Lossiemouth to Elgin, Scotland '23 Part 4

Lossiemouth, Duffus, Spynie Palace and Elgin

(For Elgin Cathedral, see the 2021 post Elgin and Craigallechie)

A Brief Introduction

Scotland

Moray

After driving north from Falkirk, we spent a week, as we did last year, in a borrowed cottage (thank you Jenny and Bob) in the delightful fishing village of Findochty, beside the Moray Firth. For no obvious reason Findochty is pronounced ‘Finechty.’ Our ‘outings,’ to Banff & Macduff, Pitmedden & Haddo House (near Oldmeldrum) and Lossiemouth & Elgin are described in this and the previous two posts. The rest of the time we pottered happily about Findochty and Buckie. Some of that pottering fed into improvements (and one enlargement) of last year's Findochty, Portknockie and Cullen post.

Elgin is 40 minutes drive west of Findochty,Lossiemouth is 10 mins north of Elgin

And here is a larger map of the area relevant to this post. For purposes of scale Lossiemouth to Elgin is 5 miles as the crow flies.

The Elgin/Lossiemouth

15-July-2023

Lossiemouth

On Saturday we drove to Lossiemouth to have lunch with Norma and Wilson, who live in nearby Forres. We first met in North Korea in 2013.

We entered Lossiemouth driving up the road towards the harbour. Blasted from the solid rock in the 1830s when Lossiemouth developed a grandiose plan to be the port of Elgin, the harbour was subsequently home to some 80 fishing boats. Fishing now employs only 55 (says Wikipedia) of the town’s 7,000 citizens, the main local source of employment is RAF Lossiemouth just to the south west, while others commute to Elgin.

Lossiemouth Fisheries and Community Museum

Opposite the marina, housed in stores once used for fishing gear, is one of the volunteer-driven local museums that can be found all over the UK - we should make more of these excellent institutions.

Here they have artefacts…

Lossiemouth Museum

and models and photographs, which bring alive the Lossiemouth of the past.

Lossiemouth Museum

Lynne was disappointed electronic problems prevented her from driving the ‘fishing boat’…

Not driving the fishing boat, Lossiemouth Museum

… but enjoyed the archive, reading through several investigations into long ago shipping disasters,

Lynne in the archive, Lossiemouth Museum

At the end of the long, thin museum is a facsimile of Ramsay MacDonald’s study. Born in Lossiemouth in 1866, the illegitimate son of a farm labourer and a housemaid, MacDonald was among the founders of the Labour Party in 1900 and became the UK’s first Labour Prime Minister in 1924. His minority government lasted only months, but he returned in 1929 and from 1931 to 1935, led a coalition government, unsupported by the Labour party – causing his expulsion from the party he helped create.

Ramsay MacDonald's study, Lossiemouth Musuem

The volunteers in such museums always have time to chat.with visitors, and as we were doing that we were joined by Norma and Wilson who had walked past on their way to the Restaurant

The Harbour Lights, Lossiemouth

It was good to see Norma and Wilson again, and conversation flowed freely. I failed to take a photograph of the proceedings, which is becoming a regrettable tradition, so here is a picture of them from 2021.

Lynne (left) with Norma and Wilson outside their home in Forres

The Harbour Lights describes itself as a ‘daytime café;’ it has brunch and lunch menus and is fully licensed. Scotland in general and Moray in particular offer plenty of choices for lunch but a good dinner can be a problem. My crayfish, spinach and mango salad was beautifully balanced and delightfully fresh.

19-July-2023

Duffus

Seven km south-west of Lossiemouth, Duffus, originally New Duffus, is a planned village built on a grid pattern in 1811. The casual visitor is directed to the Church of St Peter half a mile away and is pretty much all that survives of Old Duffus.

The Old Church

The ‘old church,’ is actually an 18th century rebuild of the original, completed in time to be abandoned for the new village and its new church. It is memorable, neither outside…

Duffus old church

…nor in…

Inside Duffus old church

…but one late medieval porch has survived….

Late medieval porch, Duffus old church

… as has the Parish Cross. Historic Scotland describe it as a tall and elegant shaft on its original stepped base. In other words, it is no longer a ‘cross.’

Old Duffus parish cross

A watch house was erected in 1830 to guard against grave robbers. Edinburgh University Medical School had problems obtaining cadavers for dissection and grave robbing was not unknown – though the famous Burke and Hare were murderers not grave robbers. The watch house was built during the ensuing ‘moral panic.’ Grave robbing in remote Duffus was highly unlikely.

Watch house, Duffus churchyard

Gordonstoun School

We had parked beside a narrow road, so on leaving the church we continued in the direction we were facing looking for a turning space. We used the gates of a large house, which on closer inspection turned out to be Gordonstoun School.

Gordonstoun educated the late Prince Philip, who enjoyed it so much he sent all three of his sons there. It was an interesting institution (now probably much changed being coeducational and with a female principal) that required its students to be robust physically as well as intellectually.

Whether the three princes enjoyed it is unknown – royals do not tell – but all Prince Philip’s grandchildren went elsewhere.

Duffus Castle

The Mormaers (Earls) of Moray ruled their fiefdom with varying degrees of independence until Oengus of Moray backed the wrong side in a struggle for the Scottish throne and died at the Battle of Strathcaro in 1130. King David I (the man he should have backed) appointed a certain Freskin as his local agent and he built a castle on the boggy plain south-east of Duffus. Scottish Heritage believe it looked like this…

Scottish Heritage plan of Duffus Castle in the 14th century

It has a typical motte and bailey design. Freskin erected a wooden tower on the motte – a man-made mound. The stables, bakehouses and workshops were in the bailey at the base of the motte and protected by a wooden palisade.

It now looks like this….

Duffus Castle

Nothing is known about Freskin except his name, so he was probably Flemish, but the castle was owned by his descendant from 1130 until it was abandoned in 1707.

In 1270 Duffus passed to Sir Reginald le Chen when he married into the Freskin family. The castle was partially destroyed in 1290 and then attacked by Robert the Bruce ten years later, so Sir Reginald decided to build a stone tower.

Militarily his decision was sound - the castle was never attacked again. However building a heavy stone keep on a man-made mound in a boggy plain had predictably long term consequences.

The mound has flattened over time, as the path up from the bailey shows…

Path up the mound, Duffus Castle

…one side of the tower remains largely intact….

One side looks largely intact, Duffus Castle

….while the other is steadily descending the hill.

Part of the tower descending the hill

Duffus eventually had to be abandoned but by then the le Chens had married into the de Moravia family (also Freskin descendants) who were the Earls of Sutherland. In 1707 they had plenty of better castles and the loss of Duffus was inconsequential.

RAF Lossiemouth

The buildings maybe in Lossiemouth, but the main runway stretches almost to Duffus Castle. RAF Lossiemouth is a major base, home to four front line squadrons of Eurofighter Typhoons, two maritime patrol squadrons, an AWACS squadron and a mountain rescue team.

While we were at the castle, Typhoons were taking off and landing (two key skills in all forms of aviation!). They were not doing it quietly.

Typhoon over Duffus Castle

Spynie Palace

The first Bishop of Moray known from written records was Gregoir in the 1120s. He and the other early holders of the office moved between various residences, including Spynie Castle (it was not called a ‘palace’ until the 16th century). It was then a new wooden construction with a surrounding ditch. In 1172 Trinity Church, Spynie became the cathedral and in 1207 Pope Innocent III gave Bishop Bricius de Douglas permission to live permanently in Spynie Castle. In 1222, Holy Trinity, Elgin became the cathedral (we visited that elegant ruin in 2021) but the bishop’s episcopal palace remained at Spynie.

The first stone building appeared in the 13th century and by the late 15th century all the currently existing buildings were in place.

This is Scottish Heritage’s impression of Spynie Castle…

Spynie Castle according to Scottish Heritage

….and this is how it looks from the top of the David Tower.

Spynie Castle: The Little Tower, the South Range and East Gate.
Spot the Loch in the top left hand corner

The Little Tower is on the right, the South Range comes towards the camera from there, and the East Gate is the arched hole in the curtain wall.

While in this photo, the South Range is on the right, the site of the Great Hall slightly left and the Water Tower on the left edge.

The Great Hall and the Water Tower, Spynie Castle

Next to the Water Tower is a small Water Gate. The loch you obligingly spotted once came right up to the castle wall. Even longer ago the loch was five miles long and linked to the sea, which led to the growth of Spynie as a safe harbour. The sea loch silted up long ago and the settlement of Spynie all but disappeared. Drainage in the 19th century further reduced the loch’s size, so it no longer washes the castle wall.

The Water Gate

John de Winchester (bishop 1435–60) moved the main gate to the east wall and fortified it with a portcullis and machicolations.

The West Gate, Spynie Castle

The David Tower, the most impressive part of the building was started by Bishop David Stewart (1462-76) and completed by Bishop William Tulloch (1476-82).

The David Tower, Spynie

It was a tower of many rooms.

Inside the David Tower, Spynie Castle

Elgin

A City not-City

Elgin, with 25,000 inhabitants, is by far the biggest population centre in Moray – at one time Moray was called Elginshire – and is the largest settlement between Inverness and Aberdeen, so Elgin must be a city. Its inhabitants know it - they called their football team Elgin City – and David I made Elgin a Royal Burgh after defeating Oengus of Moray in 1130 (as you already know) and that settles it. Unfortunately, Terms & Conditions Apply, and the small print says Elgin is not a city, and never has been. Many believe this is merely an oversight and will of course be changed, but Inverness, Stirling, Perth and Dunfermline have all been made cities this century, while Elgin has not.

The Town Centre

The centre is largely pedestrianised with a nice fountain (but no water). Behind it, St Giles Church is interesting. It was built 1825-8 in Greek Revival style to a design by Archibald Simpson, who is said to be partly responsible for the ‘character of Aberdeen’. I am not sure I like this design – but that is just me. Between fountain and church is an 1896 statue of Alexander Falconer by John Hutchison. A local physician and philanthropist, Falconer was undoubtedly a worthy citizen.

St Giles, Elgin (and Alexander Falconer)

Not very far away, The Elgin Drummer by Alan Beatie Herriott celebrates the ordinary man and woman. The 18th century town drummer, went round in the morning to wake the workers and the sculpture commemorates a man who held the post for sixty years until his death in 1822.

The Elgin Drummer

Victorian Elgin was built of a lighter, greyer stone than most Scottish towns, making the buildings look more welcoming. Sometimes the architecture becomes almost ‘baronial;’ the Ex-Servicemen’s Club in the High Street looks like it wanted to be a castle, but the lighter stone makes the design seem more fun than pompous.

Elgin Ex-Servicemen's Club

Two or three centuries ago, many of Elgin’s ordinary citizens lived in a ‘close,’ and Braco Close is one of the few that remain. Each close had a gate and a group of cottages, often whitewashed and traditionally thatched with heather - that was theoretically banned in 1735 as a fire risk, but many could not afford alternative roofing.

Braco Close, Elgin

Elgin Museum

Founded in 1836, Elgin Museum claims to be Scotland’s oldest independent museum. Although it has artefacts from all over the world, it understandably concentrates on the local area.

Everything was professionally displayed, and here are three display cases that caught my eye.

This is one of several cases of local fossils.

Fossils, Elgin Museum

We were encouraged to wonder what happened to the Picts.

Pictish carved stone, Elgin Museum

The Picts dominated this area for at least 500 years, and left many artefacts and carved stones, but no written record. The earliest surviving mention of them is from 297CE, their last known king was in the 9th century. At that time there was a general movement of peoples and it is assumed the Picts just assimilated into the mix that would one day become the population of modern Scotland.

More recently in the days when wild salmon were abundant and farmed salmon unknown, fishermen paddled on rivers in coracles to catch them. The River Spey has fast moving water and Spey coracles were designed to be flat-bottomed, stable and easy to manoeuvre. They were in use from the 18th to the early 20th century and Elgin Museum claims to have the very last one.

The last Spey coracle, Elgin Musuem

That completes this brief visit to Elgin – but I will give one final mention to the ruins of Elgin cathedral, though I have already linked to them twice in this post.

This also concludes our 2023 sojourn on the Moray coast. After visiting three years in succession, we will give it a rest in 2024, but we may well return one day.

Scotland 2023

Part 1 Falkirk
Part 2 Banff and Macduff
Part 3 Pitmedden Gardens and Haddo House
Part 4 Lossiemouth to Elgin
Part 5 A Rainy Day in Dumfries (1) Robert Burns
Part 6 A Rainy Day in Dumfries (2) Caerlaverock Castle

Stirling: Scotland '22 Part 7

The Brooch that Clasps the Highlands and Lowlands Together

21-July-2022

Findochty to Stirling

Scotland

Moray

There was no rush in the morning, so when we were good and ready, we left Findochty and set out on our 170 mile journey south to Stirling. A cross-country trip would take us to the A9, not the fastest of trunk roads, and some 3½ hours later, according to Google would deliver us to our destination. But we have been up and down the A9 several times, so instead of tapping ‘recommended route,' I tapped ‘alternative route.’

We travelled from Findochty on the Moray Coast to Stirling
The Cairngorms is the large green splodge lying right in the way

The alternative route via Braemar is 16 miles shorter, but goes straight(ish) through the Cairngorms National Park, not round it like the A9. Google thinks it takes half an hour longer – rather over-estimating the speed a sane person drives on twisting, narrow (sometimes ‘single-track,’) roads.

The Cairngorms contain all the highest mountains of the British Isles, except Ben Nevis, at 1,345m (4,413ft), the highest of them all, which is something of an outlier. Perhaps oddly there was little mountainous to see from the road.

Into the Cairngorms

All the land north and west of the Great Glen, the geological fault running NE across Scotland from Fort William to Inverness, is in the Highland Council District. This is neat, tidy and has a natural boundary, but the Highland District bulges across the Great Glen to include part of the Cairngorms National Park, largely the part with the mountains. I suppose it would be odd if most of Scotland’s highest peaks were not in the Highlands, but to my tidy little mathematical mind, it feels unsatisfactory.

Perhaps that's a mountain down there.
Not all the roads in the Cairngorms are twisty

Braemar

Aberdeenshire

There was no sign suggesting our route ever entered the Highlands, and when we descended south of the main massif into Braemar, we were definitely in Aberdeenshire.

Braemar, nestled in the hills beside the River Dee, is a remarkably pretty village, in the way most Scottish villages aren’t. Obviously affluent, and with the buildings and streets cheerfully bedecked with flowers, Braemar is 10 miles from Balmoral Castle, the summer home of the queen.

Lunchtime had arrived, so we stopped for a cup of tea and a sandwich at the café in the rather splendid Duke of Rothesay Pavilion in the Highland Games Centre. Then we went to look at the stadium.

Braemar Highland Games Centre. If I had told them I was coming, there might have been a crowd

Highland Gatherings (or Games) claim to be descended from events held in the reign of Malcolm Canmore (r1058-93) but are largely a 19th century invention and the wearing of kilts and tartans a reaction to their being banned a couple of centuries previously after the Jacobite Rebellion (1745).

Wikipedia gives the impression that Highland Gatherings were now largely an American occupation. Not so, there are 24 major games held in Scotland every year during spring and summer. There are competitions in running, ‘heavy events’ like throwing weights for distance or height and tossing the caber, as well as cultural events like Highland Dancing and playing the bagpipes (is that really cultural?).

Braemar is not the biggest event, but it is the one attended every year by the Queen. [Update: though sadly not in 2022. The Queen was unwell and died, aged 96, some five days after the games were held.] I am not a natural royalist, but it is hard not to admire someone who took an oath to do something in 1952, and kept on doing it – and rarely putting a foot wrong – until 2022.

We thought we had left the Cairngorms, but discovered they continue some way further south of Braemar…

More of the Cairngorms

…after which the sat nav sent us through a labyrinth of minor roads, before eventually decanting us onto the A9 near Perth and thence to Stirling.

Stirling

Stirling C A

Stirling Council Area, one of Scotland’s 32 administrative districts, is a rough rectangle bounded by the Firth of Forth and Loch Lomond. The north and west is sparsely populated highland, the south and east is flat agricultural land – the flood plain of the River Forth. The 93,000 inhabitants mostly live in and around the city of Stirling in the south east corner.

Stirling Council Area

Crossing the plain towards Stirling, the rocky outcrop, topped by the castle, becomes increasingly prominent. Leaving the motorway, the signed route into the city centre surprisingly climbs the back of the outcrop, passes the castle and then funnels new arrivals down St John Street. Like most Scottish towns and cities, Stirling, is built of dour, dark grey stone. Without the hanging baskets of Braemar, or the least hint of sunshine, it is not a welcoming sight.

Stirling

Conveniently, we passed The Golden Lion, our base for the next two nights – at least it would have been convenient had we not missed it on the first pass.

The Golden Lion, Stirling

Inside, the hotel’s décor and furnishings (not really my subjects) seemed stuck in the 1980s, but the staff were pleasant and efficient. The bar staff provided me with what I needed after a long drive,...

The Golden Lion, Stirling

... the restaurant staff were cheerful and efficient and later, when we had a small plumbing problem, the receptionists, listened, smilingly promised to get it fixed, and did so. The restaurant menu also had a 1980s vibe, though somebody was tuned into the zeitgeist, the lump of haggis accompanying my chicken breast was described as a ‘bonbon’.

22-July-2022

We arranged our Stirling visits for geographical convenience, for blogging I have rearranged them in a more historical and narrative-friendly order.

A castle has stood on Stirling’s rocky crop possibly since Roman times, certainly from before 1110. It encompasses so much of Stirling’s history that I will come to it at the end.

Stirling Old Bridge

Stirling’s importance does not just come from a rocky outcrop, for centuries it was the lowest crossing point on the River Forth. (For lower modern crossings see Edinburgh (2) ).

Stirling Old Bridge

Stirling Old Bridge is a 4-arch stone bridge on a foundation of rubble sitting on a meander north of the old town. It is 82m long and was built around 1500. A new road bridge was built nearby in 1833 and the Old Bridge was closed to wheeled vehicles – there is now an exemption for bicycles which did not exist in 1833.

The Battle of Stirling Bridge

A Little History

Alexander III, St Giles, Edinburgh
photo: Kim Traynor

When King Alexander III died in 1286 his heir was his granddaughter, Margaret, Maid of Norway (Alexander had married his daughter to King Eric III of Norway). Margaret was 3 years old and the ‘Guardians of Scotland,’ a group of senior nobles and churchmen was set up to manage the situation. Margaret set off for her new kingdom in 1290, but died en route.

The several claimants to the throne brought Scotland to the brink of civil war, so the Guardians invited Edward I of England to adjudicate. Edward was already involved, his late sister had been Alexander III’s wife and his son, the future Edward II had been betrothed to young Margaret. He was also a top-grade medieval war lord, and so took the opportunity to increase his personal fiefdom. In 1290, after inserting his own men into positions of power as a condition for making the decision, he selected John Balliol, judging him the most easily controllable.

John Balliol
Forman Armorial, 1562

In the 1980s, comedian Ben Elton referred to one of Margaret Thatcher’s less stellar cabinet appointments as a ‘suit full of bugger-all.’ The Scots had the same idea 700 years earlier, calling King John ‘Toom Tabard’ (empty coat).

Edward tired of his incompetence and deposed him in 1296. A rebellion against Edward I’s appointees followed and William Wallace, previously an obscure minor noble from Strathclyde and Andrew Moray became the leaders. Edward I was busy in France so he sent the Earl of Surrey, and Hugh de Cressingham to sort it out. Their army met that of Wallace and Moray at Stirling Bridge

The Battle

Wallace’s 6,000 men occupied the flat, soft ground north of the river with Surrey’s 9,000 on the south. Sir Richard Lundie, one of the Scots fighting for Surrey (few of these battles were as simply Scots v English as some like to think) offered to lead 60 knights to a crossing place and outflank Wallace. Surrey declined and opted for frontal assault and sent his cavalry across the bridge onto the soft ground. Maybe they charged, but wooden bridge was narrow and the ground boggy.

A cavalry charge across here looks a bad idea, and the 'old  Old Bridge' was 200 years earlier

Wallace watched the cavalry flounder, then watched the infantry follow and at the right moment closed the circle about them and started hewing them down. Reinforcements could not get through and Surry’s men still south of the bridge watched helplessly. They were not trained professional soldiers, there were none in those days, they were just peasants following their lord into battle; they would do some killing and pick up some booty, but they had no intention of hanging around waiting to die, so they left. Battle over.

This was not a battle near a bridge, the bridge was essential to the battle. 'Braveheart', a film I shall mention again later, managed to film their Battle of Stirling Bridge without a bridge - and that was not the worst error.

The Wallace Memorial

The Wallace Monument

The Wallace Monument is an ugly 67m tower on Abbey Craig overlooking the battlefield. It was built by public subscription, fundraising began in 1851 and the foundation stone was laid by the Duke of Atholl in 1861. It was completed in 1869.

The Wallace Memorial on Abbey Craig

Inside there are three exhibition rooms and 265 steps to the viewpoint.  We had a light lunch in the café in the woods below, but did not bother to go in.

Although Wallace was a member of the minor nobility nothing is known of his youth - even his father’s name is disputed.

William Wallace, Edinburgh
Photo Kim Traynor

In July 1297 he was involved in the killing of William Heselrig, probably part of a co-ordinated uprising against Edward I’s appointees. Wallace emerged as one of the leaders of this uprising, and won the easy victory at Stirling Bridge in November 1297 as described above. He then had some knightly fun raiding across Northumberland and Cumbria – though the villagers whose dwellings were burnt may have seem it a differently.

The next summer Edward I came north himself and defeated Wallace at Falkirk in July. Wallace left for the continent but made the mistake of returning a few years later. He was hunted down and executed in 1305.

Wallace achieved far more in legend than in real life. The sources for the legend are a poem called The Wallace by ‘Blind Harry’ written about 1477 and the anachronistic ramblings of Mel Gibson’s Braveheart.

The Battle of Bannockburn

On this trip we have visited arguably the two most important battlefields in Scotland, Culloden (1745) a week ago and today Bannockburn (1314), just south of Stirling.

A Little More History

After seeing off Wallace, Edward I went away to deal with more important matters. He returned and campaigned in 1304, leaving convinced he had added Scotland to a portfolio that already included Gascony (among other parts of France), England, Ireland and Wales.

However, two claimants to the Scottish throne still survived, John Comyn, Lord of Badenoch, and Robert the Bruce, Lord of Annandale. In 1306 they met to discuss their differences in the chapel of Greyfriars in Dumfries (we visited 2023). Robert the Bruce won the argument by stabbing Comyn to death, thus becoming King Robert I of Scotland. He then captured a few castles.

Robert the Bruce as he may have looked at Bannockburn
Pilkington Jackson, 1964

Edward was now over 60, an old man for the time, so he stayed home and sent an army to sort out the problem. Bruce was defeated at the Battle of Methven and went into hiding. Edward’s army recaptured some castles and came home.

Bruce renewed his activities in 1307, so Edward decided to deal with him himself. He marched north, but developed dysentery and died in Burgh by Sands just south of the Scottish border.

He was succeeded by his son, Edward II. Unlike his father Edward II was a reluctant warrior and only felt the need to act in 1314 when Bruce besieged Stirling Castle.

The Battle

Edward rushed towards Stirling arriving on the 23rd of June 1314, with a large army (20-25,000) of tired men. How anybody arrived anywhere with the maps available at the time is a mystery to me.

A contemporary map of Great Britain, Bannockburn visitor centre

Bruce, with only 5-8,000 men, was headquartered where the Memorial now stands.

The Bannockburn Memorial

Edward's men were across the battlefield to the south.

The Bannockburn Battlefield - not a very interesting picture!

On the 23rd an English flanking manoeuvre with 300 men resulted in a skirmish where an undisciplined and over-confident charge preceded a rout.

Edward’s tired and now dispirited men spent an uncomfortable night in a boggy field beside the Bannockburn.

The next morning Edward brought his men across the burn, but they were still on boggy land. A deserter had informed Robert that English morale was low and advised him to attack. He marched his men forward.

The sudden arrival of well drilled schiltrons of pikemen further unnerved Edaward’s army. With their knights pinned in boggy ground between the schiltrons and the burn, and the support of their archers doing more damaged to their own men than the enemy, the battle was soon over. Edward II scuttled south leaving Robert I unchallenged King of Scotland.

Edward II was neither a warrior nor a leader of men. In 1327 he was deposed by his own mother and her lover Roger Mortimer and murdered shortly afterwards. His son, Edward III turned out to be better suited to the job.

Stirling Castle

No one knows who first claimed the rocky outcrop now surmounted by Stirling Castle, but it is such an obvious defensive point it must have attracted peoples now long-forgotten whose names were never written down.

From the plain the current buildings still look forbidding - Stirling Castle represented Colditz Castle in the opening shots of the 1970s TV series – but the outcrop is of the ‘crag and tail’ variety. The older parts of the city spread down the tail and as we walked up the main street the city would have merged into the castle were there not a gate and a young woman checking tickets.

Most surviving structures are from the 15th and 16th centuries. Some are a little older, others younger and the ‘outer defences’ beyond the town gate, are 18th century and now enclose a garden showing how the castle eventually morphed into a palace.

Inside the Outer Defences, Stirling Castle

To the southwest is the Kings Knot, a 12th century park once used for jousting, hawking and hunting. In the 1490s, James IV planted fruit trees, flowers and ornamental hedges, and the earthwork was constructed for the Scottish coronation of Charles I’s in 1633. Stirling Heritage Trust say the most impressive view of the castle is from this earthwork.

The King's Knott by Stirling Castle

The castle’s first appearance in written record was surprisingly late when King Alexander I dedicated a chapel here in 1110. Stirling became a Royal Burgh and an administrative centre in the reign of Alexander’s successor (and brother) David I (r1124-53).

Being situated at almost the narrowest part of Scotland with the Highlands to the north and the Lowlands to the south, Stirling’s strategic importance led to the saying, ‘he who holds Stirling holds Scotland.’ The Castle has thus been besieged seven times, most frequently during the wars with Edward I of England, and most recently by Charle Edward Stuart in 1745 during his abortive attempt to regain the crown for the Stuarts.

Through a gate…

Into the Inner Ward, Stirling Castle

…we entered an older section of the castle, though more Stuart than medieval.

In the inner ward, Stirling Castle

Inside there was a minstrel to pluck a tune on his lute to accompany our visit.

Minstrel, Stirling Castle

We admired the tapestries…

Tapestries, Stirling Castle

…. and the queen’s bedchamber. She did not sleep here, she had a smaller, more personal room behind, this one was just for show.

Queens Bedchamber, Stirling Castle

The Stirling Heads – 16th century medallions, a metre in diameter, with carvings of kings, queens, nobles, Roman emperors, biblical figures and characters from classical mythology - decorated the palace ceilings until a collapse in 1777.

One of the Stirling Heads

Back outside we approached the North Gate, in part dating from the 1380s making it the oldest structure in the castle.

The North Gate, Stirling Castle

And so our castle visit came to an end.

The Maharajah

Like many Scottish towns Stirling has many restaurants opening 10.00 to 5.00 pm for coffee, lunch and tea, but surprisingly few offer dinner. Eating out on a Friday night requires booking, and doing so earlier than we did.

However, we had exhausted the delights of the hotel menu, and The Maharajah may have maintained a low profile on the internet and local guides, but it was just across the road. Small Indian restaurants are very variable and we had no local knowledge, but we decided to chance our luck. And lucky we were, The Maharajah fed us well, so now we have local knowledge I can advise travellers searching for an evening meal in Stirling to visit the Maharajah.

The Maharajah, Stirling

I was not surprised by the number of cyclists coming in carrying the distinctive boxes of Deliveroo and its competitors, they soon loaded up and peddled off, but what surprised me was that most were not youngsters but men in their 50s or 60s’

The End

So our 2022 Scottish sojourn ended with our best meal out since our first night in Glasgow. The next day we made the long drive home.

Scotland 2022

Part 1: Glasgow (1) Irn Bru, The Clyde and La Lanterna:
Part 2: Glasgow (2): A Walking Tour
Part 3: The Battle of Culloden and Cawdor Castle
Part 4: Fraserburgh and Portsoy
Part 5: Huntly and Fyvie
Part 6: Findochty, Portknockie and Cullen
Part 7: Stirling