



Richard Oram is a Professor of Medieval and Environmental History at the University of Stirling. It's said that she and her ladies appeared on the battlements, dusting the places where the enemies' stones had fallen – though that particular story may be as apocryphal as the events in this film. There's Euphemia, a countess of Ross in her own right in the 14th century, and Agnes Randolph, Countess of Dunbar, who defended Dunbar Castle during the 1330s. The fact that the film has a strong woman at its centre may actually be quite accurate: we know very little about women in medieval Scotland, but those we do know about seem to have been pretty feisty. It's also highly unlikely there were bears in medieval times: we think they became extinct in Scotland in the prehistoric period. That ties in with the view peddled abroad since Queen Victoria: that of a bare, rugged land, inhabited by wild men in kilts. The general feel – the mix of water and hills, forest and mountains – is very good: the forests are a realistic blend of Scots pine and birch.
