Operation to replace lost Bannockburn trees swings into action

From today's BBC Scotland News website

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-13600926?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Bannockburn battle site trees felled in storm

An operation to replace 25 trees that were felled at Bannockburn's historic battle site in last week's storm is being mounted.

Historic Scotland said the winds, which reached 114 mph, caused significant damage to the battlefield area.

The organisation said trees at the site played an important role in evoking the landscape of the 14th Century battle.

The site, near Stirling, marks the 1314 victory of Robert the Bruce in the Wars of Independence.

Property manager Scott McMaster said: "This loss is very regrettable and we are already working to clear up the fallen trees and ensure that the public can access the grounds safely.

"Trees are an important part of the landscape at Bannockburn, playing an important role in Bruce's tactical plan which overcame Edward II and his army.

"We are already making plans to ensure that these trees are replaced."

Historic Scotland said trees that were recently planted as part of a £5m project to revamp the visitor experience at the centre were undamaged in the storm.

It said the planting was designed to create an area similar to the landscape at the time of the battle and to frame views to Stirling Castle.

Archaelogical dig at Bannockburn

Dr Tony Pollard and a team from Glasgow University’s Centre for Battlefield Archaeology are currently excavating part of the Bannockburn battlefield.

More information can be found here at the Past Horizons website.

Thanks to @ScottishHistory on Twitter for the URL.

You can also see images of the memorial and battlefield on the Scottish War Memorials Project

Scotland's famous battlefields protected

From the BBC News website:

Historic Scotland has issued a list of the most important battle sites located around the country.

The first phase of the Inventory of Historic Battlefields contains a total of 17 different locations.

It includes sites in the Borders, Aberdeenshire, the Highlands, North Lanarkshire, Stirling and East Lothian.

The inventory aims to highlight the historic significance of the areas to planning authorities making decisions which could affect their landscape.

Historic Scotland said the list included the nation's "most significant and iconic battlefields".


* Alford (Aberdeenshire) 1645
* Harlaw (Aberdeenshire) 1411
* Dunbar II (East Lothian) 1650
* Pinkie (East Lothian) 1547
* Prestonpans (East Lothian) 1745
* Falkirk II (Falkirk) 1746
* Auldearn (Highland) 1645
* Culloden (Highland) 1746
* Glenshiel (Highland) 1719
* Kilsyth (North Lanarkshire) 1645
* Dupplin Moor (Perth and Kinross) 1332
* Killiecrankie (Perth and Kinross) 1689
* Ancrum Moor (Scottish Borders) 1545
* Philiphaugh (Scottish Borders) 1645
* Bannockburn (Stirling) 1314
* Sherriffmuir (Stirling) 1715
* Bothwell Bridge (South Lanarkshire) 1679


It also provides information to aid their protection, management, interpretation and promotion.

The public has until 11 February next year to comment on the inventory.

Culture Minister Fiona Hyslop said: "Many legendary battles took place in Scotland and the famous figures who fought in them, such as Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn and Bonnie Prince Charlie at Culloden, are known around the world.

"The Inventory of Historic Battlefields will help increase general awareness of historic battlefields throughout Scotland and the contribution they make to understanding our history and landscape."

She said the sites made a "distinctive contribution" to the "sense of place and history, both locally and nationally".

"They are a wonderful resource for education, helping us understand why significant events in our history unfolded as they did and provide a tangible link to some of the key figures of Scottish history," she added.

"Not only do battlefields form an important part of our sense of identity, they also have enormous potential for attracting tourists, as well as for general recreation, allowing visitors to experience the site of a dramatic historical event for themselves.

"We want to make sure that these important battlefields are looked after now and for future generations. "

Dr Tony Pollard, director of the centre for battlefield archaeology at Glasgow University, said compiling the inventory had been a "challenging but incredibly rewarding project".

"We have an incredible wealth of battlefields in Scotland and it is vital that we consider them alongside other elements of our cultural heritage," he said.

"It is important that people engage in this process and demonstrate their own feelings about what can be very fragile landscapes.

"We may not be able to preserve these sites in aspic but, more so than ever, in a restless world which places increasing demands on natural resources and space, they have much to teach us.

"What is needed is the desire to learn."

New Visitor Centre for the Battle of Bannockburn

A new, £5m state-of-the-art visitor centre at the site of the battle of Bannockburn will be built in time for the next year of Homecoming in 2014.

Historic Scotland and the National Trust for Scotland will work in partnership to deliver a "world class visitor attraction incorporating an immersive digital experience designed to transport visitors back to the fourteenth century battle".

Further details can be found on the Historic Scotland website.

Book review: In the Footsteps of Robert the Bruce

In the footsteps of Robert the Bruce in Scotland, Northern England and Ireland

By Alan Young and Michael J. Stead

We’ll set the record straight at the start. This isn’t a new book it’s a re-issue but this edition has been updated with dozens of new photographs.

First published in 1999 this lavishly illustrated book will be of great interest to anyone with an interest in Robert the Bruce and the Scottish Wars of Independence.

It does what it says on the cover. If you want to retrace Bruce’s steps in these three countries then this is definitely the book for you. You’ll cover a lot of ground though because Bruce’s life took him through most of the length and breadth of the British isles.

I’m familiar with the period but I’m no expert so I can’t comment on the facts in the text however the author Alan Young has obviously consulted many sources in his research. Don’t be fooled by the sheer number of Michael J. Stead’s photographs. This is an illustrated reference book, not a coffee table book with accompanying text.

It isn’t just a history of his campaigns either. It follows Bruce’s life from his youth and the days of peace in late thirteenth century Scotland and England. It also traces his lineage and like me you’ll probably be surprised at just how ‘English’ Bruce’s Norman family was.

Then there are the bitter war years in Scotland and northern England and the uneasy period after Bannockburn including his expedition to Ireland in support of his brother Edward. I’d like to have seen a bit more detail on these campaigns but I guess there aren’t that many sources for early fourteenth century Irish campaigns to go on so we have to make do with only a couple of pages.

As a book for those who have only a primary school knowledge of this period (like me) and would like to know a lot more then it’s a very good book to start with. The text is detailed and informative and full of interesting and well researched facts about Bruce and his contemporaries.

It’s not just a history book, it delivers in its aim to be a guide book too, and at the back there are notes on the primary locations associated with Bruce.

The team behind this book Alan Young and Michael J Stead have also produced a similar volume about William Wallace. I can guarantee that it’s now on my reading list.

now available in paperback from The History Press.

Bannockburn: A New History

I've received notification of the publication of a new book on the Battle of Bannockburn. Here's the information from the press release:

"Bannockburn 1314: A New History
by Chris Brown
To be published 11th January 2010, priced £12.99

A history of the most celebrated battle between Scotland and England in which a mere 7,000 followers of Robert The Bruce defeated over 15,000 of Edward II's troops.

The battle of Bannockburn, fought over two days by a small river crossing in Stirling, was a decisive victory for Robert the Bruce in the Scottish Wars of Independence against the English. It was the greatest defeat the English would suffer throughout the middle ages, and a huge personal humiliation for King Edward II.

• The most comprehensive history of the battle ever undertaken.
• The author’s conclusions rewrite the history books.
• A new look at the terrain where the battle was fought.
• Recreates the campaign and battle from the perspectives of both the Scots and English.
• In-depth investigation of the contemporary narrative sources and the administrative records.
• Major reassessment of the Scottish victory against the English.
• 25 colour illustrations and 25 b&w illustrations.

Chris Brown is an acknowledged expert on medieval Scotland and was awarded a PhD from St Andrews University. His other books include William Wallace, The Second Scottish Wars of Independence, Robert the Bruce, The Battle for Aberdeen 1644, and Scottish Battlefields: 500 Battles that Shaped Scottish History. He lives near Fife in Scotland."

To be published by The History Press, this looks worth picking up. I hope to publish a review nearer the time of publication.

MoD names WWI mass grave troops

An interesting article on the BBC News website:

MoD names WWI mass grave troops

The Ministry of Defence has released the names of dozens of World War I soldiers they believe may be buried in a mass grave found in France last year.

Burial pits, which date from the Battle of Fromelles on 19 July, 1916, could also contain the remains of at least 20 Scottish soldiers.

Among those named are members of the Cameron Highlanders and the Royal Warwickshire Regiment.

More than 7,000 British and Australian servicemen died in the two-day battle.

SCOTS ON CASUALTY LIST

Private John Adam - Royal Warwickshire Regiment - from Grangemouth

Sergeant Andrew Allan - Royal Warwickshire Regiment - from Bannockburn

Private John Bowie - Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry - from Aberdeen

Private Mitchell Collins - Royal Warwickshire Regiment - from Kennoway

Private John Cumming - Cameron Highlanders - from Inverness

Private Alexander Dryburgh - Royal Warwickshire Regiment - from Werness

Private George Galloway - Royal Warwickshire Regiment - from Buckhaven

Private Alex Gray - Royal Warwickshire Regiment - Wormit, Fife

Private Alexander Loudon - Cameron Highlanders - from Lanarkshire

Lance Corporal David Marshall - Royal Warwickshire Regiment - from Perth

Private Joseph McGuire - Cameron Highlanders - from Glasgow

Lance Corporal John Melville - Royal Warwickshire Regiment - from Perth

Private James Melvin - Cameron Highlanders - from Abington

Private James Mitchell - Cameron Highlanders - from Coldstream

Private Maxwell Mitchell - Royal Warwickshire Regiment - from Falkirk

Private Ernest Paton - Royal Warwickshire Regiment - from Forfar

Lance Corporal William Richardson - Royal Warwickshire Regiment - from Perth

Private William Robertson - Cameron Highlanders - from Edinburgh

Corporal David Simpson - Royal Warwickshire Regiment - from Kirkcaldy

Private John Smith - Royal Warwickshire Regiment - from Forfar

Private David Thom - Royal Warwickshire Regiment - from Forfar

As part of the identification process, experts will take DNA samples from the bodies and try to find a family link with the help of the soldiers' relatives.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) will begin the process of exhuming and identifying about 400 of the bodies next month.

The soldiers were buried by their German counterparts in the aftermath of the battle and most of their identifying tags removed.

A careful cross-referencing of casualty records has already enabled the MoD to produce a pool of possible identities for the soldiers.

The commission aims to identify the bodies and give them a military burial at a new site near Fromelles, which will be the first war cemetery constructed in 50 years.

The soldiers will be buried with full military honours, initially as unknown soldiers, then a panel of experts from the Australia and the UK will meet in 2010 to consider the evidence gathered about the soldiers' identities.

A spokesman for the CWGC said: "The list of names has been released because we need the families to come forward and register their details with the project.

"It's a slow, forensic process, we have to first check whether the DNA is viable at the burial site and then test it against the families.

"The graves will then be marked when positive identifications are made.

"We will ask the families what they want on the headstones and we will take care of that."

The commission said the new cemetery would be "worthy of the sacrifices made by these men and a place of dignified pilgrimage and remembrance for generations to come."

Details of all the men believed to have been discovered can be found on the website www.cwgc.org/fromelles