Robert the Bruce

📍Turnberry Castle, Turnberry, Girvan KA26 9LT, UK

“I was born on 11 July 1274, most likely at Turnberry Castle, my mother's fortress on a rocky point of the Ayrshire coast, with the sea breaking below its walls and Ailsa Craig and Arran out across the water. My mother, Marjorie, was Countess of Carrick in her own right, of an ancient Gaelic line, and it was through her that I grew up with one foot in the Gaelic world of the south-west and the isles, and the other in the Anglo-Norman world of my father's family, with lands in England. I was trained as a young lord should be: in languages, law, religion, hunting and war, and spent time in the Western Isles or Ulster and at English castles. I was crowned King of Scots in 1306, but was soon a hunted fugitive; the legend of the spider who taught me to try again belongs to those years. In 1314 I defeated Edward II at Bannockburn. My body lies in Dunfermline Abbey, my heart at Melrose. Of Turnberry little more than the foundations remain, beside the lighthouse.”

Sources: nts.org.uk futuremuseum.co.uk Wikipedia: Marjorie,_Countess_of_Carrick