Historic dig team gets what it was gunning for

PILRIG PARK is the last place you might expect to find the remains of a 16th-century English fort.

But a team of archaeologists knew exactly what they were looking for when they carried out a recent series of digs there.

And today the jubilant researchers revealed they had unearthed part of Somerset's Battery, an artillery fort from the 1560 Siege of Leith.

The remains are thought to be the only 16th-century siege works ever found in Britain, and archaeologists believe the discovery is of international importance in terms of military history.

The Siege of Leith led to the Treaty of Edinburgh, the eventual fall of the Catholic Church in Scotland and the end of the Franco-Scottish Alliance.

The port had been occupied by French troops who held out against a unique alliance of English and Scots soldiers by building a massive wall around it.

Somerset's Battery was one of two major forts, linked by a deep trench, that were built so the besiegers could fire their cannons on the French defences.

A five-strong team, including experts from the city council and Glasgow University, spent around a week in Pilrig Park last month, carrying out a series of digs near Pilrig House, which was known to have been built on top of remnants of the fort 80 years after the siege ended.

Along with the remains of the fort, the team uncovered a blacksmith's forge, the remains of another building and various pieces of pottery.

City archaeologist John Lawson said: "We're extremely excited about the results of our investigations. The remains are of international importance in terms of our understanding of Renaissance warfare as they are a unique example of 16th-century artillery siege works in the UK."

Tony Pollard, director of the centre for battlefield archaeology at Glasgow University, said: "The fortifications at Leith, which in the mid-1500s was occupied by the French, were based on the latest Italian design and were ten years in advance of anything else in the British Isles. The siege itself was the largest to take place in post-Medieval Britain until the Civil War period in the mid-1600s.

"With the massive growth of Leith and Edinburgh over the almost 450 years since the siege it seemed almost too much to hope that anything would survive. However, the excavations at Pilrig Park have unearthed elements of one of the most important artillery forts built by the besiegers, from where they fired their cannons against the town's walls."

Along with Somerset's Battery, the other fort built by the besiegers was Pelham's mount, at Hawk Hill, now part of Restalrig.

The facts

France sent thousands of men to Leith during the Anglo-French War of 1549-1550 to drive out an English garrison on Inchkeith.

The French troops remained for the next 12 years and expanded to other parts of the city, notably Little France. But by this time the people of Edinburgh had had enough and, led by the Protestant Lords of the Congregation, a force of 12,000 set out to clear the French from the walled fortification they had built - but to no avail. They turned to Queen Elizabeth of England, who sent a fleet and troops to reinforce the siege, which went on for more than a year.

It only ended in June 1560 with the death of the Queen Regent at Edinburgh Castle, which led to the Treaty of Edinburgh, under which the French agreed to go home.