As I write this I am just about to begin my annual walk across the Stirling Bridge Battlefield on its anniversary on September 11.
An act of exploration, celebration and homage to Scotland’s greatest hero: Sir William Wallace. Stirling Bridge was an incredible victory and we still don’t know how Wallace won.
How on earth could an untrained rabble, that couldn’t even march attack and defeat a well ordered army?
There was certainly some luck involved but he didn’t sabotage the bridge as it was still up when the Scots began to win as the English keeper of the Castle fled back across it on horseback scattering his own men.
At the time it was the first victory in European history that a professional army of knights was beaten by foot soldiers. This example was one of Bruce’s key lessons ahead of Bannockburn and there can be no doubt that Bruce followed Wallace’s lead.
Wallace himself must have been an incredible person as he went from being next to no one in an aristocratic society to being de facto king, but he never wanted the crown for himself, he always fought for Scotland (unlike Robert The Bruce).
It’s difficult to imagine the scale of such a feat, perhaps think about Lincoln going from his wooden hut to the White House – if he was mixed race?
The real Wallace has vanished amongst the legends, the films and the propaganda, was he a giant, is that really his sword in the Wallace Monument and is his arm really buried at Cambuskenneth Abbey?
We will never know but it is always worth remembering him and the people he led in their stand against tyranny, wars of aggression and conquest, especially today when the world in tumult innocents suffer.