The story is set in Ayrshire and Lanarkshire around 1306, shortly after the death of William Wallace during the Wars of Scottish Independence.
From Scott's introduction: "The incidents on which the ensuing Novel mainly turns, are derived from the ancient Metrical Chronicle of The Brace, by Archdeacon Barbour, and from the History of the Houses of Douglas and Angus, by David Hume of Godscroft; and are sustained by the immemorial tradition of the western parts of Scotland. They are so much in consonance with the spirit and manners of the troubled age to which they are referred, that I can see no reason for doubting their being founded in fact; the names, indeed, of numberless localities in the vicinity of Douglas Castle, appear to attest, beyond suspicion, many even of the smallest circumstances embraced in the story of Godscroft."