Bruce assembles his army

He appointed a general muster of his whole army in the Torwood, near Stirling,and here he found, that the greatest force which could be collected, did not amount to forty thousand fighting men; and that the small body of cavalry which he had, could not be expected to compete for a moment, either in the temper of their arms, or the strength of their horses, with the heavy cavalry of the English. He at once, therefore, resolved to fight on foot,and to draw up his army in ground where cavalry could not act with effect, and where the English, from their immense numbers, would be cramped and confined in their movements. For this purpose, he chose a field not far from Stirling, which was then called the New Park.

It was studded and encumbered with trees, and the approach to it was protected by a morass, the passage of which would be dangerous to an enemy. Bruce, having carefully examined the ground, determined that his right wing should rest on the rivulet called Bannock-burn, whose broken and wooded banks afforded him an excellent security against beinjr outflanked. His front extended to a village called St Ninians; and his left wing, which was unprotected by the nature of the ground, was exposed to the garrison of Stirling in the rear—a dangerous position, had not the terms of the treaty with the governor precluded attack from th'at quarter. But Bruce did not leave the defence of his left to this negative security; for in a field hard by, so firm and level that it afforded favourable ground for cavalry, he caused many rows of parallel pits to be dug, a foot in breadth, and about three feet deep. In these pits he placed pointed stakes, with a number of sharp iron weapons, called in Scotland caltkrops, and covered them carefully with sod, so that the ground, apparently level, was rendered impassable to horse.