Stardate: May Day - A Stirling Visit

Belated May Day greetings, comrades! 

Today we backtracked to Stirling Castle, that we'd hoped to visit on our way to Killin last Sunday but our plans were thwarted by the Great Stirling Run, otherwise known as the Scottish marathon.  Today we were grateful for that seeming embuggerance as in the interim we had time to plan properly for our visit and recognise that a very civilised  'park and ride' arrangement from the Stirling city outskirts was the best way to get to the castle.  Had we (naively) just headed for the castle on Sunday afternoon under our own steam, we would have encountered very narrow, steep, winding, medieval streetscapes that would have caused us a lot of angst in our brand new, hired Vovo, plus the very real likelihood of not getting a parking spot at all at the castle.  Thankfully, today was a breeze.

And what a fabulous place to visit.  My opinion of tourist spots is always coloured by the ready availability of lavs and a cafe and Stirling Castle gets an HD on both counts. 

In fact there were so many 'facilities' that even I couldn't try them all out.  But I can say it was pleasing not to have to wander for ages desperately looking for the bloke/woman symbols with an arrow that denote dunnies worldwide.  They were everywhere.

Enough about my bladderatorial requirements.

These holes in the castle gatehouse are from musket shot during one of the many battles against the English that took place there.  The castle went backwards and forwards under English and Scottish control over 400 years but was never wrested back by the poms after 1651.
Haw haw!

A view from the castle battlements.  This is of interest because the Battle of Bannockburn took place in what are now the suburbs of Stirling (to the left of the pic) in 1314 - a great victory for King Robert the Bruce against the pasty-faced King Edward the Second of England in the first war of Scottish independence.

This is the outer chamber of King James the Fifth's private rooms.  Those who know Geoff will be absolutely convinced by my insistence that he was desperate for me to photograph him beside this suit of armour.  😊

And here is the boudoir of Mary of Guise, wife of James the Fifth and mother of Mary Queen of Scots. 

While quite fancy, we learned today that the bed was just for appearances and that she would have actually slept in a cupboard off to the side of this room. She did use the room though for games, prayers, washing and chatting with girlfriends.






And that's it from me for this evening.  Geoff will be with you shortly. He's fresh from his own battle with the washing machine/dryer that washes clothes satisfactorily but which, when switched to dryer mode, tumbles the clothes for 20 minutes or so then turns itself off and the clothes are beautifully tumbled but still very wet and completely cold.  Yet another Great British Laundering Enigma for us.

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We agreed that Stirling Castle is in fact superior to Edinburgh Castle.  The similarity is that both are built on the top of huge hills made of volcanic stone.  But the thing about Edinburgh Castle is that it isn't really a castle as such, more a collection of buildings, erected hundreds of years apart, and for entirely different purposes - military, prisons, religion, royal accommodation, whereas Stirling is really a castle in the way that we would understand it.

This is an internal courtyard that features a number of intricately carved statues.  They were actually painted back in the day, which we found intriguing.

Lest the carved statues in the photo look a bit unclear, here's a close up of one of them.  Pretty impressive huh?  There was a feature on what each of them means, but they were really only guessing, so your and our ideas are as good as any.

Final castle photo.  This was taken from one the edges, looking along the side to show how it's built into the side of the volcanic outcrop.  I leaned as far as I could over the edge, while Anne held onto my ankles, in order to capture this unique perspective, that you won't see in any tourist brochures.

Last note on Stirling.  The area towards the top of the hill is known as the Old Town, and is quite something, with street after street of beautiful old stone buildings from the 18th and 19th century.  But the further you descend, the more it becomes a jumble of tattoo parlours, nail salons and more than anything else, betting shops (Betfred seems to be the local favourite - it would definitely be my pick if I lived there.)

On our way home to Killin (that may in fact be pronounced Kill-IN rather than KILL-in, as we've been doing), it occurred to us that we hadn't yet focused on the village's major attraction, the Falls of Dochart.  This is what you see as you approach from the south.  Can't miss it.  There's a stone bridge across the top that is perpetually thronged with tourists from all parts.  We decided today that a lot of them are from Romania, although we aren't that good at discerning among Eastern European languages.

And here's one of the few non-Romanians savouring the atmosphere of the falls.  He was rewarded with a drink at the Falls of Dochart Inn soon after, so don't feel too badly for him.












Tomorrow Loch Lomond!