Having returned from my annual sojourn to the South of France (holiday reading included the excellent Scottish Saga: The Kingship in Eclipse 1286-1328, by Andrew McCulloch) I read the welcome news about the Battle of Bannockburn visitor centre ("£4m grant for Battle of Bannockburn visitor centre", The Herald, July 25).
This sort of investment in our tourist industry is an important part of our economy, as it is for the French.
However, having seen what has been achieved in recent years in a myriad of local/national government and voluntary partnerships in France I believe that we could do much more than a mere £4m for Bannockburn. In particular we could use the upcoming 700th Anniversary of the battle, and the events that preceded and followed it, to develop a proper Scottish medieval historical narrative, and get beyond the very “British” narrative so skilfully developed by Sir Walter Scott.
It is true, as Andrew McCulloch makes clear, that France was the centre of the western world in the Middle Ages and that is reflected in the amazing medieval architecture that is a cornerstone of one of the world’s biggest tourist economies by value. Yet our own medieval heritage is more impressive than we give it credit for. Far from everything was razed by Henry VIII, Cromwell and even The Bruce himself.
If partnerships were applied to the likes of Bothwell Castle, it could become a key tourist attraction linked to other key forgotten vestiges of our historical heritage. How many of my fellow Glaswegians even know that we have one of only two extant medieval cathedrals on the Scottish mainland, far less the resting place of Robert Wishart, Bishop of Glasgow, the constant in the 1286-1328 story that McCulloch relates.
Bill Ramsay,
84 Albert Avenue, Glasgow.
May I repeat two quotes from your story of the £4m Battle of Bannockburn project.
l “The Battle of Bannockburn is one of the most significant battles fought on British soil.”
l “To this day, the Battle of Bannock-burn inspires artists, writers and political thinkers worldwide and is intrinsically linked to Scotland’s national identity.”
Sadly, I find these statements difficult to reconcile with the SNP recently distancing itself from the past. A very important occasion throughout the SNP’s formative years, the annual Bannockburn rally, is now regrettably a memory.
The SNP’s stated aim is to create “a sovereign state in the mainstream of modern Europe”. A noble objective, but one which, omitting the word “modern”, only seeks to retrieve a position which Scotland once proudly held in the past.
There can be no doubt Scotland’s future is inexorably linked to the past, and any effort to diminish that fact would be, in my view, a considerable error of judgment.
Frederick Jenkins,
The Lodge, Burnton,
Kippen.
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