Abbey Craig

The Abbey Craig is a hill in Causewayhead, jist nor o Stirlin. It is the steid o the Wallace Monument. Geography The Abbey Craig is pairt o a complex quartz-dolerite intrusion or sill athin carboniferous strata, at the wastren edge o the Central Coal Field, kent as the Stirling Sill. The quartz-dolerite, bein muckle haurder nor the suroondin coal meisures, haes been exposed due tae erosion, includin bi glaciation. The chairacteristic craig an tail shape o the craig reflecks this glacial shapin. Toponomy Craig descrieves a post-glacial craig an tail laundscape feature. The aibbey is Cambuskenneth Aibbey, on the nor baunk o the River Forth, aboot 1 km tae the sooth. History The hill is the steid o William Wallace's camp afore the Battle o Stirlin Brig in 1297, that wis pairt o the Scots Wars o Unthirldom. The hilltap wis fendit durin the early medieval period an haes a vitrified hillfort, malafoustert bi fire in the 6t or 7t Yearhunner AD an then refortified in the 8t or 9t Yearhunner AD, as shawn bi twa phases o airchaeological excavation, the first bi SUAT Archaeology in 2001 an the seicont Murray Cook, Stirlin Cooncil's Airchaeologist in 2012. References