Historic Proof of Bannockburn Battle Site found

Yesterday, 20th March 2001, proof of the actual site of the Battle of Bannockburn went on public display at the Smith Museum, Stirling. A set of wooden stakes uncovered by a workman digging drains were revealed as probably some of those installed by King Robert the Bruce in hidden pitfalls to impale the English Cavalry.

The stakes were found in May 1923 and created a stir amongst archaeologists at the time. Lacking modern techniques, they were recorded then passed to the Smith Museum for safekeeping, remaining hidden away in the vaults. Sharpened, hardened by fire, and facing south, the stakes were found at Milton Bog, near the Borestone at Bannockburn, where much of the fighting on the first day of the battle is known to have taken place. Experts now hope to carbon-date the stakes to establish their age beyond doubt.

Archaeologists working for Stirling Council had been using aerial photographs (taken 17 years previously and which had been gathering dust in an Edinburgh archive) to identify a series of crop-marks as pits, or "pottis traps" dug by the Scots army on land south of Stirling. The stakes are important as they support that analysis. They also lend credence to the findings of Stirling University academic Fiona Watson, whose controversial report on the location of the battle was published in January of this year. She relied heavily on the descriptions of 14th century chroniclers in placing the crucial second day of the fighting on land now used as playing fields behind Bannockburn High School. Among her sources was Scots poet John Barbour, who described the traps in detail in his epic "The Brus", published circa 1370. The relevant section is quoted below.

The stakes now form the centrepiece of an exhibition on the Battle of Bannockburn that will be formally opened at the Museum on Friday 23rd March 2001 - the 695th anniversary of the coronation of King Robert the Bruce. The display will also feature the blade of a Jedward axe found near the Bannockburn Monument, together with a sghean dubh, a horseshoe and a spur.

Fiona Watson is narrator of the current BBC2 series "In Search of Scotland", shown on Monday evenings.

The relevant extract from John Barbour's "The Brus"

The king thus that wes wycht and wys
And rych avisé at divis
Ordanyt his men for the fechting
In gud aray in alkyn thing.
And on the morn on Setterday
The king hard his discourouris say
That inglismen with mekill mycht
Had lyin at Edinburgh all nycht.
Tharfor withoutyn mar delay
He till the New Park held his way
With all that in his leding war
And in the Park thaim herberyt thar,
And in a plane feld be the way
Quhar he thoucht ned behovyd away
The Inglismen, gif that thai wald
Throu the Park to the castell hald
He gert men mony pottis ma
Off a fute-breid round, and al tha
War dep up till a mannys kne,
Sa thyk that thai mycht liknyt be
Till a wax cayme that beis mais.
All that nycht travailland he wais
Sua that or day he has maid
Thai pottis, and thaim helit haid
With stykkis and with gres all grene
Sua that thai moucht nocht weil be sen.

You may download the poem in zipped form by clicking here (254 Kb). The file contains 20 text files which hold the poem in its entirety.

If that doesn't work, go here for the source.

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