancient sources. Watson noted that a ravine, described by contemporary chroniclers as ''an evil ditch'', where many English soldiers were pushed into and slain, as being part of bluebell woods, a local wood nearby.

Do you agree with Watson however, please let me know in the comments below…

Now we have a better understanding of the location of the battle, what about the battle itself, and what events caused the battle to take place? Obviously that’s a massive question, but here’s the condensed version.
In the period leading up to the battle, Bruce had successfully employed guerrilla warfare tactics against English forces. In 1313, Bruce had also demanded that any supporters of the ousted King John Balliol swear loyalty to him or lose their lands. By 1314, there were only two Scottish fortresses controlled by England – one at Berwick, and the other at Stirling Castle.

In early 1314, Bruce’s forces had struck a deal with the English garrison at Stirling, agreeing that if no English reinforcements were been dispatched by mid-summer, the castle would be surrendered to Bruce.

By May, King Edward II was marching an army of around 13,000 men to Stirling Castle, the largest army to ever invade Scotland up until that point. The battle that ensued is one of the most famous in Scottish history (Ditchburn and MacDonald, 2014: 162).

Sources

Brown, D. The declaration of Arbroath: pedigree of a nation? In Barrow, G. (Eds) The Declaration of Arbroath: History, Significance, Setting, Chap 1, pages pp. 1-12. First published in The Declaration of Arbroath: History, Significance, Setting: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (2003) https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/3710/1/arbr...

Castelow, E. The Battle of Bannockburn, Historic UK - https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryMa...

DITCHBURN, D., & MACDONALD, C. (2014). Editorial: Bannockburn, World War I and the Referendum. The Scottish Historical Review, 93(237), 161-170. www.jstor.org/stable/43774032

Duncan, A. (1992). The War of the Scots, 1306-23: The Prothero Lecture. Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 2, 125-151.

Grant, A. (2007). The Death of John Comyn: What Was Going On? The Scottish Historical Review, 86(222), 176-224. www.jstor.org/stable/25529980

The Herald - Is this the site of Bruce victory? Bannockburn was fought at Balquhidderock, says historian hired by Stirling Council https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/1...

Scotland’s History, the BBC - The Battle of Bannockburn, 1314 - https://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/histor...

Oxford Reference – Scottish Wars of Independence - https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/...

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