The Gloves are Off — Protect Killiecrankie Battlefield.
By Killiecrankie1689
It
is not just at Bosworth and Culloden that we hear the clash of modern
development against history and heritage.
Throughout the land, there is relentless pressure for new construction
for commercial enterprise, houses or essential infrastructure on sites that
have been designated worthy of protection.
Perhaps
daddy of them all is the battlefield of Killiecrankie, in scenic Highland
Perthshire at the southern tip of Cairngorms National Park. This is the site of the Battle of
Killiecrankie which took place on 27 July 1689 and whose legend has been seared
into national consciousness with help from Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott and
William Wordsworth.
The
best-known tale of the battle is one recounted by Donald McBane, a redcoat who
ran away before hand-to-hand fighting started.
Pursued by furious Highlanders, McBane claims to have escaped by jumping
18ft across the River Garry, at the place in the gorge now shamelessly marketed
as the Soldier’s Leap.
The
battle was the first engagement of the Glorious Revolution and Jacobite period
in Scotland which ended in a surprising victory for the outnumbered
Highlanders. In less than one hour of
savage slaughter, well over 2,000 men were killed including the charismatic
rebel leader, John Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee. The loss of the man
whom some called ‘Bonnie Dundee’ effectively signalled the end of this
particular revolt and elevated his status to the near mythic.
Due
to the importance of the battle in Scottish History, the numbers who fell, the
relatively undisturbed terrain, landscape and historical features,
Killiecrankie was included in the very first edition of the much vaunted
Inventory of Historic Battlefields in 2011.
This document forms a central part of the extensive framework to protect
our historic environment. The Inventory lists every known historic asset and
key landscape features of the Killiecrankie battlefield and is maintained by
Historic Environment Scotland (HES).
HES
also has an array of policy, guidance notes, circulars and planning directives
designed to explain the value of our history, heritage and archaeology. All of this is loudly supported by the
Scottish government who went so far as to dub 2017 the Year of History,
Heritage and Archaeology or #HHA2017 in Twitter parlance.
After
all, the Scottish government understands how powerfully history, heritage and genealogy
drive tourism. Scotland provides a
landscape as rich in panoramas as it is in romance to encourage visitors to
come here. That same history and heritage is inspiring a significant cinematic
output which also contributes to tourism. Set-jetting has become a thing. All of which has
fed into a record number of visitors, record spending and a bright outlook,
according to the national tourist chief.
Given
that background, one would expect the Scottish government to take extra care
when it comes to any project that will impact on a historic gem, such as
Killiecrankie. Not so. Alas, when tasked with completing an upgrade of the A9 road which traverses 110 miles through the spine of Scotland from Perth to
Inverness, Transport Scotland has decided to plonk huge infrastructure on the
most sensitive part of the battlefield.
It will ruin the very assets and characteristics that are listed in
HES’s Inventory of Historic Battlefields.
At
the moment the A9 road is single carriage in some stretches and dual carriage
in others. It has to be uniformly dualled
to today’s road standards. The original A9 was built in Killiecrankie in the
1970s and remains single carriage. It passes high above the River Garry through
the Pass of Killiecrankie and then bisects the battlefield just north of the
Pass where the terrain opens out.
Transport
Scotland claims that as the road already cuts through the battlefield, it does
not make much difference how it is widened. They say that the damage has been
done and any new infrastructure is not going to have an adverse effect.
Their
argument is disingenuous. Where the road
goes is critical. The problem is that when building to today’s standards there
is more involved than creating another strip of tarmac to run alongside the
existing road. At Killiecrankie, the
upgrade requires a central reservation, a verge at either side, two new lanes,
two long lay-bys, three large drainage basins, access roads to the new drainage
structures, new off/on roads for a new junction, a number of new bridges over
streams and burns, steep embankments, felling of mature trees, dismantling of
an earthen sound barrier and more. All the new infrastructure is planned on the
part of the battlefield where historians agree the main fighting took place.
At
an early stage of the planning, Transport Scotland with consultants, Jacobs,
identified the boundaries of the Inventory battlefield. It appears that that is all they did. Had
they properly considered the assets which HES has listed within the Inventory
boundaries, they would never have arrived at their proposed design.
Transport
Scotland’s justification for its damaging plan is the cost benefit in utilising
150,000m3 of filler material, excavated elsewhere on the A9, in
Killiecrankie. By creating new infrastructure on the northbound side of the
road, excess from elsewhere can be economically re-used. This design predetermines the alignment of
the road and everything else, in engineering terms, must follow. When ‘consulted’ during the planning stages,
HES said that it was opposed to large earthworks and they should be avoided.
Challenged
about the adverse impact on history, heritage and archaeology, Transport Scotland
repeats fuzzy arguments with spurious historical evidence. A redoubt known as
Lagnabuig and listed in the Inventory as a place where sniping occurred in the
early part of the battle, has been airbrushed from Transport Scotland’s
assessment of the battlefield.
Archaeology
is shaping up to be something of a battleground. Transport Scotland reached its
preferred option for the road without having appointed an archaeological curator. It is only now in the process of giving Perth
and Kinross Heritage Trust (PKHT) the role.
There
is little doubt that the proposal is light on archaeology. It became known only
when the final road plan was revealed that mysterious ‘pits’ had been
discovered in the path of the proposed new road. The ‘pits’ may or may not have
been burial sites. As only one grave – that of Viscount Dundee – is known of
the thousands who died at Killiecrankie, ’pits’ are an emotive subject.
HES
in its objection to the proposal recommended that the ‘pits’ were investigated
fully and that further archaeological surveys be done along the path of the
proposed route. These have now been completed and though the final report is
not yet available, the preliminary results showed no human remains.
While
the latest archaeology resolves one question, it does not resolve the central
issues raised by HES and the other 182 organisations, societies and individuals
who submitted objections. Transport
Scotland has failed to explore every option to avoid damaging the
battlefield. Only when it can prove that
these have been exhausted, is a developer allowed to make a damaging proposal.
You can sign the petition:
About
KilliecrAnkie1689
KilliecrAnkie1689
is a new group that opposes how the planned dual carriageway is to be built on
the Killiecrankie battlefield.
KilliecrAnkie1689
is in favour of upgrading the A9 in the interests of safety. But it wants the
best route possible for the local community and one that fully respects the
sensitive area of the battle site.
