The Gaelic name for the battlefield is Dail Righ -- the King's Field. Whether it was called that before the battle or christened afterward by chroniclers is unknown, but either way the irony is sharp. When Robert the Bruce reached this patch of ground near Tyndrum in the summer of 1306, he was a king in name only -- freshly crowned, freshly defeated, and stumbling westward with the remnants of an army that was about to cease to exist as an organized fighting force.
On 10 February 1306, Bruce had killed John Comyn in Greyfriars Church and seized the Scottish crown at Scone. On 19 June, his army was caught unprepared in a night camp at the Battle of Methven, west of Perth, by the English general Aymer de Valence. What survived of that disaster retreated westward into Argyll, where the MacDougalls waited. The Clan MacDougall, powerful descendants of Somerled and related by marriage to the murdered Comyn, had every reason to hate Bruce. Their chief's son, John of Lorne -- known as John Bacach, 'the Lame' -- commanded an estimated thousand men blocking the route through Strathfillan at Tyndrum. Bruce had between 300 and 500, including women, the aged, and a guard of Highland men. With Valence's pursuing army likely not far behind to the east, retreat was not an option.
The MacDougalls were fought off and Bruce's party escaped, but the army disintegrated shortly afterward. Bruce sent Queen Elizabeth, his daughter Marjorie, his sister Mary, and Isabella MacDuff to Kildrummy Castle, then fled south with James Douglas into the territory of his friend the Earl of Lennox. From there, aided by Angus Og MacDonald -- chief of the MacDonalds and bitter enemy of the MacDougalls -- Bruce crossed to the Kintyre Peninsula by way of Bute, sheltered briefly at the exposed Dunaverty Castle, and was taken to Rathlin Island off the coast of Ulster, a MacDonald territory. He spent the winter of 1306-1307 there, derided as 'King Hob' in English propaganda. His recovery from that exile counts as one of the most remarkable episodes in the history of warfare. Two years after Dalrigh, the MacDougalls were destroyed at the Battle of the Pass of Brander. After Bannockburn in 1314, Bruce divided their lands among clans loyal to him, including the MacDonalds who had sheltered a fugitive king.
Battle of Dalrigh site at 56.4236N, 4.6878W is near the hamlet of Dalrigh, close to Tyndrum in western Perthshire. The A82 and the West Highland Railway both pass through this valley. Tyndrum village is visible as a small settlement at the junction of Glen Lochy and Strath Fillan. Best viewed at 2,000-4,000 ft. Nearest airport: Oban (EGEO) approximately 20 nm west-southwest.