On this day in 1820 the Battle of Bonnymuir took place.
On the 6th of April 1820, during the course of Scotland’s brief but intense Radical War, a small army of weavers clashed with troops from the regular army and the local Stirlingshire Yeomanry, one of the many volunteer government militias of the time. The Radicals were led by Andrew Hardie of Townhead in Glasgow and John Baird of Condorrat at Cumbernauld. Almost certainly lured into it by government agents provocateurs, Hardie and Baird were heading for the Carron Iron Works at Falkirk, aiming to seize cannons.
The Radicals had walked through a rainy night from Glasgow and Condorrat and as they were resting, sitting and lying on the grass, they spotted hussars riding towards them. The soldiers clearly knew where to find them. A skirmish ensued. The little Radical army fought bravely, the action taking place around a dry stone wall known ever since as the Radical Dyke. Defeated, they were taken to imprisonment at Stirling Castle.
On the 6th of April 1820, during the course of Scotland’s brief but intense Radical War, a small army of weavers clashed with troops from the regular army and the local Stirlingshire Yeomanry, one of the many volunteer government militias of the time. The Radicals were led by Andrew Hardie of Townhead in Glasgow and John Baird of Condorrat at Cumbernauld. Almost certainly lured into it by government agents provocateurs, Hardie and Baird were heading for the Carron Iron Works at Falkirk, aiming to seize cannons.
The Radicals had walked through a rainy night from Glasgow and Condorrat and as they were resting, sitting and lying on the grass, they spotted hussars riding towards them. The soldiers clearly knew where to find them. A skirmish ensued. The little Radical army fought bravely, the action taking place around a dry stone wall known ever since as the Radical Dyke. Defeated, they were taken to imprisonment at Stirling Castle.