Battle of Haddon Rig 1542
Marker: recorded battle location (no official boundary).
Key facts
| Date (year) | 1542 | Wikidata P585 point in time |
|---|---|---|
| Century | 16th century | derived |
| Period | Tudor & early Stuart | derived |
| Country | Scotland | derived |
| War / conflict | Anglo-Scottish Wars | Wikidata |
About the battle
The Battle of Haddon Rig was fought about three miles east of Kelso, in the Scottish Borders, between Scotland and England on 24 August 1542, during the reigns of King James V of Scotland and Henry VIII of England. The Scottish army was led by the George Gordon, 4th Earl of Huntly and the English army was led by Robert Bowes, Deputy Warden of the English East March. It was a significant Scottish victory, but it was overshadowed by the disastrous Scottish defeat at the Battle of Solway Moss in November.
Visiting the battlefield
Haddon Rig is a large glacial ridge (rig) occupying gently sloping land between Sprouston and the River Tweed in the north, and Lempitlaw and the Cheviot Hills in the south. It is relatively flat on its summit which lies at around 160 m above sea level. The town of Kelso and settlement of Heiton lie 5 km to the west, and 7.5 km to the south-west respectively.
William Roy depicted "a small medieval settlement at Hadden surrounded by agricultural land but there is no reference to Haddon Rig. However, it is named in Crawford and Brooke's 1843 county map of Roxburghshire.
Location
- Recorded location (Wikidata; may be approximate): 55.6000, -2.3500
Battlefields are often on private farmland: please keep to public rights of way and respect landowners.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Haddon Rig (revision 1374236852), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “Location”; condensed by selecting paragraphs; citations removed. No text added.
Battle location from Wikidata (CC0).