Digging for clues on Bannockburn’s 699th anniversary
To mark the 699th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn, the National Trust for Scotland's "Big Dig" took place over the weekend of 22 and 23 June. The Big Dig is part of an on-going archaeology project being undertaken by the National Trust for Scotland in association with the University of Glasgow's Centre for Battlefield Archaeology, Stirling Council, GUARD Archaeology Ltd and BBC Scotland. Looking to shed new light on one of Scotland's biggest historical mysteries, the exact site of the Battle of Bannockburn, hundreds of volunteers from the local community took part in the mass archaeology project at the Braehead field near Bannockburn, to search for clues as to where elements of the 2-day-long battle took place in 1314. Some elements of the work were filmed as part of a special two-part BBC Scotland series presented by Neil Oliver and Dr Tony Pollard, which will go out in spring 2014 to coincide with the 700th anniversary of the battle. This is the first time that the duo have been reunited since the BBC series "Two Men in a Trench". On Sunday 23 June five families also lent their back gardens to the project as test pits, allowing a search for objects lost during or after the fighting in 1314 in areas previously unsearched. The homes covered the areas of Braehead, Broomridge, Hillpark and Milton in Stirling, which had been determined by experts to be of the most interest in exploring the battle.
