Stirling Castle

We’ve had a fine morning at Stirling Castle. We arrived early, which was good as there were indications that queuing for the car park could be a problem and got in ahead of our allotted time. We’d pre-booked so just had to have our ticket scanned. Again good as I was amazed at how many people were waiting, especially groups of young people including the American youngsters we saw at a Bannockburn yesterday.

We decided to join the 10.00 am tour. It was very hot and a bit uncomfortable standing listening in the sun but it was very good. 
The volcanic mound on which it stands has held fortresses going back to the Iron Age and was a defensive castle when Bruce took it after Bannockburn. He surprisingly had the defences taken down. Later the castle became more of a residential palace for the Stuart dynasty. 

In the blip you can see the highly decorated palace built by James V for his  Queen. Behind it is the palace of James IV and the renaissance ochre painted banqueting hall. Apparently much of the building was painted this way and when it was restored by Historic Scotland there was an outcry from the locals!

In front of the palace in the blip is the Queen Anne garden, the tower on the left housed Mary queen of Scot’s nursery and school room. James VI was also born here.

Inside much work has been done to restore the decorations as they would have been including some locally made tapestries to replicate the originals now in a New York museum!? 
They feature unicorns as do other heraldic decorations in the palace, they are a Stuart emblem. My granddaughter will be most impressed! There were also costumed guides in each room. Extra
It was an excellent visit and we were there all morning. When we came out we could more clearly see the Wallace Monument across the city. I have to say we have not visited here before as I previously thought so I’m now wondering if it was the Wallace Monument we went to all those years ago!

After a coffee we set off south of Edinburgh to the east coast to see our s i l in Northumberland. We soon ran into cloud and it was pretty chilly when we got there. We had a very nice visit though and then it was home at last. I have to say it’s not very warm here either but no complaints after 12 days of the most amazing weather!
Thanks for following our holiday