Tony Pollard

Professor Tony Pollard recently retired from teaching conflict archaeology and military history at the University of Glasgow, in part to spend more time writing, but also to pursue other passions such as battlefield guiding. A pioneer in his field, he co-founded (with his colleague Dr Iain Banks) the Centre for Battlefield Archaeology at the University of Glasgow in 2005. It was the first academic institution of its type, and its unique character was further cemented through the introduction of the world’s first post-graduate course specialising in the new field of conflict archaeology. Hot on the heels of the Centre, he co-founded the Journal of Conflict Archaeology which is published three times a year by Taylor and Francis.

Outside of academia he is a well-known face on television, from popularising battlefield archaeology in the early 2000s with the BBC series Two Men in a Trench to more recent appearances in documentaries such as Nazi Megastructures and Defending Europe. A published novelist, Tony is a natural story teller, and in The Wars Beneath Our Feet: Adventures in Conflict Archaeology he provides riveting insight into his research via case studies drawn from 25 years in the field. He has always believed archaeology to be the closest thing we have to a time machine, and this is nowhere more obvious than with conflict archaeology, where the past and the present can collide in the palm of your hand.

This is the book Tony has always wanted to write, harnessing the enthusiasm and imagination of a boy long ago inspired by movies and history books to revisit the adventures which made him one of the world’s leading conflict archaeologists. Not for him the painted caves or ancient tombs of traditional archaeology, it was the uncomfortable parts of the human past which drew him to battlefields and the things war leaves broken and scattered in its wake. Here, he explores the sharp end of history, from the battlefields of the Anglo-Zulu War to sites of close quarter combat in the Falklands War via the tunnels of the Great Escape. Shedding new light on the darker side of history by unearthing the wars beneath our feet this book brings you military history like you’ve never read it before.

Read a 2026 interview with Tony in The Herald newspaper here: https://archive.md/TwrbZ

In this video from Tony’s Wars Beneath Our Feet YouTube channel, he visits Culloden which also features in the book: