Park Terrace and Gillies Hill

From the southern edge of the park the ground drops towards Park Terrace and the roofs of the town. Beyond, to the south-west, the wooded ridge of Gillies Hill rises above the carse.

The Battle of Bannockburn was fought about two miles to the south-east over two days in June 1314. Tradition ties Gillies Hill to its second day: the story is that the "gillies" — the servants, camp followers and baggage handlers of the Scots army, left behind the lines — came over the hill in view of the English force, who took them for a fresh army arriving, and that the sight helped turn an already failing position into a rout.

How much weight the story will bear is much argued over, and it appears in no contemporary account. But the hill has carried the name for centuries, and the ridge is still there to look at.