Selkirk celebrates links to William Wallace

Tourism chiefs are promoting links to Sir William Wallace in a bid to attract more visitors to an historic town.

Selkirk's Auld Kirk. Picture: PA

Selkirk, in the Scottish Borders, held its first day of celebrations marking the medieval hero’s unique inks to the town.

It included a “medieval procession” and re-enactment of the ceremony in which Wallace was knighted and made Guardian of Scotland.

Historian Dr Fiona Watson, who attended the events, said yesterday that Selkirk merited a place on the “Wallace trail”.

She said: “This is where Wallace went to recruit and train men. There is no doubt he was in Selkirk for several weeks in the summer of 1297.

“Following the Battle of Stirling Bridge in September that year, there is a tradition that he was knighted and made Guardian of Scotland at Selkirk.

“The great and the good would have been there.”