Stirling

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20 June - Friday 20th June 2008:

We decided to use the hop-on hop-off bus, rather than the car, to travel around Stirling as it stopped at all the places we wished to visit and it also gave us a scenic tour of the rest of the town.

The township of Stirling is your typical English/Scottish town; the old parts of it are full of incredibly, narrow winding streets but more modern buildings, shopping centres and malls tend to dominate the renovated portions of the city.

We turned the corner to the street containing the bus stop only to see the bus (which was supposed to leave in ten minutes time) start up and disappear into some of the narrower streets. As the stop was outside the tourist centre we went in and asked what was going on. The receptionist had no idea why the bus had set off early but suggested we head off down the block and "cut it off at the pass". Although we only had a block to travel the bust did a big loop that took it around 15-20 mins to complete.

After a brief walk we arrived at the bus stop. While we were waiting for the bus a van, driven by two fierce looking Africans, drove past advertising "Masai warriors for hire". We looked at each other in astonishment and Marion said "Why would you want to hire them?" A good question, as is "What the heck are the Masai doing in Scotland?"

5-10 minutes later the bus wound its way down the hilly narrow street to the stop. We boarded and asked the driver why he had left the tourist centre stop early. He said little and just shrugged his shoulders. We proceeded to tell him, in no uncertain terms, that a timetable's not much use if the driver pays no notice of it. He was still unrepentant and continued driving quite unconcerned.

We sat upstairs for although the sunshine was intermittent; there seemed no chance of rain.

The first attraction we passed was Stirling Bridge. Unfortunately the original wooden structure that played such a decisive role in the Battle of Stirling is long gone and has been replaced by a wider, stone structure.

Next we drove through Stirling University. The modern university buildings are set amongst beautiful parkland. My favourite view was across the lake where you could see a small feudal castle, nestled amongst the trees of the wild forest.

Although visible from most parts of Stirling, the true size of the towering monolith of the Wallace monument only became apparent as we approached it.. The monument is placed upon Abbey Craig, on which, supposedly, Wallace and his commanders sat, waiting for the English to be in the perfect position to be attacked.

In case there is someone who hasn't seen Braveheart, or read about the history of Scotland (and Stirling in particular) a short history of the Battle of Stirling follows (skip to the end of this section if you already know all about it.)

Edward I (also known as Edward Longshanks because of his height) brought the Welsh (who had helped dethrone his father Henry) to heel and decisively conquered them. He then turned his attention to his disruptive Scottish cousins.

Scotland was without a direct obvious descendant to the throne, King Alexander having been thrown from his horse into a roiling rock-filled sea. None of his three children alive he had named his granddaughter Magaret "Maid of Norway" as his heir. However she died en route to Scotalnd in 1290. The main contenders to now claim the throne were Robert the Bruce (the elder, not the Bruce who eventually ruled, but his father) and John Balliol. Naively, the Scots asked Edward to decide the succession for them and he installed Balliol as a "puppet" king who was forced to recognize the English king as his liege lord. Deliberately Edward began putting demand after demand upon Balliol until he eventually refused one. Edward immediately declared war, marched upon Scotland, deposed and humiliated Balliol and then "conquered" Scotland forcing all the Scottish nobles to swear allegiance to him.

Unfortunately, for Edward (who now gained another moniker: "Hammer of the Scots"), the Scots were not content to live under his reign and conducted a number of guerrilla operations against his rule. Probably the main protagonist in these was the son of a minor noble, William Wallace, who not only raided the various English nobles left garrisoning the country, but also began to get the North of Scotland to rise against their English overlords.

Over a number of years Edward had come with his enormous English army (four to five times the number the Scots could raise) and attempted to quell the uprisings. He succeeded easily, not only due to the weight of numbers, but also because the Scots were too busy squabbling amongst themselves and had no clear leader.

However in 1297 William Wallace and (the often overlooked) Andrew Murray had managed to bring together a large force of Scots who were going to attempt to stop the English (who were being lead by the Earl of Surrey, not Edward himself). The English were gathered around Stirling.

The Scots army sheltered on the rear slopes of Abbey Craig, while Wallace and Murray waited on the current site of the monument, the front peak of the crag. The Scots well-knew that the English must Stirling Bridge to press their campaign.

The wooden bridge only allowed the English to cross two abreast. The bank on the side of the river furthest from the castle (Wallace's side) was wet, poorly-grassed land, and as the English crossed their heavy horses churned it into a muddy quagmire.

When around a quarter to a third of the English army was across, Wallace and Murray judged that the time was right and the Scots army stormed down the hillside and fell upon the unprepared and disadvantaged English.

The Scots aided by surprise, the mud, and their use of the schiltron routed the English (a schiltron is a "square" formation of foot-soldiers armed with very long spears - schiltrons were usually rectangular in shape but circular configurations were used at both Falkirk and Bannockburn). As many English as could attempted to flee back across the bridge, but a massive traffic-jam ensued. The Scots caused enormous losses amongst Surrey's disorganised force; many leaped into the river and drowned, many were slaughtered by the Scottish warriors, and a lucky few escaped. The English on the Stirling side of the wooden bridge collapsed it, fearing the rampaging Scots might stream across.

Hugh Cressingham, the hated and grossly overweight English treasurer, was pulled from his horse by the Scots, killed and then skinned. (His skin was supposedly tanned and fashioned into leather accoutrements worn by a number of the Scottish leaders, including a sword scabbard for Wallace. To me, this has the smell of myth about it). There were also losses on the Scottish side, the most important to the future of Scotland being the wounding of Andrew Murray who died, due to his injuries, a couple of months later.

Anyhow, back to our trip. The monument to Wallace sits atop Abbey Craig from which he supposedly masterminded the destruction of the English force at Stirling bridge in 1297.

Abbey Craig is a long, tear-shaped hill and the monument sits atop the highest ridge 300 ft above the ground below. The monument itself rises a further 220 ft commanding the countryside for miles around. The monument is square in cross-section, each side being 36 ft long, 12 stories high with 246 steps to negotiate to reach the apex. Above the gift and coffee shops on the ground floor are three levels of displays concerning Wallace's story, the past heroes of Scotland and the history of the construction of the monument in the 1860s. We decided to forgo visiting the monument as the long climb up to its base would eat up much of our time and there other sites around Stirling we wished to visit.

However before moving on I would like to dispel some of the myths and untruths generated by the supposedly historic but almost entirely fictitious movie "Braveheart".

Some facts about Wallace:
• He did not grow up in some "wattle and daub" style hut. He was the son of a noble and would've been raised in a mansion (most probably a small fortified building).

• Wallace's immediate family was not murdered when he was a boy. His younger brother, John, was executed after the disastrous Wallace led raid at Methven. A few months later an injudicious visit by Wallace forced his wife to aid in his escape from an English trap. She was executed for helping him evade capture. Wallace's father also died at the hands of the English, but it happened only a few years prior to the rebellion, not in William's childhood (which was not spent abroad). His older brother, Malcolm, survived the war and was a close friend of Robert the Bruce.

• The English did not practice prima noctre. (A lord having sex with a vassal's bride, prior to her new husband).

• Wallace and his follower's did not paint themselves with woad prior to battle. The ancient Picts and Celts might have, but that would've been at the time of the Romans ruling Britain in the first century AD, not the late 1200s.

• Wallace's "invasion" of England was little more than an extended raid. He never got anywhere near York, although Robert the Bruce and the Black Douglas almost captured the city about a decade later.

• Edward Longshanks (Edward I) did not throw his son's lover, Piers Gaveston, out of a tower. Piers was beheaded five years after Edward I's death.

• Wallace did not meet, let alone have an affair with, Edward II's wife. She was 1 year old in 1297 and was eight at the time of Wallace's death. She didn't marry Edward until 1308, three years after Wallace's execution.

• John "the Red" Comyn was not bribed by Edward to abandon Bruce on the battlefield at Falkirk. Most likely he left in a huff, insulted by the small command Wallace had given him, and left prior to the battle commencing.

• Wallace never tried to revenge himself on the Comyns. Indeed the Comyns kept the rebellion brewing while Wallace was on the run, and Wallace assisted them with their diplomatic missions to France.

• Robert the Bruce did not fight on Edward's side at Falkirk. He was 50 miles away at his family holding in Ayr battling against the English with his own army.

• Bruce did not betray Wallace in 1305. Not only did he have nothing to do with his capture, but documents carried by Wallace at his capture, led to English levelling charges of treason against Bruce.

This only scrapes the surface of the inaccuracies and outright lies with which Hollywood has attempted to re-write history. The trouble is that large numbers of movie-goers are fooled into believing that 'Braveheart' is a "historical drama" and hence is historically accurate. It ain't.

Our bus continued along the road with the towering presence of the monument alongside us, and then to our rear. We travelled along an escarpment which gave us wonderful views of Stirling castle atop its rocky precipice, with the town nestled below. The bus continued on to our next stop which was the nearby Bannockburn Heritage Centre.

This is built close to the site where Robert the Bruce decimated Edward II's army (Edward I's son, who ruled after his father's death in 1307). This is seen as the true reinstation of Scottish self-rule after Edward Longshank's proclaimed himself King of Scotland in 1292.

Our visit began with a video presentation of the history surrounding the Battle of Bannockburn (which the English refer to as the Battle of the Pools). The screening was in a small auditorium which was decorated with banners of the major Scottish lords who participated in the battle.

After the fairly informative and entertaining video, we returned to the major area of the exhibition. Here there were many hands-on exhibits: examples of various weapons that were used; axes, swords and the "pole-arm like" long spears that the Scots employed in the schiltron. Owen clad himself in a chainmail surcoat and headpiece and tried to look fierce (but failed). I did likewise and succeeded (at least in looking fierce).

There were a number of information boards that, along with diagrams, attempted to chart the course of the battle. It would appear that having studied the Scottish defeat at the battle of Falkirk, (where the Scottish schitrons had been destroyed by English archers), Bruce wanted his schiltrons to be mobile so as to close with the enemy, and preclude the bowmen from firing lest they kill their own men. These details were quite enlightening, showing that the battle had been a closer run thing than I had been led to believe.

In addition to these displays there was a large model of the battle in full spate and a number of wax figurines depicting various Scottish nobles and Bruce at various times in the early 1300's; Bruce at his initial coronation, Bruce upon his throne, Scottish nobles signing the Declaration of Arbroath, etc.

After wandering around, and having a long chat with a Scottish couple, Marion and Owen settled down to attack some brass rubbings; a knight, a fair maid and a line of monks. I went for a walk out of the building around the grounds.

I headed towards the rotunda that marked the site, according to tradition, where Robert the Bruce had his headquarters prior to destroying the English army in 1314. Within the stone walls of the rotunda is a huge flagpole, unadorned during our visit and a memorial. The memorial is a four sided pyramid built of stone. It is very steep-sided and its top is lopped off about 2.5 metres from the ground. In one face are two plaques, one proclaiming that this is the site of Bruce's HQ during the Bannockburn battle, the other is a quotation of a part of the declaration of Arbroath that I mentioned it an earlier blog. The quotation is not word-perfect and there are a number of lines omitted. In case it's not clear on the photo the plaque says:
"We fight not for glory, nor for wealth, nor honour but only and alone we fight for freedom which no good man surrenders but with his life."

Good stirring stuff!

A little beyond the rotunda was the often photographed statue of Bruce, astride his Scottish pony, axe at the ready. The statue certainly has a strong visual impact with the hills of Stirling behind it and the fells of the Bannock in front being closely scrutinized by Bruce. However I suspect that a certain amount of artistic licence was used with the horse since the Scots rode mountain ponies, not massive chargers; to me the pony looks too large in relation to its rider. (Accounts of the time mention riders feet almost touching the ground when bestride their sure-footed, stout mountain ponies.)

Returning to the Heritage Centre I found Marion and Owen finished with their rubbings and inspecting the gift shop. After our trip to the highlands Owen was overjoyed to find a "Haggis whistle" which was designed to help catch unsuspecting haggi when hunting them.


The directions within the box are worth quoting:

Haggis Whistle instructions.

Haggis Hunting

The Haggis hunting season runs from St Andrew's Day (30/11) to Robert Burns' birthday (25/1). It is a long held tradition that the finest restaurants attempt to be amongst the first to serve a freshly caught "Haggis Nouveau" for dinner on St Andrew's Day accompanied by a fine Beaujolais. However, Haggis is at its best when hung for a minimum of 72 hours prior to dressing.

"Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face
Great Chieftain o' the Puddin- race!"*

Three or Four?
The number of legs varies from species to species, with Haggis triceps (3 legs) being the commonest species. The four-legged Haggis quadriceps is largely confined to the highlands and islands. Regardless of the species, it is well known that the legs on one side are longer than the other, so that the Haggi do not roll down the slopes on Scottish hills.

"But mark the Rustic, Haggis-fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread" *

Catching Haggi
Because the legs on one side are longer than the other, catching a Haggis is relatively simple. You simply surprise the Haggis, with a loud toot on your Haggis Whistle, and in its panic to run away in the wrong direction, it overbalances and rolls down the hill where it can be scooped up by your hunting partner in a Haggis Hunting Net (available separately).

"But if you wish her gratefu' prayer,
Gie her a Haggis!" *

*Extracts from "To a Haggis" by Robert Burns, 1786

The Whistle is hand made in Invergowrie, by the river Tay, and is finished in an oatmeal glaze. According to folk lore it was traditionally used by the ancient Picts and Scots when hunting Haggises (or Haggi) in the hills. Possibly used by Robert Burns himself. In skilled hands it can perfectly mimic the mating call of the Haggis.


Owen clutched his Haggis Whistle firmly in one hand as we walked to the King Robert Hotel alongside the Heritage Centre. Lunch was a little strange as we were the only occupants of the dining area, the waitress and barmen were away sick, and only certain items on the menu were available.

Refuelled we hopped back on the bus and headed for Stirling castle. The bus somehow wound its way through the incredibly narrow streets that twisted their way up the rocky escarpment that the castle perches upon. Our driver managed to enrage a couple of motorists by stopping three quarters of the way around one of the curves (totally blocking the road in both directions) and having a five-minute conversation with a pedestrian.

The mighty castle of Stirling has been described as "like a huge brooch, clasping Highlands and Lowlands together". This description is apt as Stirling stands athwart the Forth river which, together with the Firth of Forth to the east and the Firth of Clyde to the west, divides the south of Scotland from the north. The castle, perched atop its massive crag, is an impressive sight from most points of the town and surrounding countryside.

We booked in for the guided tour. The first thing we learnt was that this was not the Stirling Castle from the era of The Battle of Stirling. Apparently, once King, Robert the Bruce ordered all the large castles in Scotland destroyed so that the English could never again invest them and attempt to rule Scotland (which was the way the English ruled Wales).

Most of this castle dated from around the 1500s but bits had been added later. One of the most surprising things was how uneven the ground below the castle was. There was not a level area to be seen and most of the land sloped steeply, not just mild gradients.

The "main castle" is now surrounded by assorted buildings and an outer wall that was added during the days of the Jacobite uprising

We passed through the outer defences which were constructed in the 1700s and then into the gate house. This led us to the outer close. The close, along with the other open areas within the main castle were cobbled with small (5 to 6) cm stones. It appeared that they were originally round but the exposed yops had been worn down by the years until they were flattish. This outer Close is an odd-shaped open area, roughly in the form of an "L". Ahead to the right was the North Gate and Kitchens. At right angles to them, running all the way down to the right, was a set of crenellations placed behind a sheer cliff. This was the site of the gun battery, put together in Jacobean times, and there were still a number of cannon in place. From the far right corner running back behind us was an assortment of buildings (including the loos and one of the gift shops). To our right was the palace and directly ahead of us, contrasting with all the dark stone buildings, the side of the cream-yellow Great Hall.

We admired the large statues on the side of the palace. These varied enormously. Among the individuals depicted are James V, St Michael, the Devil and a number of classical Gods and Goddesses. The guide drew our attention to the carvings of James IV and Margaret Tudor (whose marriage had been arranged to join the royal lines of England and Scotland). While King James IV (of Scotland) looked smug and happy the expression on Margaret's face could only be described as detestation. From the statue you were sure that she was less than pleased with the match that had been arranged for her.

We passed under a short covered walkway that joined the Palace and the Great Hall into the roughly square Inner Close. The whole of this enclosed cobbled area sloped steeply down east, towards the front of the Great Hall. The Great Hall was a startling cream/light yellow colour. The Hall has recently been restored and records indicated that this was the Hall's original shade; it's certainly eye-catching.

Upon entering the hall you are immediately struck by both the size of the space within and the stunning roof. The hall is a huge empty space with a massively high ceiling. The wooden beams and trusses that hold up the ceiling are exposed and look like the shell of the hull of a ship flipped over, and then placed upside down high above to support the upper structure.

The Great Hall has seen some pretty wild parties in its time. The most over-the-top was probably the baptismal celebrations for Prince Henry in 1594. As a centrepiece of this feast a large scale model of a galleon (whose main mast almost scraped the ceiling) full of fish was dragged down the centre of the hall squeezing past between the carefully placed banquet tables on each side. This ship's cannons fired broadsides at the guests as it proceeded down the centre of the hall, but fortunately the guns produced only smoke (and a few sparks) rather than ball or shot. (Henry's birth was very important as it was clear that Elizabeth I was going to die without issue. This meant James would ascend to the British throne {he was already king of the Scots} and Henry would be his heir and hence a future king of both realms. Ironically, Henry would die at 18 and his ill-fated brother, Charles, would become king.)

Back in the courtyard we entered the small, but elegant, Chapel Royal. (Also built for Prince Henry's christening). Archaeological excavations have shown that there were at least two buildings on the present site but with slightly different alignments to the surrounding buildings. Much of the interior of this large rectangular building is modern reconstructive work from the 1930s thru to the 1990s. The main feature remaining from earlier times is the painted frieze high within the interior. On the northern wall were two tapestries called "The Start of the Hunt" and "The Unicorn in Captivity". These are part of a series of seven tapestries called "The Hunt of the Unicorn". These are reproductions of medieval tapestries held in The Cloisters Museum, New York

The modern tapestries are copies of the originals (albeit 10% smaller). The originals have some damage; the sky has been removed from four of them, two have patched corners destroying whatever was wove there, and one has a huge section missing from across the middle. The series was chosen because no complete 16th C tapestry from the Scottish court survives, this title is in the inventories of the time and, additionally, it's visually stunning.

The tapestries tell the story of the hunt and capture of a unicorn. They are also allegorical as the sequence can also be read both as a love story and a religious story. The remaining tapestries are being woven on site so wandered back to the Outer Close and into another walled area called the Outer Bailey. In the centre of this area was a long line of houses and we found the weavers in the last of them.

Although we could not talk to the lady actually doing the weaving, we could watch and also quietly ask questions about the work with another guide who was stationed there. It appears that a lot of technical information about medieval weaving is being learnt as a number of experiments were performed to get the cloths and dyes as similar to those used in the 16th Century as possible.

On the way out we stopped off and examined the interior of the palace, but there was little to see as the inside has been entirely stripped; the next step in the castle's restoration program.

After a short wait the last Hop-On Hop-Off bus for the day arrived and the weather still being warm and clement we sat on the open upper deck. There are two of these busses doing the Stirling route. This time we got the second driver and he obviously was more advanced and knew what a timetable was. As the bus was just over 5 minutes early we sat there waiting for the clock to tick over to the correct time. While waiting two stretch limos appeared, one quite elegant, the other one of those squat, and think quite ugly, stretch "hummers".

About a dozen dressed-up young men and ladies piled out of each. The girls were dressed pretty much as they are for a fancy "do" in Australia, but the lads were "kilted-up" literally. After taking some photos of each other with Stirling as a backdrop, they swirled onto the bus and up the stairs to join us on the top deck. They all crowded over one side, and a couple of relatives snapped some pictures of them, and they swirled back off the bus. As they were going Marion asked them what the occasion was and discovered it was their end of school year valedictory dinner as she had correctly guessed.

We returned to our hotel quite late after a very full day.

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For those interested in learning more I can recommend some good fictional accounts that don't turn history on its head:

For Wallace: The Wallace by Nigel Tranter (Not my favourite of Tranter's works, Wallace is just a bit too much of a superman.)

For Bruce: "The Bruce Trilogy" also by Nigel Tranter comprising The Steps to the Empty Throne, The Path of the Hero King and "The Price of the King's Peace". (One of Tranter's better series, but he invents some "over-the-top" reasons to explain why Bruce allied with the British a couple of times.)

For Edward's Welsh Campaign: "The Brothers of Gwynedd Quartet" by Edith Pargeter (Ellis Peters) comprising Sunrise in the West, The Dragon at Noonday, The Hounds of Sunset, Afterglow and Nightfall (I really cannot recommend this set of four novels too highly. Each individual book is finely crafted, as is the entire tale. The books are also beautifully written. Edith Pargeter (who sadly passed away about 20 years ago) is better known under the pseudonym Ellis Peters who wrote (among other detective works) the Brother Cadfael stories set in 12th Century England.)

All the above books are still in print and available ("The Brothers of Gwynedd Quartet" only as a single volume, not as individual novels) but a small amount of searching/ordering is probably required as they are unlikely to be found on a local (or even a large central) bookshop's shelves.

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Photos

Bus Stop
The Bus Stop where we managed to catch the early-running hop-on hop-off Stirling bus.

Stirling Bridge
The Stirling Bridge; not as it was at the time of Wallace's defeat of the English Army.

Stirling
Some very British-looking buildings in Stirling, seen from the bus.

Wallace Monument
The impressive and imposing William Wallace Monument.

University View
A view from Stirling University at a castle nestled among the trees.

Stirling Castle
Stirling Castle - battled over many times by the English and the Scots.

Bannockburn
The Bannockburn Heritage Centre.

Chainmail
Chainmail suits are very heavy, Owen assures us.

Robert the Bruce
Robert the Bruce, atop his improportionally large pony!

Haggis Whistle
A Haggis Whistle, used to lure unsuspecting Haggises during the hunting season.

Hall
The Great Hall in Stirling Castle.

Formal Group
A group of Year 12 students jumped onto the Hop-on Hop-off bus to have their picture at Stirling Castle.