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The Scottish Register is likely to include a wider range of engagements than the English list, which only includes major battles (not skirmishes) whose boundaries can be defined. The Scottish version is expected to range from well-defined battles such as Bannockburn or Culloden (1746) to those with only broadly understood locations such as Largs on the Clyde estuary, where Norse power was defeated by a Scots army in 1263. It will also contain some minor skirmishes which formed part of a longer conflict, such as that between the McLeods and MacDonalds of Skye
Battles where there is no convincing evidence will be excluded
This may disappoint some campaigners, whose pressure has recently stopped development at the alleged sites of two `patriotic’ battles which historians believe did not take place – the Scots king Kenneth MacAlpin’s victory over the Picts supposedly at Stirling in 843, and the `Battle of William Wallace’s Tree’ near Glasgow, where the 13th century Braveheart hero is said to have woken up to find himself attacked by five armed thugs whom he beat off with his bare hands.Genuine battlefields affected by unsightly new buildings include Prestonpans (1745) in East Lothian which is now covered by industrial development and a railway line.Bannockburn, near Stirling, is currently threatened by a mixed housing and industrial scheme, while holiday chalets have been proposed for Sherrifmuir, also near Stirling.
According to Noel Fojut at Historic Scotland, once a draft register has been drawn up it will go to the Scottish Parliament for approval. `They will then have to decide whether we need any new legislation to make it work,’ he said