Battle of Bannockburn 1314
Outline: officially registered battlefield boundary.
Key facts
| Date (year) | 1314 | Wikidata P580 start time |
|---|---|---|
| Century | 14th century | derived |
| Period | Norman & medieval | derived |
| Country | Scotland | derived |
| War / conflict | Wars of Scottish Independence | Wikidata |
| Local authority | Stirling | HES |
| Registered area | 1557.3 ha | HES |
| HES inventory reference | BTL4 | HES |
| Designated | 2011-03-21 | HES |
| Last amended | 2012-12-14 | HES |
About the battle
The Battle of Bannockburn (Scottish Gaelic: Blàr Allt nam Bànag or Blàr Allt a' Bhonnaich) was fought on 23–24 June 1314, between the army of Robert the Bruce, King of Scots, and the army of King Edward II of England, during the First War of Scottish Independence. It was a decisive victory for Robert Bruce and formed a major turning point in the war, which ended 14 years later with the de jure restoration of Scottish independence under the Treaty of Edinburgh–Northampton. For this reason, the Battle of Bannockburn is widely considered a landmark moment in Scottish history.
King Edward II invaded Scotland after Bruce demanded in 1313 that all supporters still loyal to ousted Scottish king John Balliol acknowledge Bruce as their king or lose their lands. Stirling Castle, a Scots royal fortress occupied by the English, was under siege by the Scottish army. King Edward assembled a formidable force of soldiers to relieve it—the largest army ever to invade Scotland. The English summoned 25,000 infantry soldiers and 2,000 horses from England, Ireland and Wales against 6,000 Scottish soldiers, that Bruce had divided into three different contingents.
Visiting the battlefield
The exact site of both days of the battle has been debated extensively, but most modern historians agree that the traditional site for the first day, where a visitor centre and statue have been erected, is not correct.
A large number of alternative locations for the second day have been considered, but modern researchers typically consider only two to be worthy of consideration:
In 1932 the Bannockburn Preservation Committee, under Edward Bruce, 10th Earl of Elgin and Kincardine, presented lands to the National Trust for Scotland. Further lands were purchased in 1960 and 1965 to facilitate visitor access. A modern monument was erected in a field above the possible site of the battle, where the warring parties are believed to have camped on the night before the battle. The monument consists of two semicircular walls depicting the opposing parties. Nearby stands the 1960s statue of Bruce by Pilkington Jackson. Although the statue was conceived by Pilkington Jackson he commissioned Thomas Taylor Bowie of the Ontario College of Art in Toronto to create the statue.
Location
- Local authority: Stirling
- Approximate centre of registered area: 56.1024, -3.9262
- Registered area: 1557.3 hectares
Battlefields are often on private farmland: please keep to public rights of way and respect landowners.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Bannockburn (revision 1377824061), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “Location of the battlefield”, “Bannockburn Visitor Centre”; condensed by selecting paragraphs and trimming at sentence boundaries; citations removed. No text added.
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