Bannockburn battlefield to be leveled

IT PLAYED a key role in the greatest ever Scottish victory over the English but - almost 700 years after the fight ended - it now faces annihilation.

Robert the Bruce's camp followers sheltered behind what became Gillies Hill during the 14th-century Battle of Bannockburn until their legendary, and decisive, charge against the enemy towards the end of the conflict.

But the historic mound - renamed after the battle in their honour - is set to be eradicated as a result of quarrying for stone to use in making roads.

Although the site has been scarred by small-scale quarrying for more than a century, the local council admits far more extensive work is about to begin and there is nothing anyone can do to stop it.

It's one thing when the sprawling battlefields of the 19th and 20th century are gradually reclaimed, leaving only key fragments preserved as memorials. But to see this sort of thing happening to a central feature of a battlefield so central to the narrative of Scottish nationhood is simply astonishing -- especially given the small size and number of identifiable medieval battlefields. The Scots have certainly had a good long time to ensure that Bannockburn be preserved. You'd think they'd have done a better job of it.

Posted by David on March 19, 2007 8:55 AM