Mark McLaughlin: Fight is on to save our famous battlefields

Published on Tuesday 28 July 2009 09:42

THE history of the Lothians is steeped in blood spilled over centuries of warfare.

After the battle-cries faded and the bodies decayed however, many of the battles were all but forgotten.

While many will have heard of the Battle of Prestonpans, The Battle of Dunbar or the Siege of Leith, very few people could tell you exactly where they took place. and there are precious few clues to guide you.

That could all be about to change however, after the Scottish Government decided to create an inventory of Scottish battlefields.

Culture Minister Michael Russell, who launched the inventory at Killiecrankie in Perthshire on the 320th anniversary of the Battle of Killiecrankie, said the inventory – which will for the first time recognise battlefields as sites of national importance – will encourage local authorities to treat their importance as a material consider their significance in the planning process.

He said: "Once the inventory is in place in 2011 local authorities - when considering planning applications that affect sites on the Inventory - must take into account the special qualities and character of these nationally-important sites.

"Historic Scotland will work with local authorities to prepare best practice guidance on how to implement the policy, to balance the interests of preserving our historic landscape and strengthening our economy."

The Scottish Government's long-awaited recognition of battlefield sites as historically important has raised the hopes of many heritage groups that they will finally see some long awaited investment into the sites, with the trustees of the Battle of Prestonpans site and the Battle of Linlithgow Bridge site already preparing their wish-list for a museum and historical walk, respectively.

The inventory will be based on research compiled by the Battlefields Trust, which has recently provided new insights into the makeup of several other British battles including Hastings, Tewkesbury and Blore Heath.

There have been calls or a statutory requirement to be attached to all newly inventoried sites to ensure that they are properly managed and interpreted, but this has not been forthcoming.

Kristine Cunningham, executive trustee of the Battle of Prestonpans Heritage Trust, said: "At the moment you could walk past the Prestonpans battlefield and not even know anything had happened. there.

We have started archaeological digging on the site to find out what's down there. We've already found small items like buttons and musketballs, and we think we have uncovered evidence pointing to the site of Preston House, where Lord Grange is thought to have carried out much of the Jacobite plotting.

"We would like to see all of these sites marked out and fully protected, and would also propose to build a visitors' centre close to the site to mark the area."

For some however, the new inventory is both too little and too late to protect some of the region's most historic battlefield sites.

However, Ms Cunningham also said the inventory is too little too late.

She added: "We lobbied hard for these sites to be given some kind of statutory protection similar to listed building status. ," said Kristine Cunningham, executive trustee of the Battle of Prestonpans Heritage Trust.

"However, the protection afforded by this inventory is very much voluntary, and while we do welcome the fact that there is now something in place, it's really down to the local authority to prevent development and safeguard the site.

"The land where the battle took place owned by ScottishPower, and with the future of Cockenzie Power Station in doubt the land could soon be earmarked for who-knows what."

"As there will be nothing to stop them developing the site the local authority could easily decide that some future development is so important that it will override heritage considerations."

The battlefield of Prestonpans lucky is, for the moment, still as open and undeveloped as the land where Bonnie Prince Charlie's army outwitted King George II's troops on 21 December 1745 in a rare but famous victory for the Jacobites.

However, most of the Lothian's other battlefield sites haven't fared so well, and there is largely very little left to protect and few landmarks left to interpret.

"The site of the Battle of Linlithgow Bridge is now a disused quarry," said Alan Young, trustee of Linlithgow Heritage Trust. The battle was a product of the power vacuum created by the death of James IV at Flodden in 1513.

His son, James V, was kept a virtual prisoner by his self-appointed guardian, Archibald Douglas. The King's mother, the Dowager Queen Margaret, made a number of attempts to release him.

"The rest of the battlefield is totally unmarked apart from a small cairn marking the site where the Earl of Lennox was stabbed by James Hamilton of Finnart," added Mr Young.

"It is our hope to create a history tour through Linlithgow Bridge." starting at the cairn, and crossing the ford across the River Avon where Lennox's forces crossed after being repelled at the old bridge."

Dunbar, the scene of two infamous Scottish battles, has suffered a similar fate.

The site of the 1296 battle, which sparked the Scottish Wars of Independence when the Scots armies failed to repel Edward Longshanks' English forces in 1296, is vague and disputed; while the site of the second battle, which cleared the way for Cromwell's Parliamentarians to march on virtually unopposed to Edinburgh Castle following his rout of the Scottish Covenanters in 1650, is the now used to extract limestone for the Lafarge Cement Company.

Dunbar historian Roy Pugh said: "I had an uncle who said he used to find pikes, swords and matchlock rifles regularly in the 1950s, but Lafarge hasn't found a thing and there's nothing on the site to indicate the battle that took place there."

"By contrast, there's a monument in the Pentland Hills to mark the later Covenanters' Battle of Rullion Green, which was little more than a minor skirmish compared to the second Battle of Dunbar."

The fact that many Scots would prefer to forget both Battles of Dunbar may explain why they are not presently marked - although a campaign is underway to build a monument to the "Dunbar Martyrs" of 1650.

Dr Tony Pollard, who excavated some of Britain's most important battlefields for the BBC series Two Men in a Trench, has earmarked Dunbar for future excavations, and was one of the first to welcomed the new inventory.

He said: "As an archaeologist I regard the landscape as revealing as any history book and firmly believe that here is no better way of appreciating the drama of the nation's history than retracing the footsteps of soldiers who fought and died on that very spot hundreds of years before.

"Yes, conserving what are often large tracts of land because of their association with past conflicts can be difficult but "If we do not face up to the challenge then we will be doing past and future generations a great disservice."

Leith historian John Arthur, however, argues that many relics of our history have already been needlessly lost.

He said: "An official from the council came to see me a few years ago asking for my help to mark out some of sites of the Siege of Leith so they could 'preserve them for future generations'.

"I had to laugh because I told them there was nothing left.

"They wanted to recreate some of the things that were lost when they built the housing schemes in the 60s and 70s, but everything that could have been saved is gone."