Now we went on to the main areas of the manor. This staircase is original to the house. That makes it pushing 500 years old!!!! At one time the house was used as a hospital and the stairs were covered in linoleum. You can still see where the tack strips were. This is probably why the staircase is in such good shape. The renovators had to replace the top of one handrail, but all the rest of the stair case is original.
On the second floor is the dining hall. This room would also have been used for dancing after dinner or for audiances with the Earl and for conducting business. The walls have been painted to resemble the back wall. The renovators believe the walls would have been painted this way to begin with, but were covered over when the manor was a hospital. The renovators found a false wall installed over the back wall where the original wall painting was found.
Yep, that picture up above is exactly what you think it is. The first padded “throne”. Lol!!!
This is the bedroom of the Earl and Countess.
After leaving Argyll’s Lodging, we headed back down the hill toward town. On the way, we stopped in the Church of the Holy Rude. “Rude” means Cross. Don’t ask me how. Anyway, this church is where Mary Queen of Scots son James was crowned King of Scotland. It has been the parish church of Stirling since before even then and they still hold services there today.
So, why the different service times? Daylight Savings Time! There doesn’t appear to be any (or much) electric light in the church. It would be hard to hold services until the sun was well up.
Here’s some of the stained glass.
There were a lot of monuments carved or mounted on the walls around the main part of the church. Many of them were memorials for soldiers, but this one is for one of the previous (way previous) Ministers of the church.
This is a carving in the stone floor of the small St. Andrew’s Chapel inside the church. St. Andrew is the Patron Saint of Scotland so there are many, many chapels and churches dedicated to him. This is obviously a very old chapel.
This is the baptismal font in the St. Andrew’s Chapel.
I wonder how many babies have been baptised from this font?
Here is the baptismal font in the main part of the church. Much nicer and newer.
After leaving the church I drug Jim up to the cemetary behind the church. Normally, I really like old cemetaries and they don’t give me a moment’s problem. This one however, way different. We had barely gotten into the cemetary when I felt the hackles start to rise and my shoulders start to hunch up. For the first time ever, I had to leave and leave right then! So, I quickly took some pictures of the cool headstones and practically ran out of the cemetary. Very weird.
Another picture of the Old Town Jail from the church cemetary. I wonder how many of the inmates of the prison were buried in that cemetary?
Across from the Church of the Holy Rude is Cowane’s Hospital. We didn’t think we really had time to go inside. This was once a charity hospital and epidemic hospital. The statue on the front is of John Cowane and is called Staneybreeks. There is a legend that on every Hogmanay, he comes down for a dance.
We headed back towards town looking for a place for dinner. On the way we passed one of the very neat “tourist information” signs in Stirling.
We also went past the old Tollbooth.
After a very long and busy day we stopped in a pub for dinner. The name of the pub is Drouthy Neebers. It means Thirsty Friends in old Scots. This is where I found a beer I could actually drink. Of course, it’s probably very expensive over here if you can even find it. Thankfully I guess, I don’t drink very often. The beer is called Stella Artois. It’s a Belgian beer. Ha! I couldn’t even find a British beer to drink. Oh well.
After dinner we walked back to the apartment, watched some really bad British cable television and collapsed into bed. Up next, Glasgow.
