The capture of Linlithgow Peel in 1313 is one of the most colourful episodes of the Wars of Independence. A local Scottish farmer named William Bunnock volunteered to smuggle armed men inside the fortified enclosure in a hay cart. When the portcullis was raised, Bunnock cut the traces, blocking it open, while his concealed men erupted from the hay. A larger force rushed in from outside. The ruse worked perfectly. The capture of Linlithgow removed a key English position on the road from Edinburgh to Stirling, tightening the noose on Stirling Castle itself.
Aubrey generates in-depth historical research for any location in Britain — drawing on Domesday records, scheduled monuments, Victorian OS maps, geological data and archaeological archives to tell the full story of a place.
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