Battle of Loudoun Hill

Several months after his earlier defeats at Methven and Dalry, Robert the Bruce emerged again, this time recruiting supporters and rethinking his earlier strategies against the English. In April 1307, Bruce’s army, using guerrilla tactics, ambushed and suffered the English heavy losses at the Glen of Trool. Moving north, they met the English cavalry at Loudoun Hill on May 10. Bruce chose the field carefully. To each side of it lay an impassable stretch of bog. He further narrowed the enemy’s ability to reach the Scots, by digging three, deep parallel trenches from these bogs nearly to the road, the only approach to solid ground. This created a funnel that led the English into the hidden Scottish troops. The strategy worked, and Valence's army was driven back to Bothwell. The Battle of Loudoun Hill was not a major battle, but it is viewed as the turning point in overturning the effects of both Methven and Dalry. Historians have observed that it was the "speed, surprise, mobility, small-scale engagements, scorched earth and dismantling of fortresses" that displayed the hallmarks of Bruce's campaign, not his war tactics. For the Scots, the timely death of Edward I in July was an added blessing. His son, a weak man and a weak ruler, now ascended to the English throne.