Our first full day in Stirling was on Sunday. The original plan was to catch the train up to Inverness for the day. Unfortunately, jet lag won out and Jim decided we needed to just stay in Stirling and do our sightseeing. First up was a walk into town to find a payphone to call Jim’s golfing friend to arrange for a tee time. Then we went to McDonald’s (yes, I said it……Micky D’s) to grab some brunch and decide what to do.
Just up the street from the train station was Stirling Baptist Church. Being raised Southern Baptist, I thought that was pretty cool. I also thought it was pretty cool because Scotland is heavily Presbyterian and Church of England/Anglican/Episcopal with a smattering of Catholic.
Jim took a picture during service and you can see the band equipment set up. The lady who was greeting told us they had had a live band for at least the 40 years that she had been attending. Sweet!
After this, Jim decided it would be a great idea to walk up to Stirling Castle. A mile and a half, one way, UP HILL!!! I threatened to hurt him, but we started out slow just working our way up the street. Along the way we saw really cool old houses, nice bistro restaurants and coffee shops, and then we ran into this….
One of the sandwish boards offered live action tour guides, so of course we had to check it out.
This is the actual old jail building.
This jail was built to house the inmates from the Tollboth. The tollbooth was almost a guaranteed death sentence, the new jail would make you long for death.
Of course we had to play our parts before going in…
Yea, just as I suspected. Totally unrepentant.
Now that’s more like it.
As is common, no cameras or video were allowed into the jail itself, but I can tell you we encountered a Glaswegian Hangman, aVictorian Nobleman, a Military guard, and a convict atempting to escape. All of these characters were played by our guide. As we moved from one room to another there would be a jacket and a tie or cravat waiting. Our guide would change his jacket, vest and cravat and as soon as the jacket was settle on his shoulders, he had “become” the next character complete with different accent and demeanor – sometimes in mid-sentence. A. Maze. Ing.
We were allowed to take pictures from the top of the tower. The white building is Cowane’s Hospital, the building with the tower is the Church of the Holy Rude, and in the background is Stirling Castle.
Here is the view off to the Stirling Golf Course.
Here’s the view of Stirling proper. This is towards the train station. That sticky-up white spider looking thing is actually a foot bridge from one side of the train tracks to the other. We became well acquainted with this as it was the route we took to go to and from the apartment.
Here’s another view of the town.
That blue building and clock in the above picture is the old Tollbooth. This was the “old” jail before the “new” jail was built. Now it’s used for community events like plays and concerts. I’m not totally sure I would be comfortable enjoying myself in a place where hundreds died from starvation and disease. Just me though.
Up on the hill outside of Stirling is the Wallace Monument which you can see in some of these pictures.
Once we were let out of the jail we headed back up the street towards the castle. Along the way we passed the Church of the Holy Rude and decided to keep going to the castle and check out the church on the way back down. Probably a good idea as I still has some energy to climb the hill up to the castle.
At the entry to the castle are a few statues, one of which is a war memorial statue for World War I. Scotland has numerous war memorials, some larger some smaller.
We decided to take the free tour with a guide so while we waited for the next tour to start we went into some of the castle gardens. As you will see later on, this garden was not very impressive for the plants, but the walls surrounding the gardens were cool.
The tour guide took us through the portcullis of the castle and explained some of the early methods of warfare including the use of boiling oil, hot sand, armor, and arrows. Not a terribly pretty picture.
The castle is not just one building. Generally castles would contain a troop garrison, a palace or royal living quarters, a church or chapel, and a great hall where feasts and affairs of state were conducted.
This is the Inner Close of the palace which is inner courtyard. The building is the palace or main living quarters. It now houses a military museum for two Highland regiments.
This section of the palace was built when a Scottish King was supposed to marry an English queen. The carvings over the windows display the union between the “Thistle” (Scotland) and the “Rose” (England).
Attached to the Queen’s Lodging is the Chapel Royal.
On one wall of the chapel are tapestries that tell the story of the Capture of the Unicorn. The ones on the walls are copies of the originals. I believe the originals are in a museum in London. On the castle grounds is a workshop where the tapestries are being copied. Very cool. There will be a total of seven tapestries when they are all done.
These are pictures of either end of the chapel. This chapel was built by James IV on the site of an earlier chapel. This one was built for the baptism of James IV son Prince Henry.
This is the Great Hall. This building was used as an Army Hospital for a time. Massive renovation has been done here to restore it.
On top of the Great Hall are these cool animal statues – lion, monkey, unicorn and others.
This is one of the fireplaces in the Great Hall. There are several and I’m sure it would have taken all of them to heat this huge room during a Scottish winter.
The windows around the dais have the crests and names of various royals.
The Lord and Lady.
Included in the price of the Castle tour was a guided tour of Argyll’s Lodging.
Argyll’s Lodging is just down the hill from Stirling Castle. It is a manor house owned by the Earls of Argyll – the Campbells. Each section of the m manor was either built or renovated by a different generation. So, each section has a different feel in the windows and in the carvings above the windows and doors.
Next we went into the house. The first room was the room where a guest would wait for the Lord or Lady. There is a huge fireplace where a guest could warm themselves in the winter. This room might also have been used by the servants as their dining room, and possibly overflow sleeping when extra servants were brought in for large events. The lady at the head of the table is our tour guide. The dishes are representative of later serving dishes that might have been used for formal dinners.
When the house was originally built, there was a small kitchen built to do all the cooking for a large and thriving manor house.
As the manor expanded, so did the kitchens. A beer kitchen was added next to the bread baking area. Both use yeast of course.
Then there was the main serving area of the kitchen. In this area would be stored the wooden dishes for the servants as well as the pewter dishes for the Earl and his guests. In this room were also large hooks hanging from the ceiling. This was where sheep, goats, or cows would hang waiting to be cooked in the main hearth.
The last of the kitchens is the main hearth. Where Jim is sitting is where a small boy would sit to turn the meat spits…..all day…..even in the summer. This fireplace is large enough to walk into. In the back corner is a shelf where salt would have been kept to keep it dry.
