#glentrool

[scotianostra]

May 10 1307 saw The Battle of Loudon Hill, near Darvel.

Ask any bairn, or even adult, what Robert the Bruce’s most important military victory was, and they will, of course, answer the Battle of Bannockburn. This battle was his most impressive and one of the most significant battles in that it finally drove the English from Scotland and opened the north of England to Scottish raids which would eventually culminate, in 1328, to England accepting Scottish sovereignty. However, Bruce’s most important victory, arguably, was at the Battle of Loudoun Hill in Ayrshire. This was the Bruce’s first major victory and the turning point in his fortunes, it is by no coincidence that David Mackenzie chos Loudon Hill for the main battle and climax in last years, Outlaw King. Bruce’s army, mainly on foot, were outnumbered perhaps by as much as six to one, by a force mainly consisting of cavalry.

In 1306, Robert the Bruce began to make moves against Edward. He murdered John ‘the Red’ Comyn , his main rival for the crown of Scotland within sacred ground in the Greyfriars Kirk, Dumfries. He immediately moved to have himself inaugurated as King of Scots at Scone in March 1306. An enraged Edward declared that no quarter would be given to Bruce or to those who supported him and dispatched Sir Aymer de Valence, the Earl of Pembroke with an army to deal with Bruce’s rebellion.

Aymer de Valence had experience against the Scots, but mixed fortunes, beaten soundly at what has been described as a skirmish at Blackearnside in Fife, against Wallace, he returned to fight The Bruce in 1306 at Methven and was victorious, so must have been super confident coming up against the Scottish King, the English King labelled an Outlaw. He was also the brother in law of the murdered John Comyn, so it was a wee bit personal.

Bruce also lost a battle shortly after Methven against fellow Scots, The MacDougalls, who were also related to Comyn, after this he retreated to lick his wounds, and supposedly watch a spider refuse to give up when having trouble spinning a web, giving him the inspiration and the story behind the phrase, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

Bruce returned to the fray in early 1307 at Turnberry. He now switched to using guerrilla tactics; they had worked for William Wallace before the disaster at Falkirk, the first action was ambushing the English at Glentrool in April before meeting the enemy in pitched battle at Loudoun Hill.

Bruce had learned his lesson from his defeat at Methven. There he had been unprepared and ambushed after taking Valence at his word. Bruce had been prepared to observe the gentlemanly conventions of feudal warfare and invited Valence to leave the walls of Perth and join Bruce in battle. Valence declined and the king, perhaps naively believing that the refusal was a sign of weakness, retired only a few miles, to nearby Methven where he made camp for the night. Before dawn on 19th June 1306, Bruce’s army was taken by surprise and almost destroyed.

The lesson had been learned. Chivalry was dead.

Nearly one year later, Robert the Bruce and Aymer de Valence would again face one another. The outcome would be very different. Valence challenged Bruce to fight after the Scot’s success at Glen Trool. Bruce accepted the challenge and the battle was fought on the plains under Loudoun Hill on 10th May 1307.

Bruce took the opportunity of the challenge to prepare his ground, cutting three ditches inward from the edge of the bogs, leaving 90 metre gaps in the centre which were to be guarded by dismounted pikemen, while soil embankments with ditches protected the flanks. This forced the English to approach through the narrow front created by their opponents, restricting their movements and deployment capabilities effectively neutralising their numerical advantage. It was reminiscent of William Wallace’s great victory at the Battle of Stirling Bridge, with the same filtering effect at work.

King Robert gathered his small force of 500 to 600 men and awaited the approach of Valence’s 3,000 strong army. The English force was split into two squadrons as they advanced on the smaller army. The Scots used their spears to great effect against both men and horses, leaving many dead and wounded. The English assault began to collapse. The Scots seeing their enemy begin to falter, charged their opponents who broke and fled the field. However, the Scottish army would have been unable to chase down their routing opponents for long due to them being on foot and not horseback.

None of the sources for the battle provide any indication of the losses suffered by either force, but we can safely assume that the number of casualties would have been lower than other medieval battlefields due to the lack of any meaningful pursuit of the routed English army. Wiki merely says Scots losses were low, and English “in the hundreds” The numbers are unimportant, it drew a line in the sand Scotland and King Robert was ready to take on the might of their English neighbours.

Edward decided to head North himself and sort out “those troublesome Scots” but at 68 he was an old man by medieval standards, and a bout of dysentery that a younger man may have fought and won put an end to him, he died within sight of Scotland at Burgh-by-Sands, near Carlisle. The invasion fizzled out.

The Bruce spent the next 7 years taking castle after castle and laying them to waste so they could no longer garrison enemy troops, until by 1314 all that was left was Stirling Castle, and then there was the battle I spoke about at the start of the post, our greatest victory against The English perhaps, but really the Battle of Loudon Hill showed the Auld Enemy “Nemo me impune lacessit” ‘Wha daur meddle wi’ me"

The photos are my own from the Commemorations I have attended there, the structure you see is called Spirit of Scotland and actually represents William Wallace, the 5 meter high frame with Sir William cut out in the middle. The event is hosted every year by The Society of William Wallace.

[anra-thejourneyman]

TIME WAS when Lowland peasants thrived in their wee ferm touns, and there were many such settlements the length and breadth of Dumfries and Galloway.

But toffs could never see past their rapacious greed. Sheep – and foldables – were always more important than human beings. We’ve all heard of the Highland clearances. Things were just as tragic down here.

Property-hungry oligarchs who never did an honest day's work in their pampered lives remorselessly evicted folk from these touns, obliterating their homes; and they used many of the stones to build the walls of sheep farms.

Umpteen place names are forgotten; many remain only as obscure, evocative names on maps.

I can think of no parallels in the history of Europe for such an uprooting of people.

Far too many villages and cairns and farms and runrig systems and settlements and hearths and homes full of dreams and aspirations have been swallowed by the topography. They have vanished. They might never have existed.

My partner and I tramped about the remains of Polmaddy ferm toun, between Dalry and Carsphairn, this afternoon. What a wonderful experience. Oh to have lived in this idyllic spot, whose hard-working inhabitants had majestic, almost heart-rending, views of the Rhinns of Kells hills and the inimitable Galloway skyscapes.

Polmaddy had its own mill and an inn called Netherward. The toun had six corn-drying kilns, and several houses and byres. Their ruined stones are still there to tell their tales.

The miller’s wife hid Robert the Bruce in 1307 when he was a fugitive hiding from hill to hill. She concealed him among the sacks of grain until the heat was off and he was able to re-group for his victory against the English at Glentrool.

Later, when he was king of Scotland, he rewarded the miller’s wife by giving her the mill.

The gentry of Galloway should have thought black burning shame of themselves.

https://stanzapoetry.org/poetry_map/poetry-map-of-scotland-poem-no-427/

[hvismvis]

Glentrool, Scotland

[alister-bull-art]

A visit to Glentrool pottery

It felt like a pottery pilgrimage on hot summer’s day navigating up a track that was so narrow we drove past the entrance the first time around! I was undeterred as I fell in love with Andy Priestman’s pottery so I couldn’t miss a visit to the backwaters of Glentrool! I managed to purchase my first piece after a commission. So it was good to support another artist’s work. Vase in pride of…

[lore-and-explore]

Glentrool Forest Fire

[silkyrontheroad]

Yesterday was sooo cold!!! Being back in Scotland has been incredible but we really have to adjust to these temperatures. Also whilst we have no photographers here working with us we have had my dad stand in and these photos were taken by us. Arms extended, camera facing us, random clicking, hoping for the best! We think the results actually have quite an intimate feel. Here’s to staging our own couples shoot. - - - - - #coupleshoot #scotland #cold #love #intimate #glentrool #gallowayforestpark #cute #vintage #truelove #travel #home #photography #couplegoals #couple #selfie #sonya7iii #zeiss #kiss #together (at Galloway Forest National Park) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-DOl2oH5E6/?igshid=1gfvfzz5fc7qg

[pipeb0mbed]

<i> Glentrool, Scotland </i>

[thesilicontribesman]

'The White Cairn of Bargrennan', nr. Glentrool, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland.

[iracarterart]

IN GLENTROOL

[scotianostra]

Loch Trool in bonnie Galloway. by Mark Mckie

[derekbeattieimages]

Buchan Falls in good flow #waterfall #glentrool #gallowayforestpark #southernuplandway #scotland #slowmotion (at Bruce's Stone, Loch Trool.) https://www.instagram.com/p/B4LLGwdjNwh/?igshid=i4b67bfk0qli

[stumbleimg]

Loch Trool and Nick of Torr from Glentrool, Scotland. [OC] [4000x3000]

[the-world-travelers-blog]

Loch Trool and Nick of Torr from Glentrool, Scotland. [OC] [4000x3000].

[lore-and-explore]

Merrick Summit

[marcuscole1]

Creative Carbon

I have decided on creating my project around the forestry and Land Scotland ( https://forestryandland.gov.scot/what-we-do ) as I can tie it in well with one of my main interests and something that I shoot a lot of at the moment mountain biking, I have been using their facilities for years now and have always been impressed with how well kept and inviting their trails have been for both walkers and bike users well sign posted and well maintained.

“Many people think our work is timber production. That’s true – but it's only part of the story. We also develop renewable energy schemes, create and maintain trails and visitor facilities and conserve habitats, wildlife and archaeological treasures.”

For this project I will be focusing more when shooting on their woodlands, trails and wild life centres as I regularly use them. 

Thanks to forestry and Land Scotland, Scotland is one of the best places on the planet for mountain biking. The network of exhilarating and challenging world-class trails forests have made the country a big hit on the mountain biking world map, and continuing to encourage many different users of all ages to get out and enjoy the outdoors.

The Forestry and Land Scotland offers a huge range of different trail centres encouraging all different age groups and different skill levels including centres at Balblair, Carron valley, Dalbeattie, forrest of Ae, Glen-tress, Glentrool, Innerleithen and many more different Forrests offering a great day out.

Throughout my range of images I hope to demonstraight and show the big part of what companies like these are doing for us and the planet making a change and getting outdoors in our natural fascinates more easily.

Throughout my shots for this brief I tried to show how these amazing spaces and facilities for us created and protected by the forestry and Land Scotland are used and how great they are to experience.

But not only Forrests that the forestry and land Scotlands interests go to but also playing a huge part in in Climate change in fact Scotland’s forests and land are key in fighting the impact of the Climate Emergency and biodiversity loss. “We’re already adapting how we work, but there are more opportunities to take action across our forests and land. And only by putting nature at the heart of our actions can we truly make a difference. To do this, we're using nature-based solutions and ensuring that biodiversity is a focus in everything we do. We manage 9% of Scotland: our work will go a long way to creating a sustainable country and reaching Net Zero.”