Living history

Blood, fire and thunder – war is a risky and noisy business, even the pretend kind. Jack McKeown meets a young man who never gets tired of fighting old battles

Other people his age are looking to the future with iPhones and Dr Dre but Fifer Alasdair Stuart prefers to live in the past.

The 20-year-old from Burntisland is a battle re-enactment enthusiast. He spends his weekends in vintage military costume, with sword, musket or rifle in hand, charging across fields and defending castles from marauding invaders.

In his final year of an honours degree in Scottish history and archaeology at Perth College, Alasdair’s interest in the old days was piqued from an early age.

“My parents used to run the tearoom at Aberdour Castle,” he explains. “I saw quite a lot of battle re-enactment events there when I was young.”

It wasn’t until he was 19 that he decided to find out what it was like to participate in re-staging famous battles from history.

“There was a 17th Century reenactment group at Aberdour Castle.

“I went along and it looked like fun so I asked if I could join in. The rest is history…”

One of his first major gatherings was at Dumbarton Castle, near Glasgow. “It was a big multi-period event organised by Historic Scotland. There were all sorts of other groups there – it was terrific.”

While Alasdair started out doing 17th Century re-enactment, he has since been introduced to a First World War group and now divides his time between the two eras.

He has three costumes, all made with meticulous attention to detail and historical accuracy. “I have a 17th Century soldier’s uniform and First World War piper’s and soldier’s uniforms,” he explains. “They are quite expensive but I’ve saved up for them and I plan to expand my collection in the future.”

Alasdair spends almost every weekend of the summer at reenactment events and earlier this year he went to the Netherlands for one of Europe’s biggest gatherings.

“There were 2,000 people from all different eras. The entire town stepped back into the 17th Century for three whole days. There were cannon, musket and cavalry everywhere. It was spectacular.

“We re-enacted a war called the Siege of Groenlo that happened in 1627. Scottish mercenaries fought in it and I portrayed one of those.”

Did he get a thrill from performing in front of the event’s huge crowds? “To be honest when you’re fighting a big battle you’re so busy watching out for your own safety and that of the people around you that you don’t have time to focus on the crowd. I got a huge buzz thinking about it afterwards though.”

Although obviously far from as dangerous as real warfare, battle re-enactment is not a risk free activity. “You need a shotgun licence for the muskets we use,” Alasdair explains. “We only fire black powder out of it, which creates a loud bang and a lot of smoke.

“You wouldn’t want to be right in front of one when it went off though.”

The entire town stepped back into the 17th Century for three whole days. There were cannon, musket and cavalry everywhere.