After a fun day in
Glasgow, we decided to spend our Sunday in
Stirling, an historically important town about an hour from Glasgow by train. We walked through town toward the castle.
Do Yer Duty - this sign called to us from a four-story facade.
We passed an old stone sculpture with
Liberty and
Loyalty engraved on the side.
We started our ascent toward the castle and passed a lovely green oasis.
Signposts marked spots of historical interest.
Wee cottages dotted the hill.
Blue and purple flowers added a punch of color to the landscape.
We passed the Erskine Church.
The local tolbooth had been turned into a venue for the arts.
We passed the Stirling Church of the Holy Rude which backed-up to a cemetery.
We took a shortcut through the cemetery to emerge on the doorstep of
Stirling Castle.
We opted to take the free guided tour to get a bit of the history of the place. The bottom line is that Stirling Castle was the most strategically important castle in Scotland. In the center of the country and sitting alongside the river, whoever controlled Stirling controlled Scotland.
The exterior of the castle was lovely with fine views.
A slightly crumbling ornament was likely damaged in one of many onslaughts on the castle.
This contrasted with the lovely Queen Anne Garden on the premises.
One of the buildings in the castle courtyard stood out starkly from the rest as it was painted bright yellow.
Quite a bit of work was done recently at Stirling Castle to recreate what the castle looked like in the era of its use. This yellow building was really the only one accurately depicting life at the castle. They'd also restored the interior of one building and had character actors on the grounds to recreate life in the period. We were lucky as the new restoration work was just unveiled a couple weeks before we came to visit.
The array of colors made me smile.
It was actually quite cold when were in Scotland. It was August and I needed to wear wool gloves! We stopped for warming soup and bread in the castle canteen.
We took one last look out across the river valley and then descended back toward town.
Along the way we decided to stop at the
Portcullis Bar for a nip of whisky.
The bartender was able to recommend two contrasting choices with one quite smooth and the other with heavy peat.
Down the hatch!
Sufficiently fortified against the cold, we continued our walk past a lovely unicorn sculpture.
We stopped at the Darnley Coffee House for a sweet treat.
In town again, we pass Bank Street and then popped through a Victorian era shopping arcade.
It was soon time to catch the train back to Glasgow.
I caught a reflection of the Victorian styled station through the glass before boarding our train.
