We hired a car to scoot out to Bannockburn and Stirling (I promised Anthony I won't say anything about the episode that involved him going to pickup the car and discovering his licence was expired. So I won't.)
Apart from a very fetching replica of the crown of Robert the Bruce - pictured (all the schoolkids visiting that day were clamouring to have their picture taken with "the king" and didn't Ants just lap it up!), Bannockburn also boasts a brilliant account of Scottish military tactics, including the use of spears to beat cavalry charges (as featured in that famous movie that completely re-imagines the life of William Wallace - although they put it in the wrong battle!).
It seems there's a kind of 'rock paper scissors' of military tactics - Spears beat Horses; Arches shred Spearmen; Horses ride down Archers. Why they don't teach it like that in school, I'll never know.
They also don't teach what a ruthless bastard Robert the Bruce was. Granted, he was something of a military genius at times, but to get to the post of commanding the armies (as King) he's believed to have murdered at least one rival for the throne and allowed his wife, sisters and daughter to languish in English prisons for years until he captured the Earl of Hereford at Bannockburn to ransom for their return. He also pursued a vicious scorched earth policy so his enemies could not pursue him into the highlands, to the ruin of many ordinary Scottish families.
But he wupped Edward Longshanks, King of England also known as 'the Hammer of the Scots', so I guess that makes him a hero...
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