"Best Preserved European Battlefield? Culloden!" Topic

You were asked – TMP link

Which battlefield has been preserved the best?

And in the final, tiebreaker round of voting:

Culloden – 31%
Waterloo – 19%

I've been there. It's really remarkable. Sad, but remarkable.

Culloden! What a surprise. I was expecting Borodino to win. I thought the Russians were looking after it?

I agree about Culloden.I visited the battlefield a few years ago. The vegetation is kept at the height it was for the battle.with the attached museum as well its well worth a visit if you are holidaying in the area.

I'd like to visit Culloden, but when I think of Europe I don't really think of the British Isles. The three I want to see the most in Europe are Waterloo, Normandy, and Bastogne. I'd also love to see Verdun, Somme, Agincourt, Marston Moor, Naseby, Culloden as I already said, Bannockburn, Meuse-Argonne, Wagram, Aspern-Essling, Hurtgen Forest, the Market Garden sites, Kalkriese, Jena, Leipzig, Lutzen, Borodino, and Kursk. Oh dear I seem to have gone off on a rant. Sorry.

Wrong half the battlefield is cut by a road and here is only a little corner from the enclosures

I am curious about the Culloden choice given that it is little more than a small stretch of boggy muir, where one side made a ragged charge on the other and, despite breaking through the opponent's line, was checked and routed. The site's significance seems to be essentially sentimental, representing the collapse of the Jacobite cause. As such, it does have a certain atmosphere.

There's nothing much to see of Aspern-Essling or Wagram as these areas are now developed with housing etc and are just suburbs of Vienna.

The Battlefield by Austerlitz was also quite well preserved when I was there in 1995. It was at that time a protected area due to its historical value. If it is still so, a quite large part og the battlefield is well preserved.

The area around Auerstadt was also a rural area around the same time and looked quite well preserved. Auerstadt had even a small museum with a some interesting artifacts found on the battlefield. I bought a copy at the museum of an original drawing from the 19th Century over a "topographical" map of the maneuvers for the battle.

I've been to quite a few European battlefields and the absolute stand out in terms of preservation state is the battlefield of Ramillies. The terrain remains open agricultural and the villages are about the same size with many original buildings intact.

Walking it you can really see how slight undulations of ground can hide thousands of men- used by Marlborough to deceive the French when he redeployed most of his right wing to his left in mid-battle. You also see exactly how important church spires would be for battlefield orientation and navigation in the horse and musket era. Near to Brussels and Waterloo- well worth a visit.

BROM 4689

Kolin