HISTORIC Scotland are coming under pressure to relist a publicly-funded monument to Robert The Bruce on the banks of Loch Trool.
The stone was protected and listed between 1979 and 2007, before suddenly and unexpectedly becoming delisted.
One campaigner has started a petition after trying to find out why the public body decided to ditch responsibility for the monument.
Historic Scotland told this paper that The Bruce’s Stone had been delisted after a review of all assets, but amateur historian Barry Donnan says he has unearthed paperwork suggesting there was no assessment and that it simply fell off the body’s list.
A spokeswoman from Historic Environment Scotland told The National: “Bruce’s Stone was delisted in 2007 following a Scotland-wide review of assets in the Forestry Commission’s estate. At the time of the review, the stone-built memorial was found not to meet the criteria for listing. We have recently been asked to reconsider Bruce’s Stone for listing and are currently in the process of assessing it for possible statutory designation.”
Donnan, who has secured the support of local politicians, says this contradicts what the organisation told his then MSP. In a letter to Dr Aileen Campbell, Barbara Cummins, Historic Scotland’s director of heritage management said that no formal assessment was made at the time of the proposed delisting.
Donnan believes the stone is too important to not be protected by Historic Environment Scotland. He said: “Historic Environment Scotland could not provide any evidence of why it was delisted in the first instance, as stated in a letter to my local MSP. Part of the listing criteria test is that the monument should be of national or local interest. Are Historic Environment Scotland seriously suggesting Bruce’s Stone doesn’t meet either of these tests? The exact reason the monument was erected in stone, was a symbolic tribute to the Battle of Glen Trool in 1307.
“As we have seen in the FOI paperwork, someone ‘feeling’ that a monument should be delisted is simply not good enough under any circumstances in 2007 or even in 2016. It is high time Historic Environment Scotland got their house in order and operate in a clear, consistent and transparent manner instead of making closed-doors decision’s in Edinburgh and remaining accountable to no one.”
The Bruce’s Stone is a nine-tonne granite boulder which was paid for by public subscription. When it was inaugurated in June of 1929, more than 300 spectators gathered.
The battle of Glen Trool marked Bruce’s return to the fray after his defeat at the Battle of Dalry the year before.
The stone is said to mark where the Scottish king commanded the ambush which took place on the Steps of Trool on the other side of the loch. It’s believed boulders were rolled down the hill to attack English troops.
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