Bannockburn 1314

Bottled it! Was going to blip a snapshot from Neil Oliver's BBC2 programme on Tuesday evening - 'A History of Celtic Britain - Episode 4 - Age of Romans'. I watched it on the BBC I-Player tonight after the folks that run the Burgh Coffee Shop in Stirling mentioned this morning that I'd been filmed in the shop a couple of months ago when Neil was also in the shop filming a part of the series. And there I was about 11 mins into the programme! In fact Stirling features at least 3 times on Tuesday's programme. I snapped a shot for posterity (and vanity I suppose) but bottled out on blipping with it.

Instead.......... and still with a historical theme albeit not Roman.............

This is the Rotunda at the site of the famous Battle of Bannockburn (June 1314) in Scotland. The Rotunda was built in the early 1960's. Its not really much of a remarkable structure when you see it in daylight. It's design is like circular Neolithic henge monuments. The statue of the war-horse mounted King Robert the Bruce is much more impressive. I think the best image of the Rotunda is in silhouette where the shape and the 120 ft flagpole provide a bit more drama to the site.

Family legend has it on Mrs S's side of the family that the memorial that preceded the 1960's version also had an axe on top of a flagole and that it was one of her parents ancesters that fixed the axe to the pole. The original flagpole apparently dates back to 1870 and the 120 ft flagpole was erected in 1954 before being encompassed by the 1960's Rotunda. A nice story but unfortunately I can't find any photos of the pre-Rotunda memorial.