Covenanter’s sword, c1666

  This sword is believed to have belonged to a man called Welsh of Scaur Farm, Irongray.  Welsh was a wanted man after the battle of Rullion Green and was named in a Royal Proclamation of 4 December 1666 as being a rebel and traitor to the Crown.   Local tradition tells us that Welsh escaped the soldiers coming to arrest him and his sword was given to the man who saved his life.   The battle of Rullion Green was the culmination of the Pentland Rising and took place on 28 November 1666.  The uprising began in St John's Town of Dalry in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright where government soldiers were disarmed by the local Covenanters for beating an old man who would not pay fines.  The fines had been imposed because he would not attend a government approved church service.  The Covenanters raised a band of men and marched on Dumfries where they captured General Turner from his lodgings on the Whitesands.  The Covenanters force marched north towards Edinburgh and held a parade and review at Rullion Green in the Pentland Hills.  The Scottish Royal Army was sent to intercept the Covenanter rebels who were considered a dangerous force marching on Edinburgh.  Led by Tam Dalyell of the Binns, the Army prevailed and the Covenanters who were not captured returned home in secret.   The blade was made in Germany in the Turkish curved style.  It has a Passau wolf mark which dates it to the mid 17th century.  The blade has been set into an English style hilt which would have originally been bound with decorative wire.  Damage to the blade shows that it has been used in sword fighting and has been sharpened many times.