Bonnymuir was a moorland

Moorland

Moorland or moor is a type of habitat, in the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome, found in upland areas, characterised by low-growing vegetation on acidic soils and heavy fog...

 ("bonny muir" effectively means "pretty moorland" in Scots

Scots language

Scots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster . It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language variety spoken in most of the western Highlands and in the Hebrides.Since there are no universally accepted...

) area near the town of Bonnybridge

Bonnybridge

Bonnybridge is a small town in the Falkirk council area of Scotland. It is west of Falkirk, north-east of Cumbernauld and south-southwest of Stirling. The town is situated near the Bonny Water which runs through the town and lies north of the Forth and Clyde Canal...

 in Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

. Today, it has mostly become either housing or farmland.

It was a significant location in the so-called "Radical War

Radical War

The Radical War, also known as the Scottish Insurrection of 1820, was a week of strikes and unrest, a culmination of Radical demands for reform in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland which had become prominent in the early years of the French Revolution, but had then been repressed...

" of 1820. The effects of the industrial revolution

Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...

 in the early 19th century, combined with an economic downturn following the Napoleonic War, encouraged political unrest (see Peterloo, Chartism

Chartism

Chartism was a movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century, between 1838 and 1859. It takes its name from the People's Charter of 1838. Chartism was possibly the first mass working class labour movement in the world...

). In 1820, several agitators were arrested on suspicion of plotting an insurrection. The site of the 1820 Battle of Bonnymuir remains unmarked. In recent times a memorial has been erected to commemorate the battle.

A strike of some 60,000 workers followed in April 1820, mainly in the west of Scotland, and a "provisional government" was declared in Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

. The Carron Ironworks was besieged by 40 reactionaries with the intention of obtaining armaments; they were subsequently joined by reinforcements from Stirling

Stirling

Stirling is a city and former ancient burgh in Scotland, and is at the heart of the wider Stirling council area. The city is clustered around a large fortress and medieval old-town beside the River Forth...

. They were overcome by Scottish troops of the Stirlingshire Yeomanry at Bonnymuir and 47 were arraigned for treason

Treason

In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...

. The ringleaders, Andrew Hardie

Andrew Hardie (radical)

Andrew Hardie was second-in-command of the Radical Forces who marched on Scotland's Carron Ironworks in the "Radical War" of 1820.He was sentenced to death and was executed in Stirling on September 8, 1820 along with John Baird. In his speech on the scaffold he declared himself "a martyr to the...

, James Wilson and John Baird were executed. Thomas McCulloch, John Barr, William Smith, Benjamin Moir, Allan Murchie, Alexander Latimer, Alexander Johnson, Andrew White, David Thomson, James Wright, William Clackson

William Clackson

William Clackson was born circa 1799. He was a shoemaker living in Glasgow at the time of the "Radical War" of 1820. He was sentenced to death for his part in the uprising, but this was subsequently communted to transportation to New South Wales. He left Scotland in the convict ship Speke on the...

, Thomas Pike, Robert Gray, John Clelland, Alexander Hart, Thomas McFarlane, John Anderson and William Crawford were sentenced to penal transportation

Penal transportation

Transportation or penal transportation is the deporting of convicted criminals to a penal colony. Examples include transportation by France to Devil's Island and by the UK to its colonies in the Americas, from the 1610s through the American Revolution in the 1770s, and then to Australia between...

. Two were found not guilty and the rest were never tried.