Bryan was heading off to get his second vaccine on Monday morning so after saying goodbye to him, we packed up our stuff, said goodbye to Ros and then headed off towards the train station. Despite a busy train station, we were pleased to find a completely empty train when we hopped on. It was only a 40 minute train ride to Stirling and for most of the trip we had the carriage to ourselves, with only some families joining in the stops nearer the city. 

We arrived in Stirling at just after 11 and straight away dropped our bags off at a storage spot near the station. After taking a moment to relish being in a new place, our first stop in town was the ‘King’s Knot’, an earthen mound laid as part of royal gardens in the 1600s. Sadly, it was quite covered in rubbish and not very well looked after, so after a bit of a look we continued along the path and uphill towards the Old Town. After huffing and puffing up the hill we arrived at the old town cemetery and looped our way through the streets, which were surprisingly empty. It was a bit warm and we were both getting hungry so we sat down in a gorgeous little café and had a baked potato and a toastie for lunch.

Our tickets to the castle were for 12:30 so at about that time we walked back up the hill, had our tickets scanned (free entry through English Heritage for the win!) and headed through the stone gateway. Stirling Castle isn’t an imposing fortress-style castle like so many others, more like fancy buildings inside a wall – although this seems to have worked fine for them given how many wars it’s been involved in and is still standing! We began by reading a general exhibition about the history of the castle and exited the exhibition to find ourselves in a gorgeous garden full of flowers. Some sort of display was going on with a guy in costume speaking and brandishing a musket, so we continued on and up into the castle.

After waiting in a short queue we were allowed to enter the royal apartments, which we were surprised to find were quite plain and empty compared to a lot of castles and historic buildings we’ve visited. They were mostly restored and clearly quite newly painted so while it was interesting it wasn’t quite as impressive as what we’re used to. What was impressive, however, was the view from the castle walls! The castle looms over the whole region and had gorgeous views all around. We did a loop around the walls, checked out the reconstructed kitchens and then headed down the hill away from the castle. 

After a quick stop in at Stirling Distillery, where we picked up a ‘virtual tasting tour’ pack, we began walking back uphill to find ourselves at the top of Mote Hill and looking at the ‘Beheading Stone’! This fairly grim landmark was exactly what it sounded like, the old castle’s stone for beheading criminals – it even had a crease in the centre from the axe (or sword)! From there we wound our way back down the hill and through town to sit down at a restaurant and have a quiet snack and drink and rest our legs. Our last stop for the trip was BrewDog Stirling, of course, to get the stamp, and then we picked up our bags and headed back to the station! 

We arrived in Glasgow at about 5:30 and headed straight for the hotel, which was right above the Central station. It was a bit of an oven in there due to the late afternoon sun though so after dropping our bags and getting changed, we headed out again. There are two BrewDogs in Glasgow so we decided to have dinner at one, where we had a beer and some delicious smoked meat before heading back to the hotel for an early night.