Scotland one

Scotland part one - Glasgow and Stirling

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We stayed one night at Jury's hotel in center city Glasgow, on the River Clyde and next to the train station. The following day, a Monday, was a 'bank holiday', when apparently no one works. In the morning we had a few hours to find breakfast & explore the City on foot.

note - you can enlarge any part of a picture by left-clicking in and then out again.

scenic River Clyde from 10th floor hotel room		next to the main train station		view to southwest of city		pedestrian bridge
					thin, angular northern latitude light
learning a new currency		few work on a bank holiday
	Royal Bank of Scotland		global commerce symbol
		art in unaffordable to rehab places

Next we drove to Stirling, 20 miles away.

We walked up the steep hill to the National Wallace Monument, a must-see Scottish history site, and Wallace's 'Legendary Hero' story continues to resonate with the Scots to the present day.

Wallace Monument				Wallace		the story
	Wallace had to be 6 ft 6 inches tall to use this sword		the actual sword		Robert Burns song about Wallace
Scottish poet Burns only lived to 37				hall of famous Scottish men		hazy fall day view of Stirling
	Stirling Castle & River Forth				Stirling Castle at dusk
Holy Rude church & Kirkyard near the Castle		Wallace Monument from Stirling Castle

In 1297, Scottish Knight Wm. Wallace (1272 - 1305) led a combined force of Highlanders & Lowlanders to victory against the armies of English King Edward I, at Stirling Bridge, just below the Castle. Edward I was not there, but two of his most powerful Earls commanded a much larger and better equipped & trained English army, but they made a serious tactical error by crossing a very narrow bridge, and walking into a huge bog, where Cavalry and soldiers became stuck and a logjam occurred, trying to go backwards.

What followed was a rout by Wallace's warriors, who took immediate advantage of the chaos. Many English lost their lives in the bog or trying to get back over the bridge, or, they drowned in River Forth, trying to escape. The Scots took an additional toll, harassing English troops as they retreated to the south. Soon thereafter, Wallace was appointed Guardian of Scotland.

A year later (1298), Wallace's men met Edward I's army at nearby Falkirk, in an open-field standard pitched battle, and Wallace's men could not adhere to a 'square' formation when under aerial attack from England's superior long-bow archers, and the Scots were defeated, and Wallace lost the prestigious title.

Scottish King Robert Bruce earned that title in 1314, when his armies defeated a much-larger, but poorly led, army of English King Edward II at nearby Bannockburn, near Stirling, which defeat established the power of the Scottish Stuarts as Royals. (In 1323 Edward II was repulsed trying to take Edinburgh.)

The 1995 Mel Gibson movie Braveheart mistakenly associated William Wallace with the Scottish Highlands, but he never lived there. In 1303 Wallace briefly hid in the Highlands, when Edward I's men were close on his heels, a mid-winter pursuit, but he managed to escape & roamed free for two more years.

Wallace's family were (most likely) from Elderslie, in Ayrshire. His initial battles against English militia were hand-to-hand combat, at Lanark, near the port city of Ayr.

Wallace's life was 'the stuff of legend', including amazing escapes & always coming out victorious, in skirmishes against English soldiers posted in Scotland. His legend began to grow and somehow over time he came to lead an army of different Clans against England's finest.

How did Wallace develop a reputation for battlefield and leadership skills? In the absence of written records of William Wallace's life, historians speculate that as a young man, he must have fought in Wales, in service to Edward I.

The Welsh - who's conflict with Edward I went on for decades - proved to be resourceful & ferocious in battle, employing early forms of guerilla tactics, especially surprise attacks. It stands to reason that if Wallace did fight there, he had to learn how to respond, the ability to survive & prosper, and somehow his bravery and tactical & leadership skills stood out. Wallace was likely a charismatic person.

After his army's astounding victory at Stirling Bridge, the English branded Wallace an outlaw, and his followers (mostly temporary) disbanded. He and a small group of armed followers hid out in Ettrick Forrest, down south, near Kelso, in the Scottish Borders. From there they conducted devastating raids into the English Borders country and once as far south as York.

Wallace became (not surprisingly) a specialist in unexpected attacks, or ambushes, especially preying on innocent inhabitants, like farmers and towns people. It became a blood sport for him and in the early 1300s there was a Borders saying that 'nor men nor women, nor young nor old, nor monk nor nun' .....would be spared from the sword when Wallace's men attacked, many times committing atrocities against civilians which today we would not hesitate to call ethnic cleansing.

Using threats & bribes, and an established spy network in Scotland, English King Edward I was able to gather information about Wallace's whereabouts, and in 1305 Edward's 'light-horse' men closed in on him, alone & on the run, near Glasgow. Wallace was arrested in bed at 5:30 am, defenseless. It certainly could not have been easy for a large-framed (78 inch tall) male to hide out & remain undetected for long.

In London, in front of expectant crowds, William Wallace was charged with Treason as well as crimes against civilians, Wallace said he'd never signed the Oath of Allegiance to the King Of England a decade or so before (which was true) and thus, he could not be charged with treason.

On the second charge, Wallace had nothing to say. He was brutally executed at an open market square in London now known as The Elms of Smithfield. Edward I refused to attend, denying Wallace any appearance of a face-off of equals.

To me, being engaged in such murderous activities for years more than 'tarnishes' the Scottish-held image of Wallace as a glorious hero.

Note that this is an opinion I would never bring up at a Pub anywhere in Scotland !

note - Wm. Wallace info was updated following a fall '19 trip to the UK, see the 2019 Bibliography page for the source.

return to the fall 2019 Stirling page (or just go back one page)

go to next page Scotland, part two - Loch Lomond, Callendar & Pitlochry

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