NEARLY 700 years after the bloody victory of the Scots over the English at Bannockburn fresh battle lines are being drawn over plans to build a school on the historic site.

Locals are up in arms at proposals to relocate St Modan’s High School in Stirling to the battlefield site at Balquhidderock, where it is thought that Robert the Bruce’s army defeated Edward II’s troops in 1314.

Public anger has been further inflamed because four years ago Stirling Council commissioned an academic study to identify the probable battle site. This identified the site at Balquhidderock, currently used as school playing fields by Bannockburn High School, as the “most likely” location of Bruce’s famous victory.

Residents have promised to fight the development, which they claim will destroy an important part of Scotland’s heritage, and historians have called for a national debate on the issue.

Kirk McInnes, chairman of Bannockburn Community Council, accused the council of bully-boy tactics.

“It is unbelievable that the council can spend thousands of pounds identifying these playing fields as an important battlefield site, only to ignore the findings when it no longer suits them a few years later,” he said. “A lot of people are very concerned about these proposals and are determined to fight them head on,” The plans are part of a £93 million public private partnership between Stirling Council and developers, the Gateway Consortium, to build four new schools, refurbish another and build a new educational “community campus”.

The proposals will go before planning committee over the coming months and if agreed, will then need ministerial approval, before building work can start later this year.

Gordon Jeyes, director of children’s services, said that the council was aware of concerns about building on the site, but said: “There has been research done by a number of historians and views vary. Clearly if there was an unequivocal view that this was the battlefield site, then it might be a consideration.”

The council spent £5,000 on the study by Fiona Watson, of Stirling University, who reported in 2001 that she believed Balquhidderock was the most likely site of Bruce’s victory over the English. She admitted that she could not give a definitive answer to the age-old mystery and her conclusions, which ruled out two other contenders at nearby Pelstream Burn and at the confluence of the Forth and Bannock Burn, were not accepted by everyone.

Dr Watson called yesterday for a national debate on the future of battlefield sites, which currently have no protection under the law. She said it was possible to get a real sense of the scale of the battle from Balquhidderock.

“We must decide how important we think these battlefields are and until then we should stop building on them,” she said. “At the moment Historic Scotland is trying to compile a battlefield register and Stirling might live to regret this development if its rushes into a decision. Surely with such a nationally important site they should be proud to be the guardians of whatever is left.”

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