[NT 968548] Halidon Hill [TI]
Site of [TI] Battle [GT]
(19th July 1333) [TI]. (1)

The site of a battle on 19th July 1333 between the English, under Edward III and the Scots under Archibald Douglas: the Scots were defeated. (2)

In 1933 a Memorial Stone was erected commemorating the Battle. (3)

NT 96755451 Monolith 2.5m high, inscribed 'Halidon Hill 13th [sic] July 1333 and BNC 1933.' (4)

The Scots were routed, losing in one estimation, nearly 10,000 men; the English lost nearly 100. (5)

Battle of Halidon Hill, 1333. [Details of battle]. (6)

Additional bibliography (7)

Registered Battlefield. (8)

The battlefield area is now fully enclosed agricultural land with only a few scattered farms. The marshy ground between the two hills has been drained. Access is possible along Grand Loaning Lane which runs across the centre of the battlefield and via a circular conservation walk around Halidon Hill taking in the English positions. (9)

Further information can be found here. (10a)

The site of the Battle of Halidon Hill is located in Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland. The battle was fought on the 19th July 1333 between King Edward III and the Scots in order to enforce respect of the king's claimant to the throne, Edward Balliol. Balliol had been crowned at Scone in 1332 but was expelled from Scotland by Sir Archibald Douglas and the Earl of Moray who had placed Robert the Steward on the throne as regent. King Edward ignored the Treaty of Northhampton in which he had promised to recognise Scotland as a free and independent kingdom and marched on Berwick.
After the Scots burnt Tweedmouth, Douglas's army moved to Dunspark near Halidon Hill and Edward moved his army accordingly in three divisions to the top of Halidon Hill, approaching Berwick from the north.
According to legend, the Battle of Halidon Hill was started with a personal duel between the Scottish knight Turnbull and Sir Robert Benhale of Norfolk. Benhale won this and the Scots gave their word to advance. The English archers fired on the Scots at the area below Halidon Hill and the Scots failed to take the hill. Douglas was captured and speared and many of the Scots were killed by English knights after fleeing to Ayton. (10b)

The site of the Battle of Halidon Hill is a registered battlefield. For the designation record of this site please see The National Heritage List for England. (10c and 10d)

Authority (10e) states that topographical details in the written accounts do not seem to accord with the hilltop terrain of the presently favoured site. He purports that an attempt would have been made to control the Great North Road, which would have been likely to lay close to the coast - almost a kilometre east of the registered area. Perhaps the traditional site of the battlefield migrated to the top of the hill in later centuries by virtue of the prominence of the hill in the landscape. (10e)

This is a Registered Battlefield.