["The Star-Spangled Banner"]
["The Star-Spangled Banner"]
To many people, nothing epitomises Scotland more than the bagpipes.
It's then ironic that in the 18th century, this distinctive instrument was largely banned,
in an effort to quash rebellious Highlanders, whose culture it represented.
But the Highland-Lowland Division was an important factor in Scottish history, long before the 18th century.
Even in early times, a powerful symbol of this division was the Grampian Mountains.
Back in AD 79, as the Romans advanced north, after already having overrun the tribes of southern Scotland,
they proved a formidable obstacle.
It was a set-piece battle between the Romans and the Celtic tribes who inhabited these lands,
that eventually gave the mountains their name.
It took place at an unknown location, which the Romans called Mongropius.
It was a misreading of this in the 18th century, which resulted in what we now call the Grampian area.
The might of the mountains and the Celtic tribes' skillful use of guerrilla tactics
ensured that when the Roman 9th Legion marched north in the year AD 118, it was never seen again.
Four years later, the Emperor Hadrian concluded that enough was enough.
He built his 73-mile wall across northern England, tangible evidence of his decision to isolate,
rather than seek dominion over the Celtic tribes whom the Romans called Painted Men.
Although they were no match for the Roman war machine, these so-called savages had skillfully harnessed the protection of the mountains to force their enemy southwards.
But just 20 years after the construction of Hadrian's wall, Antonius Pius reconquered southern Scotland.
The threat from the Painted Men of the mountains had not been forgotten,
for he built a 37-mile line of defence across the Forth Clyde Isthmus.
The Antonine Wall, named after the Emperor who conceived it, was a turf rampart built on a stone base.
Of the 19 forts and signalling stations that were linked by the Antonine Wall, the best preserved is at Rough Castle near Forcourke.
Here, evidence can still be seen of the stone base upon which the rampart was built,
and also the deep, wide ditch that lay in front of the rampart along its length.
The remains at Rough Castle amply illustrate the sophistication of the Romans,
who were conscious of the problems of disease, provided hot and cold bathing facilities wherever they built a fort.
Reflecting the waxing and waning of Rome's interest in its most northerly territory,
the Antonine Wall was abandoned after the death of Antonius Pius in AD 161, and Hadrian's Wall was recommissioned.
The most famous forts remained, and Roman patrols ranged widely over the former provincial territory of the southern lowlands.
Although the Highlands had survived unconquered, the Roman presence had united the Celtic tribes of northeast Scotland in opposition,
and by AD 297 they're joined together to form the Picts.
At first sight, Oban might appear to symbolise the Roman power so influential in the advent of the Pictish kingdom,
for overlooking this town, close to the Firth of Lorne, is the dominating outline of nothing less than the Colosseum itself.
In fact, this spectacular landmark owes nothing to Roman rule.
It dates only from 1897, when Mr John McCaig, a banker, conceived it as a family memorial to give work to craftsmen made redundant by the slump.
But when Mr McCaig died, his grand vision went with him, and the building was never completed.
The Romans, of course, never reached northern Argyll, and Oban's true focus has always been westwards.
The town only really developed with the arrival of the railways and steamboats of the Victorian era.
The hotels and boarding houses that lined the sea front, and a far cry from the scene in 1773,
when Dr Johnson was forced to content himself with a mere tolerable inn.
The town's economy today remains geared to tourism, with most activity concentrated on the harbour,
where fishing vessels jostle alongside pleasure boats.
Oban's location as the seaway to the Hebrides means that tourists are by no means the first invaders to land on this coast.
Long before the era of Viking raids, migrants from the north of Ireland, known as the Scotty, arrived around AD 300.
Among them were a tribe called the Dau Riata, who established in Argyll a new kingdom of Dau Riata.
From now on, it was these Scots rather than the Romans who would be occupying the attentions of the Picts.
At its height, Dau Riata stretched along the eastern reaches of the lochs from the Mull of Kintyre northwards into Ardnamurkin,
and included the isles of the west coast.
Close to the heart of this Celtic kingdom is Loch Fyne.
In the 19th century, this great sea loch, which stretches down from the midst of the Argyll mountains, hosted a successful herring industry.
Although the heyday of the herring trade has passed, fisheries are still important to the local economy.
The industry owes its existence to the deep penetration of the sea, which has created Scotland's longest peninsula.
The herring industry was established in medieval times around the main seat of the Campbell clan, and was located near the upper reaches of the peninsula.
It's nearly 54 miles away from the peninsula's tip at the Mull of Kintyre.
Only a few miles away is what became the geographical centre of the Scots kingdom of Dau Riata.
Donant is where the Scots established the fort, whose remains we can still see today.
It was one of their main centres of power.
Rising out of the landscape, it's easy to see why it was chosen, for its commanding views would have enabled enemies to be spotted from miles away.
The importance of Donant to the Scots is underlined by a series of carvings on the bare bedrock in front of the inner citadel.
The earlier ones date from the 6th and 7th centuries.
Carved footprints suggest that it was here that kings and chieftains were inaugurated.
But some remains point to something else, for they're most likely Pictish, and suggest growing connections between the two peoples following the Scots arrival from Ireland.
But how did these connections arise?
Part of the answer lies here, on the inner Hebridean island of Iona.
Even today, this once remote place exudes an air of simple holiness.
For it was on these shores in AD 563 that an Irishman of royal descent landed with a group of followers and established a Christian mission.
The Irishman was St. Columba, and he began a process that was to have a huge impact on Scotland's future.
St. Columba's original monastery has gone, but the present abbey, originating in the 13th century, probably stands on the same site.
The abbey is now under the care of the Iona community.
Formed in 1938, the community is an ecumenical organisation and undertook a programme of restoration that was completed in 1966.
The island's oldest surviving building is St. Oran's Chapel, which dates from the 12th century.
But the ruins of the nunnery, founded at the same time as the original monastery, can still be seen.
Although Iona was not the first Christian mission in Scotland, that had already been established at Whittorne over 150 years earlier by some Nenian, it was certainly the most influential.
St. Columba himself is said to have been buried at the place now marked by St. Columba's shrine, but his remains, regarded as holy relics, were later removed.
However, many have found a permanent resting place on this lonely and windswept island.
The regal burial ground, known as the Ridge of Kings, is the oldest Christian cemetery in Scotland and the burial place of 48 Scottish monarchs, four kings from Ireland and eight from Norway.
Potent symbols of Iona's importance and influence are the high crosses, which inspired numerous carved stones found elsewhere in Scotland.
Evidence that, even after the death of St. Columba in 597, his work lived on as Irish missionaries took the Christian message outward from Iona and, as he did so, carried the Gaelic language across Scotland.
Gradually, this would assist the infiltration of Pictish culture by the Scots and promote growing links through marriage.
Today, Dombarton is a royal borough whose main industry, whisky, has taken over from shipbuilding.
It was here that the famous clipper, the Cutty Sark, was built in 1869, but it was once central to another of the forces behind the convergence of the different kingdoms of what we now call Scotland, invaders from the south.
The reason was Dombarton Rock.
1300 years ago, this fort of the Britons was the centre of the independent kingdom of Strathclyde. A clue to the nature of the invaders who threatened all the kingdoms of the south can be found at the border village of Codingham.
Its existence derives from the founding of an important monastery by the Angles, a Germanic people who had established themselves in northeast England.
Today, the most notable feature of Codingham is the Benedictine Priory, founded in 1098 by King Edgar.
The choir of the priory forms the present parish church, but evidence of a more substantial development is all around, a reminder of how the priory was almost destroyed by Cromwell's troops in 1648.
But in the seventh century, it was the Anglian monastery that symbolised the grip the Angles had obtained.
It was at places like Codingham, along the east coast south of the Firth of Forth, that Anglian influence was strongest.
And the threat they posed, which resulted in outright warfare, pushed the various kingdoms of the Britons into uniting.
The paradox of unity emerging out of external threat applied equally to the Picts and Scots in the north.
But in this case, the threat arrived from across the sea.
From the eighth and ninth centuries, there began a series of Viking raids that would see the western isles fall under north control for centuries to come.
The impact of the Viking presence on the Scots and Picts is embodied in the history of Dunkeld.
Nestling in the wooded valley of the River Tay, this tiny cathedral town would have been safely beyond the Vikings' reach.
Today, it's much loved by fishermen and visitors alike.
And it was here that Beatrix Potter, during her many childhood stays, created the lovable characters that have enthralled generations of children.
Its outstanding feature is the beautiful medieval cathedral, which took two centuries to build and was in tire for only sixty years before the reformers rendered it roofless and ruined.
But at the time when the north raids were beginning, Dunkeld was in the heart of Pickland.
Following the death of the Pictish king in battle with the Vikings, the Scottish king, Kenneth Macalpine, took control of Pickland.
And as the Vikings' threat persisted to the west, he saw Dunkeld as a safer haven.
It was to here that he brought some of St. Columba's bones, revered as saintly relics, in 849.
And as the Scottish and Pictish kingdoms combined, Dunkeld became the ecclesiastical centre of the new joint kingdom.
This unified kingdom comprised the territory north of the Forth and Clyde.
It became known as Alba and was later to become Scotia.
It developed a separate secular centre, which was located in the heart of the Urn Valley, which lies just south-west of Perth.
Today it's hard to imagine Fortivit as the hub of a major kingdom.
But at one time the area occupied by this small, sleepy village boasted an impressive palace complex from which the affairs of the kingdom were administered.
With the merging of the Scots and Picts, the Scottish nation was beginning to form.
But its amalgamation with the two remaining kingdoms, the Britons and the Angles, had to wait until 1018, when the Scots king Malcolm finally defeated the Angles and acquired control of Lothian.
He was succeeded by his grandson Duncan I, who by now already ruled the Britons, and it was only then that Scotland was truly born.
Even so, the Viking presence ensured that the western isles would remain apart for at least another 200 years.
At the heart of the unified Scottish kingdom was Fife.
Located on a peninsula some 20 miles wide between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Tay, Fife is a rich agricultural region, offering a feeling of open spaces and sweeping views.
The sea is never far away, and there's an established tradition of fishing, boating and water sports.
But perhaps Fife's biggest claim to sporting fame is associated with St Andrews.
The city, home to the Royal and Ancient Golf Club founded in 1754, can rightfully claim to be the capital of golf.
The game is said to have been brought to Scotland by traders from Holland, and has been played here for at least 500 years.
The Society of St Andrews Golfers had the title Royal and Ancient conferred on it by William IV in 1834, and is now the game's ruling body.
Every year thousands come to St Andrews just to walk on the hallowed greens.
The town now regularly hosts the British Open and many other important tournaments which draw the stars of the professional circuit.
But St Andrews' historical importance extends beyond golf.
From the very beginning it has been in the mainstream of Scottish history.
According to legend, St Rule, custodian of the remains of Andrew, Jesus' first disciple, was ordered in a vision to take five of his bones to the western edge of the world
and build a city in his honour.
While fulfilling this instruction, Rule was shipwrecked off the Fife coast, and fearful for his sacred cargo, rushed ashore and enshrined the holy relics on a nearby headland.
The headland is said to be close to where today's harbour stands, and the shrine was established on the site that is now occupied by the ruins of St Andrews Cathedral.
The building of the cathedral, which was consecrated in 1318 in the presence of Robert the Bruce, continued centuries of unbroken ecclesiastical connections.
If the cathedral's location really does owe something to divine inspiration, its declining structure results from a more prosaic explanation.
For this noble and in many ways still majestic building was in part reduced to the ruin we see today
because stones were taken from the cathedral in the 17th century to build houses.
Such disregard for a magnificent example of Scotland's heritage would probably seem unthinkable today,
but at the time it reflected the attitudes that prevailed in the aftermath of the Reformation.
Indeed, the 17th century marked the start of a period of decline in the fortunes of St Andrews itself.
This was partly because of the loss of the Archbishopric and partly a result of changing trade patterns following the founding of the American colonies.
But prior to this time, St Andrews had always known prosperity.
Its early ecclesiastical significance led to the establishment of a seat of learning, which was the precursor of Scotland's first university and the third in Britain after Oxford and Cambridge.
With this combination of religion and learning, St Andrews was at one time not the capital of golf as it is today, but the ecclesiastical capital of Scotland.
The existence of St Andrews gave fife great importance in the years following the emergence of Duncan I as King of the newly unified kingdom.
But in 1040, Duncan was murdered by Macbeth, who then ruled for 17 years until Duncan's son Malcolm Cranmore avenged his father's death and regained the crown.
What happened next is embodied in Dumfermline Abbey.
It was from Dumfermline in the south-west of Fife that King Malcolm ruled. Indeed, the city remained Scotland's capital for six centuries.
But during Malcolm's reign, a new force appeared in southern England, William the Conqueror.
Many English aristocrats fled to the Scottish lowlands, and one of them, Margaret, was taken by the Scots King Malcolm for his wife.
Horrified by the lax ways of the Celtic church, she built a shrine here at Dumfermline. Its foundations lay beneath the present nave.
It was to be a centre of pilgrimage administered in the English manner. The Anglicisation of southern Scotland had begun.
Despite being home to both the capital at Dumfermline and the important ecclesiastical centre of St Andrews, in the 11th century, Fife was relatively isolated.
For the broad waters of the Firth of Forth presented a natural barrier to travellers from the south.
Gazing across this impressive waterway, it's easy to appreciate the formidable obstacle it represented in the past.
Today, of course, it's spanned by the Forth Road Bridge and the particularly distinctive outline of the Rail Bridge.
The Rail Bridge, built between 1883 and 1890, was widely acclaimed as a great engineering achievement of its time.
Even in those days, it cost over three million pounds to build, apart from the cost of injury and loss of human life.
Painting its 135 acres of steel takes at least three years and consumes 7,000 gallons of special paint.
But in her way, Queen Margaret was equally as determined as the engineers of the 19th century.
It's to her that the town of South Queensferry, adjacent to the Forth Bridge, owes its name.
Over here, where the water's narrow to just over a mile, she established a free ferry.
It was part of her plan to carry the pilgrims who would visit the holy shrines at Dumferblen and St Andrews.
The influx of English clergy that resulted, along with the establishment of an English court, saw Scotland assume a character similar to Norman England.
Consequently, although never conquered by the Normans, Scotland gained a strong Norman legacy.
Evidence of this is still visible through architecture, with the Kirk at Dalmeny being perhaps one of the finest Norman buildings in Scotland.
Buildings such as this are a reminder of how the Lowlands gradually came under the control of noblemen who shared the same Norman French language and values as the English ruling class.
One effect of this was to increase the Highland-Lowland divide that had surfaced with the arrival of the Romans 1,000 years earlier and would manifest itself even more dramatically in later years.
Meanwhile, these events had little impact on the islands, and it was not until the 13th century that the Scots were able to turn their attention to ending Norse rule on the Western Isles.
The Ayrshire town of Largs, with its long, attractive promenade and many sandstone buildings, today exudes an air of prosperity, its pavements thronging to the footsteps of day-trippers and holiday-makers alike.
Widely regarded as the most handsome of the Clyde resorts, it remains hugely popular despite the advent of the foreign package holiday and the consequent mass exodus to the Mediterranean.
Hunted by the hills that rise some 1,700 feet above the town, the traditional seaside attractions coexist happily alongside the more sophisticated charms of the marina.
But the seaborne travellers who arrived here seven centuries ago were seeking more than a few hours of harmless pleasure, for the town is the site of an event that was to become a turning point in the relationship between the Scots and the Vikings, the Battle of Largs.
Old King Hakkon of Norway was worried that Scots had intentions over the Western Isles, and so in July 1263 he launched his fleet from Kirkwall in Orkney.
The fleet arrived on the Clyde with the intention of staging an invasion, but it did not bargain for the wit of one man.
The Scots King Alexander III realised that if he could create a delay, he would have a powerful ally, the weather. He sent envoys to discuss a possible treaty with Hakkon and kept the Vikings talking until the autumn gales arrived.
The plan worked perfectly, for in September Hakkon's ships were torn from their moorings by a gale and blown ashore at Largs.
Alexander's army was waiting for them. A rather inconclusive battle ensued on the beaches of Largs, but as a result the Vikings waded back to the ships and sailed away.
But the final end to Viking rule would be sealed elsewhere.
In his novel, The Fair Maid of Perth, Sir Walter Scott wrote that, amid all the provinces of Scotland, if an intelligent stranger were asked to describe the most varied and most beautiful, it's probable he would name the county of Perth.
Amidst the mountains, moors and glens of this impressive countryside sits the small ancient city of Perth.
The Fair City, as it's known, has been an important communication centre since the earliest times, for it was the first place where it was possible to bridge the River Tay.
With its pleasant riverside setting between two large parklands, Perth still retains the atmosphere of a county town. Its theatre, the longest established in Scotland, reflects the city's role as a cultural and trade centre.
In the 17th century, there were plans for the University of St Andrews to move to Perth, following a conflict with the authorities in its own city.
The plans were abandoned, and Perth declined as the trade emphasis moved westwards.
But farming improvements led to resurgence in the 18th century, and entire streets were built in the new Georgian style.
But in the 13th century, three years after the Battle of Largs, it was through the Treaty of Perth that old King Haken of Norway's successor, Erik, sold the Western Isles for less than £3,000.
The Norwegians renounced all claims to them, except for Orkney and Shetland, and to demonstrate the improvement in relations, Erik married Alexander's daughter, Margaret.
Foe's became friends, and at last, with the exception of Orkney and Shetland, Scotland was complete. But the struggle for independence had barely begun.
A symbol of that struggle is the town whose castle guards the approaches along the River Tweed. The river from which the town takes its name rises in the Scottish borders, runs through the heart of border country, and in places forms part of the border itself.
And yet, Berwick upon Tweed is not part of Berwickshire, and indeed is not even part of Scotland. It is in fact England's most northerly town. But this was not always the case.
Such were the conflicts between the Scots and the English, that between 1147 and 1482, Berwick has changed hands no fewer than 13 times.
The importance of Berwick and the efforts to protect it during those turbulent times are reflected in the enveloping structure of the town wall.
Today, the most complete of its kind in Britain, the wall underwent countless bloody attacks before Berwick was finally taken for England by Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who later became Richard III.
The wall has a particular place in Scottish history, because the man who ordered its construction, Edward I, also acquired a more descriptive title, the Hammer of the Scots.
He was to be a key figure in the events of the coming years, events that began when Scots King Alexander III fell from his horse and died.
Reflecting the closer ties between Scotland and Norway after the Treaty of Perth, his granddaughter Margaret, the maid of Norway, was heir to the throne.
But the eight-year-old girl perished on the sea crossing from Scandinavia.
This left the Scottish throne vacant, and also had implications for the hoped-for alliance with England, since Margaret had been betrothed to the young Prince Edward.
Consequently, the Scots asked English King Edward I to mediate between the thirteen claimants to the vacant throne.
It was at Berwick Castle that Edward I, hungry to increase his influence over Scotland, seized his opportunity when he gave the crown to the Anglo-Norman noble John Balliol in 1292.
Of the many claimants, Balliol had one quality that most endeared him to Edward above the others. He was easily manipulated.
In return for the crown, Balliol was to accept Edward's overlordship and join the English invasion of France.
But instead, the Scots formed an alliance with France in 1295.
It was to be known as the Old Alliance, and not for the last time England found itself sandwiched between two enemies with increasing mutual ties.
It was at Montrose that Edward I's rage at the Scottish alliance with France was given full expression.
Perhaps this East Coast town's most dominating feature today is the steeple of the parish church, which soars 220 feet high above the High Street.
The church was built in the 18th century, but the steeple was added a hundred years later.
The elegant gable-ended houses interspersed between the 18th and 19th century buildings in the High Street have given the people of Montrose their nickname of gable-endies.
The town was once guarded by a castle, and it was here that Edward I took his revenge. He humiliated Balliol and ritually stripped him of his royal trappings.
Edward then progressed through Scotland, compelling nobles to sign the ragman role, acknowledging him as their king.
On returning to England, he was convinced that he'd finally conquered Scotland, but one young Scot had different ideas. His name was William Wallace.
William Wallace was born circa 1270 in Elderslie. During his childhood, he studied and he also learned swordsmanship with his older brother Malcolm.
He was training to go into the priesthood, as he learned Latin and French, and also theology with two of his uncles who were priests in Dundee and Dunapiece.
While preparing to enter the priesthood, Wallace's life took a strange turn. The event that caused this occurred here at Lanark.
Lanark is home to one of the biggest livestock markets in Scotland and became a royal borough back in the 12th century when David I built a castle here.
Contrast to the wide main street we see today, it was once a compact walled city. The castle is long since gone, but the legacy of William Wallace lives on.
There were many battles at this particular time, and Wallace's wife and family were killed in one of these battles.
The sheriff of Lanark was killed by Wallace in revenge, and Wallace was then outlawed and he went to the Ettrick Forest and he fought small guerrilla battles with the English at that time.
Bigger, just ten miles south-east of Lanark, consists largely of one long street. As it widens to form a marketplace, it becomes even wider than the main street of Lanark, which may have encouraged the saying that London's London, but bigger's bigger.
It was to Bigger that Wallace came as an outlaw, and he's said to have lived in the castle gate and hidden in a cave in the Cartland Crags just below the town.
Cadger's Brig, which crosses the Bigger Water at one end of the town, is said to derive its name from Wallace's exploits.
The story goes that on a spying mission to look at the English troops ranged against him, he crossed the bridge disguised as a cadger, a peddler.
But his efforts to conceal his identity did not fool everyone, for he was recognised by a local who's alleged to have said, he's crippled afoot and he's blinning as an ee, but he's as like Willy Wallace as ever I did see.
Stirling, the gateway to the Highlands, has since time immemorial been strategically important as a focal point for all Scotland, and it was here at the Battle of Stirling Bridge that Wallace's campaign came out into the open in September 1297.
Stirling was the obvious place for Wallace and his men to confront Edward I's English army. Looking north from his high clang of rock, at one time capital of Scotland and site of Roman royal residences occupied by numerous Scottish kings and queens, Wallace would have been reassured by the presence of the Highlands.
Just as they had assisted the guerrilla tactics once employed by the mountain tribes against the more sophisticated armies of Rome, they would also give Wallace an advantage.
For he too preferred guerrilla warfare, but he also had another advantage.
For to the south the land is flat and boggy, as the wide waters of the Forth narrow to provide what in Wallace's time was the lowest bridging point. If the English were to win, they would have to cross the Forth here at Stirling.
Just before the battle occurred, Wallace joined up with Andrew Murray who had been fighting the English in the north as Wallace had been doing in the south, and they laid siege together to Dundee. While they were there, they heard word that the English had advanced at Stirling and were camped there.
Andrew Murray and Wallace come down with their forces towards Stirling and they camped behind the Abbey Creek and the English had decided to force a battle with Wallace.
On the 11th of September, the Earl of Surrey had said that they were to cross over the bridge at Stirling. Unfortunately for the English, half the army were across when it was realised that the Earl of Surrey was not there and they were retreated back to wait for him.
When eventually he came along and they started over again, of course Wallace and Murray had seen this and they had already laid their plans because in this particular area the Causeway was the only crossing and it was bog land on either side.
So when they had half the English army across, the Scots attacked and it drove the English into confusion because the bowmen couldn't fire their arrows as they always fired together and the Scots of course were in hand battle with the English so it was a case of the bowmen who just could not fire.
They turned and went back but of course they couldn't go over the bridge as the bridge is so narrow that only two horsemen at a time were allowed across.
The bowmen swam across the fourth. There were a few killed when they were swimming over because of the strong undercurrents within the river. The horsemen couldn't go back because they were in armour and unfortunately the bridge broke as the retreat started so there were very many killed.
There were 500 cavalry and 10,000 infantrymen on the English side and 5,000 infantrymen on the Scots side so the lesser force won through surprise and unfortunately the foolishness of the English.
The Battle of Stirling Bridge lasted no longer than 45 minutes and for a while hope was rekindled in Scottish hearts. Wallace was knighted and made guardian of the realm but the celebrations were short lived.
For the following year in 1298 the English defeated Wallace at Falkirk.
As a man he set sail for France in the hope of raising support. Eventually he was to return to Scotland and resume his guerrilla tactics against the English.
The Sheriff of Dumbarton betrayed Wallace to the English and he was captured in 1305 and kept in Dumbarton Castle before being transported down to the Tower of London. In London he was tried for treason which Wallace did not agree with because he had not signed a ragman rule.
He was hung, partially hung at Smithfield, taken down, his entrails were taken out and burnt and he was then drawn and quartered.
His head was put on a spike on London Bridge and the other quarters were sent to Newcastle, Berwick, Perth and also Stirling to show the Scots that Wallace's way was not the way to win.
Today Sir William Wallace's exploits are commemorated by the National Wallace Monument which stands on the Abbey Craig near Stirling. But the monument was not built until several centuries after Wallace's death.
In the 1830s there was a lot of Scottish nationalist feeling and it wasn't until 1856 there was a rally at King's Park in Stirling and they decided to form a committee and build a monument.
Charles Rogers who was the chaplain to the garrison at Stirling Castle was put in charge of raising money to build a monument. There was also a competition held for a design for a monument to be built.
First of all they had decided that the monument should be on Glasgow Green but Charles Rogers persuaded them that the Abbey Craig was the place to have it because that's overlooking where the Battle of Stirling Bridge was which was Wallace's greatest achievement and also where he'd rallied his troops.
The monument when the design was chosen was estimated to cost just over £5,000. When eventually it was finished it was in excess of £10,000 in debt.
The design chosen was by Mr Rockhead. The stone for the monument was quarried from the Abbey Craig itself and then pulled up by steam engine. The monument itself is 220 feet in height and the Abbey Craig is 300 feet above sea level.
Following the execution of Sir William Wallace Scotland was in disarray.
Edward I who had coveted Scotland for so long but once again gained the upper hand for all the major towns and castles were now in English hands.
The independence streak of the Highlanders was as strong as ever but the by now well established Anglo-Norman influence in the lowlands meant that here there was a greater sense of ambivalence.
Allegiances could change when the occasion demanded and were determined as much by political ambition and expediency as through conviction.
And so it was with the man of Norman descent who came to lead Scotland after Wallace. Unlike Wallace Robert the Bruce was no outlaw to begin with.
Wallace was for Scottish independence however Robert the Bruce sometimes sided with Edward I. Depending on who was in the right at that particular point as he saw it when Wallace was defeated at Falkirk and left Scotland to go to France, Bruce took up the struggle for Scotland.
One of the many turning points in that struggle occurred here at Dumfries, South West Scotland's most important town.
Bruce had a legitimate claim to the throne for he was the grandson of one of the original claimants who lost out when Edward I handed the crown to John Balliol at Berwick.
His campaign to establish that claim began at Dumfries's Greyfriars Kirk.
The present Greyfriars Church building dates only from 1868 but it has a direct link with Robert the Bruce's time because its construction made use of stones from the original convent founded here in the 13th century by Lady de Vorghiela, wife of John Balliol.
It was at the high altar of the convent that in 1306 Bruce killed the son of one of the other original claimants to the throne, John Comyn.
The killing possibly took place because Comyn refused to help Bruce in a campaign for the throne but whatever the real reason it resulted in Bruce's excommunication from the church.
It also signalled the start of a new phase in Scotland's struggle for independence.
What happened next took place at Scoun near Perth.
Here following the murder of Comyn, Bruce crowned himself King of Scotland.
For since the 9th century Scoun had been the home of the Stone of Destiny upon which Scottish kings had been ceremonially enthroned.
But it had been removed to Westminster Abbey by Edward I in 1296 following his humiliation of Balliol.
It's been part of the coronation chair ever since.
Edward I's reaction to Bruce's crowning was predictable.
Edward I was incensed at this and gave orders to his special lieutenant that all supporters of Bruce should be killed.
So a lot of Bruce's supporters were killed or imprisoned.
In 1313 Robert Bruce's brother Edward made a pact with the English governor at Stirling Castle because by that time in history Stirling Castle was one of the few remaining castles
because of Robert the Bruce recapturing most of the castles and lands from the northern counties upwards
and raising the castles to the ground so that they would be of no benefit to the English.
And the pact was that if the castle had not been relieved by midsummer of 1314 that the castle would be forfeit at some end to the Scots.
By June 17th 1314 Edward II's army was on the march.
He had succeeded to the English throne following Edward I's death in 1307 and was heading towards Stirling in a bid to take up the challenge agreed in the pact.
Robert the Bruce's army was prepared and waiting.
Bruce chose his grind well.
A stride the approach road to Stirling Castle, one flank was protected by scrub and woodland, the other by the low lying marshes of the River Forth and the Bannockburn.
The Scots had dug pits and covered them up and they also placed cowthrops which are rather sort of like star shaped pieces of metal with a jagged spike so that whichever way they were put on the ground
they would certainly disable the horses which was the intention to bring down the horses.
Because it was thought at that time in medieval warfare that foot soldiers could not compete against the gate cavalry.
It was on the afternoon of June 23rd that the heavy cavalry led the 20,000 strong English armies approach to Stirling.
Confronted by a mere five and a half thousand Scots they were confident of victory.
The first blow was struck directly at Bruce himself as he stood at the head of his troops.
The young knight who attacked him became the first victim as Bruce's axe cut him down.
The forces of hell had been unleashed and the English cavalry charged straight at the Scots.
The cowthrops and pits did their job as horses went down.
The English cavalry had no option but to turn back.
The Scots held firm and the English cavalry tried to outflank them.
But the Scots had another surprise in store.
One of Robert Bruce's tactics of course was the shelter and formation which was very very effective.
Robert the Bruce had four divisions and a shelter would have comprised of approximately no more than 500 men.
All the foot soldiers carried a 12 foot spear and the spears were used to form rather like a sort of hedgehog formation.
When they were advancing they were all angled one behind the other and therefore obviously the horses couldn't get through.
It became an impregnable force.
Frustrated by these tactics the English knights flung their weapons at the Scots as their horses continued to fall.
By nightfall they were tired and demoralised.
Beneath an impassive moon a deserter from Edward's army revealed that the English were hemmed in by the marshes of the Forth and the waters of the Bannockburn.
As a second day broke the Scots responded to this information.
Bruce's division advanced then two further divisions joined in and the English cavalry was held back by a barrier of spears.
Edward ordered his archers to the Scots left flank and Bruce gave the order for them to be charged down.
Sensing the upper hand Bruce committed his own division to the battle.
With its archers isolated the English cavalry was unprotected from the advancing Scots spears and forced into retreat.
With victory in sight the Scots were further reinforced.
There were a group kept in reserve known as the small folk.
Small folk comprised of local people, townspeople, farmers, really not terribly well equipped and therefore they were really kept in reserve.
However their numbers did increase obviously before the battle itself.
Their numbers increased to something like about 2,000 because outlying clans people came to join them.
And it was thought that when Edward fled towards Stirling Castle and his soldiers saw what they thought were reinforcements coming towards them they then themselves fled.
The English were defeated.
Edward himself was refused access to Stirling Castle by the governor Sir Philip Mulberry.
For it would have meant certain capture and so made his way back to Berwick.
Outnumbered and on foot Bruce's army had achieved the seemingly impossible against the might of the English cavalry.
It was undoubtedly one of the proudest moments in Scottish history.
But although victory here at Bannockburn placed independence within Scotland's grasp another six years were to pass before the bird of freedom truly spread its wings.
A small town on the Angers coast our growth today could hardly be further from the bloodshed of Bannockburn.
Apart from tourism its main industry is fishing.
One of the most famous products to result from the catches brought into the town is prepared and sold from many of the backyards and cottages that line the harbour side.
For mingling with the sea air is the all-pervading smell of the famous Arbroath Smokie.
Even the street names contain fishing references in a place where something of a legend had been created around the smoking of haddock over wood chipped fires.
Another rare feature of Arbroath is an abbey with a road running through it.
Rising up from the heart of the town the abbey was founded by William the Lion in 1711 but parts of the ruin date from the 13th century.
It was from the original abbey on this site that a unique document emerged in 1320.
In the six years that had passed since the defeat of the English, Bruce having been excommunicated from the Catholic Church after the death of Coman had received no recognition from Europe of his sovereignty over Scotland.
But the declaration of Arbroath probably penned by the abbot of the time was to change that.
This eloquent statement of Scotland's right to independence was dispatched to the exiled Pope John XXII in Avignon.
He was moved to advise the English to leave Scotland alone and despite some intervening aggression a peace treaty was signed in 1328.
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