They took up their position so that their front was protected by a morass, and a fence of stakes and ropes was also fixed across so as to impede the advance or retreat of the English cavalry.

The Scotch army consisted almost entirely of infantry.

These were about a third the number of those of the English, while Comyn's cavalry were a thousand strong.
The infantry were formed in three great squares or circles, the front rank kneeling and the spears all pointing outwards.

In the space between these squares were placed the archers, under Sir John Stewart.
The English army was drawn up in three divisions, the first commanded by the Earl Marechal, the Earl of Lincoln and Hereford; the second by Beck, the warlike Bishop of Durham, and Sir Ralph Basset; the third by the king himself.

The first two divisions consisted almost entirely of knights and men-at-arms; the third, of archers and slingers.
Wallace's plan of battle was that the Scottish squares should first receive the brunt of the onslaught of the enemy, and that while the English were endeavouring to break these the Scotch cavalry, which were drawn up some distance in the rear, should fall upon them when in a confused mass, and drive them against the fence or into the morass.
The first division of the English on arriving at the bog made a circuit to the west.