[1] Another account says that Polmaise Thorne was three miles from Falkirk and that the feud between Boyd and Stewart had at that time been in its third year.

[1] Alexander Stewart, youngest brother of Alan, assembled his men at Darnley House and did not seek the aid of the civil authorities.

[1] He instructed two of these detachments to enter the lands surrounding Boyd's Dean Castle at different points and then to meet him the following night at Craignaught Hill.

[1] Sir Robert Boyd with one hundred of his men were waiting in Dean Castle, ready at a moment's notice to ride out and give the Stewarts a stern welcome to Kilmarnock.

[1] In the meantime Stewart of Darnley and his men had settled down for the night at Craignaught Hill with their captured cattle and sheep.

[1] Darnley apparently “rubbed his hands gleefully together” and instructed his other two detachments to retire on either flank at a distance of about four hundred yards.