This is an absorbing, highly illustrated ‘multigraph’ book. It reports work between 2008 and 2016 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the battle of Flodden (9 September 1513) and the much more recent establishment of the Flodden Ecomuseum, supported by EU LEADER (Liaison Entre Actions de Développement de l’Économie Rurale) and Heritage Lottery Fund funding. The focus of the project began with work on and around the traditional site of the battle, where a monument had been erected on the 400th anniversary and to which cross-border and other visitors have come for many years. Research aimed to illuminate with material culture and landscape study of the events that culminated in the Anglo-Scots battle of Flodden and its aftermath. The received wisdom (puffed up by the Victorians) is that a large Scots army, numbered at some 30,000–100,000 people and led by King James iv of Scotland, invaded England while Henry viii was in France; under the leadership of the earl of Surrey, the English won a resounding victory. Accounts indicate that apart from James himself, much of the Scots nobility, senior clergy and many soldiers perished. Such a major encounter must surely have left evidence on the ground of the battle?

However, despite this Walter Scott-esque tradition, and despite much writing on the battle and antiquarian accounts of the discovery of pits full of bones, etc, surprisingly the project struggled to find definitive evidence of the location of the battle, or the remains of combatants or artefacts associated with the fighting. However, the search was extensive and detailed, as the maps and plans illustrate: fieldwalking (maybe inhibited by modern ‘minitill’ surface cultivation as opposed to deep ploughing), metal detecting, test-pit digging and building survey supported by desktop work and assessment of artefacts. The involvement of Professor Peter Davis of Newcastle University considerably raised the sights of those involved in the establishment of the Flodden Ecomuseum, which linked some forty sites, both locally and further afield, to the events at Flodden, from the Flodden Wall in Edinburgh to the Mary Rose in Portsmouth, part of the supporting English fleet at the time. Ecomuseums eschew ‘conventional political boundaries’ (ideal for this project), site ownership, etc, being replaced by liaisons and co-operation, while empowerment of local communities, interdisciplinarity and a ‘fragmented site’ policy to site conservation and interpretation predominate (p 11). For example, a Till Valley Archaeological Society emerged attracting some 140 members, and schools either side of the border took part. This is a book of many voices – voices not always heard in archaeological reporting – not only of the leaders, archaeologists, archivists and historians, but also of landowners, experienced and novice volunteers, children and those who developed expertise during the project. Desktop work involved investigation of documents both sides of the border, including private archives, revealing in the process how shattered Scots record keeping was for a decade after the battle, while among documents on the English side a unique list and description of 225 horses (and their injuries, largely damaged ears) taken in the battle and distributed afterwards emerged. A subsequent thriving commemorative industry is revealed.

What do we learn? Much about the prehistory of the Flodden area. The site of the battle was not pinpointed by the archaeology, although a handful of cannon balls was found as well as a very few dress accessories possibly associated with the combatants. The real gains were in the expansion of knowledge of the context of the battle. Finds from the Mary Rose helped with the understanding of potential weaponry involved. It was something of a surprise that such large armies apparently left so little mark on the landscape.

Nonetheless, this was, is and will be, as it develops further, a valuable project. Effective leadership by professionals and the Ecomuseum have pointed the way and spread skills in a remote area of Northumberland now tied to a wide range of local and more distant sites and monuments. National experts on battlefield archaeology are contributing to future research. Local monuments, such as Norham, Ford and Etal castles and the ‘iron kirk’ at Ladykirk, are drawn into a better understanding of James iv’s route and his plans, probably to go no further south. It remains a stumbling block that no bodies were found, and their recovery is a key objective for the future. While it is a pity that there is no index, the Flodden 1513 project’s free dissemination of their findings to date has very much to recommend it, and perhaps points the way to increasing fusion of professional and community archaeology in the twenty-first century.