page_title: Bickering Bush
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Bickering Bush / History
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Positionskarte von Schottland, Vereinigtes Königreich Quadratische Plattkarte, N-S-Streckung 170&#160;%. Geographische Begrenzung der Karte: * N: 61.0° N * S: 54.5° N * W: 8.8° W * O: 0.4° W English: Location map of Scotland, United Kingdom Equirectangular projection, N/S stretching 170&#160;%. Geographic limits of the map: * N: 61.0° N * S: 54.5° N * W: 8.8° W * E: 0.4° W
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 tree is referred to as a 'Thorn' which in the Scots language specifically means the hawthorn or mayflower (Crataegus monogyna) rather than the sloe or blackthorn (Prunus spinosa).
  The thorn survived until around the late 1820s or early 1830s when it was cut down by a 'Gothic Hand', indicating that it was still living at the time, and the wood was made into souvenirs. A snuff box engraved with its stated origins from the Bickering Bush existed in 1879 as the property of a James Paxton. A single hawthorn has a lifespan of from 150 years to 300 years however they readily set seed and develop as a thicket with trees of different ages developing more or less continuously. Ages of up to 700 years have been claimed such as with the Hethel Old Thorn.
caption: Location of the Bickering Bush, East Ayrshire
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