Qualla: Battle of Inverurie (1308)

Battle of Inverurie (1308): Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Robert Bruce had been too ill to ride for weeks. His men carried him from camp to camp on a litter through the Aberdeenshire winter, or perhaps the late spring - the chroniclers disagree on the season but not on the fact. The chief domestic enemy of his kingship, John Comyn, Earl of Buchan, was gathering an army a few miles away at Meldrum, intent on finishing the sick king while he was still down. Buchan had every reason to want Bruce dead: two years earlier, in February 1306, Bruce had murdered Buchan's cousin, the Red Comyn, at the high altar of Greyfriars in Dumfries. That killing had made Bruce king and it had made the entire Comyn family his blood enemies forever. Now in 1308, at dawn near the village of Oldmeldrum, David, Lord of Brechin came down on Bruce's outposts with the Comyn vanguard. The men who survived ran back to the king's camp shouting that the attack had begun. Bruce, by every reasonable measure too sick to fight, rose from his bed and called for his horse.

Battle of Inverurie (1308): The Murder That Made a King

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The killing in Dumfries had been bad business by any standard. John III Comyn, Lord of Badenoch - the Red Comyn - was a nephew of the deposed King John Balliol and the most powerful lord left in Scotland. Bruce met him at the Greyfriars church to discuss who should lead the resis...

Battle of Inverurie (1308): The King Was Ill

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Some sickness took Bruce hard that winter. The Earl of Ross wrote to King Edward claiming Bruce had three thousand men, but that was likely exaggeration to justify the earl's own inaction. By the time the king reached Aberdeenshire he had perhaps seven hundred. The Comyns smelled...

Battle of Inverurie (1308): The Sight of the King

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Buchan drew up his battle line astride the Inverurie road, between Barra Hill and the marshes of the Lochter Burn. His knights and men-at-arms stood in front. Behind them, the feudal levies - the conscripted peasantry who would actually do most of the dying - were placed where th...

Battle of Inverurie (1308): The Harrying of Buchan

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

What Bruce did next made sure no Comyn would ever rise against him again. He ordered the systematic burning of every Comyn farm, house, and stronghold across Buchan. Crops went into the fire. Stockades and steadings came down. The destruction was thorough enough that it lived in ...