Scottish Battles, or, We Join Another Scottish Nationalist Society

We had an unexpected day off on Friday, so we did some things we haven't been able to do for a while. A little laundry, a little exercise in the park and a wee day-time nap, With some time to spare, pouring rain and no pre-planning we decided to drift up to Stirling Castle. It's an indoor destination and we haven't been there since coming back to the UK. As we were approaching Stirling we noticed the tourist (brown) signs on the motorway mentioning the Battle of Bannockburn. We are brushing up on our Scottish history as fast as we can but the details of this one slipped our minds. "Who won that battle? I asked Louise, "Must be the Scottish" She commented lightly, "Else they wouldn't be putting up signs on the motorway". With that as a motivation we flipped off the next off-ramp to go and explore the truth of this exchange, ignoring our sat-nav, which was bravely calling out advice to steer us back to Stirling Castle.

It turns out that it was all … an Easter egg hunt!? No wait, the local town had organized an Easter egg hunt at the battle site with lots of clues, posters and questions telling the story of the battle and each poster teaching the children about one aspect of the battle. When the children had visited each poster and answered each question they went back inside (Since it was damp and freezing outside) where they could dress up in mediaeval armour and whack each other with wooden swords. Also they received a large Cadbury's chocolate egg. Talk abut blending your celebrations and holidays! The posters were most useful for a couple of foreign tourists, as they gave us a brief, very digestible summary of the battle. There was also a statue of Robert the Bruce on his horse and a large monument with a poem.

Here lies our land: every airt

Beneath swift clouds, glad glints of sun,

Belonging to none but itself

We are mere transients who sing

Its westlin winds and fernie braes,

Northern lights and siller tides,

Small folk playing our part

Come all ye, the country says

You win me, who takes me most to heart.

I later identified this as being by Kathleen Jamie. You can look up the Scottish bits in this Scots dictionary, or just enjoy the music and joyous identification of the Scots with their culture and land.

Of course all our savvy blog readers were laughing all the time reading this and saying, "Bannockburn! Everyone knows about that! Mel Gibson, Braveheart, running across the battlefield in a tartan kilt waving a sword. Why, we all know our history!" Except the Scottish seem to feel about Mel Gibson's portrayal much the way the English feel about Dick Van Dyke's "atrocious cockney accent" in Mary Poppins or Australians feel about "Crocodile Dundee" or Americans feel about … (What are Americans embarrassed about? I'm not sure, although I could make  few suggestions … ). Also that was a different Scottish hero (Wallace) and a different set of battles. 

Anyway, as we were clearly informed, there were no kilts at the battle in 1314. There was however a great Scottish victory by a canny military commander against vastly superior numbers. And while he was certainly brave, he also had planning, training, tactics and weapons. Bannockburn was indeed a great Scottish victory against the English, one of a series by Robert the Bruce, king of Scotland. No wonder they put up signs on the motorway.

We roamed the battlefield and then, in order to see the interactive multimedia presentation we joined the Scottish National Trust which not only got us into that presentation, but a long list of other modern (as in still standing) venues and gardens--a nice complement to our Historic Scotland membership, which focuses more on ruins and ancient castles. 

Anyway the presentation included a 3D explanation of the events leading to the battle twice, once from the Scottish and once from the English point of view, then an opportunity to tour the weapons room with brief 3D room-size video demonstrations of weapons and tactics. It can be quite effective when full-size 3D archers shoot virtual arrows through you and you turn around and watch their victims dying in 3D with sound effects right among you. After that everyone enters the battle room which is a technology enhanced D&D-style depiction. The battle master first takes us through the battle. Actually he first insults everybody, English, tourist or Scottish, (especially if you happen to be from Edinburgh) in a colourful introduction, then he takes us through the battle. The game board lights up and shows the movement of the forces through two days of events. Insulting people of different political persuasions is, btw, the great Scottish national pastime, whenever it is too wet to play golf.

With the historical explanation completed the participants then play their own version of the battle, illuminated and guided (or obstructed and insulted) by the battle master. Since most of the participants in our group were bewildered primary schoolchildren we didn't wait to se the final result. I would love to see the simulation played by a team of historically and technologically aware people, say our D&D playing family members with a little preparation, or the local Scottish version of a similar select group. 

By this time we had consumed most of our day so we headed back to Edinburgh to dinner with a few of our fellow senior missionaries. With dual (or is that dueling?) Historic Society memberships we now have lots of other potential places to visit. Stirling Castle is high on the list but it will have to wait for another day.