10/05/2026
in 1307 King Robert scored his first victory against the English in battle near Loudoun Hill in Ayrshire. Though small in scale, this was the first time in a war that had dragged on for eleven years already that a King of Scots had led soldiers into battle and emerged victorious, singling Bruce out as a serious threat to English ambitions in Scotland than his rivals had been.
Bruce had lost the first two battles he fought as king in 1306 & during the following winter he disappears from the surviving record altogether. He likely spent this time travelling the Hebrides & the Western Highlands raising a new army from among the local Gaelic-speaking population. Around February 1307 he returned to Carrick - his childhood home - & mustered what support he could there. His early efforts to disrupt English lordship in the south-west were still fairly desultory however, including a fumbled ambush on the English treasurer at Glen Trool in April.
Having apparently received intelligence that the English Guardian of Scotland - Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke - was advancing eastwards roughly along what is now the A71, Bruce dug up the ground on either side of the road, creating three parallel lines of ditches that would force the English to face the Scots on the road. According to the later Scottish poet John Barbour, the Scots were outnumbered 6 to 1, but between the ditches the English would have to face the Scots 1-on-1. If the Scots were overrun at the first ditch, they could retreat to the second, and then again to the third if need be.
In the event, the mounted vanguard of Valence's force appears to have charged the Scots at the first ditch & were repulsed, after which the English withdrew to Ayr. This led a contemporary English observer to complain that Valence 'had retreated before King Hobbe [i.e., Bruce] without doing any exploit'. Nevertheless, the fact that Bruce had inflicted even this minor reversal on an English army made many Scots - such as James Douglas, whose attempts to negotiate with the English crown for the restoration of his lands abruptly stopped after Loudoun Hill - view Bruce as a promising candidate as King of Scots.
The Battle of Loudoun Hill serves as the dramatic climax of the 2018 film 'Outlaw King'. The film gets a lot correct about the battle, including Bruce's anticipation of the English approach & the staggered ditches. It does, however, fudge a number of details. For example, in the film the English charge the ditches, rather than charging at the Scots on the road (admittedly, this serves as a powerful illustration of *why* the English wouldn't charge the ditches). Also, the film has Edward II present at the battle. In reality, he was not only not there, he would not become king until July 1307.
