1722 Coal Waggon to star at Battle re-enactments September 15th & 16th

Waggonway Heritage Project will be telling its tale at Prestonpans battle re-enactments

It is one of the fascinating details of the battle in September 1745 that it was waged across the Tranent/ Cockenzie Waggonway - Scotland's oldest gravity rail track that carried coal from pits at Tranent to Cockenzie Harbour and salt pans.

As such it a great pleasure to know that this year for the first time a replica waggon from that time will take part in the re-enactments - and be on display in the encampment throughout the weekend.

The Waggonway Heritage Group has made gigantic strides in just 2 years with further work of excavation at Cockenzie Harbour during East Lothian's Archaeology Fortnight early September.

All plans by the Prestonpans 1745 Heritage Battle Trust involve ensuring that the waggonway's history is also shared as widely as may be. There is also the opportunity for salt panning to be demonstrated once again along these shores of the Forth which the Waggonway group are also ensuring - since much of the coal that came down the gravity tracks from Tranent [along the Waggonway as marked out today as a Walking Trail] was used boiling the sea waters and panning their salt.