The Earl of Elgin's ancestor Robert the Bruce rallies his troops at Bannockburn in 1314

A battle royal is brewing in a Scottish quarry, involving cragrats, bats and an descendant of Robert the Bruce.

Routes on a popular climbing crag in Fife have had large boxes placed across them, making them virtually impossible to climb. The routes are on the Gellet Block at Limekilns, near Inverkeithing.

The boxes, which are about a metre wide and believed to be for bats, have been placed about 2m up on the limestone faces of the block in the former quarry.

The land belongs to the 11th Earl of Elgin, whose 19th great-grandfather was Robert I, victor of the 14th century Battle of Bannockburn.

Climbers, whose wrath has been pouring out on the UKClimbing forums, point out the timing of the placing of the boxes will not benefit bats at this time of year. They also say drilling for the boxes may have damaged the limestone face. Some climbers have threatened direct action, such as removing the structures or taping them up to prevent bats colonising them. If bats were to roost in them, they would gain legal protection and climbing on the rock would be out of the question.

The move is the latest in a long-running series of disputes between rockclimbers and the earl, going back to last century. It has been suggested that recent damage to fencing at the area, and a prolonged wild-camp by visitors, may have prompted the latest action. Climbers say the campers were backpackers.

Under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act, there is a right of access to areas such as the Limekilns, dependent on responsible use under the Scottish Outdoor Access Code.

Hebe Carus, the Mountaineering Council of Scotland’s access and conservation officer, was alerted to the new additions to the Limekilns quarry. She said: “A local MCofS rep has been monitoring the Gellet Rocks for climbers for around three years or more, and we have been involved in firefighting issues since 1989.

“We have been in frequent contact with the Fife Council access officer. These are the people with the statutory duty to uphold access rights, although usually have a huge backlog of issues and cannot always react as quickly as the reporter would ideally wish.”

Ms Carus advised climbers to keep the area tidy, not to annoy locals and to keep numbers manageable so as to keep a low profile.

There is a history of bad blood between the earl and climbers. In the 1980s, ivy was hacked away from the rockface, which the Bruce family viewed as a historic relic. During delicate negotiations between the estate and the mountaineering council, the less than helpful message ‘Fuck off Lord Elgin’ was painted on the rock, prompting the retaliatory greasing of hand- and footholds on the routes.

The MCofS advice to climbers is not to take the matter into their own hands, but to pursue official lines to try to resolve the situation.