This dance was devised to commemorate the 700th Anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314.


The dance comprises a formation in bars 25-32, that is a progressive variation of a Grand Chain with 2 bars per hand and when dancing across the dancers turn once round instead of crossing. In the original description, this movement was paraphrased as 'Chain progression'. However, ...
The 'Chain Progression' was seemingly invented by Eric Forbes in the dances 'Summer in Assynt' and 'Glen Mor' in the Birmingham Book 1973 'Twelve Scottish Country Dances', but the figure in 'Bannockburn 700' is not similar to Eric Forbes' figure named 'Chain progression'. Instead there is another figure described in Eric Forbes' dance 'Ailsa Craig' in the same book. This figure is referred to as 'Progressive Chain for three couples' and is indeed identical to the figure in bars 25-32 of 'Bannockburn 700'... seemingly the two figures have been mistaken here.

This figure is now described in the database as "Grand Chain - progressive (with turns)".