Stirling
 Castles |  Royal Britain |
Perched high on a 250ft crag commanding the crossings of the upper Forth, where the Highlands meet the Lowlands, Stirling has played a vital role in its country's tumultuous history. For centuries, warring factions fought for possession of "the Striveling" - the place of strife, from which Stirling takes its name.Evidence of early occupation of the commanding rock would indicate Stone Age and Bronze Age occupation; later, between 300BC and AD300, there is evidence of Iron Age settlers building fortifications and defensive works. The remains of the Roman Antonine Wall pass within 10 miles of Stirling, but there is no evidence for Roman fortification of the Rock. In the 11th century a castle was built on the heights, and in the 12th century Alexander I granted Stirling a royal charter.
This charter entitled it to hold weekly markets and promote merchant guilds. Standing at the central crossroads, Stirling developed into a town of both strategic importance and wealth. Stirling Castle figured prominently in the wars of Scottish succession throughout the 13th and 14th centuries, constantly changing hands between Scots and English. From 1342, however, the castle remained in Scottish hands, and with the accession of the Stuart kings in 1370, Stirling Castle again became a royal residence. It was the site of the Royal Palace and, as such, was long the virtual capital of Scotland. The Stuarts built most of the main buildings and castle, as it now stands, in the 15th and 16th centuries, and it remains the finest example of Renaissance architecture in Scotland.
In the 16th century, Mary of Guise, mother of Mary, Queen of Scots and regent of Scotland, constructed new town defences. The castle's Parliament Hall was built for James III, and his son James IV added the fine gatehouse. James V built most of the Royal Palace in the early 16th century, turning the castle into one of the most sumptuous in Scotland; French masons cut much of the ornate stonework. The King's Knot, below the battlements, was a vantagepoint from which royalty watched tournaments. The upper rooms of the palace house the Museum of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. Mary, Queen of Scots married her second husband, Lord Darnley, secretly in Stirling Castle in 1565, and the following year their son, James VI was baptised there. When James departed for England in 1603, the life of the castle as a royal residence came to an end.
At the head of Broad Street, in the town, is Mar's Wark, the ruins of a once magnificent town house, built between 1570/2 by the Earl of Mar. In 1589, James VI and his bride stayed there until their rooms in the castle were completed. Nearby is the Church of the Holy Rude, largely 15th century. It was here in 1567, after Mary had abdicated, that the infant James was crowned James VI of Scotland; John Knox, the Scottish Protestant reformer, preached the sermon. The oldest parts of the church, the nave and lower sections of the tower, were built about 1460 - the open timber roof is a rare example of its kind.
South of the church stands Cowane's Hospital, or Guildhall, built by John Cowane between 1639/49; it contains old relics and a statue of its founder. In the centre of Broad Street, flanked by cannons, stands the Mercat Cross, where for centuries all public events were celebrated. The town tolbooth (prison), built in 1704, faces Broad Street, and nearby is the Stirling Gallery, which promotes the work of Scottish artists. The town's Auld Brig, old bridge, was built across the Forth in 1415. Every Scottish king from James I to Charles II crossed the river over these medieval arches. Beside the river lie the remains of Cambuskenneth Abbey, an Augustinian abbey founded by David I in the 11th century. Dissolved during the Reformation, the abbey fell into ruin and its stones used for other construction. James III and his queen, Margaret of Denmark, are buried in the abbey. Argyll's Lodging, in Irvine Place, is the finest example of 17th century domestic architecture to survive in Scotland. The mansion was built by the 1st Earl of Stirling in 1630, but took its name from the 1st Marquis of Argyll, who bought it in 1655 - he it was who crowned Charles II King of Scotland in 1651.
A mile to the north, on Abbey Craig, is the Wallace Monument, a 220ft tower completed in 1869, a memorial to Scotland's medieval patriot, William Wallace. A bronze statue of Wallace surmounts the door, and in the Tower Hall stands his two-handed sword, 5ft 4ins in length.
Stirling Castle looks out across the plain toward Bannockburn, the battlefield on which, in 1314, Robert the Bruce routed the English army of Edward II, and achieved nationhood for Scotland. On the battlefield is a rotunda, built around the Borestone in which the shaft of Bruce's standard is said to have been set. An equestrian statue of Bruce looks down on the field of his famous victory.