Heritage case studies: Scotland
◄Previous: 2.3 Bannockburn and Culloden

# 2.4 Bannockburn and Culloden as heritage sites

Although the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) website offers similar descriptions of each site, there are notable differences in the treatment of each one. On the pages of the website devoted to Bannockburn, the NTS identifies the battle as ‘one of the greatest and most important pitched battles ever fought in the British Isles’ that could ‘rightly be claimed as the most famous battle to be fought and won by the Scots’. Furthermore, Bannockburn, says the NTS, has ‘long been at the core of the Scottish national identity’ and ‘is synonymous in the Scottish psyche with ideas of liberty, freedom, independence, patriotism, heroism, perseverance and triumph against overwhelming odds’.

Figure 2 View of the battlefield from the Bruce monument, Bannockburn, 2007
View of the battlefield from the Bruce monument, Bannockburn
(Photo: © Mary-Catherine Garden) Photo: © Mary-Catherine Garden

The section of the NTS ‘Places to Visit’ website devoted to Culloden describes it as the ‘scene of the last pitched battle in Britain’ which, today, is one of the ‘most iconic and emotive sites in Scotland’. Unlike the description of Bannockburn, here the text focuses on the physical space, for example, ‘Walk the battlefield where the memorials and the clan graves lie and reflect on the human cost of “one man's dream”.’

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