We know the risk to the buildings in Glasgow because we can see it for ourselves. The flames shooting out of the terrace on Carlton Place this week. The boarded-up remains of the ABC on Sauchiehall Street, soon to be no more. The problem is the risk isn’t always so obvious. Some of Scotland’s history and heritage is harder to see, and harder to save.

Let me take you to a place that proves it, up on a hill near Edinburgh. At the top of the hill is a flagpole flying a square of white on blood-red, the personal standard of the Young Pretender. Below are the fields where the British army was camped out, and further on, near the horizon, is the place where the Jacobites gathered and where many of the dead are still buried. If you know what you’re looking for, the Battle of Prestonpans is still here. It is still 1745.

But there’s a struggle going on in this place, a new kind of battle, bloodless but important. Thousands of new houses have been built on some of the site, many on the line the Jacobites followed as they marched into battle, which means visitors are no longer able to stand on parts of the battleground. Some development has always happened here – it was once the site of an open cast mine and there are still signs of its industrial past – but as the houses spread, you can’t avoid the feeling that a kind of erasure is happening – now wiping out then – and that it could be unstoppable.

Something similar is happening at other battlefields in Scotland. Not all that far from Prestonpans is the site of the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh, not a very famous battle by any means but a crucial confrontation between the English and the Scottish when Mary Stuart was a baby. Until relatively recently, the site was unchanged but now there are houses and houses and houses. And the great fear must be that it makes further development even more likely and harder to resist.

Even the site of arguably Scotland’s most famous battle of all is not immune. The National Trust for Scotland has this week sent out an appeal to its members about development plans for fields close to the Battle of Bannockburn Centre. The plan is for a horse harness-racing track, a number of buildings and a car park, and Stirling Council has recommended approval.

The Trust says it’s shocked and dismayed by the decision and that the plans would destroy one of the last remaining areas of open landscape on which the battle took place. Being able to see it pretty much as it was at the time, says the Trust, is integral to the experience of visitors who come from all over the world to learn about Bannockburn and it’s now calling on its members to write to the Scottish Government to ask them to intervene.

Read more

Mark Smith: A trip to the worst council area in Scotland

Mark Smith: We will not fix Glasgow until we fix the bins

Obviously, most of us recognise there’s a need for new buildings and development, particularly new houses, but the fact that the development at Bannockburn and Prestonpans and Pinkie Cleugh and other battlefields can happen quite so easily, so casually, is a worrying sign. A robust process would force developers and councils to look at whether development could happen somewhere else, but it’s clear the current system doesn’t do that and isn’t fit for purpose.

The thing is that on paper, Bannockburn does have protection. As the Trust points out, the fields in question are on the Inventory of Historic Battlefields and the Government’s most recent Planning Framework says development proposals that affect sites on the inventory “should protect and, where appropriate, enhance a battlefield’s cultural significance, key landscape characteristics, physical remains and special qualities”. But the provision is on paper only and is nothing like the protection that’s given to listed buildings.

So action is needed. First, the Scottish Government needs to call in the decision on Bannockburn and it needs to do it urgently because there’s only a matter of days before the deadline. It’s more likely to do that if, as the Trust points out, it knows how strongly the public feel about protecting the battlefield. So if you’re a member of the Trust, or if you’re not, let the government know how you feel.

(Image: The Battle of Bannockburn)

Secondly, the government needs to look again at the sort of protections that are needed for battlefields and where they could be strengthened. For example, there should be a presumption against development on a battlefield rather than the current situation where councils are only obliged to "consider" the impact that a development might have on the site. How deeply, I wonder, did Stirling Council “consider” the impact at Bannockburn?

I know some of you may be wondering if this really is as important as I’m making out; you may feel we can’t hold back development for the sake of a few fields. But if that’s your thinking, please make your way to Prestonpans, head up the hill, and take it all in.

This is where the bloody, brutal battle was fought. Over there is where the British hunkered down and over there, on the lower ground, is where the Jacobites were gathered. Maybe you can imagine the red and white of the Young Pretender’s standard, alerting the men to his whereabouts. Maybe you can feel the history. Maybe you can still see 1745. A long time ago? Just fields? Parts of the story are still here, and they’re at risk, and they need to be protected.