O t h e r   S i g h t s

Travel Home
Travelogue
Planning
Resources

Itinerary
Scottish Castles
Abbeys and Kirks
Other sights

email Phouka

prev

sights

next

Stirling Castle
Stirling Castle (the main hall visible) from the site of Bannockburn

Site of the Battle of Bannockburn, in 1314, where Robert the Bruce led a Highland Army and fought against the English knights on this boggy ground. The site was chosen carefully -- the soft, marshy ground was deadly to the mounted English knights, whose horses foundered in the mud and allowed the Scots army to kill them. It rained a little as we walked out to the field in the blustery wind.

The movie Braveheart ends with a voice-over from Robert the Bruce about the Battle of Bannockburn, although the events in the movie are not historically accurate. We got a lot of questions from locals as to whether we though the movie was good, and if we thought it was accurate. Good? Yes. Accurate? Not so much. That seemed to please our new friends. One group that we met at the Wallace Monument (the statue, not the tall folly) noted that he "didn't look much like Mel Gibson."

Bannockburn Memorial
The modern memorial to the Battle where Scotland won freedom from England

The Heritage Center provides an audio-visual experience about the battle, and is very interesting. We were lucky enough to follow a group of school children inside and were invited to watch the presentation, done by a local actor who dramatized the day of the battle. We had a blast, sitting along with the second and third graders.

Robert the Bruce
A statue of Robert the Bruce, where he raised the Scottish flag

There isn't much to see at the battlesite -- just a round, modern monument that seems out of place in the huge field, and a statue of Robert the Bruce. The ground is stark and you can see the imposing bulk of Stirling Castle in the distance.

plaque: For God and St. Andrew
For God and St. Andrew, Bannockburn, 1314


l o c a t i o n
Glasgow Road,
Stirling
2 mi. south of town
off M80/M9
National Trust for Scotland

l i n k s
Battle Map
Stirling History
Bannockburn
Royal Stuarts pages
Clan Cameron
National Trust

PREV | Argyll's Ludging

 

Grey Cairns of Camster | NEXT