The men from the West

The surnames of Irvine and Irving are virtually interchangeable, with bearers of both versions of the name having played a significant role in the high drama and romance of Scotland’s history.

Other forms of the name, including Ervine, Erwing, Irwing, Irwyn, Urwin, and Herwineare are almost as numerous as the various explanations of its origins.

One tradition is that it derives from the ancient Brythonic ‘ir afon’, meaning ‘green water’, while an even more colourful theory is that it stems from ‘Erinviennes’.

This was the name given to Irish descendants of the High Kings of Ireland who settled on the west coast of Scotland from about the end of the fifth century onwards – with ‘Erin’ meaning ‘from the West’, and ‘viene’ denoting ‘a brave and worthy man.’

This tradition further asserts that it was the Erinviennes who gave their name to what is now the thriving royal burgh of Irvine, on the Ayrshire coast.

The tradition may not be as far-fetched as it may first appear, because it links intriguingly to another persistent tradition that the first mention of the name of Irvine in all its various forms in Scottish records concerns a Crinus Ervines.

He was the hereditary abbot of Dunkeld, who traced a descent back through the mists of time to the High Kings of Ireland.

The abbot was also married to a daughter of Malcolm II, who reigned in Scotland between 1005 and 1034.

A form of the name is recorded in Galloway, in the far south of Scotland, in the twelfth century, while a Robert de Herwine is recorded in Dumfriesshire in 1226.

Irving (with a ‘g’) was also the name of a parish in Dumfriesshire, and it appears that it was at some stage in the fourteenth century that this form became popular in the south of Scotland, while Irvine (with an ‘e’) became more popular further north.

It was in the north of Scotland, in Aberdeenshire, that a family of Irvines flourished for centuries as the lairds of the Drum, and this family traced a descent from the Irvings of Bonshaw, in Dumfriesshire.

In 1587, an Act of the Scottish Parliament recognised these Irvings of Bonshaw as the ‘chiefly family’ of the name.

Significant numbers of Irvines settled in Ireland during what was known as the Plantation of Ireland from 1609 to 1613, and one family was responsible for the building of Irvine Castle, in Fermanagh.

In later centuries, many of these Irvines left Ireland to find a new life in North America, while Irvings are known to have left their native Dumfriesshire to settle in Canada.

It is also interesting to note that in both Ireland and North America ‘Irvine’ tends to be pronounced ‘Ir-vine’, while the common pronunciation in Scotland is ‘Ir-vin’.

Linguistic and spelling differentiations apart, generations of Irvines and Irvings in Scotland played a significant role in both the bitter Wars of Independence with England and the equally bitter trials and tribulations of the Royal House of Stuart.

Foremost among the warriors for Scotland’s freedom and independence was William de Irwyn, of the Bonshaw branch of the family in Dumfriesshire.

By 1296, Scotland groaned under the iron grip of English occupation, but William Wallace raised the banner of revolt in May of 1297 after he killed Sir William Heselrig, Sheriff of Lanark, in revenge for the killing of his young wife, Marion.

Proving an expert in the tactics of guerrilla warfare, Wallace and his hardened band of freedom fighters inflicted stunning defeats on the English garrisons.

This culminated in the liberation of practically all of Scotland following the battle of Stirling Bridge, on September 11, 1297.

Defeated at the battle of Falkirk on July 22, 1298, after earlier being appointed Guardian of Scotland, Sir William Wallace was eventually betrayed and captured in August of 1305.

On the black day for Scotland of August 23 of that year, he was brutally executed in London on the orders of a vengeful Edward I of England, better known as ‘The Hammer of the Scots’.

Less than a year later, however, Scotland again rose in rebellion – this time under the inspired leadership of Robert the Bruce, who had been enthroned as King of Scots at Scone in March of 1306.

Defeat followed at the battle of Methven in June, however, and Bruce was forced to seek refuge on the inhospitable island of Rathlin, between the west coast of Scotland and the east coast of Ireland.

Returning to Scotland in February of the following year, however, the great warrior king and his stalwart supporters such as William de Irwyn set the nation aflame as, in a succession of daring guerrilla attacks, they inflicted a series of defeats on the English garrisons.

One tradition is that it was after one of his raids on a garrison in the southwest of Scotland that Bruce was forced to flee for his life, closely pursued by the enemy.

Among his small entourage of battle-hardened warriors was Sir William de Irwyn, who is said to have stood guard as the exhausted king took some much-needed rest under a holly tree.

This incident, the tradition holds, gave rise to the Irvine/Irving family crest of a sheaf of holly and the motto ‘Flourishing in both sunshine and in shade’.

Sir William fought with distinction at the side of Bruce at the battle Bannockburn in June of 1314, when a 20,000-strong English army under Edward II was defeated by a Scots army less than half this strength.

By midsummer of 1313 the mighty fortress of Stirling Castle was occupied by an English garrison under the command of Sir Philip Mowbray.

Bruce’s brother, Edward, had agreed to a pledge by Mowbray that if the castle was not relieved by battle by midsummer of the following year, then he would surrender.

This made battle inevitable, and by June 23 of 1314 the two armies faced one another at Bannockburn, in sight of the castle.

It was on this day that Bruce slew the English knight Sir Henry de Bohun in single combat, but the battle proper was not fought until the following day, shortly after the rise of the midsummer sun.

The English cavalry launched a desperate but futile charge on the densely packed ranks of Scottish spearmen known as schiltrons, and by the time the sun had sank slowly in the west the English army had been totally routed, with Edward himself only narrowly managing to make his escape from the carnage of the battlefield.

Scotland’s independence had been secured, to the glory of Bruce and his loyal army and at terrible cost to the English.

In reward for his gallant service to Bruce, Sir William was granted 10,000 acres of land in Aberdeenshire that were confiscated from Bruce’s enemies, the Comyns.

This barony included the Royal Forest of Oaks and the imposing edifice of Drum Castle, the proud possession and stronghold of the Irvine lairds of Drum.

High honours

Succeeding generations of Irvines and Irvings continued to play a dominant role in Scottish affairs, including the 4th Laird of Drum, who was involved in the lengthy and tortuous negotiations with England to secure the release from captivity of James I.

James had become a pawn in a struggle between powerful nobles and his father Robert III, culminating in him being carried for his own safety to the refuge of the Bass Rock, in the Firth of Forth.

He stayed here for about a month before a merchant vessel picked him up in March of 1406 to take him to a more secure refuge in France, but English pirates captured the ship off Flamborough Head, and the eleven-year-old prince was taken into the custody of England’s ambitious and designing Henry V.

Robert III died only a few weeks later, and the young prince now became James I of Scotland.

It would be 18 long years before he was released from custody, and the 4th Laird of Drum was instrumental in the Treaty of London, signed in December of 1423.

This made arrangements that the king would be released only for a ransom of £40,000, payable over six years, while twenty-one sons of the Scottish nobility were to be taken as hostages until the full amount was paid.

Adding insult to injury, the treaty also stipulated that the hostages should be kept at the expense of their own families, while a further £4,000 was demanded as the cost of the king’s upkeep while he had been held captive in England!

James eventually returned to his kingdom in February of 1424, and promptly rewarded the 4th Laird of Drum with a knighthood for his efforts on his monarch’s behalf.

On the battlefield, the 3rd Laird of Drum, Sir Alexander Irvine, had thirteen years earlier been involved in one of the most savage battles on Scottish soil.

This was the Battle of Harlaw, fought on July 24, 1411, just north of Aberdeen and in the heart of the Irvines of Drum homeland.

Also known as the Battle of Red Harlaw, it was sparked off when Donald Macdonald, 2nd Lord of the Isles, mustered about 6,000 of his best clansmen and burned Inverness after crossing to the mainland and marching up the Great Glen.

His strength swelled to 10,000 after other clansmen including Camerons, Chattans, MacIntoshes, and MacLeods joined him: promising them rich pickings, Macdonald then marched them towards Aberdeen.

The Earl of Mar and his cousin, Sir William Irvine, hastily assembled a force that included other northeast lairds, while the Provost of Aberdeen also raised men.

The opposing forces met just north of Aberdeen, and battle was joined shortly after the summer sun had risen.

The fearless and ferocious clansmen repeatedly charged the ranks of the Earl of Mar and his men, only to be cut down in swathes, but not before exacting their own toll in blood.

As the sun sank low in the west, both sides were exhausted and had to retire from the fray, leaving behind a battlefield littered with the corpses of at least 1,000 clansmen and 600 of Mar’s men.

Among the dead was Sir William Irvine, who had engaged in ferocious hand-to-hand combat with the chief of the Macleans of Duart, famously known as Red Hector of the Battles.

At the end of what was described as ‘noble and notable single combat’, both men lay dead, and Sir William’s bravery is commemorated in a ballad, where he is referred to as ‘good Sir Alexander Irvine, the much renowned Laird of Drum.’

Further south, the Irvings of Bonshaw, in Dumfriesshire, also distinguished themselves in battle.

Christopher Irving of Bonshaw and one of his sons were among the 5,000 Scots, including James IV, an archbishop, two bishops, eleven earls, fifteen barons, and 300 knights, who were killed at the disastrous battle of Flodden, fought on September 9, 1513.

The Scottish monarch had embarked on the venture after Queen Anne of France, under the terms of the Auld Alliance between Scotland and her nation, appealed to him to ‘break a lance’ on her behalf and act as her chosen knight.

Crossing the border into England at the head of a 25,000-strong army that included 7,500 clansmen and their kinsmen, James engaged a 20,000-strong force commanded by the Earl of Surrey.

Despite their numerical superiority and bravery, however, the Scots proved no match for the skilled English artillery and superior military tactics of Surrey.

During the destructive civil war between Crown and Covenant, the Irvines proved staunch Royalists, with Drum Castle suffering several times from the depredations of the Covenanters – who supported the National Covenant of 1638, which pledged to uphold the Presbyterian religion.

Alexander Irvine, the 10th Laird of Drum, was imprisoned on a number of occasions by the Presbyterian authorities for his Royalist stance, while his son, Robert, died a prisoner in Edinburgh’s grim Tolbooth in 1646.

The 14th Laird of Drum also proved loyal to the cause of the Royal House of Stuart.

He fought at Sheriffmuir during the abortive Jacobite Rising of 1715, while Alexander Irvine, 17th Laird of Drum, volunteered to serve in the Pitsligo’s Horse regiment after Prince Charles Edward Stuart raised the Jacobite standard at Glenfinnan to rally support for the 1745 Rising.

Following the carnage of the battle of Culloden fought on April 16, 1746, and the end of all Jacobite hopes for the restoration of the Stuarts to the throne, the laird was among those for whom arrest warrants had been issued.

Fleeing to Drum Castle, and with the help of his sister, Mary Irvine, he managed to hide for a time in a secret room before escaping to exile in France.

Tried in his absence, he was later acquitted on a technicality, and returned to his Aberdeenshire homeland in about 1753.

Continuing a martial tradition, Colonel John Irving fought for the British Army during the Abyssinian Campaign of 1867, while the 22nd Laird of Drum fought with the elite Grenadier Guards during the First World War.

Colonel John Irving’s son, meanwhile, Robert Irving, was the captain of the Queen Mary and commodore of the famous Cunard Line.

Across the Atlantic, William Irvine, born in 1741, was the American of Irish descent who achieved renown as a doctor, soldier, and statesman.

Hailing from Carlisle, in Pennsylvania, he was a Brigadier General in the Continental Army, and represented Pennsylvania in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1793 to 1795.