Castle information board set to share battle trail
A NEW information board about the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh looks set to be sited close to Fa’side Castle.
The Pinkie Cleugh Battlefield Group has received planning consent from East Lothian Council for the display board, which will form part of the Pinkie Cleugh Battlefield Trail leading people through the site of the battle fought in the Musselburgh area.
The group, which represents the collaboration of local heritage and community groups, including Musselburgh Conservation Society, the Old Musselburgh Club and Musselburgh Museum & Heritage Group, is proposing complete renewal and extension of the trail.
Work by East Lothian Council is in hand to reinstate the right-of-way path between St Clement’s Wells and Fa’side Castle, and the sixth (and last) board would be installed beside this path, close to Fa’side Castle.
The first four boards in the trail were approved in July 2013, and the fifth board was given permission in August last year.
The trail starts near the Roman Bridge in Musselburgh and includes other information boards at St Michael’s Church, Inveresk, and Crookston Road, Wallyford. The Pinkie Cleugh Memorial Stone is located just off Salters Road, where, each year, the Old Musselburgh Club holds a memorial service to mark the anniversary of the battle.
The board will be part of the renewed, improved battlefield trail.
The ‘landowner’ responsibility for the site at Fa’side rests with East Lothian Council, and the position and content for the new board has been discussed with Andrew Robertson, East Lothian archaeology and heritage officer, and meets with his full approval. Its location has also been discussed with Liz Hunter, senior roads officer.
The Battle of Pinkie Cleugh – one of Scotland’s biggest and bloodiest battles – was fought on September 10, 1547, during the War of the Rough Wooing. It was a battle between Scotland and England led by the Earl of Arran, Regent of Scotland, and the Lord Protector of England, the Duke of Somerset, whose aim was to secure the betrothal of the nine-year-old King Edward VI of England to five-yearold Mary, Queen of Scots.
Some 10,000 Scots lost their lives in the fields between Wallyford, Musselburgh and Dalkeith, and the conflict became known as Black Saturday.
It has been argued that this was the first modern battle on British soil, featuring the first real combined arms operation using infantry, cavalry and artillery, as well as naval bombardment, in a co-ordinated way.
The castle overlooks the land and sea routes between Edinburgh and the English Border, and was a defensive point during the 1547 invasion.