Why The Battle Of Bannock Burn

The Battle of Bannockburn ended in utter disaster for Edward II. Thousands of Englishmen lay dead along the banks of the Bannock Burn, including an earl and over one hundred knights. For the Scottish the battle was a resounding and decisive victory. Robert the Bruce won total militarial control and de facto political independence of Scotland. Robert the Bruce’s victory at Bannockburn ended any realistic Plantagenet claim to the Scottish throne.
In the year 1314, Bannockburn was a small village immediately south of the city of Stirling in central Scotland. Bannockburn took it’s name after the Bannock Burn, a stream that ran west and through the village. The two armies are suggested to have met south of Stirling, and west of Bannockburn. According to the Scottish narrative poem, The Brus, written by John Barbour in the year 1375, when the English were given the option of camping to either the west or east, they “quartered that night in the Carse”. The possible site of the Carse of Balquhidderock, the area between the Pelstream and the Bannock Burn, has been used throughout the years as a ploughed field and a waste dumping site. Today the area is composed of largely undisturbed grassy fields wedged between 20th
century suburban housing and a railroad line running from Edinburgh to Stirling.
Victorian historians believed that the Battle of Bannockburn took place at the Borestone site in Stirling, where it is traditionally believed that Robert the Bruce camped the day prior to the battle. The location at the Borestone is where the National Trust for Scotland’s Bannockburn Heritage Centre is currently built around. In 1932, Edward Bruce, the 10th Earl of Elgin, gave lands to the National Trust of Scotland, and in subsequent years, additional lands were purchased in order to build the visitor center. A statue of Robert the Bruce and a monument dedicated to both armies now stand on the hill where Robert’s army camped. This location as the battlefield site is questionable at best. It doesn’t appear in written accounts before the year 1723, and only fragments of the Borestone remain. Prior to the Bannockburn 700 Project occurring in the year 2011, research was conducted around the site where the Bannockburn Heritage Centre was to be built upon. No evidence from the battle was found, only Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age fire pits. If artifacts from the battle were buried on the site, it would be a feat to discern from the thousands of years of artifacts found.
The historian, Dr. Fiona Watson, claims that the modern site of the battle lays beneath a ball field of the local Bannockburn high school. She concluded that this may be the battlefield site because the Bannockburn Gorge lays nearby. According to her, the Bannockburn Gorge is possibly the “evil ditch” chroniclers wrote about where many Englishmen were pushed to their deaths. The ball field is half a mile away from the Bannockburn Heritage Centre. Dr. Watson asserts that the other potential sites do not match the geographical landscape suggested in contemporary documents. She states that, “The crucial fact is that all contemporary chroniclers say that the English died in a ditch. There is no great ditch on the carse, but there is a ravine on my preferred site which would have stood between them and their escape.” There is no substantial archaeological evidence currently to back Dr. Watson’s claims, and as mentioned previously, one must take contemporary documents regarding the battle with a grain of salt.
Between the years 2011 and 2014, an in-depth archaeological project was conducted in an attempt to uncover the site of the Battle of Bannockburn. This would be known as the Bannockburn 700 Project. Prompted by the battle’s 700th anniversary and the sponsorship of the National Trust for Scotland, a team consisting of archaeologists and historians, supported by over thirteen hundred volunteers, used every means at their disposal, including LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), aerial photography, map regression, documentary research, geophysical prospection, walk-over surveys, metal-detecting surveys, excavation trenching and systematic test-pitting, in order to unearth the site of the Bannockburn battlefield.
During the course of the project, multiple key landmarks related to the battle were unearthed, the first of which was the old Roman road.
The old Roman road was a key feature during the follow-up to the battle. Built approximately 80 A.D., it was the principal road leading to Stirling Castle, and was the route that Edward II and Robert the Bruce took to approach the battlefield. Research was conducted on Monument Hill, a location where it was thought that the Roman road led to. Researchers found that the road did not lead to this exact location. It was surmised that the Roman Road was buried beneath the current road network that travels past the site on lower ground. A portion of the Roman Road was found in subsequent excavations south of Randolph’s
Field.
Another significant landmark found was the Cambuskenneth Abbey. The abbey was featured in contemporary accounts and it was here that Robert kept his baggage train during the battle, including where the Scottish possibly stored supplies during the siege of Stirling Castle. Involved geophysics, test-pitting, and metal detecting were used around the ruins of the abbey. The material found is consistent with the medieval time period. Metal detector surveys were conducted to the west and east of the abbey. Over one thousand artifacts were recovered. The most prominent artifact found being an Edward I/II coin minted in London during the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century. It is thought that the coin would have been in circulation in the year 1314 and is estimated to have been plunder taken from the routed English army.
The so-called “Big Dig” of the Bannockburn 700 Project took place exactly one year before the 700th anniversary. The dig took place along Braehead, Balquhidderock Wood and Broomhill over the course of a week. One hundred and thirty-three metal artifacts were found, but it was concluded these were made of eighteenth century iron. Despite this, one hundred and thirty nine test pits were dug, unearthing white gritty ware and Scottish redware, contemporary to the battle. The pottery artifacts found disproved the notion that the Carse of Balquhidderock was an uninhabited bog in the 14th century as was previously speculated. On the morning of the second day, the Scottish descended upon the English, and it was here at the Carse that it's estimated the battle took place. The English were unfamiliar with the local landscape. Much of the surrounding area was likely covered in boglands, so the Carse proved suitable for encampment for Edward II in an otherwise uninhabitable landscape.
Test pitting was conducted along the eastern bank of the Bannock Burn. Several hundred metal artifacts were found, but one was of note, a medieval era spur fragment. Metal detector surveys and test pitting were conducted on the fields alongside the Bannock Burn. Evidence of medieval pottery were found, further proving the land was habitable, and interestingly enough, a piece of a stirrup was unearthed. To be the researchers, the spur and stirrup provided contemporary evidence of medieval cavalry at the suggested battlefield site.
Beginning on 15th of February 2014, a final effort was conducted to find traces of the battle. To quote Warren Bailie, the head of the GUARD archaeology team, “In true dramatic archaeological style the battlefield kept us all waiting to the bitter end for the most treasured of artifacts.” Among the hundreds of irrelevant artifacts found a single item stood out, a copper alloy cross harness pendant. Through testing, traces of silver gilt, blue enamel, and gold were discovered on the pendant. The pendant was also dated to the early 14th century and was the sort that was worn by an English nobleman on horseback. The location along the Carse where it was found, proved to be significant, providing archaeologists and historians with the clearest picture of where the second day of the battle took place.
The significance of the equestrian artifacts is without question. The spur, stirrup, and cross pendant potentially marks the location of the second day of the battle. As mentioned previously, the English arrived on the evening of 22nd of June, 1314 with approximately three thousand mounted knights and men-at-arms. On the 24th of June, the English are said to have fielded their army between the Bannock Burn and the Pelstream, where the rout ensued. As the Scottish pressed their advance, it is estimated that the English crossed the Bannock Burn in frenzied retreat and were cut down in the waters or were drowned. The evidence of the English material culture found substantiates that the Battle of Bannockburn took place between the Pelstream and the Bannock Burn, in the vicinity of the Carse of Balquhidderock. Referencing historical contemporary documents regarding troop levies and location of the site, and drawing conclusions with the archaeological findings, it is suggestible that Carse of Balquhidderock is the site of the second day of the Battle of Bannockburn.
Throughout the years, the location of the Battle of Bannockburn has been in doubt. Now through recent archaeological evidence, archaeologists and historians are close to unraveling where the battlefield site is located. Though many artifacts were found during the Bannockburn 700 Project, the key findings were the medieval equestrian artifacts and the pottery; the equestrian artifacts providing evidence of English horsemen along the Bannock Burn, and the pottery debunking the myth that the Carse was an uninhabited bog. Although the approximate battlefield site has not been found, the evidence uncovered is crucial in our understanding of the battle, and where the battle was fought.