CAMPAIGNERS have hit out at plans to build a renewable energy substation on a historic Scottish battlefield.
The Battle of Prestonpans 1745 Heritage Trust is strongly opposing plans by two renewable energy companies to construct a huge electric substation on the site in East Lothian.
Executive Trustee Arran Johnston said they were shocked when the initial plans for the site were unveiled given its status in Scotland's history.
The ground was home to the first significant conflict in the 1745 Jacobite Rising where Bonnie Prince Charles's army unexpectedly defeated government troops in the early hours of the morning on September 21.
The substation will be the only one for the project onshore and will link to the Inch Cape Offshore Wind Farm which is to be built 15-22 km off the coast of Angus. The farms, which will have up to 213 wind turbines, will be linked to five offshore substations.
Mr Johnston said: "We were shocked when we first heard of the proposal to build a great big metal eyesore smack, bang in the middle of the battlefield."
A spokeswoman for the wind farm said: "The proposed onshore site was identified following an assessment of a variety of potential landfall and substation locations in East Lothian."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article