Robert Bruce, future king of Scots, was born 750 years ago on 11 July 1274. The date, we know – as do we know that he entered an aristocratic world in which, since the late 11th century, ‘English’ and ‘Scottish’ noble houses had held lands and, just like their respective royal dynasties, intermarried on both sides of their notional borders. It is for this reason that firm details about the place of Robert’s birth can be elusive.