An academic is retracing the steps of thousands of 17th Century Scottish prisoners-of-war who were put through a 100-mile death march.

Hundreds of captives taken at the Battle of Dunbar died at Durham Cathedral, where they were held in horrific, unsanitary conditions by Oliver Cromwell’s victorious army.

Some of the survivors were eventually sent around the world, including to the US, settling in New England.

Academic Megan Olshefski has spent years researching the hour-long bloody battle and the week-long march south to Durham that followed.

The 29-year-old Californian will follow the route forced on the 4,000 soldiers, crossing the border at Berwick-upon-Tweed, then on to Belford and Alnwick in Northumberland.

When the famished troops reached Morpeth they took cabbages and root vegetables from walled gardens after days without food.

Via a stop in Newcastle, around 3,000 were eventually kept prisoner at Durham Cathedral and were held there for months.

READ MORE: Scottish soldiers’ remains to be reburied in 17th century service

They were kept in squalor and diseases spread in the cramped conditions, and they faced starvation, hypothermia and murderous squabbles over possessions.

Just 1,600 prisoners-of-war survived, with the remains of those who died being buried around the cathedral – only to be discovered during building work 10 years ago.

The Herald:

Remains of the soldiers were unearthed during building work

Ms Olshefski, who is studying for a doctorate at Durham University’s Department of Archaeology, has almost completed her research into the captives’ struggles, and their eventual freedom.

Setting out on the day of the battle, September 3, she will follow their route from Dunbar to Durham.

She said: “I plan, where possible, to spend each night on the site of each stop-over and follow a traditional 17th century Scottish diet of the period, which includes oats, peas, fish, brassica and kale.

“Conditions in the cathedral were truly horrific for captives whose ages ranged from just 15 to their mid-20s.

“They used the east end of the cathedral as a toilet and slept when and where they could in the west end because of the chronic lack of floor space.

“My intention in making this trip is to honour all those involved – particularly the ones who did not survive.”

The Battle of Dunbar was one of the shortest and most brutal battles of the 17th century civil wars.

In less than an hour, the English Parliamentarian army, under the command of Oliver Cromwell, defeated the Scottish Covenanting army who supported the claims of Charles II to the Scottish throne.

Ms Olshefski first became immersed in the soldiers’ story when she was a researcher and producer on the American equivalent of the British television programme “Who Do You Think You Are?” when an episode tracked the life of one survivor.

John Adams was sent from captivity to work in a New England ironworks, where prisoners were indentured workers for five to seven years before they were freed to start new, and often long and successful, lives in the US.

Of those sent to the American colonies as indentured servants, records show many of the men thrived after serving their sentences. They went on to hold lands, raise families and establish their fortunes under the stern gaze of the Puritan settlers.

In fact, such was their zeal for life, a common mention of the group is found in court documents from the time which list their names alongside charges of “fornication outside marriage”.

Their spirit of camaraderie also served them well, with one group establishing a charity to help others poor Scots which endures to this day.

The Herald:

English Parliamentarian leader Oliver Cromwell (1599 - 1658) and his men singing the 117th Psalm at the Battle of Dunbar. Painting by Andrew Gow

Around 150 veterans of the battle are known to have arrived in Boston, where they worked as indentured servants in timber mills, on farms and in the burgeoning iron industry.

Once they had served their time, many branched out as farmers and landholders, with one, James Warren, eventually becoming a town official.

READ MORE: Fate of the survivors of the battle of Dunbar revealed

Another anonymous Scot, ‘a slave from Dunbar’, is referred to in a letter in 1685 as ‘living now in Woodbridge [New Jersey] like a Scots laird’. He wished ‘his countrymen and his native soil well, though he never intends to see it’.

However, the behaviour of the Scots often shocked their Puritan neighbours, and records recount the tale of smallholder William Paul, who was prosecuted for having an affair with an Irishwoman named Catherine Innes.

For this ‘unclean and filthy behaviour’, court records show he was ‘publickly whipt’, as was Catherine for her ‘unclean and laciviouse behaviour'.

In an unusual turn of events, her husband Alexander was also implicated, with officials deciding he had deserted his family and exposed his wife to temptation.

The book says: "For this, Innes, seemingly the innocent party, was placed in the stocks."

The Herald:

Dr Anwen Caffell, Durham University, with bones from skeletons discovered in the soldiers' mass grave

The new-found wealth many of the Dunbar Scots came into led them to establish a 'poor box society', known today as the Scots Charitable Society and said to be the oldest charitable organization still existing in the Western Hemisphere

Research into this poignant piece of history has been keenly followed by tens of thousands of Americans who are fiercely proud of their Scottish heritage.

Some plan to relive their ancestors’ story by coming to the UK and visiting Scotland and north-east England.