Whoever holds Stirling, holds Scotland

3 May 2009

Whoever holds Stirling, holds Scotland

I woke up in my cozy bed in Stirling to bright sun streaming through the window and the smell of bacon and eggs from downstairs. I entered the breakfast room to see that the B&B must have been quite full last night as the room was packed with mostly French and German tourists. The waitress was running around breaking a sweat getting all of the delicious breakfasts out of the kitchen. I enjoyed my fried eggs, bacon and toast washed down with some juice and tea, but did not linger too long. I gathered my things after breakfast and headed out to explore this quaint medieval town. I lingered on the street just outside of my B&B. It was a beautiful neighborhood with large houses, many of which had glass conservatories, looking out on a green grassy Victoria Square. The flowers were all in bloom: lilac, tulips, daffodils. The neighbors were out enjoying the day: kicking a ball on the green, chatting on the front stoop, getting bikes out to cycle.

I headed up a hill towards the old city of Stirling. I decided to take the walking path along the outside of the medieval wall. There were little signs posting historic information and overall it was a relaxing way to start the day in the shade from the wall and trees overhead. I walked through a break in the wall and entered the old city by an interesting looking building that had once been a hospital. Across the lane from that was the Church of the Holy Rude and its adjacent cemetery. I took a stroll through the tombstone spotted grass, looking at the many Scottish Celtic crosses, headstones with carvings of skeletons and angels wings. There was a little hill in the cemetery which afforded me great views of Stirling old city and Stirling castle. I could see a few tour buses parked outside the castle so I figured I’d better take my tour before the place was swarmed with tour groups.

Outside the castle, perched on a volcanic crag, is a huge statue of Robert the Bruce, for those of you that aren’t Scottish history buffs or never saw the movie Braveheart, Robert the Bruce fought alongside with William Wallace for freedom from the English back in the 14th century. He was king of Scotland from 1306 to 1329 and is seen as a patriotic hero to the Scots. The pivotal battle which won Scotland its freedom at that time, took place right outside Stirling at the battle of Bannockburn. The Scottish were they unlikely winners in this battle, outnumbered with abouy 6,000 to 7,000 men with primitive weapons who had to fight against the well organized army of King Edwards numbering about 16,000. To quote the movie Braveheart, “They fought like warrior poets, they fought like Scotsmen, and won their freedom.” They in fact butchered about 11,000 of those 16,000 English soldiers, likely propelled by sheer anger and passion for independence from England. From the spot that Robert the Bruce’s statue stands, I could see beautiful views of the River Forth, Bannockburn, and the William Wallace monument set on a hilltop with a backdrop of mountains beyond.

After I paid my entrance fee to see Stirling castle, I opted out of waiting for the guided tour and instead explored it on my own. There are records of some kind of royal buildings at this location back in the early 12th century but the oldest remaining buildings at Stirling castle were not built until the 14th century and the outer defenses of the castle date from the 18th century. Stirling Castle is famous for a number of reasons, it was the site of many crownings of Scottish royalty including Mary Queen of Scotts in 1543. King Edward I occupied the castle in the 1200’s but after William Wallace fought and won the Battle of Stirling Bridge, the Scots regained this fortress. It was said that whoever holds Stirling, holds all of Scotland so this was seen as a very important military fortress. To this day, the castle is still the headquarters of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders which is an infantry regiment of the British army, Scottish division.

I explored the different buildings of the castle including the Great Hall, the Kitchens, the Royal Palace, a Chapel and some gardens. One of the most interesting displays was a newly constructed building where they had master weavers working to recreate old tapestries in the manner that they would have been woven in medieval times. It was quite impressive to watch them weaving away with thousands of strings of different colors, all of this coming together to make a beautifully detailed tapestry. The tapestry was coming to life with princes, unicorns, soldiers & swords, and hundreds of flowers. These tapestries will eventually be hanging inside of the chapel within the castle.

When I finished exploring the castle and enjoying the views of the valley below, I joined a guided tour of the Argyll’s Loding just down the street from the castle. This house is a beautiful pink color with pointed turrets, built in the 17th century. It is actually the most complete 17th century townhouse in all of Scotland. It was inhabited by the 1st Earl of Stirling in the 1630s and then the 9th Earl of Argyll in the 1670s. We were taken on a tour of the different rooms of the home. The upper dining room was one of the most interesting as it had some original wall paintings just on one wall that were actually a trompe l’oeil, making it look as if the wall had roman columns and recessed cabinets. Behind these painted walls there actually were cabinets which they would open when dinner guests came over because the type and amount of china a person had was a true status symbol.

After stopping for a little lunch, a spicy winter vegetable soup, at a café called Crema, I hopped on a bus out to see the William Wallace Memorial. It only took about 15 minutes to get there. On the way out, I passed the William Wallace Pub, Willy’s Backpackers, and the Wallace High School. Obviously you can see that the Scots love William Wallace! The Memorial is a pointed spear like tower built in the 1800s on the top of a hill. For those of you not familiar with William Wallace (although with the popularity of Braveheart, I doubt there are many that haven’t heard of him) he was a commoner who was integral in the Wars of Scottish Independence back in the 1300s. Similar to the movie, it is said the Wallace really joined the fight when he killed an English sheriff to avenge the death his wife, Marion Braidfute. One of the most famous battles he fought and led was the Battle of Stirling Bridge even though the Scots were wildly outnumbered, after which he was knighted Sir William Wallace. Wallace also fought the Battle of Falkirk, another important battle even though the Scots lost that time. He was eventually turned in and imprisoned, much as in the movie, and sentenced to death. His execution was exceedingly brutal, “Following the trial, on 23 August 1305, Wallace was taken from the hall, stripped naked and dragged through the city at the heels of a horse to the Elms at Smithfield. He was hanged, drawn and quartered — strangled by hanging but released whilst he was still alive, emasculated, eviscerated and his bowels burnt before him, beheaded, then cut into four parts. His preserved head was placed on a pike atop London Bridge.” Wallace is still seen as a patriotic hero to Scotland and Braveheart actually did much to rekindle the Scots’ patriotic feelings when it was released in 1995. The memorial contains some history about the War for Independence and even had Wallace’s sword which was almost as tall as I am; from that, they estimate Wallace stood about 6’6” tall. I enjoyed the views from high atop the tower before making my way back to Stirling.

I had one last walk through the old city of Stirling, enjoying the medieval stone buildings before actually going inside of the Church of the Holy Rude. It has one of the oldest surviving medieval timber roofs; the church was founded in 1129, but due to fire, the surviving building is from the 1400s. King James VI, son of Mary Queen of Scots, was crowned as king here in 1567. Fun fact, Church of the Holy Rude and Westminster Abbey are the only two churches still in use in Britain that were used as sites for coronations.

I took the train back to Edinburgh around 5pm and checked into my hostel, Brodies Hostel, which was located right in the middle of the Royal Mile. I had bought tickets to take the Edinburgh Walking Literary Pub Tour that night. It met at a pub on the Grassmarket, but I needed to eat first. The only thing somewhat quick that I could find by the Grassmarket was a “chippy” shop (as in fish & chips and other fried foods). Edinburgh chippies are apparently known for deep frying pretty much anything! Some of the specialties include deep fried Mars bars and Cadbury Cream eggs. I went for the deep fried pizza. Basically they took a small personal sized frozen pizza, painted the bottom of it in batter, and floated it on the deep fryer until cooked. It was both delicious and disgusting at the same time!!

I met with the Literary Pub Tour group at the Beehive Inn. I met the other people taking the tour with me and they were actually all couples, so I was truly the extra wheel. There was a couple from Sweden, England, California (by way of England), and Oregon & Colorado (by way of Italy). It was a pretty fun and lively group and the guides were quite entertaining themselves. They were actually actors. The whole premise of the tour was that the great Scottish writers, including Sir Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson, _____, got much of their inspiration from spending time in the pubs of Edinburgh. One tour guide played the role of the drinker, the pub-goer who was rougher around the edges, and the other acted like the prim and proper, uptight aspiring writing who would not accept that such famous writers would hang out in dark smelly sinful pubs. The tour, as I said, started in Grassmarket and went all the way through the old city to the new city. We stopped at about 4 different pubs for beers and also spent time outdoors at different spots hearing about the history of these areas pertaining to the writers. The tour guides (actors) spent much of the night quoting bits of literature, again with the idea that they were arguing their point about what the true inspiration was for these famed writers. It was really entertaining and I enjoyed hearing the poetry verses and some of the other excerpts, especially as they were said with the lovely Scottish accent. Some of the readings were done in Scottish English, which is sort of like the old English language but different still. It is quite difficult to understand. For the last reading of the night, they did it once in Scottish and once in English and it surely was much, much more beautiful in the Scottish tongue!

We ended the night, of all places, at a lively French bar. I was chatting a lot with the Swedish couple who were there, as we had a good deal to discuss with my upcoming trip to Sweden. They were just very friendly and sociable in general. I have to say I have never met a Swede I didn’t like! The English couple was also a lot of fun; the woman had the stereotypical British dry sense of humor. That night I finally got an answer to a question I had been asking myself the whole time I was in Edinburgh. As you walk through the city, you always get a waft of this distinct smell. It is somewhat like burnt oatmeal or baked grains. I asked the tour guide finally what I smelled all the time. He said it was the smell of brewing beer! It was actually a lovely aroma too!

I walked back to the old city with the Swedish couple and they said our goodbyes as they continued on to their B&B. I headed back to Brodies hostel, stopping in the kitchen on the way upstairs to fill my water bottle. There was a guy sitting at the kitchen table eating a sandwich and he started chatting with me. His name was Alex, he was from Mexico but apparently had been living in different places in Europe for the last few years, currently residing at this very hostel. The guy must have just smoked a joint because he had the droppy eyelids and was particularly chatty. He told me all about his escapades in Spain, partying too much, getting evicted from his apartment and trashing it before he left. As he kept going on and on about his bad habits, I really wanted to end the conversation and go to bed but I could barely get a word in edgewise! By the time I returned to my room, the other three people were sleeping with the lights off. I felt bad disturbing the quiet in the room as I got ready. At last I climbed up into my top bunk, put in my ear plugs, and went to bed!