In 2011 Aberdeen Wargames Club refought the battle of Harlaw on the 600th anniversary of the battle. The battle was researched in incredible detail by Andy Douglas who made a museum quality model of the battlefield and several member of the club, myself included, contributed printed miniatures from the Scheltrum miniatures Highland and Isles range. The game was held in the Cowdry Hall in Aberdeen and was visited by the Provost of Aberdeen and the heads of some of the families of both sides who fought in the battle.
The model and figures were packed away by Aberdeen Art Gallery, with the hope that they would see the light of day again. The Garioch Heritage Centre in Inverurie, just a few miles from the actual battlefield was hoped to be the location of a permanent home for the full display. But that has sadly not been realised as yet.
Last Saturday Andy gathered those who had helped him with the display and arranged to put on another refight at the Heritage Centre. The terrain was taken out of storage and delivered and set up and the figures placed in position ready for what we hoped would be a busy day of gaming and chatting with members of the public who could watch.
It was the hottest day of the year locally, with temperatures in the 20's - very unusual for NE Scotland and made somewhat more difficult by the AC being switched off. However it was grand to see some old friends again as I'm no longer a member of the Aberdeen club and the disruption to the show scene since covid meant it's been years since I've had to catch up.
As I had figures in the highland army, I stuck with that side in the battle and we rolled down off the high ground towards the better armoured but fewer in number lowlanders. Two units of cavalry headed towards our men, on the right galloping towards the McLean men, while on the left a smaller group headed for an advance guard which I had command of. Lowering their lances, contact was made, but whilse successful on the right the cavalry attacking my advance guard made little impact and instead became stuck in melee as further units of highlanders surrounded them and dove them back in rout.
By this time the highlanders were 3/4 of the way down the hill on the left and the lowlanders and Aberdeen men had managed to maintain a line of battle, despite their cavalry fleeing through them. The clash between the two sides was preceded by some challenges, and lumps were duly hacked out of each sides champions to no great affect.
The clash between the two sides was more of a dull thump as the two sides drew together in melee and began a shoving scrummage of a fight, not very exciting to play or to watch, but probably a fair representation of the press of a medieval fight. The far left flank of the lowland army broke, and we were able to lap around to a degree but on the right the highlanders were worse off with McLean dead and gaps appearing in their ranks. However it was now fast approaching closing time and, like the historical battle, the game was declared a bloody draw.
Sadly we didn't have very many visitors. I think the heat and poor advertising which the heritage centre had done (no mention on their website or news section and we were in a back room) meant few were aware. However we did get some youngsters to throw some dice and take part in the game and maybe just maybe planted a seed that there was more to gaming than Games Workshop.
Thanks to Andy Douglas for putting together a huge amount of research and for being inspired to start the project in the first place. Andy also has a display of the 1745 Battle of Inverurie researched and built to the same levels of depth and detail. This too needs to see the light of day and both displays should be on permanent display marking important aspects of local history.
