In the 1680s, soldiers roamed the moors of south-west Scotland hunting men and women whose only crime was how they chose to worship. Suspects could be shot dead on the spot for refusing an oath. This was the Killing Time – the bloody climax of decades of struggle between the Covenanters and the crown – and it left a legacy of martyrs whose memory still runs deep in Scotland.
Key facts: the Killing Time
- Period: Roughly 1680–1688, at its worst in 1684–85
- Who suffered: Covenanters – Presbyterians who rejected royal control of the church
- The crown's aim: To stamp out illegal open-air services known as conventicles
- Methods: Summary executions, often without trial, for refusing oaths of loyalty
- A feared enforcer: John Graham of Claverhouse, nicknamed ‘Bluidy Clavers’ by his enemies
- End: The persecution ceased with the Glorious Revolution of 1688–89
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Faith driven into the hills
After the restoration of Charles II in 1660, the crown reimposed bishops on the Scottish church and ejected hundreds of Presbyterian ministers who would not conform. Their loyal congregations refused to abandon them, gathering instead for open-air services – conventicles – in remote glens and on lonely hillsides, often armed and always at risk. The government treated these gatherings as rebellion. The struggle simmered for two decades, flaring into armed risings that were crushed with growing severity.
The worst of the persecution
By the 1680s, under Charles II and then his Catholic brother James VII, the repression became merciless. The most militant Covenanters, the Cameronians – followers of the field-preacher Richard Cameron – openly renounced their allegiance to the king, and the authorities responded in kind. Soldiers were empowered to demand loyalty oaths and to execute on the spot anyone who refused. Among the enforcers was John Graham of Claverhouse, of Clan Graham, remembered by Covenanters as ‘Bluidy Clavers’ – though to Jacobites he would later become the hero ‘Bonnie Dundee’.
The martyrs
The victims of the Killing Time became enduring symbols of faith and defiance. Among the most famous are the Wigtown Martyrs of 1685 – two women, including the young Margaret Wilson, said to have been tied to stakes in the Solway tideway and left to drown for refusing to swear the king was head of the church. Across the south-west, simple gravestones still mark where Covenanters fell, lovingly maintained for centuries as places of pilgrimage and memory.
The end and the legacy
The Killing Time ended only with the Glorious Revolution of 1688–89, when James VII was overthrown and Presbyterianism was finally secured as the established church of Scotland. The struggle's last great drama came when Claverhouse, now fighting for the exiled James, won and died at the Battle of Killiecrankie in 1689.
The Covenanter martyrs were never forgotten. Their courage became woven into the identity of the Scottish Lowlands and the worldwide Presbyterian tradition – a story carried across the seas by Scots and Scots-Irish emigrants for generations.
Frequently asked questions
What was the Killing Time?
It was the period in the 1680s when the Scottish government violently suppressed the Covenanters, often executing them without trial for refusing oaths of loyalty.
Who were the Covenanters?
They were Presbyterian Scots who upheld the National Covenant and rejected royal control of the church, worshipping in illegal open-air services.
When did the Killing Time end?
It ended with the Glorious Revolution of 1688–89, after which Presbyterianism was established as Scotland's national church.
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