Battle of Loudoun Hill - Darvel, East Ayrshire
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creg-ny-baa
N 55° 36.857 W 004° 12.237
30U E 424167 N 6163809
Historic information sign at the beginning of the trail up to Loudoun Hill, giving details of the battle fought here in the early 14th century.
Waymark Code: WM1AJ71
Location: Southern Scotland, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 08/25/2024
Views: 0
This historical information can be found on a sign leading from the car park at Loudoun Hill on the trail that leads to the hill past the Spirit of Scotland monument.
Loudoun Hill is a volcanic plug of metamorphic rock jutting out of the countryside of Eastern Ayrshire to the east of the town of Darvel. It was the site of a battle in 1307 between Robert the Bruce's Scottish Army, and troops under the command of the Earl of Pembroke. The text on the sign reads as follows;
'The Battle of Loudoun Hill 1307
The Battle of Loudoun Hill was fought on the 10th May 1307. King Robert the Bruce led the Scottish Army of nearly 600 against almost 3,000 troops under the command of Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke. The battle took place less than two years after the capture and execution of Wallace and it was King Robert's first major victory over the English foe.
King Robert drew up his men on the plain south of Loudoun Hill and instructed his men to dig three lines of ditches dug outwards towards the enemy on both sides. This limited Valence's ability to manoeuvre and effectively filtered the English Army into a central zone.
A frontal charge by English Knights was repulsed by Scottish Spearmen. The real echelons of the English Army began to flee in panic, around 100 English Knights lay dead on the field with Aymer de Valence fleeing to the safety of Bothwell Castle.
This victory instilled confidence amongst the Scots with more and more men coming forward to fight under the King's Banner. Seven years after Loudoun Hill, King Robert the Bruce defeated another larger English Army under Edward II at Bannockburn in 1314.
The Declaration of Arbroath, submitted to the Pope in 1320, remains one of the oldest and finest declarations of a Nations Independence in human history, when the following words were written;
"as long as a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be subjected to the Lordship of the English. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for Freedom alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself"'