page_title: Gillies Hill
section_title: Geology and topography
hierarchical_section_title: Gillies Hill / Environmental information - Physical / Geology and topography
caption_attribution_description: English: Murrayshall Lime Kilns
context_page_description: Gillies Hill is located west of Stirling and the M9, south of Cambusbarron, and north of the Bannock Burn in Central Scotland.
  Gillies Hill covers a 140 hectares crag and tail which rises from a height of 79 metres at the Bannock Burn Bridge near Sauchie Craig to an elevation of 162 metres at a point which overlooks the former quarrying operation to the west and Stirling Castle to the east. The hill lies north of the Bannock Burn, northeast of Sauchie Craig, east of the Touch Hills and Murrayswood, south of Cambusbarron, and west of Stirling and the M9.
  Gillies Hill is the hill from which Robert the Bruce’s camp followers, or Gillies, descended onto the field of the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 turning the tide of the battle which granted Scotland nearly 400 years of independence.
  The majority of Gillies Hill has been classified as a Semi-natural Ancient Woodland by the Woodland Trust using aerial surveys and by a follow-up Phase 1 habitat survey conducted in 2010.
context_section_description: The hill is one of a series of parallel "crag and tail" formations (including Abbey Craig, Stirling Castle, Kings Park, and Sauchie Craig) that march across the Carse of Stirling between the Touch Hills and the Ochil Hills. These formations were created by the movement of glaciers over the carse shaping the more resistant (usually volcanic) plugs into cliff-like crags ("craig" in Scots) with trailing wakes of softer material called "tails."
  Gillies Hill is located in Central Scotland east of the city of Stirling and south of the town of Cambusbarron within the Bannock Burn and River Forth watersheds. A crag and tail formation, the hill rises gradually from an altitude of approximately 79 meters at the Bannock Burn Bridge at Sauchie Craig on its southern end to drop off in a series of crags (cliffs) - some natural, some the result of quarrying - at its northwest end at an approximate altitude of 160 meters.
  
  The underlying geology of Gillies Hill is a layer of quartz-dolerite approximately 100 meters thick of the Late Carboniferous tholeiitic Midland Valley Sill-complex (Stirling Sill). The hill is one of a series of crag and tail formations that cross the Carse of Stirling separated by faults into distinct hills such as Abbey Craig, Kings Park, Sauchieburn and Stirling Castle rock. These crag and tail formations were created by glaciation that terminated about 10,000 years ago. 
   The quartz-dolerite of the hill, highly resistance to erosion, is a ready source of "whin-stone" for road beds and sea walls; concrete aggregate and kerbstones. Several whinstone mines have operated on Gillies Hill over the years.
  Beneath the hill's quartz-dolerite layer is a layer of Murrayshall Limestone. 
  There is evidence that the limekilns in the area have been in production from about 1790 into the 20th Century, producing lime to be used in building mortars, iron production and agriculture. The limestone, calcium carbonate, was roasted with coal in the Murrayshall, Craigend, and Cambusbarron kilns (respectively: at the south end of Gillies Hill, eastward up the Bannock Burn and north of Cambusbarron) to produce calcium oxide (quicklime), followed by the production of calcium hydroxide in slaking pits - and was then spread on agricultural fields.
  The remains of the kilns can be found at three locations around Gillies Hill: at Murrayshall Limeworks on the SW of Gillies Hill beside the entrance to the current quarry; at Hollandbush Limeworks off Kersebonny Road and at Craigend Limeworks on the south bank of the Bannock Burn near Castlehill Dun. Extensive tunnels lie beneath Gillies Hill; the mine adit is located in Cambusbarron and the mine air shaft is on the hill itself.
caption: Murrayshall Lime Kilns
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