Stirling, The Heart of Scotland



When we travel I always book our lodgings through booking.com or Airbnb. But for this trip I happened across the discovery that booking directly with the accomodation saves $15/night. Or in the case of last night's lodging, the direct and cheaper rate included breakfast. While Greg ate, I ran out for coffee and lunch snacks. If you are looking for places open at 8am on Sunday in York, you can get yummy coffee from Stan and Maria's (or Caffe Nero), and lunch snacks from Ye Old Pie Shoppe (not officially open yet but will sell to you) and The Cornish Bakery.

Our next destination is Stirling, Scotland - but we are making slight diversions along the way at castle viewpoints. By the day's end we will have seen three castles - which isn't at all unusual for Scotland.

The day I discovered that Alnwick Castle (pronounced ANN-ick) was along our driving route was coincidentally the same day the episode of Downton Abbey that we were watching went there.  Other than being the main home of the Duke of Northumberland, it is one of the top tourist attractions in northern England, and a popular filming location - better known for where Harry Potter learned to fly on a broomstick at Hogwarts. You could spend an entire day at the castle - they have so many activities and things to keep you entertained. So it didn't make sense for us to only go for an hour.

The castle's parking lot is quite far from the castle so we drove on the road behind the castle to get a good view.

Alnwick Castle is the second largest inhabited castle in England – only Windsor Castle is bigger!

Very close by, along the coast, is Bamburg Castle - again from another of our shows, it is Bebbanburg Castle (its Saxon name) in The Last Kingdom. Even though I had never heard of it before, it has quite the history as the ancient capital of the powerful kingdom of Northumbria; there has been some kind of defensive structure at Bamburgh since at least the 6th century.

Instead of going to Bamburg Castle, we went to the beach parking lot just past the castle, and then went down to the beach for our view!

This is my first time on the North Sea's coast of England.

If I had known about it, we could have also stopped at nearby Holy Island, which could be seen in the distance - as long as its causeway wasn't blocked by the tide.

Crossing the border from England to Scotland on A19 was completely unremarkable. The only indication was the "First and Last" restaurant. Next we drove under the Tyne River - paying contactless tolls with rental cars is a pain, but not difficult. Don't forget or it will cost you £100 plus Europcar service fees!

The rest of the day's activities were last minute "why not" decisions. Why not, we aren't going to be be here again any time soon. The nice thing about not making plans is that you don't have any expectations so it is easy to be impressed.

The Kelpies at Helix Park were obviously on a lot of people's list today, hopefully just to enjoy a Sunday afternoon out and not any indication of the crowds we are going to run into this week.

The Kelpies (built 2013) are two 100-feet tall steel sculptures of horse heads that stand near Falkirk. These equine marvels are Scotland's celebration of a bygone era of heavy horses that towed coal barges up and down Scottish canals for much of the 19th century.

The two Kelpies heads appear like massive horses are about to erupt from the ground. These mythical Scotish water creatures had the strength and endurance of ten normal horses. 

Just outside of Edinburgh and being much smaller than it, Stirling has a cozy feel. History is deeply rooted here and it is clustered in a very small area which makes it very walkable. So the plan was to get here and walk around. However, Greg's troublesome feet were not in the plan - so off to the castle we went instead.

I'm sure it sounds odd to not have planned a visit to Stirling Castle - why else would we be staying the night in Stirling? It happens to be the cheapest lodging of our entire trip - and quite comfortable at that! I highly recommend The Munro Guest House near the castle. It has thoughtful touches like built in USB outlets, wash clothes, tissues, and an alarm clock! Originally we were going to spend 2 nights here but I decided against it when discovering that nearby Doune Castle (use to film Outlander, Game of Thrones, and Monty Python) hasn't reopened from Covid yet.

Stirling is the patriotic heart of Scotland. "He who holds Stirling, holds Scotland" because of its strategic, key position. The fortress is perched on a volcanic crag overlooking the River Forth – the primary passage between the Highlands and the Lowlands.

This gate to Stirling Castle is the only entrance so literally we are walking where kings and queens walked.

I bought the audio guide but after a few long, drawn-out minutes, gave up with it; I couldn't find a way to speed it up.  Conveniently, a free guided tour was starting - which ended up being very good and informative. I thought it was interesting that the guide hardly spoke about and then lowered her voice when she mentioned Mary Queen of Scots. To me Stirling Castle and Mary Queen of Scot are synonymous but obviously not to the guide. (Most visitors ask about Outlander, she said.) The guide talked about all the kings (James IV, V, VI) who added buildings there. She sounded bitter when she mentioned Mary in reference to the banquet she held when her son (James VI) was baptized and how it almost made the country go broke.

Maybe I am the only person obsessed with Mary Queen of Scots. She became queen when her dad, the king, died. She was only 6 days old. She was crowned Queen at Stirling Castle in 1542 and spent her early childhood there before being raised in France. I would think she would be popular just for the fact that she united England and Scotland under one crown - when her son King James VI was born and crowned King James I of England. I will try not to talk about her too much in my blog but you will be hearing about her again!

Stirling Castle was the key to the kingdom of Scotland

Standing at Stirling Castle, your view of the surrounding countryside stretches for miles and miles

Our bedtime story is about a man named William Wallace (aka Mel Gibson in Braveheart). From our window at the Munro Guest House we can see the monument commemorating him. Wallace Monument stands high on the hillside across the field from the castle. You can't travel through Scotland without knowing who he is - he is one of Scotland's greatest heroes. The story of the monument begins when Wallace defeated the English army at the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297, making the Scotts believe they could challenge the mighty English in the Wars of Scottish Independence. He evaded English capture for several years but in 1305 a Scottish knight betrayed him. Charged with treason, he was dragged naked through London, then hung (half-strangled), drawn and quartered, and beheaded. His head was placed on London Bridge and his limbs displayed around England. Poor Mel!