IT IS HOPED that the annual ceremony and walk to mark the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh at Musselburgh will go ahead this year, despite the Covid-19 crisis.

The events are being planned for Thursday, September 10 – the 473rd anniversary of the battle.

Pinkie Cleugh was the last pitched battle between Scotland and England, fought in 1547, and a catastrophic defeat for the Scots, with reports of up to 10,000 dead.

The ceremony and walk normally take place as part of the East Lothian Archaeology & Local History Fortnight, which has been cancelled by East Lothian Council and will now take the form of an online heritage festival.

However, the Old Musselburgh Club in partnership with the Pinkie Cleugh Battlefield Group hopes the battle commemoration events will still go ahead if Covid-19 restrictions allow.

Walkers will leave from the Roman Bridge in Musselburgh at 11am and will make their way along the battlefield trail via St Michael’s Church, Inveresk, to the Pinkie Cleugh Memorial Stone just off Salters Road at Wallyford, where the ceremony will take place at 1pm.

A piper will play a selection of musical tributes before an account of the battle is given.

Ten names from the 10,000 Scots who died in the fields between Wallyford, Musselburgh and Dalkeith will then be read out, and floral tributes laid in remembrance of the fallen.