golf blackwaterfoot isle of arran, fishing scotland, highland walking holidays, self catering accommodation arran, isle holiday accommodation, highlands, bb blackwaterfoot uk, bed breakfast tourist, short breaks guest, guest house b&b, hospitality comfort, peaceful country, views, golf vacation blackwaterfoot isle of arran

Blackwaterfoot is a village on the Isle of Arran in the Firth of Clyde, Scotland. It is located in the Shiskine valley in the south-west of the island. It is one of the smaller villages of Arran and home to one of Europe's two 12 hole golf courses. A short walk from Blackwaterfoot is Drumadoon Point, home to the largest Iron Age fort on Arran. Further North is the King's Cave, reputed to be a hiding place of Robert the Bruce.

Robert I, King of Scots (11 July 1274 - 7 June 1329) usually known in modern English as Robert the Bruce was King of the Scots from 1306 until his death in 1329.

His paternal ancestors were of Scoto-Norman heritage (originating in Brieux, Normandy), and his maternal of Franco-Gaelic. He became one of Scotland's greatest kings, as well as one of the most famous warriors of his generation, eventually leading Scotland during the Wars of Scottish Independence against the Kingdom of England. He claimed the Scottish throne as a four-greats-grandson of David I of Scotland.

His body is buried in Dunfermline Abbey, while his heart is buried in Melrose Abbey. His embalmed heart was to be taken on crusade by his lieutenant and friend Sir James Douglas to the Holy Land, but only reached Moorish Granada, where it acted as a talisman for the Scottish contingent at the Battle of Teba.

Robert was the first son of Robert de Brus, 6th Lord of Annandale and Marjorie, Countess of Carrick, daughter of Niall, Earl of Carrick. His mother was by all accounts a formidable woman who, legend would have it, kept Robert Bruce's father captive until he agreed to marry her. From his mother, he inherited the Gaelic Earldom of Carrick, and through his father a royal lineage that would give him a claim to the Scottish throne. Although his date of birth is known, his place of birth is less certain, but it was probably Turnberry Castle in Ayrshire.

Very little is known of his youth. He could have been sent to be fostered with a local family, as was the custom. It can be presumed that Bruce was raised speaking all the languages of his lineage and nation and was almost certainly fluent in Galwegian Gaelic, Scots and Norman French, with literacy in Latin. Robert's first appearance in history is on a witness list of a charter issued by Alasdair MacDomhnaill, Lord of Islay. His name appears in the company of the Bishop of Argyll, the vicar of Arran, a Kintyre clerk, his father and a host of Gaelic notaries from Carrick.

He saw the outcome of the 'Great Cause' in 1292, which gave the Crown of Scotland to his distant relative, John Balliol, as unjust. As he saw it, it prevented his branch of the family from taking their rightful place on the Scottish throne. Soon afterwards, his grandfather, Robert de Brus, 5th Lord of Annandale the unsuccessful claimant resigned his lordship to Robert de Brus, Bruce's father. Robert de Brus had already resigned the Earldom of Carrick to Robert Bruce, his son, on the day of his wife's death in 1292, thus making Robert Bruce the Earl of Carrick. Both father and son sided with Edward I against John who they considered a usurper and to whom Robert had not sworn fealty.

In April 1294, the younger Bruce had permission to visit Ireland for a year and a half, and, as a further mark of King Edward's favour, he received a respite for all the debts owed by him to the English Exchequer.

In 1295, Robert married his first wife, Isabella of Mar (d. December 1296) the daughter of Domhnall I, Earl of Mar by his wife Helen.