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On Sunday, 1st June 1679, John Graham of Claverhouse (later Viscount Dundee), an arch persecutor of the Covenanters, attacked a large Conventicle being held at Drumclog, Lanarkshire. Many of the worshippers had come armed, and they resisted to such an extent that they routed Claverhouse and his dragoons. The euphoria following this victory was soon dissipated, for the authorities, alarmed at this open resistance, brought in a large Royalist army, which met a largish Covenanter force at Bothwell, exactly three weeks later. Despite initial success, the Covenanters were routed and very many were killed on the field of battle and in the ensuing flight from it.
The persecution of the Covenanters continued and, if anything, conditions worsened when James VII (James II of England) succeeded his brother Charles II in 1685. The hundreds of Covenanter memorials to be found all over the south, west and east of Scotland bear witness to the many cruel executions perpetrated upon the populace. Some are to be found in kirkyards, but many more are in the hills and woods, where these martyrs were hunted down by the royalist troops. The great majority of those inscribed memorials bear the key word "adherence" (to the Covenant and to the Reformation). This in our opinion is the indication that these particular martyrs were given the opportunity to take the oath, but declined, knowing full well that a refusal would probably result in immediate death by shooting
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