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| Lochmaben |
Possession of Lochmaben was of great strategic value to both sides. The port of Annan was only a short journey from the castle and the garrison could, like the one at Caerlaverock, be resupplied from the port at Skinburness. It also lay across an important road junction, controlling routes into Annandale and Nithsdale. This meant that the garrison at Lochmaben controlled access to Caerlaverock and Dumfries.
Back in September 1298, Edward captured Lochmaben after his victory at Falkirk and gave it to Sir Robert Clifford. It had previously been held by the Bruces, who for some reason chose not to build a stone castle on this important site. Instead Lochmaben was a timber fortification or ‘manerium’, and Clifford was tasked with strengthening it. Excavations in 1968 discovered evidence of a gateway and a palisade trench, dating from 1300 or thereabouts. Thus it would appear Clifford built an extra timber defence or pele, along with a large ditch to make approach from the landward side virtually impossible. Lochmaben was otherwise surrounded by water on three sides.
By autumn 1301 the English constable of Lochmaben was Sir Robert Tilliol. He had about 100 men in garrison, and was required to hold his wooden outpost against the combined strength of the Scottish field army. In early September he sent an urgent letter to the king, reporting that the Guardians were converging on him from the north and north-west. One part of the Scottish host, under Sir John Soules and the Earl of Buchan was camped at Loudon; the other was at Stonehouse near Strathaven under Simon Fraser, Sir Alexander Abernethy and Sir Herbert Morham.
Tilliol begged the king for reinforcements: 100 decent cavalry, led by a ‘good chieftain’, would do the trick. And he needed them in the next twenty-four hours. It is doubtful that his letter reached Edward in time - soon after Tilliol’s galloper went tearing up to Bothwell with his despatch, the Guardians were at the gates.
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