Covenanter Banner

The Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland has been graciously gifted a Covenanter banner, believed to have been carried at the Battle of Bothwell Bridge in 1679.

The following description was made by the Rev. J. H. Thomson in his Martyr Graves of Scotland:

“When about half-a-mile from the station, we turned aside to Loan, a farm tenanted by a Mr Orr, in search of a Covenanters’ flag. We soon found we had come to the right place, and the farmer took down a bag from the top of a wardrobe and brought the flag out of it. It is somewhat similar to the flag at Lochgoin, although a little smaller and in a better state of preservation. It is browner in appearance, but this has arisen from its present possessor very wisely having forbidden its being washed. The tradition is that it was at the battle of Bothwell Bridge. It originally belonged to a family of the name of Thomson, before it passed into the hands of the ancestry of the present possessor. It is made of two pieces of linen sewed together, and is five feet six inches in length by four feet six inches in breadth. The inscription is;
Open Bible.                         Crown.
verbum Dei.                         Thistle.
For The Parish Of Shots
For Reformation In Church
And State According To
The Word Of God And Our
Covenants.
It is pierced in one or two places by what looks to have been small shot.”

Arrangements are currently being made for the banner to be displayed at Airdrie Reformed Presbyterian Church.