I'm not quite sure I can do a history lesson on this one. You might be better off looking up a brief history of the town of Stirling online somewhere. But the important parts are these:
Sometime in the 1100's Stirling was a very powerful little town, considered the stronghold or the heart of Scotland. It was said "He who holds Stirling, holds Scotland." The town figured very prominently in two battles. One was at the end of the 13th Century, in which William Wallace (you might remember him from "Braveheart") held off the English at what became known as the Battle of Stirling Bridge. It is named such because, according to local legend, Wallace had a builder sit underneath the bridge until the English army came marching along, then he knocked out the pins, leaving half the army on one side, half on the other, and quite a few drowning in the river. What is definite is that the Scottish Army attacked while the English were still partly across, a nice little bottleneck.
The second battle here was the Battle of Stirling, in 1648. Don't ask me about it, I don't know anything, only that this was also the time of Cromwell.
Stirling has, at times, been a capital of Scotland and been home to the King of Scotland in the era of James IV (so, early 1500's) and before him. Thus, Stirling has a Castle, which--like the Edinburgh Castle--is seated at the top of an old volcanic plug overlooking a mostly flat terrain. It's weird, because in one way if you've seen one Scottish castle you've seen them all, I guess. A sharp incline to the Castle, even once within the Defences. No moat here, just perfect geography for a castle and a lot of stone walls.
A few things surprised me about Stirling Castle. There were a surprising number of little gardens and plazas, one that was named the Lion Square---perhaps named for the lion that was exercised there. Who would keep a lion in an enclosed castle? Must have been crazy. The site used for the chapel was the oldest building site on the hill, though the one standing there now was built by one of the Jameses in the style of a French chateau. The Great Hall was constructed with much lighter-colored stone than the rest of the castle, so it stands out, and the upturned-boat design for the roof was inspiration for the roof in the Edinburgh Castle.
There were draperies with unicorns on them everywhere. I mean it.
They are currently undergoing a project in which a set of seven tapestries that show a unicorn hunt are being commissioned to hang in the Great Hall, as they once were 500 years ago. Down the one side of the Castle, past the Powder Magazines, is the Tapestry Studio. There was one woman working at a gigantic loom with about three guards... to make sure we don't distract her? Tapestries are woven on their side, left to right not bottom to top. You can do postgraduate study in
West Dean College, in West Sussex. It takes a year, apparently. You have no idea how much I want to quit physics and take up tapestry weaving.
Anyway. So the last main building is the Palace, which housed the King's Apartments and Queen's Apartments, where visitors would be received, dancing and dining hosted, and the royalty slept. While I was visiting these areas were being excavated and restored. Sounds bad, maybe. But I really liked the unfinished look, it felt more realistic than any color matching could have done. It was here that I saw a short dramatisation of the murder of the 'Black Douglas' who refused to pay fealty to King James II. I think. Hey, there were a lot of details to remember today!
-I also saw a really cool exhibit of the Great Kitchens, which had fake food and plastic cooks to show how the kitchens looked and ran back in those days.
-It must be a requirement for every Castle to have a museum for the local regiment of the Highlanders Army, this one was dedicated to the Argyll and Sutherland Regiment.
My entrance fee to the Castle included Argyll's Lodgings, a mansion located right across the street from the castle, owned by Alexander, and passed along the various Earls of Argyll. Though small, everything recreated a 1670's noble townhouse. Actually I was impressed with it a lot, even though there were only three or four display rooms, and everything was in the same shade of purple. Everything. But a really beautiful house.
On my walk back down to the town centre, I stopped by the Smith Art Gallery, though I saw very little art. The first, small room housed a temporary exhibit about printing in Scotland. The second, larger room focused on Stirling History. It started off fine, with archaeological artefacts from prehistoric times, then things got a little confused. They jumped from that to the role of area men in the Napoleonic Wars, to the 1297 Battle of Stirling Bridge and William Wallace, to a miners' strike in 1979, then back to the 17th century. I have never appreciated proper chronology before today, though I did learn a lot about the area's history.
Other than that, there isn't much in Stirling. It seems to be mostly a little commercial hub for the region.. one of these places that is central to everything and so it houses the main mall, even though the town itself is definitely not big enough to support so many shops.
That, and I put up about 30 photos from today, so go on and have a look.
