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Have you ever explored a real castle? At Stirling Castle you are free to wander the grounds, climb the ramparts, explore the dungeons and scullery, and imagine attending a great banquet in one of the most impressive medieval great halls anywhere. Want armor, weapons, cannons, and ghosts? Stirling Castle has them all. Come along for the adventure! |
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Mary Queen of Scots slept around a lot. There’s barely a castle in all of Scotland, it seems, that doesn’t claim at least a one-night-stand from the ex teenage Queen of France, controversial Queen of Scotland, and would-be Queen of England. It’s not that Mary was pursuing; it’s that she was being pursued: by Scots, by English, and, eventually, by Scots and English together. The pursuits started early. At 8-months-old Queen Mary I of Scotland was first hidden from pursuers sent by English King Henry VIII who wanted Mary for an arranged marriage to the king’s 5-year-old son, the future King Edward VI. Mary’s French mother, Mary of Guise, wished no such union imposed upon her daughter and the French and Scottish royal lines, so she ran away with |
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the baby queen to the
safest place she could think of in Scotland, Stirling Castle. There the
royal infant was hidden for a month until her coronation ceremony at the
castle’s Chapel Royal on September 9, 1543. |
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Mary Queen of Scots is not the only Scottish icon associated with Stirling Castle. William Wallace and his army of Highlanders (and others) beat back King Edward I’s (Longshanks’s) English army at Stirling Bridge, almost in the shadow of the castle in 1297. One generation later Wallace’s royal protégée, Robert the Bruce, finished off the English to finally win independence for Scotland at Bannockburn just outside of Stirling. After The Bruce, most Scottish kings and queens maintained residence at Stirling Castle, returning to a tradition started by King Alexander I shortly after the castle was built in the early 12th century on the site that had been used as a fortress for centuries. |
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Photo courtesy Shirley Barnes |
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The timing of the enlarging and strengthening of the fortress above Stirling is obvious: the ambitious Normans who had just conquered England at the end of the 11th century were doubtless eyeing Scotland just as they were conquering Wales and Ireland. The key to conquering Scotland is to hold the high ground at the crossroads of the country, Stirling, where the Highlands and Lowlands meet at the crossing of the River Forth. The high ground above the Forth is high indeed: Castle Hill is a volcanic outcropping jutting dramatically above the flat river valley with near vertical rocky escarpments on three sides. The fourth side is a sharply sloping ramp leading up from the old town of Stirling to the heavily fortified gates of the castle. |
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Stirling Castle is famed as a royal residence. But its first importance has always been as a fortress. The army possessing Stirling Castle possesses the keys to Scotland. As such, no castle north of England has such strategic importance. Edinburgh Castle may hold the high ground of the Scottish capital, and Inverness Castle the high ground above the capital of the Highlands, but Stirling Castle guards the crossroads of the nation. No wonder Longshanks brought in his secret weapon the Warwolf trebuchet (catapult) for the siege of Stirling. The great warrior King of England knew Stirling held the keys to the country. But six years after Edward I routed Wallace’s Scots at Falkirk it took four months and |
| thirteen giant siege engines before the English king could finally gain control of Stirling Castle, and reclaim Scotland for England. Longshanks’s lessons were not lost on history. In all Stirling Castle was put under siege eight times in 450 years, three times by English, and five times by Scots who knew better than anyone that he who holds the keys to Stirling Castle holds the keys to Scotland. |
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Siege warfare is not kind to architecture.
After seeing its value to the English King, Robert the Bruce had
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dates principally from the 16th century and is ranked with Scotland’s most important architecture for the quality of its late medieval craftsmanship. |
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There is still a Chapel Royal at Stirling Castle, but this one replaced the medieval chapel where Mary Queen of Scots was crowned almost 500 years ago. The new chapel was built in renaissance style by Mary’s son, King James VI of Scotland for the baptism of his son and heir, Henry, Prince of Wales. In one of the castle’s great historic ironies, Mary and Henry never realized their highest ambitions, despite the expectations placed upon them as infants at Stirling Castle. Mary, viewed as a dangerous traitor by powerful Scottish countrymen and her even more powerful cousin, Queen Elizabeth I of England, was hunted down, jailed and ultimately beheaded. Prince Henry, Mary’s grandson, showed great promise as heir to the thrones of Scotland and England, but died before he inherited either, from sickness (possibly typhoid fever) at 18 years of age. It is Henry’s father, Mary’s son, James VI of Scotland who ultimately claimed the keys to Stirling Castle, and to Windsor Castle as well, as King James |
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I of the United Kingdom. More irony: although James VI/I was born
in Edinburgh Castle, he was raised in Stirling Castle. However, as a
one-year-old, he was crowned King of Scotland — but not in the castle,
rather in the nearby 15th century Church of the Holy Rude,
Stirling’s second oldest building, also worth a visit when you see the
castle.
INTERIOR of the CHAPEL ROYAL. NOTE |
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You can visit all
kinds of castles as easy day trips
from Home At First lodgings
throughout Scotland.
Our exclusive "Scotland Activities Guide" has over
120 pages of suggestions for things to see and
do when you travel with Home At First
to:
SCOTLAND.
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HOME AT FIRST
offers travel to five
great regions of Scotland. Have your own cottage
in CENTRAL SCOTLAND,
NORTHERN SCOTLAND, or THE
SCOTTISH BORDERS.
Have your own city apartment in EDINBURGH or
GLASGOW.
Minimum rental is one week, and you can
mix and
match with other
HOME AT FIRST destinations
throughout ENGLAND,
IRELAND,
and WALES.
Or, for complete information about travel
with
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to Britain & Ireland, see: BRITISH ISLES.
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