Battle of Loudoun Hill

Part of First War of Scottish Independence

Commemorative Loudoun Hill summit stone

Date	10 May 1307
Location	Loudoun Hill, Ayrshire, Scotland
Result	Scottish victory

Belligerents

Kingdom of Scotland

Kingdom of England

Commanders and leaders

Robert I of Scotland

Aymer de Valence, 2nd Earl of Pembroke

Strength

600 men.

3,000 men.

Casualties and losses

Low

"hundreds"

The Battle of Loudoun Hill was fought in May 1307 between a Scots force led by Robert Bruce and the English commanded by Aymer de Valence. It took place beneath Loudoun Hill, in Ayrshire, and ended in a victory for Bruce. It was Bruce's first major military victory. The battlefield is currently under research to be included in the Inventory of Historic Battlefields in Scotland and protected by Historic Scotland under the Scottish Historical Environment Policy of 2009.

Bruce and Valence had first met in combat the previous year at the Battle of Methven just outside Perth, where Bruce's lack of preparedness, and his somewhat conventional military tactics, had brought him to the edge of disaster. His army virtually disintegrated under Valence's rapid onslaught, with many of Bruce's leading supporters falling captive. What was left of his force was mauled for a second time soon after this by the Macdougalls of Lorn, allies of the English, at the Battle of Dalrigh. As an organised military force the army of Scotland ceased to exist, and the king took to the heather as a fugitive.

For a time he took refuge in Dunaverty Castle near the Mull of Kintyre, but with his enemies closing in once more, he sought refuge on Rathlin Island near the coast of Ulster, according to some, and the Orkney Isles, according to others.

In February 1307 Bruce crossed from the island of Arran in the Firth of Clyde to his own earldom of Carrick, in Ayrshire, landing near Turnberry, where he knew the local people would be sympathetic, but where all the strongholds were held by the English. A similar landing by his brothers Thomas and Alexander in Galloway met with disaster on the shores of Loch Ryan at the hands of Dungal MacDougal, the principal Balliol adherent in the region. Thomas and Alexander's army of Irish and Islemen was destroyed, and they were sent as captives to Carlisle, where they were later executed on the orders of Edward I. Bruce established himself in the hill country of Carrick and Galloway.

...
Wikipedia