Stirling, Scotland, United Kingdom
Today we were up early, had breakfast in the lovely breakfast room, loaded the car and left Pitlochry to head for Stirling. Our time is growing short here in Scotland which is very sad. Today we first drove down a teensy one lane road with “passing places” to the village of Fortingall where we wanted to see the Fortingall Yew. The F. Yew is supposed to be the oldest living tree as it is between 3000 and 5000 years old. It is smaller than it used to be and is surrounded by a wall now as people were cutting pieces off of it--there are crazy people out there, aren’t there?
Once we had made our quick view of the yew, we were back on the road and continuing south. The next stop was the town of Doune to visit Doune castle. This is the ruin where Monty Python and the Holy Grail was filmed. So the audio tours first told you the “real” history and then would have quotes from the film. That’s a rather different way to hear history but what fun!! More recently the castle has been the stand-in for Castle Leoch for the TV series Outlander and the audioguide has a few stops describing this. Of course when we were there the tv show had not been made so I guess we need to go back, don't we?
We finally made it to Stirling, a historic city of about 41,000 people that is considered to be the crossroads of Scotland because it is equidistant between Edinburgh and Glasgow. It is on a plain where the highlands meet the lowlands and thus has been the site of many famous battles.
We easily found our hotel, the Stirling Highland Hotel which used to be a high school (sort of like Hogwarts in appearance) only a block from Sterling Castle. As soon as we checked in we headed to The Portcullis Restaurant and Bar. It is called the portcullis because it is at the edge of the esplanade of Stirling Castle. This is an inexpensive place that looks the part of an old bar as it is filled with dark wood and you enter through a stone courtyard. Mike had a beer and a brie and roast beef panini while I had white wine and a cheese and onion panini. Once we had finished lunch it was time to tour Stirling Castle!
Stirling Castle was the preferred home of the Stewart kings and was also their stronghold. It is where Mary, Queen of Scots was born and lived. The phrase about this castle which is on a cliff like Edinburgh Castle is that “Whoever holds Stirling Castle, holds Scotland”. The first castle on this spot was built in the 12th century by King David I (remember him, he was the son of St. Margaret of Scotland). During the 16th century the Stewart kings made this their primary residence and a showpiece--some say in a bid to "one-up" the English kings. Again this is another fascinating castle which is still in the process of being renovated so many of the rooms seem fairly empty and even new feeling. Renovation was needed as after the English quashed the last rebellion by the Scots in the 18th century, they came in and destroyed everything that was in this royal palace and made it a soldiers' barracks. In fact the English still fly their flag over this palace (hmmm, I wonder how long that will last?).
On our way back to the hotel we walked through the Old Kirkyard (Churchyard), an old cemetery and churchyard just below the castle. We didn't stay long but walked on back to the hotel. We are so tired tonight that we decided to just have dinner in the hotel, called the Headmaster’s Bar. I know it sounds as if we are eating in a lot of bars, but they have great “pub” food and are very comfortable--leather chairs, small tables, etc. We shared a bottle of white wine and Mike had a club sandwich which strangely had fried eggs on it. He was horrified as he is not an egg fan by any means. I had a feta cheese and white cheddar cheese club which had boiled eggs on it also. Isn't that strange?!
After dinner we all just went back to our rooms to relax. Tomorrow we drive into Edinburgh and it will be our final day in Scotland. It is shocking how fast this vacation has gone by, but that's the way of vacations, isn't it?
2025-05-23