Stirling Castle and Sherrifmuir Battle site.

Today was our third day visiting Kirsty and David in Scotland and they took us out to visit Stirling Castle.

Then, later in the afternoon we toured the top end of Bridge of Allan and headed across to Sheriffmuir and the site of the battle in 1715.

Here are just a few of my photos from today.

We stopped at the Stirling Old Bridge, which crosses the River Forth. The present Stirling Old Bridge was built in the 1400s or 1500s, replacing a succession of timber bridges. Undoubtedly the best-known of these was one that stood nearby in the 1290s, when Sir William Wallace and Sir Andrew Moray defeated Edward I’s forces at the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297.

The bridge also played a part in the Jacobite Rising of 1745, when an arch was removed to forestall Bonnie Prince Charlie’s forces as they marched south. The bridge today remains one of the best medieval masonry arch bridges in Scotland.

Then it was on to the castle. They have timed entry to restrict visitor numbers in the busiest times, but we were able to go straight in. Some of the descriptions below are adapted from the Historic Environments Scotland website.

There is such a lot to see and explore. We were there for well over 3 hours.

The palace vault has fun, interactive exhibitions especially for younger visitors.  about the music, paints, tools, fabrics and jokes of the 1500s  I liked the musical room.

.

There were also displays abut the history.

The view looking down from the Ladies' Lookout at the old formal gardens, now just grass, but you can make out the outlines of the  King's knot on the left and Queen's knot on the right. Both were made for the coronation visit of Charles I in 1633, but abandoned soon after.

There are great views from the castle, perched on its rock, which were ever-changing as showers swept past.

The it was into the magnificently restored King James V Palace evoking the period when the castle was the childhood home of Mary Queen of Scots, opened by The Queen in 2011, 

There are decorations throughout. 

Costumed guides set the 1500s scene and talk about the palace and the intrigue that took place within its walls.

Intricate and beautiful, the set of seven hand-woven tapestries hangs on the walls of the Queen's Inner Hall in the royal palace. They are closely based on the Hunt of the Unicorn series which were created in the early 1500s The huge new tapestries were created in a 13-year, £2 million project We later saw an exhibition about the project..

I returned to the Ladies' Lookout to wait for Dawn and Kirsty who were still in the exhibition rooms in the palace vault. This is the view looking west.

Down below in the showground we could hear sound tests for tonight's concert. Tome Jones is due to play here on Sunday.

Back inside the palace...

The ceilings are beautifully done too.

Most famous is the recreation of the Stirling Heads, one of Scotland's great art treasures - metre-wide 16th-century oak medallions carved with images of kings, queens, nobles, Roman emperors and characters from the Bible and Classical mythology .

You can see some of my photos of the exhibition about them in my Flickr album of our visit here.

On the outside wall of the palace alongside the many statues.

The Great Hall is the largest medieval banqueting hall ever built in Scotland. Completed for James IV In 1503, it has four pairs of tall windows at the dais end, where the king and queen sat The exterior walls are a distinctive colour, rendered in Royal Gold harling, as they would have been in the 1500s 

We took turns at sitting in the King and Queen's chairs.

The Chapel Royal  was built in just seven months on the orders of James VI for the baptism of his son and heir Prince Henry. Dating from 1593-4, it was one of the first Protestant kirks in Scotland and also the last royal building at the castle. 

More views from the castle walls. Here you can see the Wallace Monument.... 

...and here is Bridge of Allan.

The kitchens were fun....

...and the exhibition about the tapestries very informative.

We had some sunshine now, but we could see another shower coming from the west.

We finished by visiting the Queen Anne Gardens. There may have been a royal garden here since the 1400s and the flat lawn was turned into a bowling green in the 1620s.

.

After lunch Kirsty and David took us on another little tour, firstly around the higher parts of the town. Some of the houses are very impressive and the golf course is alleged to have the hardest par-3 hole in Scotland.

A view of  Stirling Castle...

...the Wallace Monument...

...and down over the town to the meandering River Forth.

We took the Sheriffmuir road to Dunblane that we had ventured a little way along on Wednesday again. This time we carried on to the site of Sheriffmuir battle.  As described on this Historic UK website.

"Although the kingdoms of Scotland and England had been united since 1707, not all Scots were happy with the marriage. In particular the Jacobites, supporters of the House of Stuart, sought to exploit the general unrest within Scottish society.

When in 1714 George I was proclaimed King of Great Britain and Ireland, John Erskine, Earl of Mar, began to raise a Jacobite army in an attempt to return James Francis Edward Stuart, the Old Pretender, to the throne. In response, a combined government force of Scottish and English regiments commanded by the Duke of Argyle was dispatched to confront the rebels.

The two armies finally met each other on 13th November 1715 at Sheriff Muir to the east of Dunblane.

Although the Highland forces of the Jacobites greatly outnumbered those of the government by almost 2:1, Mar was not an experienced military commander. In contrast, the government army comprised well trained regular troops led by a seasoned commander.

In the inconclusive battle that followed, both sides left the field claiming victory."

There is a memorial stone by the side of the road here....

...and a larger memorial to the Clan Macrae who formed part of the left wing of the Highland Army and fell almost to a man.

From here we took a short walk across the moor.

We were surprised to find in among the heather and blaeberries quite a few common spotted orchids.

Our path led us to the 'gathering stone', where the Jacobite clans are said to have met before the battle.

Back in Bridge of Allan, we went to the Brewhouse again to have some pizza for our evening meal.

We were served once again by Emma.

I had a Rob Roy. Very tasty and some of their Procrastination beer.

At 8pm the quiz started. We were pleased with how well we did, coming equal 4th out of 9 teams.

Another great day. Thank-you Kirsty and David once again.

You can find more of my photos from today here and here on Flickr