A walk round Stirling

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Today after a much deserved late lie, we set off to Stirling to visit a real 14^thcentury castle. Stirling Castle is an amazing site as you drive into Stirling on the motor way. Its built on top of a rocky hill with a winding cobble stone road that took you to the top. On the walk towards the draw bridge was a wonderful view of the city of Stirling with the Wallace Monument beaming in the sunlight in the distance.

Once through the draw bridge was the castles court yard surrounded by very tall walls designed to keep enemies out. We made our way up another hill through the inner gate where we got to see some of the amazing sculptures that were carved hundreds of years ago, to see first hand the size of the stones and the shear height of the castle walls was a truly humbling moment.

Heading into the living quarters of the castle we started to see some of the master joinery and wood carvings which were on every coffered ceiling. The King and Queen lived in true style with a fireplace in every room with huge windows and beautiful woven draperies on every wall.

The great hall was an amazing site to see it has plastered walls and an amazing hammer beam timber framed roof. In 1593 James IV had a party to celebrate his son Henrys baptism where a 5 metre fully rigged ship with 36 brass canons was wheeled into the great hall.

We then made our way to the kitchen where we got to see two dome shaped ovens where they cooked there bread it was a very cool site to see for Shane anyway. After the kitchens we said our goodbyes to the Stirling castle to make our way to an internet café for a tea and a very late well deserved lunch. When we finished or tea we did some window shopping around Stirling as we made or way to the old town cemetery that was built at the foot of Stirling castle it was very old and filled with stunning monuments and headstones.

On our way back to Alex and Chris’s we decided to do the nature walk up Wallace monument To have a look at this Amazing structure that we have been seeing everyday since we’ve been in Stirling. The walk was very challenging but well worth it when we stood at the foot of the monument, we took lots of photos from the outside and we hope to go back to see the inside when it is open.

S + K

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