Flodden Field trail

Date: 2004-07-20, Publication: The Journal

Visitors to a Northumberland battlefield where the flower of Scottish nobility was wiped out will now be able to experience the echoes of the dramatic clash.

At Flodden Field, near the village of Branxton, in 1513 an army of 30,000 men led by the Scottish King James IV met an English force of 26,000 under the Earl of Surrey.

After two hours of brutal hand-to-hand combat, around 9,000 Scots lay dead, including King James and 35 Scots earls and barons. The army included the flower of Scottish aristocracy, with 15 earls and 20 barons. English losses were 1,500 to 3,000 men.

But for many visitors to the battle site the experience was anti-climatic as the only marker of the event was a cross erected in 1910.

Yesterday, a battlefield trail of seating and paths, which follows the landscape of the battle around Branxton Hill, was opened by Lord Joicey, who nearby runs Ford and Etal estates, whose twin castles were captured by the Scots before the battle.

The trail is the first phase of the Remembering Flodden project by Branxton Parish Council which has been awarded a £24,970 Local Heritage Initiative grant and £5,000 from the Nationwide Building Society. Information boards are to be produced to help visitors while they are walking around the hills and fields.

An exhibition will also go on show at the refurbished Branxton village hall.

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