"The sword that seemed fit for an archangel to wield was light in his terrible hand."

Sir Hugh de Crawford of Loudoun was the grandfather of Sir William Wallace (1273 - 1305) the great Scottish patriot who was born nearby at Ellerslie outside Kilmarnock. One of Wallace's swords was a treasured family possession and hung in Loudoun Castle. It was sold by auction in 1930.

Loudoun Hill marks the eastern end of the Irvine Valley. From its summit there is an extensive view over Ayrshire to the Firth of Clyde and Arran. The hill has witnessed the passage of history from the earliest times. An iron-age homestead is located at the foot of the south-east slope. Nearby at Allanton Beg a Roman fort was built. The current A71 is probably the line of the Roman road as it left the fort. Sir William Wallace defeated an English force at Loudoun Hill in 1296 and King Robert the Bruce inflicted greater punishment on the English in 1307. A large Conventicle (outdoor religious service) held in the vicinity in 1679 led on to the humiliation of Claverhouse by the covenanters at the battle of Drumclog. The Viaduct which crossed the valley from Allanton carried the line of the Caledonian Railway Company. It was opened in 1905 and was a very visible monument to the railway age until it was considered “unsafe” and demolished in 1986. The “unsafe” viaduct took several attempts to blow it up before it finally succumbed.

A number of places in Loudoun and Galston parishes are associated with William Wallace, but Blind Harry in his epic poem “The Wallace” tells the story of Wallace’s ambush of the English at Loudoun Hill. The poem also tells how somewhere within the parish a hospitable innkeeper supplied the party of Scots as they prepared to intercept a convoy on route westward to Ayr. The actual battlesite was probably at the eastern entrance to the narrow pass known as the Winny Wizzen. Wallace concealed his men behind the banks and ditches of the long abandoned Roman fort. The poem tells how the Scots made the way even narrower with the construction of stone dykes, making more effective the attack on the tightly packed riders. Fenwick (the English general who had killed Wallace’s father) was killed during the battle, his troops were defeated and the baggage train, with all the supplies to relieve the garrison at Ayr, fell into Scottish hands. A point marked on maps as Wallace’s Grave is traditionally believed to be the place where the English dead were buried. Wallace was declared an outlaw after the Battle of Loudoun Hill but pressed on to his great victory at Stirling Bridge the following year.