Many of them carried bows and arrows; all had either claymores
or pole-axes, with daggers and targets.
They had marched some ten miles southward through the sheltered glens of
Noddsdale when, mounting to the ridge of the range of hills that rise
above the shores of Cunningham, they were met by a keen icy wind from
the southwest. Below them stretched the wide Firth of Clyde, turbulent,
angry with foam-capped waves. Far across the water rose the giant
mountains of Arran, with their tattered peaks frowning in dark-blue
blackness against the leaden sky, and through a rent in the clouds a
long beam of sunshine shot, slanting down for a moment upon the soft
green hills of Bute. On the nearer side were the two islands of Cumbrae,
with a strip of gray sea between them, where lay the storm-tossed
galleys of King Hakon the Old.
These ships, which during the night had taken shelter in the harbour
that is now named Millport Bay, were already making for the shores of
the mainland below the village of Largs, for it was at this point that
the Norse king had determined to land his invading forces.
Largs was not a spot which a modern general would have chosen for an
invasion. It was ill suited for troops forming in strength after
landing. There is a narrow strip of level ground, with bluffs rising
right up from it. Troops marching along this strip, either north or
south, would be flanked by the higher ground for many miles.
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