page_title: Gillies Hill
section_title: Flora
hierarchical_section_title: Gillies Hill / Environmental information - Biological / Flora
caption_attribution_description: English: Gillies Hill, Cambusbarron, Scotland
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: Gillies Hill hosts a large array of plants native to Central Scotland. The hill is home to at least 38 Ancient Woodland indicator species from the AWVP – Europe/National/Scotland list and 21 from the AWVP - Scotland list, a record Scots Pine, a record Rowan, and an abundance of wildflower, lichen, fungi, moss, and grass species. Eight of the top ten Scottish plants listed on the Scottish Biodiversity List (a list of flora, fauna and habitats considered by Scottish Ministers to be of principal importance for biodiversity) as most popular among Scots can be found on Gillies Hill: common and bell heather, Scottish bluebell or harebell, Scots Pine, oak, thistle, rowan, ferns, and common spotted and Northern marsh orchids. Three of these including the heather, harebell, and Scots Pine are predominantly found on the hill's heath out-crops which are threatened by quarry expansion, as is the only known population of blaeberry on the hill.
caption: Bell Heather - Erica cinerea
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