Battle Field

After a gap of over a year, I have taken another picture of a battlefield site looking deceptively un-battlelike. Although probably pushing things a little to describe this as the scene of a battle - Rullion Green, 28th November 1666 was a brief and one-sided skirmish between the remnants of the November 1666 Pentland rising and a much larger government force led by Tam Dayell of the Binns. The uprising had begun in Dalry, Galloway where troops were beating an elderly man who had not paid his fine for not attending government-approved church services. The troops were interrupted by four covenanters who, supported by local people, disarmed the soldiers. From Dalry the rebels headed towards Edinburgh, via Dumfries, Ayrshire and Lanarkshire, at first gathering support up to a peak of 3000, but later losing many of them again following bad weather. On the outskirts of Edinburgh with perhaps only 1500 men, the rebels received news there was no great support for their cause in the capital and they turned back for home. And even more had drifted away before they decided to hold a parade and review at Rullion Green in the Pentland Hills. General Dalyell was with a force in Currie and cut through the Pentland Hills to confront the rebels. Three thousand government troops defeated no more than nine hundred rebels. With over fifty rebel casualties in the fighting, a further fifteen were hanged, drawn and quartered, after several, including two boys of 18, had been tortured first.
This was captured on a brief walk into the Pentlands with L and H - we got the bus to Flotterstone and headed up into the hills. We didn't have long as H needed to get back into town so we turned round relatively quickly, and had time for a quick drink at the Flotterstone Inn before getting the bus home. We were lucky with the weather as apart from a few spots of rain it stayed dry.