Stirling: On one side of the medieval battlefield of Bannockburn, a row of new council houses extend out on the northern flank. And to the east, a state-of-the-art National Trust interpretive centre offers 3D graphics and a virtual reality view of what it was like to fight here 700 years ago.
It was here, on this field, on June 23, 1314, Scotland came of age. In a nutshell, it was the biggest victory ever in Scotland’s long and laboured history with its southern neighbours. Robert the Bruce was outnumbered two-to-one as his forces attempted to take Stirling Castle, the last bastion of English rule in Scotland.
The forces of Edward II were better armed, better provisioned, and had a cavalry to be feared. But the Scots choose the ground well, dug in and set stakes to impale the charging cavalry and its heavily armoured knights. At the end of a bloody day, Robert the Bruce prevailed and Scotland began nearly 400 years of independent rule.
That rule ended with the signing of the act of union in 1707 and Thursday’s referendum will seek to end that tie with the rest of the United Kingdom.
“Yes, there has been an increase in interest in Bannockburn with the referendum,” the sales clerk says as he offers an interactive tour and show for £11 (Dh62). “Obviously there’s a lot of interest in the battle since the anniversary.”
That was at the start of the busy summer visitors’ season, and First Minister Alex Salmond was on hand then to make the case that Scotland needed to regain its independence, just as Robert the Bruce’s victory led to Scotland’s independence in 1314.
Today, the gift shop sells plastic knight’s helmets and swords, flags and buttons and a gift pack of Robert the Bru’s’ — beer brewed by a local brewery. Mostly foreign visitors sip lattes and relax in the air-conditioned cafe overlooking the field of battle, largely oblivious to the current campaign for independence being waged in the old city of Stirling and across Scotland.
On the steep cobbled and flag-stoned walk to Stirling Castle that sits high on the hill overlooking the city and the rest of the countryside, tourists stop for selfies.
“Oh look, they’re voting ‘yes’,” an obviously overweight American woman tells her husband as he putts up the steep hill. “Isn’t that a cute flag.”
That “cute flag” is Scotland’s blue and white-crossed saltire that, if Scotland does indeed vote ‘yes’ on Thursday, will become the nation’s flag. And it will mean the Union Jack will have to be redesigned.
“I can understand what Scotland wants to go its own way,” Anna Maria Rossi tells Gulf News. She is an English-language teacher from Turin and is busily chaperoning some 20 Italian teens on a language and cultural tour of Scotland. “In Italy, the Northern League wants independence from the rest of the nation, but I don’t think their case is as good as Scotland. I would like to see Scotland be free.”
As far as she is concerned, she would have no issue seeing an independent Scotland as part of the European Union.
“Certainly, why not,” she says. “The English don’t want to be there. Scotland can be.”
But like everything to do with Scotland going its own way, it’s not that simple.
Scotland’s entry into the EU as an independent country would require the unanimous approval of the exist 28 members. But Spain is facing a separatist movement of its own.
Catalans are holding a referendum in November on separating from the rest of Spain — a vote that the Spanish government calls illegal and hasn’t sanctioned.
Scotland’s independence vote has Catalans fired up, and Spain’s Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy would be faced with an impossible political choice to accept the Scottish result but reject the one in his own nation — assuming that both referendums are indeed yeses.