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16-05-2007 Building of the Falkirk Memorial Cairn

The cairn is being built to commemorate the fallen Scots killed fighting with William Wallace against the English at the Battle of Falkirk on the 22nd July 1298. The location chosen was put forward by Falkirk Council and lies between 2 possible locations for the main battle to have taken place close to the 1298 hamlet of Falkirk. The Cairn was designed in line with comments made by the Falkirk Council and consists of a 7m wide circular paved area in the shape of the saltire with light and dark granite sets, quarried in Aberdeen. The centre piece will be the cairn itself standing to a height of 2m atop a rectangular base. Once complete Falkirk Council will take over the maintenance of it.

Grant Williamson and Gordon Aitken of The Society of William Wallace came up with the idea and have been instrumental in raising the funds to proceed with the works. Falkirk Council also made a donation from their Common Good Fund with the assistance of local SNP Councillor David Alexander.

The builders are voluntary and is being carried out by Gordon Aitken and Stewart Connor with a volunteer labour from Grant Williamson, Karen and Julie McCabe as well as help from other groups such as SnG and The Society of William Wallace who also contributed financial assistance.

This coming weekend should hopefully see the cairn completed.

The cairn can be found at the entrance to the Callendar Park, Falkirk.

The Commemoration and cairn unveiling will take place on the 21st July; The event will start by meeting at the tomb of John de Grahame in Falkirk then marching to the Battle Cairn where a plaque will be unveiled by Ronnie Browne and speeches from various people,

further details of this event on our Events Page

The evening entertainment in Falkirk with Kevin Wilson and guests. . Tickets priced at �10.00

THE BUILDING STARTS

At the cairn footing there is a small black granite slab with some poetry from John Patterson a Society of William Wallace member on it.

The final site will include a flagpole with saltire and a couple of seats at the back looking down over the park towards the site of the battle.

If anyone hasn't been there yet I would recommend the general area, which is rich in history. The Antonine Wall runs through the park, the local kirk has the gravestones of both the Graeme and the Stewart ( the Stewarts of Bute died almost to a man in one of the schiltrums), and of course there's both the obelisk marking the Wallace Stone (where he's reputed to have stood prior to the battle) and the memorial to the 1746 battle where Prince Charlie's men gubbed the government troops. A lot of history in one small area...

Today Sunday 20th May 2007 we paid a visit to the cairn in Falkirk, what a magnificent sight to behold. All the volunteers have put a lot of hard work and effort into this project, and our climate hasn't made it easy for them. The cairn itself is a fantastic showpiece and they should all be very proud of their efforts. Well done to all of you.

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� Crann Tara 2006