In the breaking light of a September morning 275 years ago, on that flat plain below you that is now covered in houses, trees and a scattering of remaining agricultural fields, two rival armies met in a violent encounter that marked the first significant military engagement of the Jacobite uprising of 1745. The battle only lasted around fifteen minutes, but the blood spilled, lives lost and history made on that small strip of land between you and the sea have echoed into legend ever since

Charles Edward Stuart, the Bonnie Prince, having successfully taken most of Edinburgh a few days before, had learned that a Hanoverian force had landed at Dunbar under the command of Sir John Cope. Camped with his men at Duddingston, he marched them overnight to Tranent on the 20th-21st September and at around 4am the Jacobite forces were led through the marshy ground to the south of Cope’s sleeping troops.

The badly disciplined Hanoverian force was completely routed within moments of hearing the first blood-curdling yell that heralded the oncoming “Highland Charge” so-favoured by the vanguard of the Jacobite army. Many of the raw, untried Government troops broke and immediately ran upon sight of the advancing Highlanders, leaving a few scattered colleagues vulnerable to the oncoming wave.

The Hanoverian commander, upon seeing all was lost, fled the battlefield on horseback with a few officers and mounted men and did not stop until he reached Carlisle. His retreat is commemorated in the name of the road opposite the Primary School that he used to make good his escape and in the famous song by Adam Skirving, a local farmer who came to view the battlefield after the fight was over, “Hey Johnnie Cope are ye waukin yet?”.

Read a fuller account of the battle and the Jacobite uprising in the history boards provided by the Battle of Prestonpans 1745 Heritage Trust at the top of this bing made from the waste materials from the nearby coal mines that also used to operate nearby.