Region: Lothian & Scottish Borders

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© Copyright kim traynor and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

Description:

Close to the church in Athelstaneford you will find the Flag Heritage Centre in a lectern doo cot, where the story is told of the battle and the origins of the Scottish flag, the 'Saltire'.

The audio visual is quite impressive and there is a viewing point with an interpretative panel .

In AD832 a great battle fought on these plains and fields between an Anglo-Saxon army led by King Athelstane of the Northumbrians and the Pictish king Óengus mac Fergusa. Óengus had the support a contingent of Scots mercenaries from the western kingdom of Dál Riata.The Picts and Scots had come from the north and west in order to rid the Lothians of the Saxon invaders and bring the territory back under Scots rule. As the Picts and Scots moved along the coastal plains they found themselves surrounded by a much larger Saxon army headed by King Athelstane in person. As was traditional with a Scots army in the later dark ages the men knelt to prey to god for their deliverance before the battle started and as the men prayed the clouds above their heads began to form a great Saltire (X-shaped cross) in the sky. Óengus took this as a sign that God and St Andrews were on their side and the Gaelic-Pictish army drove headlong into battle. The fighting was fierce and bloody but as the day drew to an end it was clear that King Óengus had taken the day, as the Scots and Picts chased off the remaining Saxons. Athelstane found himself trapped at a ford where he was slain before he could cross the fast flowing river, giving the area its name Athelstaneford.

In the aftermath of the battle Óengus declared that St Andrew who had watched over his army and led them to a great victory over the Saxons should be the Patron Saint of Scotland and that the Saltire should become the national flag. The Saltire in the form of a white diagonal cross set on a field of blue would become the national flag of Scotland and it would remain the national flag to this day making it the oldest British and European flag in existence and one of the oldest flags in the world.

Just over a decade later there was an amalgamation of the Scots and Pictish tribes under one joint ruler the Scots ruler Cínaed mac Ailpín, (Kenneth MacAlpin) or Kenneth I, the two tribal nations formed a new kingdom that was to become known as Alba.

The site of the battle is the present day farm of Prora (a field there is still called the Bloody Lands).