Conventicle - Loudoun Hill

10,000 men were sent from the Catholic Highlands to subdue the areas of Ayr and Lanark. However, nobody stood against them, so instead the men robbed and bullied the people of the whole area, and after two months the government withdrew them. Next James Graham of Claverhouse and his dragoons were sent against the saints. They attacked field-meetings, dyeing the heather with the blood of the worshippers; they shot the peasants in cold blood in the fields and murdered them at their own doors. On June 1st 1679 there was a field-meeting going on near Loudoun Hill, Avondale, when the watchmen signalled that Graham was coming to attack them. At a Conventicle there would be armed men on horseback circling the meetings, looking out for danger. Beyond them would be another circle of armed men.

The result of this confrontation was the Battle of Drumclog - see this website.