Saturday, August 13, 2011

Flodden Field

On the way back from Melrose we decided to revisit the Old Ship in Seahouses for some of their excellent Craster kippers (for me) and smoked fish chowder (for Charlie).  This gave us the opportunity to stop briefly at the Flodden Field memorial in Northumberland.


Flodden has excellent display boards and is a battlefield that really allows you to get a feel for the battle - the two armies having conveniently fought across a shallow valley that puts both sides "in the shop window".  The picture above shows the view from the centre of the English line to the ridge on which the Scottish were deployed.

The pictures below (click to enlarge) show details from the interpretation board at that site.  Next time I'm up there I must do the whole battlefield walk.




Finally, our visit did have one rather surreal note.  I often visit castles in Wales and almost invariably find myself sharing the site with a group of Welsh-speaking visitors.  It's always an odd feeling knowing they can understand every word you say but that you can't reciprocate.  Still, it's their country.  Very odd then to find myself at Flodden in Northumbria and sharing the battlefield monument with another Welsh-language guided tour!  Maybe the gods are telling me to learn Welsh?

2 comments:

Ray Rousell said...

Great post, that's a Battle field I really want to see, I've been posting flags for the battle for a few months now, all I need to do is stick them on my figures and I can re-fight the battle. Nice One!

Counterpane said...

And only two years away from the 500th anniversary! Maybe a project for a couple of years' time?