Bertram de Shotts is known locally as a legendary giant that roamed the then village of

Shotts Shotts is a town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is located almost halfway between Glasgow () and Edinburgh (). The village has a population of about 8,840. A local story has Shotts being named after the legendary giant highwayman Bertram de ...

, Scotland in the 15th Century. Shotts was then a dreary moorland place on the Great Road of the Shire. The road was an important route for tradesmen carrying their wares around Scotland. Bertram de Shotts habitually savaged packmen and peddlers for treasure carried along the Great Road. Such was the menace of Bertram de Shotts, King

James IV of Scotland James IV (17 March 1473 – 9 September 1513) was King of Scotland from 11 June 1488 until his death at the Battle of Flodden in 1513. He inherited the throne at the age of fifteen on the death of his father, James III, at the Battle of Sauc ...

ordered his death. Bertram de Shotts was probably in fact seven or eight feet high, yet nonetheless, his presence merited Giant status. A gripping tale is told how a young man, namely Willielmo De Muirhead, 1st Laird of Muirhead, killed the Giant. With cunning patience he ambushed Bertram de Shotts, immobilising him by slicing both his hamstrings as he lay down to drink at St. Catherine's Well / Kate's Well in the then-known Sallysburgh now

Salsburgh Salsburgh is a semi-rural former coal mining village in greenbelt farmland within the district of North Lanarkshire, Scotland. The closest major towns to the village are Shotts, southeast, and Airdrie northwest. Salsburgh is perhaps best kn ...

. Disorientated, Bertram de Shotts was then decapitated in an unpleasant death. A proud, and now wealthy, De Muirhead then carried the bloodied head to the King and was rewarded with a 'Hawk's Flight' of land. This land subsequently became Muirhead's Lauchope estate. A relic of Bertram’s exploits is still to be seen in one of his hide-outs, Law’s Castle, known to old residents as the Giant’s Cup and Saucer. Huge stones they are, standing sentinel in a desolate moorland bowl, in an unutterable silence, brooding and age-old. Despite Bertram de Shotts being a savage thief, the village Shotts is said, with much probability, to have derived its name from the legendary Giant. Bertram is believed to have lived from around 1467 to 1505.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shotts, Bertram de Scottish highwaymen People from North Lanarkshire 15th-century Scottish people 1460s births 1500s deaths Scottish giants

See also

References