Archaeologists are to search for a lost Jacobite army camp used by Bonnie Prince Charlie in the grounds of a 17th-century mansion.
Metal detectorists and diggers hope to find remains of the camp used by the Young Pretender’s army in the grounds of Bannockburn House near Stirling.
The site is thought to have been used by the Jacobites shortly before the battle of Falkirk in January 1746 – just three months before their fateful defeat at Culloden.
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Artefacts could include fragments of pots and pans, knives and spoons, coins and buckles, as well as items used by the soldiers and their horses in battle such as stirrups and lead shot.
The search, to be carried out in August, will be the first organised archaeological survey of the site.
A concentration of objects consistent with an army, that can be dated to the period, could pinpoint the camp’s location.
Willie McEwan, vice-chairman of Bannockburn House Trust, the community trust that bought the seventeenth century house and its grounds for £800,000 in late 2017, said: “We hope to establish the location of the camp and to find examples of both daily camp life such as cooking utensils and of the equipment men and horses would have used in battle.”
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Prince Charles Edward Stuart arrived in Scotland in the summer of 1745 to raise an army and march towards England to reclaim the throne.
On his way south to Derby, Charles spent the night of the September 14 at Bannockburn House, owned by Jacobite supporter Hugh Paterson.
The following January, Charles returned to Bannockburn House following the retreat of the Jacobites from England.
Located so close to Stirling, the mansion made for ideal headquarters for the prince and his staff to prepare for the unsuccessful siege of Stirling.
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The Jacobite army would later set out to face the Hanoverian army at Falkirk.
Although the battle on January 17 was a victory for the Jacobites, it marked the beginning of the downturn in their fortunes that culminated in emphatic defeat at the battle of Culloden on April 16, 1746.
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