STIRLING CASTLE

This castle is considered one of the largest and most important both historically and architecturally in Scotland. It is seen for miles around, as it sits on top of Castle Hill, its imposing position having played a largely strategic role throughout the centuries, sitting on top of a huge volcanic rock, surrounded on 3 sides by steep cliffs.




"If you hold the castle, you hold the crossing. If you hold the river you could hold the realm. The river Forth where Scotland narrows between Forth and the Clyde Rivers, Sterling Castle has always been fought over. It is the broach that holds together the Highlands and the Lowlands.

The town lists its charter as beginning in 1226. The current city has buildings dating from the 15th century. It is one of the many sites associated with King Arthur.

Once home to the Scottish Royals, the building has been subject to many bloody sieges and political intrigue, but today has been restored to its former breathtaking glory. It was considered the center of art, culture and celebrity in the 16th century. In the 17th century it was a prison for the royals.

This is the Renaissance palace of JAMES V. It was refurbished and reopened in 2011. The royal apartments inside the palace have been returned to how they may have looked in the 1540's, when they were the childhood home of Mary Queen of Scots.  She was also crowned at this castle. Stirling was central to William Wallace's fight in the Wars of Independence where he and Robert the Bruce won great victories.

During the fight for independence, during the 1300's the castle changed ownership from Scotland to England 8 times in 50 years.

An interesting tale is told of James IV and John Damien, the Abbot of Tongland in Kircudbrightshire who earned the nickname of the Frenzied Friar of Tongland. He was an Italian and a learned man who spent a lot of time at court. In 1507 he convinced Jame IV that man could fly and he would prove it by jumping from the walls of the castle and soar like a bird. He had his servants gather a large collection of feathers from flying birds and construct a large pair of wings from them. The servants couldn't find enough flying bird feathers so used some chicken feathers without telling John.  He had his wings strapped on, the court assembled and he jumped fro the walls of the castle landing quickly in the castle midden, on which more than the castle's kitchen scraps were deposited. Luckily he didn't fall very far and only broke one leg. When he learned of the chicken feathers he was sure that was the cause of his failure to fly.

The grand entrance. Be prepared to be amazed.

To the left of the entrance are these beautiful statues which are Greek in origin.

In the distance is William Wallace monument. It stands over 220 feet tall and it has 246 stairs to the top.
William Wallace raised the revolt against English occupation.

Beautiful view from top of castle.

Notice the graveyard down by the church.

The guard house to the lower right.

This building houses the king/queens rooms. 

This is the king's gold building. It was this color originally 1500.

Queen Anne's Flower Garden

Our Scottish guide, Joe. He was superb. He told us that a Scottish pint of ale=3 English pints of ale. Everyone drank ale, even children and women-they drank the smaller amounts.

The Abbey.

This is the great hall created by King James. It is the largest great hall in all of Scotland. To celebrate it's completion after 3 years of building, in December 1566, there was a three day celebration. The hall was built to honor his son's baptism. It was at a cost of 3 million pounds in today's money and was a loan from Elizabeth. The two queens, Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots never met each other in this life.

The roof is made of 350 tons of Scottish oak from 350 trees. They used 4,000 hand made nails. It took 35 years to restore the roof.

500 people could be seated in this hall.

The hall can be rented for 10,000 pounds. In fact, J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter fame) actually did.

Chapel Royal
This was restored at a cost of 12 million dollars, US. It was the first protestant chapel in Scotland.

Us sitting in the King and Queen's seats. My feet didn't touch the ground. Many queens and kings were crowned at 9-18 months of age, so their feet wouldn't have touched either.

The Kings waiting room for anyone lucky enough to be allowed in.

The next room's ceiling just before you see the king.

The King's bedroom.

Beautiful murals on lower walls.

The queen's waiting room.

The Queen's bedroom. Very plush with tapestries covering the walls to keep it warm.

Beautiful tapestry in waiting room of the Queen.  The unicorn is a universal symbol of Christ.

The queen's waiting rooms.

The kitchens were run by men and young boys. Rarely were women allowed in the kitchen.

The kitchens were underground.

The hunting dogs were housed at the end of the walkway on the left. The tapestries that are being restored  are in a building at the very end of this lane. It takes about 2 years to restore one tapestry. Six have been restored to date with one more to complete.

Robert, the Bruce.He was the first king of Scotland able to liberate the entire country from the English.