Stirling has many historic spots

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33101, 16 December 1972, Page 12

Stirling has many historic spots

(By

GORDON IRVING!

The historic town of Stirling, in the valley of the River Forth almost equidistant from Edinburgh and Glasgow, is one of Scotland’s most convenient touring centres. Roads reach out readily to all the recommended beauty spots— Ixxih Lomond, the Trossachs, the Central Highlands, Fife and the Scottish Lowlands.

Apart from its excellence as a holiday base (it is 37 miles from Edinburgh. 410 miles from London), Stirling is a place in which the visitor should spend some time: exploring historic spots like the castle, the Wallace Monument and, one mile and a half south, the scene of the classic Battle of Bannockburn where, in 1314, Robert the Bruce secured Scottish independence by winning a great victory when 6000 Scots defeated an English army numbering 20,000. Today, the field of Bannockburn is marked by a tall flagstaff, and there is a simple cairn of stones where Bruce is said to have planted his standard—there is also a handsome bronze statue of the Scottish hero, mounted on a horse. Great rock Modem methods of communication and education have added to the interest, so that the visitor can now relive some of the excitement of the battle by seeing the permanent audiovisual exhibition on the traditional site of Bruce’s command post. Opened in 1972, it cost £40,000 and shows how Robert the Bruce and his forces were deployed in the encounter. It has been designed by Mr John L. Paterson. who was responsible for the 1971 Edinburgh exhibition which marked the bicentenary of Sir Walter Scott. Stirling bears some resemblance to Edinburgh, for like the Scottish canital it h»<- >

castle dominating a craggyrock overlooking the old town. This great rock, visible from some distance, offered protection to those who lived at its feet and remained, through the centuries, the first target of the invader and a rallying point of patriots in all the wars of independence. Stirling’s geographical situation has made it a town of importance in Scotland for Its first Royal

Charter was granted by Alexander II in 1226, and the town was intimately connected with the Royal House of Stuart. You reach the ancient castle by way of its esplanade, giving fine views of central Scotland—Queen Victoria admired this vista, looking out from the northwest corner of the castle ramparts. The oldest part of the castle is believed to be Parliament House, seat of the old Scottish parliaments, and once occupied by Mary Queen of Scots. She was crowned at Stirling Castle, and so were James V and VI, while James 111 built the Great Hall, said to have been the finest in Europe in its day.

Royal palace The castle’s rock, 360 feet high overlooking the ForthClyde Valley, has probably seen more memorable history than any other place in Scotland. The Stuarts converted the rugged stronghold into a Royal palace, built by James V, whose initials can be seen on panels above the windows.

The visitor to the castle can still see, little changed since they were carved four centuries ago, the first effects of the Classic renaissance ideas on Scottish architecture —extravagant ornamental detail in devils and demons, human and bovine grotesques, and men and women carrying interesting allegorical items on corbel, pedestal and recessed panel. Castle ghost Near the castle, be sure to call at the recently-opened visitor centre named “Landmark.” which uses an audiovisual presentation—a fivescreen slide show with stereophonic sound —to bring alive periods in the town’s colourful history. The centre, opened in 1972, has a 90-seat auditorium, an exhibition area, and a craft shop. It is built on the side of a hill, and its observation windows look out over Stirling and the River Forth towards the imposing Ochil Hills.

Like all the best British castles, Stirling claims its own ghost, “the green lady.”

She is said to be the spirit of a daughter of a castle governor who fell in love with an officer. When, one night, she took a fancy to a rose in the garden below the ramparts, the officer ordered a sentry to pick it while he took the sentry’s place. A few minutes later the governor saw the young lovers, thought his daughter was in the arms of a "common soldier,” and in a fit of rage shot the officer dead. The girl, who always wore green robes, is said to have died of a broken heart: she has been seen, in her ghostly form, several times since the first reported sighting in 1891.

Many Scottish noblemen had fine houses in Stirling, and one of them is Argyll’s Lodging, a beautiful seventeenth century house reached by descending the Castle Esplanade to Castle Wynd. Wallace monument Just north of the town, on a commanding site, is the national monument to another Scottish hero, Sir William Wallace, who destroyed an English army at the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297. The picturesque Auld Stirling Bridge nearby dates from the 14th century. Visitors to Stirling can also explore the new African safari park four miles away on the Blair Drummond estate.

Five miles north, on the Perth road, is Dunblane with its handsomely-restored twelfth century cathedral and quaint chapel; and three miles west of Dunblane the old village of Doune, once famed for the manufacture of pistols, has a well-preserved fourteenth century castle, with a fine medieval courtyard, which is open to the public. Stirling today is a university town of about 30,000 inhabitants, and it has been eminently visitable ever since the Roman emperor Agricola built an encampment at the nearby village of Braco on his campaign to subjugate the Scots many centuries before Bannockburn.—From the British Tourist Authority.