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On a rocky eminence at the head of Loch Trool, in front of the rocky Fell of Eschoncan in Dumfries and Galloway, a great granite boulder shaped like a clenched fist stands square and squat on a plinth of rough stones: ‘Bruce’s Stone’, it is called. It is an impressive memorial, relatively easy of access by public road off the A714 between Girvan and Newton Stewart at the village of Bargennan; the carpark provided by Forest Enterprise is much used by hill-walkers heading for the highest hill in the Southern Uplands, the Merrick (844 metres).

The memorial was unveiled in June 1929, on the six hundredth anniversary of Bruce’s death; on it is inscribed, in triumphant capital letters:

IN LOYAL REMEMBRANCE

OF

ROBERT THE BRUCE

KING OF SCOTS

WHOSE VICTORY IN THIS

GLEN OVER AN ENGLISH

FORCE IN MARCH, 1307

OPENED THE CAMPAIGN OF

INDEPENDENCE WHICH HE

BROUGHT TO A DECISIVE

CLOSE AT BANNOCKBURN

ON 24TH JUNE, 1314

The stone commemorates a brief skirmish which took place on the opposite side of the loch, and which hindsight has endowed with a pivotal but exaggerated significance.¹ Bruce and his small band of followers, hiding out in the wild mountainous terrain of Glen Trool, were being hunted by an English force of two thousand men based at Carlisle commanded by the Earl of Pembroke. According to Barbour, Pembroke heard of Bruce’s whereabouts and decided to send a raiding party to attack him. He despatched a woman dressed in rags to Bruce’s camp to beg for food and come back with information about the size and disposition of his forces. Bruce saw the woman wandering about in the camp and soon suspected her of being a spy; when challenged, she quickly told him that Pembroke and ‘the flower of Northumberland’ were planning to attack him.

Bruce at once prepared an ambush on the narrow track which ran alongside the loch. The English rode straight into the trap and were easily repulsed. There were few casualties on either side. It was not a major battle, nor a significant victory for Bruce; but its propaganda value was considerable. The mere fact of his escape – and many other escapes which Barbour chronicles – began to lend romance and credibility to the king without, as yet, a proper kingdom.

Much more important was another battle, on 10 May 1307, which was the direct outcome of Glen Trool – Loudon Hill, near Galston in Ayrshire, a few kilometres east of Kilmarnock. The Earl of Pembroke had been stung by his reverse at Glen Trool, and by threatening letters from King Edward I accusing him of being dilatory in his efforts to crush the rebellion. Now Pembroke, according to Barbour, issued a challenge to Bruce to come out of hiding and engage in formal battle. Bruce, rather surprisingly for a guerrilla leader, accepted. He chose his ground with care, placing his men on the slope of a hill under the sharp crag of Loudon Hill. In front of them he dug three lines of trenches lined with sharpened stakes, expertly camouflaged, to await the onslaught of the English knights.

Barbour, doubtless exaggerating the figures, claimed that Pembroke brought three thousand men to the field; Bruce’s army of fugitives numbered only six hundred. The English knights, magnificently accoutred, came thundering across the level ground. Suddenly – chaos. The galloping ranks of horsemen went crashing down into the trenches, helpless against the Scottish spearmen. The rearguard saw what had happened and promptly took flight, leaving Pembroke to limp back to Bothwell Castle. The humiliation of Methven Wood had been avenged.

It would be misleading to speak of Loudon Hill, or any other engagement, as a specific ‘turning-point’ in Bruce’s fortunes; but it is clear that the tide was beginning to turn. On 15 May 1307 an official at Forfar Castle sent a report to England:

I hear that Bruce never had the good will of his own followers or the people generally so much with him as now. It appears that God is with him, for he has destroyed King Edward’s power both among English and Scots. The people believe that Bruce will carry all before him …

Clearly, Bruce’s apparently charmed life was having an effect on English morale and on Scottish confidence. He certainly had not ‘destroyed King Edward’s power’; but he had shown himself capable of defying it – and surviving.

For King Edward himself, this was mortifying news. Bruce’s usurpation of the Scottish throne – his treachery, as Edward saw it – had been the last straw. He was more determined than ever to crush the Scots once and for all. Captured rebels were summarily executed, whatever their rank. Despite unrest at home, where the cost of his Scottish campaigns escalated every year, Edward had sent an army into Scotland under his best commanders, led by his son Edward, Earl of Caernarvon. English rule in Scotland had become a reign of terror. What more could Edward do? In the summer of 1306 he himself started moving north: he was not going to be balked of a personal victory over Bruce. By late September he had reached Lanercost Priory, not far short of the border.

Edward was now in his late sixties and his health was deteriorating. He was forced to pause at Lanercost to rest – a rest which would last for nearly six months. Even from his sickbed, however, he tried to direct operations in Scotland, despatching innumerable testy letters to his commanders.

It must have been obvious to everyone that the king had not long to live. Perhaps that was one of the factors which affected the mood in Scotland: if Edward’s iron will and implacable hostility were removed, Scotland would surely have a much better chance of freeing itself from English oppression. But early in July the old king rallied. He hoisted himself into the saddle and set off for Scotland once again at the head of a feudal army. He was, however, so frail that his army could move only ten kilometres over the next three days. On 6 July they camped at Burgh-on-Sands, within sight of the Solway Firth and Scotland beyond it. Next morning, 7 July 1307, King Edward I died. Fiona Watson says:

Edward I has come down in history as the ‘Hammer of the Scots’ – and that, without any doubt, is what he was. Yet he died a bitter and, ultimately, defeated man on his way back to Scotland yet again, when he must have felt that he had solved the ‘Scottish problem’ with the submission in 1304.