Archaeology Notes

Event ID 684913

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/684913

NO21NE 4 2576 1898.

(NO 2576 1896) Site of Battle of Black Earnside (NR) AD 1300.

OS 6"map, Fife, 1st ed., (1876)

One of the battles of the War of Independance took place in the neighbourhood of Lindores Abbey, within ..the 'Forest of Irnsyde'.. Later historians find difficulty in reconciling the date assigned... (12 June, 1298) with other facts in Wallace's history; but Blair, (Wallace's chaplain )... distinctly states that on the 12 June 1298, the guardian of the kingdom (Wallace) vanquished the English... at Ironside..., with their general... Aylmer de Valance, Earl of Pembroke.(Information from a Book 'Relations... Arnaldi Blair, capellani',) The battle is described by Blind Harry, the minstrel. The name of Wallace's Den... immemorially attached to a deep gully on the farm of Parkhill... affords presumptive evidence of the site of the battle.

(There is no good historical evidence for this battle, which apparently rests only on the authority of Blair, and Blind Harry (Henry the Minstrel).)

A Laing 1876.

Site indicated by Laing is on a terrace in arable ground at the base of Silver Hill. No further information.

Visited by OS (W D J) 13 May 1970.