For nearly 60 years, thousands of young men used the facilities at Stobs Camp near Hawick in the Scottish Borders to train for war. Now the bleak, windswept hills lie as silent witnesses to all that passed before them.

Stobs Camp has significant historical importance with its quality of remains, intact training ground, massive archaeological potential and huge educational resource. Due to its extraordinary level of preservation Stobs Camp is an internationally important site relating to Scotland’s preparation for and subsequent handling of First World War prisoners.

Within Scotland no site exists with the mix of army training camp and prisoners of war and internees in one place, none has the surviving remains visible as at Stobs, no other camp has any standing buildings and much of the training ground including firing ranges and trenches surviving. And within the UK, no First World War prisoner of war camp has upstanding buildings remaining, no internees’ camp survives on the mainland, and no training camps survive to the same level of preservation.

This is why Stobs is so important.