The Rout of the English army at Bannockburn

The South Carse of Balquhidderock really piques my interest and imagination every time I step into it. Although the entire battlefield of Bannockburn is a fascinating journey, all six square miles of it taking in both days of the battle, the south carse gives me a solemn and deep emotional experience, for it is here that the mass panic of thousands took place, where soldiers and knights took flight, and where the terrain ultimately proved to a treacherous death trap for many who would not make it home once the battle was lost.

The images that conjure up in my mind where the part of the Bannockburn called the great ditch became so clogged full of dead and dying horses and soldiers…that in John Barbour’s chilling words ‘one could pass over dryshod.’ Only by walking the ground can one truly experience the power of those words and the various other chronicler’s descriptions of the disaster that was to fall upon King Edward II’s army.

This was the first time I have used a drone in my films, courtesy of my friend and colleague in research of the battle, Mark English. Mark has a passion for the history of the battle that runs as deep as my own and it was a pleasure teaming up with him for what I hope is the first of many films we can make together.

Lanercost tells us that once the Scots infantry broke through and had defeated the heavy cavalry that most of the English army were killed between the camp and the stony stream. The chronicler of the Vita Edwardii Secundi did not know the name of the river by referring to it as the ‘great ditch’ but Scalacronica went a step further and clarified matters by calling tit the great ditch of the Bannock burn.

As we walked, talked, and were mindful of the cattle , we ventured down some of the steep escarpments on the banks of the Bannock burn becoming aware of just how perilous it must have been after a period of heavy rain when the river was swollen, the salient broken, and the banks muddy and slippery, made worse by thousands of soldiers fighting in desperation, and struggling to get to safety down steep slopes, into the water, and up the muddy banks of the other side. Making any film of this nature provides an insight and a personal experience into how those involved must have felt and what they struggled with in the efforts to cling to life while others around them were being slaughtered around them. Mass disorder, chaos, and bloody carnage.

Our day of filming was a hot July day, but the terrain was a pleasure to walk in. I have been there on extremely wet days and it can be quite different with the burn in fast flow and when the salient is broken. Water creeps over the banks and soaks the ground which becomes brown with mud making the depth indeterminable. We know it was wet around the days of the battle because the chronicler’s specifically mention the pools of water in the carse, which form in the undulations of the ground after heavy rain.

What had been a perfect and ideal camp for the English army proved to be a death trap. The tactics of Robert the Bruce to close off the carse and pen them in like sheep between the two waters, the Bannock burn and the Pelstream, a formidable water in its time before being culverted in later years, was a bold move never done before where foot soldiers took the fight to the might of the dreaded English heavy cavalry.

For me, this was one of my most satisfying films to date, not only because of the use of the drone and working with someone else, but because of how this part of the ground where the battle took place touches me deeply.
I feel for all the nameless and faceless people all those years ago who found themselves in an army and experiencing the terror and horror of medieval warfare. However, I also feel for the Scots who fought courageously, for those who gave their lives, and for those who survived and experienced victory and won, for if they had been defeated it would surely have meant slavery and total domination forever afterwards.

Bruce proved himself a genius military commander, tactician, and leader whom the Scots loved and followed. He was a man who led by example, led from the front, and pulled off the greatest victory in Scotland’s history. He deserves to be ranked alongside the greatest leaders and military commanders in history beside Alexander the Great, Caesar, and Hannibal.

The carse today is a peaceful and tranquil place to walk, but if you close your eyes and incline your ear, and listen for a fleeting moment you may hear the faint cries of battle on that terrible day …of long, long ago.
Thank you for walking in the footsteps with me and keeping our history alive.
Max Muir
July 2025