The Battle of Otterburn, 19th August 1388

Carrying on with David Clark's excellent book on touring northern battlefields
( Battlefield walks, pub.Grange books) it's the turn of Otterburn.

We pass through the village when taking the northern route from Cumbria over to north Northumberland, so it's familiar to us...but as a battlefield?

Anyway...the history first.

Two key points

1.In Scotland there were the Douglas's and south of the border the Percy's.

2.There was pressure from the Scottish crown to continue the border wars....and not surprisingly the offer was gratefully accepted and the raiding continued.

The Douglas's had been as far south as Durham, tried to capture Newcastle on their way back and were by all accounts more than ready to tackle the Percy's when they caught up with the Scottish raiders.

The battle itself has several interesting notes.

When the English attacked they found the camp full of non combatants. These they set about killing and the main Scoys army gained valuable time to regroup.Interestingly it has been suggested that Douglas left his non combatants in that place to serve such a purpose.

The main fighting was by moonlight which hindered the arrival of the Umfraville party which had been sent out to outflank the Scots.

Anyway....Douglas was killed, Percy captured and the Scots won the day.
It wouln't be until Homildon Hill in 1402 that the Percy's had their revenge.

This is the wikimapia view of the battleground


Here is Percy's cross , the memorial






And here is the map




See also our blog on the Battle of Hexham.