An awe inspiring new mural depicting the Battle of Bannockburn has been unveiled at the Bannockburn visitor centre just outside Stirling.
The work, painted by the Edinburgh based artist Chris Rutterford, was started last year just before the celebrations of the 700 year anniversary of the Battle. The artist has said that the aim of the painting is to emphasise the heartbeat of humanity at the historic site and complement the visitor experience and said he was originally inspired to create the work when he saw a mural of Bannockburn in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, painted by the 19th century artist Sir William Hole.
The massive 30 metre long work of art includes over 600 figures, some of which use the likeness of real people who contributed to the project in order to be featured. Through crowd-funding donors paid up to £500 to be included and were asked to strike a battle worthy pose for their fearsome part in the mural. Around 72 people backed the project from as far a field as Australia and New Zealand, with some people donating multiple times to have more people included, and as a result there are whole families in the painting.
Several Scottish celebrities were also included and eagle eyed viewers can spot the likes of TV presenter Lorraine Kelly, Glasgow Warriors Rugby star Alastair Kellock and several members of the Clanranald Trust, the battle re-enactment group, battling for Scottish independence. One donor even asked that their cat be included in the mural, and if you look closely you will find him in battle, axe in one hand, cat in the other!
The mural can be found within the visitor centres central courtyard, and runs along the entire length of one of the walls, making an imposing but impressive sight. It adds to other great pieces of work already featured at the award winning site including the iconic Robert the Bruce statue sculpted by Charles d’Orville Pilkington Jackson.
Chris Rutterford has a history of building huge crowd murals. In 2011 he painted a 20 metre Tam o’ Shanter mural with a coven of witches chasing the drunken horseman and in 2012 he built a painting of the Tron kirk on the Royal Mile with over 3000 portraits of the classic Edinburgh Hogmanay.
The mural will be on show in the courtyard until 31st October.