Description:

The mass grave of Johnnie Armstrong of Gilnockie and his men has a dark history. King James V saw Johnnie and his band of ‘reivers’ as a threat to his authority and marched with an army to confront them. Vastly outnumbered, Johnnie surrendered but was hanged on the spot without trial, and the bodies were thrown into a pit marked by a stone at the walkway’s end. In 1897, a memorial tablet was placed on a wall at Carlenrig, and today the Armstrong Clan Trust owns and maintains the site. Years later, a farmer near Carlenrig Chapel overturned a large stone, revealing a mass grave discovered by an archaeologist, widely believed to be the final resting place of Armstrong and his men.