Scottish wars of Independence

We will leave the Glasgow meeting point or your Ayrshire hotel and head northeast on the M8 motorway towards the UNESCO world heritage site, ‘The Forth (rail) bridge’ opened in 1890, the bridge was designed by John Fowler and Benjamin Baker. It is one of the largest cantilever bridges ever built and is unmistakeable with its oxidised red colour.

Once we cross the Forth road bridge or the Queensferry crossing, the other two bridges crossing the Forth, we will be heading to our first destination, Dunfermline Abbey. This is the site in which some of the most famous royals were buried, King Robert the Bruce, the most famous Royal here and his wife Elisabeth de Burgh. There are also other famous royals buried here like Malcolm III and his wife Saint Margaret who’s chapel sits at Edinburgh Castle.

We will now head to Stirling castle, the most important castle in Scotland. It is known as the ‘Key to Scotland’ it has changed hands between the Scottish and the English many times. We will be stopping here for lunch. On 11th September 1297 William Wallace and Andrew Murray conquered the English and regained the castle during the battle of Stirling Bridge. You can look down from the high castle walls to the area where the battle took place. You can look over the walls and see the Wallace Monument sitting up on the Abbey Craig; this is where Wallace and the Scottish army set up camp on the night before the battle of Stirling bridge. The Scots would have seen the English when they were miles away. It would have been some sight! The oldest building in the castle today dates back to 1381. After the battle of Bannockburn Robert the Bruce ordered that Stirling castle be destroyed so that the English couldn’t take it again.

We are now going a short journey from the castle to the Wallace Monument which was completed and opened exactly 572 years after Sir William Wallace had been victorious at the battle of Stirling bridge. There is something really special here that stands out, The Wallace sword, it’s the very sword Scotland’s national hero fought the English with, think of the amount of English blood this sword is responsible for.

After the Wallace monument we will visit the site of one of Scotland’s most important battles, The Battle of Bannockburn. Discover more about Robert the Bruce and the tactics that he used against Edward II army during the two day battle which started on June 23rd 1314 and ended the next day with the ‘outnumbered’ Scots being triumphant and sending the ‘terrified’ English that weren’t slaughtered homeward bound. After the battle was lost for the English, Edward II fled and Robert the Bruce’s right hand man and really good friend Sir James Douglas chased him all the way to Dunbar.