Discover The Most Exciting Stories Of Stirling Castle
Scotland is blessed with hundreds of incredible historic spots, but few can match the stories of Stirling Castle! Guarding a vital crossing point over the River Forth for centuries, this fortress is the birthplace of Kings and Queens of Scots. Some of the most important events in Scottish history took place in or around these walls!
A visit to the castle is the perfect way to start a day exploring the rest of Stirling. It can be a busy place though, so you might want to know a little about this icon of Scotland before you arrive. Here are some of the best Stirling Castle stories to look out for when you visit!
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How To Get To Stirling Castle
Stirling sits on the River Forth, just 40 minutes from Glasgow and an hour from Edinburgh. It’s easy to reach by car on the M9 and M80 motorways. You can park right outside the castle but be aware that it gets full quickly in peak season. I’d always advise you get to Stirling Castle first thing in the morning and book tickets here for quick access!
If you’re travelling with public transport, then Stirling can be reached by direct train or bus from both Edinburgh and Glasgow with multiple services an hour. Remember that Stirling Castle sits up on a big rock, so you’ll have around a 15 minute uphill walk to get here! Don’t worry, it’s worth it!
How Old Is Stirling Castle?
Stirling is one of the oldest continually fortified locations in Scotland, although it didn’t become the royal castle we know today until the early 12th century. Built on a volcanic outcrop, just like Edinburgh Castle, it guarded the lowest crossing point on the River Forth. In 1124, David I made Stirling a Royal Burgh and the castle became a vital centre of administration.
Over the centuries, Stirling grew in importance, becoming a favourite of the Stewart monarchs. The majority of the castle dates back to their reigns, especially James IV and V in the 15th and 16th centuries. Sadly, most of the early buildings were destroyed thanks to this area’s turbulent past. All we’re left with from those days are the stories of Stirling Castle!
Surviving The Wars of Independence
Stirling is known as a huge brooch clasping Scotland together, if you controlled the castle then you controlled Scotland. The bridge beneath the castle ramparts was the only easy way to move an army between the north and south of the country. Early maps even make out that the north of Scotland was an island – that’s how important Stirling Bridge was!
That’s why so many of Stirling Castle’s stories involve sieges and destruction. During the Wars of Independence, the castle passed back and forward between the Scots and the English. William Wallace fought the Battle of Stirling Bridge just below the walls and Robert the Bruce won Bannockburn to take the fortress back.
Between those dates, Stirling Castle was under attack by Edward Longshanks in 1304. Even with his enormous army, this was difficult nut to crack though. Just 25 men under William Oliphant defended the walls for three months while being bombarded by siege weapons.
The English King decided to construct the largest trebuchet ever built – War Wolf. It took 50 men over 2 months to put this monster together and when the Scots saw it, they decided to surrender. Edward refused. Instead, he forced the garrison to sit inside as he destroyed Stirling Castle’s walls, just to show that he could!
Inside The Great Hall
Once inside the walls of Stirling Castle, the most striking building is the Great Hall. It’s painted in a bright “King’s Gold” colour with Scottish unicorn’s perched on top. Built by James IV, it was the largest medieval banqueting hall in Scotland! It’s far bigger than Edinburgh’s, just to show how much the Stewarts valued Stirling.
James is remembered in the windows at the far end of the hall, although maybe not in the way he would have liked. The stained glass that surrounds the top table shows the coats of arms of all the noblemen who died with the King at the Battle of Flodden. It had been a disaster for Scotland, only taking place because James felt compelled to honour our alliance with France by invading the north of England after Henry VIII attacked the French!
Moving forward in time to happier occasions, the most incredible story of Stirling Castle’s Great Hall comes from 1594. The christening of James VI’s son Prince Henry was an elaborate affair and the feast held here was extravagant. Imagine the faces of the guests when an 18ft long ship was wheeled in to serve the fish course, complete with mermaids and firing brass cannons!
Roaming The Royal Palace
While James IV did a lot to remodel Stirling Castle, his son James V had just as large an impact. He built the Royal Palace in an attempt to impress his French wife Marie de Guise. Sadly, James would never see his creation finished, but the rooms were definitely fit for a King!
Outside, the walls are adorned with gods and goddesses, monsters and angels. Inside, this impressively large building is designed around just six rooms! Three of those were dedicated to the Queen and the other three to the King. How far into the Royal Palace you were allowed all depended on how important you were.
The rooms are richly decorated, with vibrant colours and rich tapestries, reflecting how Stirling Castle would have looked in its early days. Expect to find costumed actors in a few of the rooms to tell you more about life, love and death in the palace. Sometimes you’ll find weapons demonstrations, musical accompaniments or sporting displays taking place!
The Stirling Castle Heads
The ceiling of the King’s Inner Hall is easily the most impressive in the Royal Palace. This is where you’ll find the Stirling Heads, 37 three-dimensional carved figures commissioned by James V. It was a great piece of propaganda, displaying the Kings lineage along with images of Hercules to show his strength and Roman Emperors to show his power.
Those fixed to the ceiling today aren’t the originals, but you can find some of those upstairs. We’re lucky to have any of them left at all since they were thrown out for firewood by the army in the late 1700s! Most were rescued, but then distributed out as gifts and trophies.
Fortunately, the wife of one of Stirling Castle’s governors, Jane Ferrier, made it her mission to track them down and sketch them all. Her work was published in a book and renewed interest in the Stirling Heads. By 1928, the Stirling Institute had got their hands on 28 of the carved panels and Jane’s sketches invaluable for recreating the others.
The Birdman Of Stirling Castle
Amongst all of these interesting things, my favourite Stirling Castle story has to be the tale of John Damien. He was an eccentric Italian alchemist who had spent time plying his trade in France. James IV must have seen something special, because he threw money at John’s experiments. The end goal was to create valuable gold from base metals.
It seems like John’s continued failures were testing King James’ patience, so he had to impress him in another way. The alchemist declared that he would create a pair of wings and fly from Stirling Castle to France. In 1507, an excited crowd gathered to watch the first ever human powered flight.
John confidently climbed up to the battlements with his homemade wings and promptly threw himself into the sky. The crowd gasped and then groaned as he plummeted to the ground. Lucky for John, he landed in a dung heap and only broke his leg and his pride.
John explained that his failure was because he had used chicken feathers instead of eagles. Obviously, chickens spend more time scratching in the dirt than soaring in the sky! John Damien never attempted to fly again and his alchemy didn’t take off either. At the very least, he was a colourful character who must have livened up the 16th century court a little.
He became the butt of jokes and satires, but at least his legacy lives on as the Birdman of Stirling Castle.
Murdering The Earl Of Douglas
A slightly less cheery Stirling Castle story surround a dark evening in 1452. The 8th Earl of Douglas had been invited to Stirling Castle for dinner with King James II. It was a dangerous situation for Douglas since only 12 years earlier, his cousin had been killed during a similar event at Edinburgh Castle.
To make matters worse, the Earl had just formed a pact with the Lord of the Isles and the Earl of Crawford against the aggressive nature of the King. To try and put his mind at ease, the King wrote a letter to ensure safe passage and so Douglas reluctantly arrived to meet his monarch.
Eventually, during the meeting, James asked Douglas to end his alliance. The Earl refused and at some point, James just snapped. He picked up his knife and plunged it into his dinner guest. The other men in the room quickly followed suit. Just in case the Earl hadn’t suffered enough, he was thrown out of a window into what’s now known as the Douglas Garden.
Not only had the King broken his promise of safe passage, but he had just murdered a guest in his home. The furious Douglases tied James’ letter to the tail of a horse and dragged it through Stirling to show just what they thought of the King’s word!
James had just started the rebellion that he was trying so hard to avoid!
The Ghost Stories Of Stirling Castle
It wouldn’t be a Scottish castle without a ghost and somewhere as important as Stirling has a few. There’s a highland warrior who wanders the complex and often disappears near the dungeon. A pink lady floats towards the graveyard outside carrying a great sense of loss. However, the most famous ghost story of Stirling Castle is the Green Lady.
She was a servant to Mary Queen of Scots and fiercely protective of her mistress. One day she had a premonition that the Queen was going to be consumed by a raging fire, but nobody took her seriously.
Determined to protect the Queen, the girl sat in the royal bedchamber that evening watching for any sign of danger, ready to spring to action. Hours went by and staying so alert was taking it’s toll. The young servant started to nod off and the candle in her hand started to drop. It dropped so far that it set the curtains alight!
Queen Mary was lucky to escape the flames that burned through her bedchamber but the servant girl wasn’t so fortunate. Ever since then, the Green Lady has been showing up, sometimes only noticeable by the faint smell of smoke.
Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders Museum
The oldest part of Stirling Castle sits at the highest part on the rock – The King’s Old Building. It replaced an older building in the late 1400s where the Douglas Murder took place. These days it houses the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders Museum, a nod to Stirling Castle’s not too recent past as a military garrison.
Inside, you’ll find stories from this historic Scottish army regiment stretching back over 200 years. The Argyll part was formed at Stirling Castle in 1794 and the Sutherland half just five years later. They fought through the Peninsular War, in America and India as separate regiments. In one of their most famous acts, the Argylls formed the Thin Red Line during the Battle of Balaclava to defeat charging Russian cavalry.
The amalgamation of the regiments into the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders came in 1881. If you’re interested in modern military history, then you could easily spend hours looking through this amazing wee museum!
The Guidman Of Ballengeich
Not all of Stirling Castle’s stories took place inside the walls. That’s because it’s said King James V liked to sneak out of the fortress down the winding path known as Ballengeich Road. He would wander his country in disguise to learn how the common people lived. As we went, he used codename – ‘Guidman of Ballengeich’.
He was a popular King, but you can’t please everybody and that person was John Buchanan of Arnprior. One day, the King’s servants were scouring the hills around Kippen, hunting for a great feast. On their way back, they had the misfortune to pass the gates of Arnprior as Buchanan was entertaining guests.
He ordered the meat brought inside to feed his party but the servants protested. This was food for the table of King James himself. Drunk and angry, Buchanan declared that James might be King of Scots but he was the King of Kippen!
When the servants arrived at Stirling Castle empty handed, the gathered nobles were furious at the slight and the theft of their dinner. They were ready to gather their men and burn Buchanan’s house down. Fortunately, James was a little more subtle than that and set off in disguise, directly to Arnprior.
On arrival, he was informed that Buchanan wasn’t to be disturbed by somebody without an invitation. The visitor asked to convey the message that the Guidman of Ballengeich had come to dine with the King of Kippen. The servant had barely disappeared when he came rushing back, waving for the gates to be opened.
When James entered, he found Buchanan quickly sobering up and begging for forgiveness!
Tournaments At The King’s Knot
As you leave the walls behind and head out into the car park, there’s still one Stirling Castle story left to share. Before this area was built over, it was the scene of brutal but extravagant tournaments! One such event took place in February 1449 as part of the marriage negotiations for James II and Mary of Guelders.
The Burgundians had challenged the Scots to a friendly tournament and three celebrated fighters arrived at Stirling. Jacques de Lalaing, Simon de Lalaing and Hervé de Mériadec were all famous for their feats of arms and the Scots had their work cut out. James the Master of Douglas, James Douglas of Ralston and John Ross were the brave knights who stepped forward.
It might have been a friendly contest, but the fight was very real. It would go on to the death unless the King stepped in to stop things! The Burgundians used only their axes while the Scots started with lances, all six men fighting at once.
Things didn’t go well for the Scottish side. The contest went on for some time, but eventually the three were overpowered by the Burgundians. They would all have been killed had the King not stepped in and ended the fighting. Their pride (and much of their bodies) may have been wounded, but they were alive and the tournament was followed by a grand feast to celebrate the occasion!
If you’d like to discover these stories of Stirling Castle for yourself, how about visiting on a Scotland’s Stories Tour?
Just click this link to make an enquiry and book your private driving tour today!
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