THIS year’s commemoration of the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh – one of Scotland’s “biggest and bloodiest” battles – got the seal of approval from East Lothian’s Provost.

Councillor John McMillan laid a floral tribute at the Pinkie Cleugh Memorial Stone at Crookston, thanking the Old Musselburgh Club and Pinkie Cleugh Battlefield Group for continuing to keep the memory of the battle alive.

Fought on September 10, 1547, the conflict, which marked its 473rd anniversary this year, was the last pitched battle between Scotland and England and became known as ‘Black Saturday’.

This year’s event got under way with the battlefield walk, which started at the first information board near the Roman Bridge in Musselburgh.

It was led by Dr Andrew Coulson, of the Pinkie Cleugh Battlefield Group, who used an app via his mobile phone to outline details of the battle, as the walkers made their way to other information boards at St Michael’s Church, Inveresk, and Crookston Road, Wallyford.

The commemoration ceremony then took place at the Pinkie Cleugh Memorial Stone, just off Salters Road, as Pipe Major Colin Pryde played a musical tribute on the bagpipes.

David Stillie, president of the Old Musselburgh Club, welcomed those present, saying that it was “gratifying” to see so many people turn out to mark “one of the most significant battles in our history” given “unprecedented times” of self-isolation and social distancing amidst the Covid-19 crisis.

He explained that Pinkie Cleugh was a battle between the armies of Scotland and England led by the Earl of Arran, Regent of Scotland, and the Lord Protector of England, the Duke of Somerset, whose aim was to secure the betrothal of the nine-year-old King Edward VI of England to the five-year -old Mary, Queen of Scots.

Mr Stillie said it could be argued that this was the first modern battle on British soil, featuring the first real combined arms operation using infantry, cavalry and artillery, as well as naval bombardment, in a coordinated way.

Alister Hadden, a past president of the Old Musselburgh Club, then gave an account of the battle from the time of the birth of Mary, Queen of Scots, on December 8, 1542, at Linlithgow Palace, through to the events that took place on Black Saturday, when 10,000 Scots lost their lives in the fields between Wallyford, Musselburgh and Dalkeith.

The information he recounted was taken from an eyewitness account from a young lawyer called William Patton who was commissioned to record the battle, a roll map from the Bodleian Library in Oxford, and research by Dr Coulson.

Iain Wood, treasurer of the Old Musselburgh Club, then read out 10 names of the 10,000 slain before a minute’s silence was observed.

Floral tributes were also placed by Margaret Strachan on behalf of the Old Musselburgh Club, and Arran Johnston, chairman of the Scottish Battlefields Trust, who live streamed the event as part of the East Lothian Online Heritage Festival.