Flodden and Bannockburn: the war of the British battlefields The brief story of the battle is that Scotland's King James IV seized his chance to invade England while King Henry VIII was away fighting in France. The Scots crossed the River Tweed at Coldstream, looped down to Flodden, then decided to move onto the ridge above Branxton, facing north. The English, footsore after their long march from the northern counties, split in two: the main force circled up and around, halting beneath the ridge facing south, while Sir Edward Stanley and his longbowmen positioned themselves just to the east of the battlefield. "The Scots could have won," said Neil Wilson, who coordinates the cycling programme for the Glendale Development Trust, and who gets landed with cycling journalists, "But it rained all day and the burn below the ridge became a bog. The Scots pikemen broke formation and their cannon were siege cannon, so they fired right over the English instead of hitting them. Then the English got stuck in with their "bills," short, savage weapons converted from the humble agricultural billhook. Into this mess charged Stanley and his archers. Survivors trying to reach the Tweed had little chance and camp followers were caught in the slaughter. Robert Bruce killing an English knight at Bannockburn The great thing about cycling, apart from the glory of the Northumberland landscape under blue skies piled high with clouds, was that it showed how the army moved. We started on the flat Milfield plain, where battle was originally to be joined, circling up and around to Barmoor Country Park, where the English camped on the 8th. It's now a campsite whose owner has commissioned a set of gates for the Flodden anniversary: they bristle with arms - Scots pikes, English bills and longbows - and the royal symbols of the two countries. The owner has got so interested that she encourages her campers to join archaeology digs. I couldn't believe how fast the army marched, laden with baggage and food for all those soldiers. What happened to the countryside when tens of thousands of men marched through, dragging cannon, on rough tracks? How did they feed themselves? Did they have maps? It made you think. A good place to find battlefield details is the famous red phone box on Branxton village green, which claims to be the smallest visitor centre in Britain. It is part of an existing initiative, the Remembering Flodden Project, masterminded by Clive Hallam-Baker, a battle expert who lives over the road. There's a wall map of the battle site and a stack of walking and cycling leaflets. The genius of the Ecomuseum is that his work fits neatly under the Flodden1513 umbrella. I spent one day on my bike and one day in a car, reaching further afield. To the Twizel Bridge, for example, a handsome 90ft span across a Tweed tributary called the Till, which was finished not long before the battle and was used by the English baggage train while the men forded the river. At Heatherslaw, a former corn mill now converted into a number of energetic enterprises, the lady running the tea room was mulling over what battle-themed cakes she might be able to make. The bar is high; there's already a Flodden Marmalade made with blood oranges. The mill is on the Ford & Etal estate, as is the battlefield site, and the landowner, Lord Joicey, has been involved in the Ecomuseum from the start. An event recalling the sacrifice made at Flodden by the men of Selkirk "In many ways Flodden meant the end for Scotland," he explained on the phone. James IV was a European monarch and with his demise and the death of so many of his leaders the country never fully recovered. He also pointed out that the story of Flodden is not only tangible, like battle sites or marching routes, but also intangible, in the form of ballads linked to the battle, say, such as Flowers of the Forest, or traditions that mark its place in the landscape, like the Border ridings; annual, mounted equivalents of the beating of the bounds. Up at the tiny Coldstream Museum they had built a special Flodden exhibition with a model of the battlefield. There was a weapons demonstration on the day I went: a man from the Hotspur School of Defence, dressed as an all-purpose soldier, hefted billhooks and twirled pikes, running his finger along blades to show the damage they inflicted and explaining how plate armour functioned. "The noise, that's what's really shocking," said Neil on our cycle ride the next day, "I tell you, just two men in armour hitting each other with weapons makes an unbelievably loud clanging. Imagine hundreds. They stopped every half an hour so because they had to have a rest and drink. It seems such a strange idea. I'm intrigued to know how the Ecomuseum will develop. Other sites, including Edinburgh Castle and the Fletcher Monument in Selkirk, are joining in. Some are far-flung: the new Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth has expressed an interest, because the Mary Rose carried 1,000 English troops up to Newcastle for the battle. I wonder if this will weaken the local nature of the idea, or whether it will broaden it out to become a highly sophisticated way of interpreting a single battle. Even more fascinating, it's a controlled experiment. Ecomuseum v Visitor Centre. Flodden v Bannockburn. England v Scotland. Let the battle commence. Flodden Flodden1513 (flodden1513.com) is the anchor website for the Ecomuseum and for the events up to, after and on the battle day. For example, this weekend, September 7-8, there will be a Flodden Marquee in Branxton Village with family activities and some original battle-related documents on display. On battle day itself, Clive Hallam-Baker will lead a 500 Years to the Hour battlefield walk at 3.30pm (booking advised on flodden.net) and there will be a commemorative service at the memorial at 7.15pm. See the "Commemoration News Flyer" under the News and Events tab. The Remembering Flodden Project (flodden.net), which runs the phone box at Branxton, has an excellent website with battle information, cycling and walking maps and a book and CD for sale. Other cycling routes are available from Wooler Cycle Hub (wooler.org.uk/cycling/373-wooler-cycle-hub) and bikes can be hired from Haugh Head Garage (haughheadgarage.co.uk), the Heatherslaw Mill Visitor Centre (ford-and-etal.co.uk) and Wilson Cycles in Berwick (01289 331476). For more information, see Visit Northumberland (visitnorthumberland.com) and Visit Scottish Borders (visitscottishborders.com). Sophie Campbell stayed in a shepherd's hut at the Wooler Youth Hostel (01668 281365; woolerhostel.co.uk). A hut for two costs £32 and for three £43.50. Dorm beds cost from £15 adults and £11.50 concessions. She travelled from London King's Cross to Berwick-upon-Tweed with East Coast Mainline (08457 225111; eastcoast.co.uk). Bannockburn Low-key is not the approach for the commemoration of the Battle of Bannockburn (0844 493 2139; battleofbannockburn.com), which took place in June 1314. The National Trust for Scotland and Historic Scotland have combined forces to create a new attraction featuring a 3-D "battle simulation" that also looks at the choices made by Robert Bruce of Scotland and Edward II of England. The three-day Bannockburn Live: A Feast of Food, Music and History will take place on June 28, 29 and 30 2014. Tickets go on sale in early 2014 and cost adult: £22, child (under 14): £13.80, family ticket: (two adults, two children under 14) £60.50 and the King's Ticket: £82.50. Note that the last can only be bought via Ticketsoup (ticketsoup.com).