A YORK design company has won a huge contract in Scotland where it is designing a £2 million visitor experience at the site of the historic Battle of Bannockburn.

Bright White, based in Walmgate, has created interactive exhibitions for museums and attractions in Dubai, Norway, Israel, Malta, Germany, France and throughout the UK.

But the news that the prestigious contract had been awarded to the only firm on the shortlist that wasn’t Scottish, didn’t go down well with descendants of Robert the Bruce, who defeated the English in the battle in 1314.

Andrew Bruce, the 11th Earl of Elgin, told The Sunday Mail, a Scottish newspaper, that it was “disappointing” and would have been nice if a Scottish firm had won the contract, and Richard Bruce, high commissioner of the clan’s international organisation, Family of Bruce, based in America, said he didn’t understand the decision to award the contract to a English firm.

A spokeswoman for Historic Scotland said they had followed European Procurement guidelines to choose Bright White.

Chris Walker, managing director of Bright White, said York fostered talent in museum design, which is why Bright White has such success internationally, although they have previously been beaten to contracts in York by Scottish firms.

“York has an unusually rich concentration of museum design professionals, thanks mainly to the pioneering work of a relatively small group of people in the 1980s that created the Jorvik Centre.

“Those pioneers have encouraged and mentored us, the next generation of design professionals, as we developed from the 1990s to today. There is something in our mindset that is progressive, something that makes us constantly question museum practice, and always be on the lookout for new museum philosophies.”

“For reasons of confidentiality, we cannot say much about design development in Bannockburn, other than that this is like nothing seen or heard before, and that the entire collaborative team is aiming to create something that changes the way that the audience experiences battle in a museum context – very exciting times.”

A spokesman for Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce said: “Everybody likes to see their own businesses succeed but we’re putting for the anniversary of Bannockburn as a repeat of the Scottish homecoming. It is of international significance and we would hope they were selecting the best possible designer for the exhibition.”