Historian to retrace march of thousands of Dunbar captives to Durham Cathedral
NNPThe remains of soldiers believed captured at the Battle of Dunbar were discovered in 2013 in mass graves near the cathedralAn academic is retracing the steps of thousands of 17th Century Scottish prisoners who endured a 100-mile (160km) "death march".
Captives were taken at the Battle of Dunbar in 1650 by Oliver Cromwell's army and forced to walk for a week to Durham Cathedral.
Academic Megan Olshefski said she wanted to relive their experiences as part of her doctorate studies.
Many of the soldiers starved to death in squalor and cramped conditions.
The battle took place during the Civil War when English Parliamentarian forces defeated the Scottish army.
The 29-year-old Californian has spent years researching the hour-long bloody battle and march south to Durham that followed.
The Durham University academic 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.
Geoff Kitson/Freemen of Durham/PA WireAcademic Megan Olshefski said she wanted to honour the soldiers by retracing their stepsSome of the survivors were eventually sent around the world, including to the US, settling in New England.
When the famished troops reached Morpeth they took cabbages and root vegetables from walled gardens after days without food.
About 3,000 - via a stop in Newcastle - were eventually kept as prisoners at Durham Cathedral.
They were kept in squalor and diseases spread as they faced starvation, hypothermia and murderous squabbles over possessions.
It is believed about 1,600 survived.
About 3,000 soldiers were kept at Durham Cathedral after losing the battleMs Olshefski, who is studying at Durham University's Department of Archaeology, has almost completed her research into the captives' struggles, and their eventual freedom.
She will set off from Dunbar on 3 September, the anniversary of the battle.
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 army defeated the Scottish Covenanting army who supported the claims of Charles II to the Scottish throne.
North News and PicturesThe bodies of soldiers were discovered in mass graves near the cathedral
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