Battlefields›Siege of Roxburgh Castle
Medieval

Siege of Roxburgh Castle

1314
Scotland
Era
Medieval
Battle Type
Siege
Location
Scotland
Status
Unregistered
The Combatants

Who Fought

Defeated
Kingdom of England (English garrison of Roxburgh Castle)
VS
Victor
Kingdom of Scotland (Sir James Douglas)
Forces involved

Scottish forces under Sir James Douglas and Walter Stewart, 6th High Steward of Scotland,

an English garrison of Roxburgh Castle.

Outcome
Scottish victory; Roxburgh Castle captured by Sir James Douglas and subsequently demolished on the orders of King Robert the Bruce.
The Battle

History & Significance

The Capture of Roxburgh was a siege that took place in 1314, which was a major conflict in the First War of Scottish Independence. This siege was a prelude to the Battle of Bannockburn.

Sir James Douglas, Lord of Douglas, after his victory over the Clan MacDougall, had been capturing several castles back from the English, but the mere thought of taking Roxburgh Castle was one that daunted him.

Roxburgh Castle was on impregnable ground, and was guarded well. Douglas and Walter Stewart, 6th High Steward of Scotland, disguised their few men as cows, so the garrison was unaware of their presence. They then used ladders to climb to the top and took the castle by total surprise. They inflicted heavy casualties on the garrison, including wounding their leader in the face with an arrow.

The Lanercost Chronicle records that "all that beautiful castle the Scots pulled down to the ground, like the other castles that they had succeeded in capturing, lest the English should ever again rule the land by holding the castles."

The ground

The ground they fought on

The site of Siege of Roxburgh Castle lies on Inverclyde Group, bedrock that formed in the Osagean. The rock here is sandstone, siltstone and mudstone.

Buried history

On the night of 19 February 1314, Douglas and his men, draped in black cloaks, crept towards the walls of Roxburgh Castle and were apparently mistaken by the garrison for cattle grazing in the darkness; using rope and board ladders they silently scaled the walls, fell upon the defenders with total surprise, inflicted heavy casualties, and wounded the garrison's leader in the face with an arrow, before King Robert the Bruce ordered the castle pulled down to the ground so that the English could never again use it to rule the land.

Casualties & Losses
  • Heavy casualties inflicted on the English garrison, including the garrison leader being wounded in the face by an arrow.
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Monuments
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Battlefields
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Roman Britain
The Roman roads, forts and towns near here, and the Iron Age people who held the land before Rome arrived.
Stat Accounts
The parish Statistical Accounts of the 1790s and 1830s, describing life, work and population here.
Civil War
The Civil War fighting, garrisons and recorded militaria in this area, woven into the arc of 1642 to 1651.
Geology
The bedrock beneath the site, its age and rock type, reaching back hundreds of millions of years.
Local Names
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Historical Maps
Ordnance Survey maps from the 1800s, layered over the location as it stands today.
Literature
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Protected heritage nearby

Scheduled Monuments near Siege of Roxburgh Castle

Roxburgh Castle
Roxburgh Castle
Scheduled monument · ~0 mi

Roxburgh Castle is a ruined medieval fortress situated on a strategic peninsula formed by the confluence of the Rivers Tweed and Teviot in the Scottish Borders. The castle was established in the 12th century and developed as a royal stronghold of considerable importance, particularly during the A…

Old Roxburgh,deserted town between River Teviot & River Tweed
Old Roxburgh,deserted town between River Teviot & River Tweed
Scheduled monument · ~0.3 mi

Old Roxburgh is a deserted medieval town situated on a peninsula formed by the confluence of the River Teviot and River Tweed in Roxburghshire, Scotland. The site occupies a strategically prominent position where these two major river valleys meet, with the underlying bedrock composed of Invercly…

Pinnaclehill Farm,burial mound & cists 90m NW of
Pinnaclehill Farm,burial mound & cists 90m NW of
Scheduled monument · Bronze Age · ~1.1 mi

Pinnaclehill Farm burial mound and cists is a Bronze Age funerary monument located in Roxburghshire, Scotland. The monument comprises a burial mound with associated stone burial chambers, or cists, situated approximately 90 metres north-west of the farm buildings. The site lies on bedrock of the…

Wallace's Tower
Wallace's Tower
Scheduled monument · ~2.1 mi

Wallace's Tower is a late medieval tower structure located in Roxburghshire, Scotland. The tower dates to the fifteenth or sixteenth century and stands as a substantial stone-built fortification typical of the border region during this period. It is associated with the Wallace family, one of the…

Piper's Grave,cists
Piper's Grave,cists
Scheduled monument · Bronze Age · ~2.5 mi

Piper's Grave is a Bronze Age cist cemetery located in Roxburghshire, Scotland. Cists of this period typically consisted of stone-built burial chambers, constructed from flat slabs of stone arranged to form a small rectangular box to contain inhumated remains, often accompanied by grave goods suc…

Nenthorn,deserted village,farmsteads,mill and field system
Nenthorn,deserted village,farmsteads,mill and field system
Scheduled monument · Post-Medieval · ~3 mi

Nenthorn is a post-medieval deserted village, farmsteads, mill and field system located in Berwickshire, Scotland. The site comprises the earthwork remains of residential and agricultural structures dating from the post-medieval period, reflecting the settlement patterns and land use practices of…

Walter Baxter / CC BY-SA 2.0 / Wikimedia Commons
Kelso Abbey
Scheduled monument · ~1 miles
Whitmuirhaugh,settlement & cemetery
Scheduled monument · ~3.2 miles
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In the same landscape

Battles near Siege of Roxburgh Castle

Roxburgh Fort English Occupation 1547-1550
1547
~1.9 miles away
Capture of Roxburgh (1314)
1314
~2 miles away
Siege of Roxburgh Castle (1460)
1460
~3.5 miles away
Battle of Degsastan, 603 AD (Aedan mac Gabrain vs Aethelfrith)
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~5.7 miles away
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Sources
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