The Adventures of Melville: Bannockburn, Part One

The wee blue bow is a gift from my niece. Melville wears it proudly.

In doing my research for Bannockburn, I was thwarted by circumstance: the Bannockburn Heritage Centre, which would have been my first port of call, was closed for the 700th Anniversary refurbishment. The centre has now opened its doors, with a bold new look and style as The Battle of Bannockburn.

Well, I had to have a keek, didn't I? For research purposes.

So here we are at the car park of The Battle of Bannockburn (formerly Bannockburn Heritage Centre), Melville perched on the car windae. There was a fair bit of parking free, as it was a Wednesday: I'd imagine it would be much busier on the weekends, as Stirling & Edinburgh castle are. We were also blessed with another glorious sunny day: a bit nippy at times with the high winds, but most comfortable.

Each of the wee parking posts had 1314 emblazoned on the side, reminding folk of the historic year as they try not to bash their car into the wall.

The National Trust for Scotland
Urras Nàiseanta na h-Alba
a place for everyone     àite don h-uile duine

The National Trust for Scotland is a conservation organisation dedicated to preserving the cultural and historical heritage of our dear wee country. I'm a member of sister organisation Historic Scotland: both work together to ensure Scotland's priceless history, land and culture remain for future generations to discover.

You'll notice that there are two languages there: the first is obviously English, the second is Scottish Gaelic. Surprisingly, there is a certain amount of resistance to the promotion of the Gaelic language in Scotland: "it's a dead language," "nobody ever spoke Gaelic in this part of Scotland," "it's too close to having foreign languages in my town." I make a very determined point to distinguish between culture and politics: you can have different cultures within the same political structure - every single country in the world has dozens, if not hundreds, of cultures within and transcending its borders - and I have no truck with the notion that the Gaelic revival has anything to do with current politics, any more than the work done to preserve the various Native American languages* is borne from some desire to break away from the United States or Canada. Scottish Gaelic is a language which has been historically marginalised, suppressed and neglected: putting it up on road signs in the country of its origin seems a small bit going towards undoing that injustice.

Here's the door to a wee courtyard, where you can see the Bannockburn font. Each letter represents an aspect of the battle (here's my interpretation):

B - the spears of the Scottish schiltrom, which was so fundamental to the Scottish victory
A - an arrowhead, representing the dreaded weapons of the Welsh yeomen
N - the head of a warhorse, the hammer of the English host
N - maille, colloquially known as chainmail, the armour of choice for knights and veteran warriors
O - a caltrop, instrumental to countering the devastating charge of the English cavalry (could also be a targe or shield)
C - the schiltrom "hedgehog" formation, which allowed protection from all sides
K - the fletching of an arrow
B - the Lion Rampant, royal standard of the Bruce dynasty
U - a Great Helm, as worn by knights, barons, men-at-arms, princes and kings on the field
R - a map of the battle itself, showing how the Scots hemmed in the English host in the Carse
N - the declaration of Arbroath, the final recognition of Scottish sovereignty which the battle made possible

Quite Sesame Street, I like it.

This page has a clickable navigable map.

Just before the ticket office is a board with other National Trust sites: a couple nearby in Glasgow, as well as across the water. The only other two battlefields covered by the Trust are Killikrankie and Culloden: others are Historic Scotland. Of course, it isn't just battlefields: any site of historical, cultural or scenic significance is there.

Before we got our tickets and 3D glasses, we had a wee gander at the gift shop. It's fully of what I've come to expect from Scottish tourist attractions: a mix of cheap-and-cheerful paraphernalia (1314 diaries, chainmail-pattern ties, foam battle-axes), historical resources (Osprey's Bannockburn book, Medieval penny replicas, scholarly tomes) and more lavish gifts (quaichs, decanters, replica helms). I had a look for On Dangerous Ground, but it isn't out quite yet. Highlights include a Declaration of Arbroath tea towel, a rubber** with Bruce's spider and the phrase "try, try again," a t-shirt that looks like a metal band shirt, a ridiculously adorable Robert the Bruce teddy (or should that be RoBEARt the Bruce, eh, eh?) and the miniature battle axes seen above. That axe was just about the right size for Melville, but he already has a claymore. Maybe one day, Melville.

The door to the exhibit, featuring the Lion Rampant. Before entering the main hall, there is a 3D presentation lasting about five minutes or so detailing the history leading up to the battle, presented by Queen Isabella of France (most famously portrayed by Sophie Marcaeu in Braveheart, albeit a decade or two too early) and the Black Douglas. Through the medium of puppets. It was a fun, irreverent wee journey in the vein of Horrible Histories, though I didn't take any pictures on account of the 3D.

I should point out that a good number of rooms weren't open to the public: at least two large rooms were occupied by school visits. I really hope that at least one of the rooms can be developed into another presentation area, simply to provide more for people to enjoy.

So, onto the breach!

Motion capture work for the battle scenes

The main exhibition room is a dark place with HUGE screens on all sides, where the visitor is surrounded by battle: schiltroms bracing for a cavalry charge, knights thundering towards each other, archers loosing their volleys. We came in right in the middle of a protracted melee: an English man-at-arms with a great halberd was bashing lumps out of a highlander's targe. It was likely a wee bit Hollywood: the soldiers were more spaced out so as to distinguish them from each other, and naturally there wasn't nearly as much blood as there might have been. Still, for the general ambience, one did get a sense of the oppressive panic and bloodlust which must've set in during a Medieval battle.

Around the room are interactive corridors featuring key players from the battle, as well as fictional characters representing historical realities. For example, on the Scottish side was "Margaret Malherbe," a big hen with a pitchfork with no professional combat training, but who has pledged to join the battle to rid her family of the occupation. Margaret does not appear in the historical record as far as I can discern: her role is to represent the sort of person who would have been part of the Sma' Fowk, rather than any definitive individual. Thus you have the likes of Edward Bruce, the Black Douglas, Robert de Clifford and John Comyn as real historical figures, and historical fictions to represent groups of people.

It's a very good idea considering the sheer lack of primary sources on the battle - indeed, much of Medieval Scotland. Edward's campaign didn't only destroy lives, land and country: a great number of records and artifacts were destroyed, either through accident or design. So instead of presenting, for instance, the Scottish infantry as some vague grey block of soldiers, BoB presents a Malcolm Turnbull as the face of those soldiers, to help bridge the gap to the audience. The power of genuine artifacts on display in museums is that personal connection: that this object was owned by someone who lived and died years, decades, centuries, millennia ago. Because there are so few Bannockburn artifacts, other methods must fill that gap, and historical fiction is as good a way as any - after all, one could argue history is fiction, from a certain point of view.

And they got some real stars for proceedings: James Cosmo voices Robert the Bruce, and the vastly underrated David Hayman speaks for the Black Douglas. I tell you one thing, this voice right here? THAT'S Conan. A roar "gusty as a sea wind," a laugh "merciless as the ring of steel," a low rumble like muttering thunder...

Our only criticism of this particular part of the exhibit is that it can be a nightmare getting the motion-controlled interface to function, and sometimes it's difficult to tell which tab discusses which topic. It's entirely possible that black leather jackets interfere with it, though.

In addition to providing insights and information to the visitor, the characters drop a few hints in regards to Medieval tactics and strategy which would be vital knowledge on the field. One wall of the room has hints and tips for Medieval warfare presented in the style of a computer game: it's a bit stylised, and I can imagine some might protest at the "trivialising" of history using gaming as a medium. I'm of the opinion that video games are a medium as well as competition, and if information can be imparted through that medium, then it's worthwhile. I certainly learned a lot of real history from Age of Empires and Total War.

There may not be any genuine Bannockburn armour pieces, weapons or fragments, but there are some recreations. In keeping with the tactile hands-on approach of the exhibition, there are a variety of replicas in the centre of the room: helms, bascinets, swords, axes, maces, crossbows, longbows, mail shirts. Rather than behind glass, these are free for the public to get their acid-suffused hands on. Again, fantastic idea: I treasure museums and their displays, but a helmet in a locked glass box can only be used in one sensory input method (sight, naturally). What of the other senses, the other means of interacting with and understanding the world? Sound has been done through narration before, but touch is valuable too. Looking at a great helm is one thing, but feeling it in your hands tells you of its weight and space; smelling the acrid scent of iron triggers the same reaction as smelling blood, heightening the carnal madness of battle. You experience the helm, as Melville did here, and wonder just how knights could fight in such things.

It's bad enough having your vision and hearing impaired without raging Scots charging at you.

I can see some being disappointed by this exhibition: there are (inevitably) hardly any objects on display, and those present are replicas. The textual material is minimal, designed to impart impressions rather than statistics or dates - which was, to be fair, the goal of the project. But this is all leading up to the big feature: the Battle Room.

TO BE CONTINUED...

*Navajo, the most commonly spoken of the Native American languages, has only just over twice as many speakers as Scottish Gaelic: around 120,000 compared to around 70,000-80,000 - and consider that over 75% of the population of the Navajo Nation are fluent Navajo speakers, compared to 1.2% of Scots.

**That'd be what overseas fowk call "erasers." Not the other things. Because putting a spider and the phrase "try, try again" on the other thing brings on a WHOLE other meaning!