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Falkirk, Campfield
Battle Site (13th Century)
Site Name Falkirk, Campfield
Classification Battle Site (13th Century)
Alternative Name(s) Battle Of Falkirk
Canmore ID 46926
Site Number NS88SE 28
NGR NS 8912 8071
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/46926
- Council Falkirk
- Parish Falkirk
- Former Region Central
- Former District Falkirk
- Former County Stirlingshire
NS88SE 28 8912 8071.
(NS 8912 8071) Campfield (NAT) Site of the Battle of Falkirk (NR) AD 1298
OS 25" map (1969)
Campfield is the site of the position taken up by the Scots army under Sir William Wallace on the 22nd July 1298, where they were attacked by the English army under Edward I, who put them to flight. At intervals, portions of spears and battle-axes have been found in the field and round about. Groomes states that contemporary English gave the numbers of the army of Edward I as 7,500 mounted men-at-arms and 80,000 foot, with Wallace's army a third of that size.
Name Book 1860; F H Groome 1901; NSA 1845 (W Begg)
This battlefield was included in a nation-wide study of key battle sites. A detailed gazetteer was created by The Battlefield Trust, which includes an historical overview of each site, detailed assessments of the action and its location and the number of troops involved, casualties, sources of information and an interpretation of the events and its impact on history. For more detail see the gazetteer and associated materials - MS 2522.
The battle site is completely built over with practically no open ground.
G Foard, T Partida 2005
Online Gallery (1306 - 1329)
The year 2014 sees the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn, in which the army of Robert I of Scotland defeated that of Edward II of England. The battle marked a major turning point in the long, drawn-out struggle of the Wars of Independence.
The Wars have had a lasting influence upon all the nations of the United Kingdom and upon the national story. Each age has seen fit to commemorate the events in its own way: through the perpetuation of the genuine historical associations of buildings and places and also through the endowment of others with improbable or fanciful traditions. Where past generations allowed its historic buildings to decay and disappear, later generations began to value and actively preserve these for their associations. Where an event lacked a tangible reminder, as at Kinghorn where Alexander III was killed in a riding accident, a commemorative monument would be erected to act as a focus. The Wars of Independence predate the fashion for accurate portraiture: the weathered, generic military effigy of Sir James Douglas is one of the few to survive in Scotland. Later centuries saw a need and supplied it by a crowd of images of its historic heroes, William Wallace and Robert the Bruce, each depicted according to contemporary taste and imagination. The opening of the new heritage centre at Bannockburn takes this into a new dimension, through the use of three-dimensional, digital technology.
RCAHMS Collections hold many images of these buildings and locations from battlefields, castles and churches, to the many commemorative monuments erected in later years. This gallery highlights a selection of these, including antiquarian sketches, photographic and drawn surveys, and architectural designs.
