Description:

Mass grave of Johnnie Armstrong of Gilnockie and his men. James V saw Johnnie and his ‘reivers’ as a challenge to his authority and set off with an army to confront them. Heavily outnumbered Johnny surrendered to the King and was hanged on the spot without trial and their bodies thrown into a pit, marked by the stone at the end of the walkway. In 1897, a memorial tablet was installed by a wall at Carlenrig and the gravesite is now owned and maintained by the Armstrong Clan Trust. Some years ago, a farmer working the field opposite Carlenrig Chapel overturned a large stone. An archaeologist found a mass grave, which contained a large number of bodies, and it is generally accepted that it was the grave of Armstrong and his men.