The Battle of Princes St Gardens

My Blip today shows the site of one of the last close armed skirmishes to be fought in Edinburgh.
The date was 6th July 2005, the occasion the G 8 meeting that held up in Gleneagles.
The G8 protestors were on an unauthorized march along Princes St, (on the left of the photo) and having made contact with the Police on the street a small detachment of them tried an outflanking manoeuvre along the gardens toward the Scott Monument. They were prevented in moving far by a determined unit of police, probably from the Greater Manchester Police brought to support the local constabulary. It is not known what the target of the protesters was if their flanking had worked, an attempt to take the Scott Monument from which, if they scaled this then they could have held it for weeks or maybe they were heading for Waverley (train home to mummy!), who knows.
Although arrests were made and no doubt some bruises and contusions were sustained the biggest casualties were sustained by the bedding plants many hundreds of whom did not see the day out.
No seagulls, as far as I could ascertain were involved as combatants.