page_title: Bickering Bush
section_title: Riccarton Castle and the Sir William Wallace connection
hierarchical_section_title: Bickering Bush / Riccarton Castle and the Sir William Wallace connection
caption_attribution_description: Riccarton in 1840. East Ayrshire, Scotland.
context_page_description: The Bickering bush thorn grew near Caprington on the lands of Monksholm or Maxholm, Riccarton, East Ayrshire, Scotland. The old farm house at Maxholm sat in hollow on the old Caprington Castle estate and to the north and west its fields bordered the River Irvine. The thorn was located, as recorded on the OS map, near to the confluence of the Kilmarnock Water and the River Irvine, downstream of the Simon's Burn's confluence on the south bank of the river.
  Legend has it that in around the year 1292 Sir William Wallace was involved in an incident in which he killed two or three out of five English soldiers who were attempting to take his catch of fish and the 'Bickering Bush' thorn marked the spot.
context_section_description: The Wallace family were the barons or lairds of the Riccarton barony and it is said that Wallace's father Alan was born here. Some go so far as to suggest that William Wallace himself was born in Riccarton parish.  After his murder of Selby, Governor of Dundee, William Wallace took refuge in Riccarton Castle; another time being after he had revenged his uncle's death at the Barns of Ayr. 
  Blind Harry records the incident in his poem The Actes and Deidis of the Illustre and Vallyeant Campioun Schir William Wallace:
  The Wallace
  "Three slew he there, two fled with all their might
  Unto their horse in a confounded fright;
  Left all their fish, no longer durst remain,
  And three fat English bucks upon the plain;
  Thus in great hurry, having got their cuffs",
  They scampered off in haste to save their buffs.'
  Local tradition states that immediately after the 'Bickering Bush' incident Wallace went to his uncle's castle and was urged by the housekeeper to take on the disguise of a woman working at her spinning-wheel, thereby managing to avoid the English troops who were there shortly after to arrest him.
  Following this incident the uprising against King Edward I slowly gained ground, especially after he killed the Sheriff of Lanark in May 1297.
  John Wallace of Riccarton married the heiress of Craigie Castle and this became the family's principal residence, old Riccarton Castle being left to fall into ruins to the extent that its true location is now uncertain although a commemorative plaque is located outside the fire station.
  In 1875 all that remained of the old castle was some stately trees, including a pear tree at the site of the castle's old orchard, supposedly planted by William Wallace.
caption: Yardside Farm to the left is said to have been the site of Riccarton castle. The "Seat of Judgement" crowned by Riccarton Parish Church is another possible location. The boys on Riccarton green are playing a game of the Scots and the English.[12]
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