Stirling Castle and Last Days in Scotland

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06/12/2024

South to Stirling

We took the A835 east to Inverness where we stopped for LPG. We were on this road over 5 weeks previously, climbing Ben Wyvis and watching salmon leaping, and yet we had zoomed back from the north coast in just a scant few days. The roads got steadily busier as we approached the city, it was a bit of a shock after the lonely highlands.

The A9 then took us event further south, skirting the west of the cairngorms rather than taking the coastal route we’d followed north. We stopped at Aviemore for lunch and some fantasy outdoor shopping (no buying, but lots of things we would love to buy if we had limitless cash) before zooming all the way down to Stirling.

In Stirling we navigated to the Forthside car park. As it was a Sunday on a retail park it was quite busy but there was plenty of room for us in the motorhome and coach parking. We weren’t really sure whether this was day time or overnight parking but decided to chance it. Other people had obviously done so.

We ventured into Stirling that evening by crossing the bridge over the railway. Everyone is now getting ready for Christmas and we were starting to feel the festive spirit. A good job too as our family Christmas celebration was not far away

Stirling Castle

Our reason for being in Stirling was to visit the castle. This was the final use of our Historic Scotland cards which had served us so well on our trip. We had a bit of an uphill walk from our parking spot following the black and gold tourist signposts to the tope of the volcanic crag that provides the foundation for the castle. On the way up we walked through the cemetery and pleasure gardens where a large stone pyramid is a monument to all those who suffered martyrdom in the cause of civil and religious liberty in Scotland.

Stirling Castle has an impressive history and significance for Scottish royalty. This was explained well in the Castle Exhibition. A castle has stood here for nearly a thousand years. Like many Scottish castles it changed hands several times between Scottish and English regimes until Robert the Bruce ordered it’s defences destroyed so that it couldn’t be used as a foothold for the English. That didn’t stop it being used for it’s natural advantages though and eventually the castle was re-built by the Stewart Kings who introduced most of the buildings we saw on our visit. Mary, Queen of Scots was crowned here.

More recently the royal lodgings have been renovated although they seem rather empty and echoing. There are some real gems here though. You can see replicas of the Stirling heads on the ceiling – wooden carvings of various people, historical and fictional. To save you from a crick in your neck you can use conveniently placed mirrors. The originals of many of the heads are also in a gallery at the castle but unfortunately for us there was work going on and it was closed.

There are also recreations of the original tapestries on the walls. They show the Hunting of the Unicorn, Scotland’s mythical symbolic animal. A small exhibition in one of the outbuildings provides some information about the way in which the replica tapestries were woven.

Tapestry threads created using historically accurate dyes

We loved walking the walls with their stupendous views over the surrounding countryside. The kitchens were fun too, staged to show a busy medieval kitchen with it’s dark crowded atmosphere, model food, cookery books and a selection of mannequins. All they needed to do was add some smells to make it realistic, although that would probably be quite off-putting to our modern senses.

Last nights in Scotland

After our visit to Stirling we pushed on further south and stopped at Moffat Camping and Caravanning Club site. We didn’t really make the most of this site, I was working and Paul was just hanging out in the van. The site is very close to the town so really easy to walk into the high street which has a nice selection of independent shops. I can imagine it’s a great place if you like to potter around, but we didn’t even take any photos when we went out for a stroll. You can tell we were feeling the gloom that comes at the end of a trip.

What next?

On the way back to our family early Christmas celebration we stopped at Warwick racecourse club site to go into Birmingham and see the Christmas Market. The market was a bit of a disappointment, the same old stalls repeated over and over again. A small market in the cathedral grounds had a few more unique stalls but not enough to make us feel it had been time well spent. However we did like Warwick and would definitely use the site again if we were wanting to head into Brum. It’s quite easy to get in on the train, although the station is a good 20 minute walk from the campsite.

It was here in Warwick we made a fairly momentous decision. More to be revealed…

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