Stirling

It seems kind of strange to be updating my blog about my adventures in the UK when I'm now pretty well settled in at Boston College, but I'm stubborn and I do want to end up with a fairly complete record of my time at York.  So bear with me as I get through the vast backlog of entries.

I know I said at the end of my last post that I'd write about the Ben Nevis distillery next, but... well, it's a distillery. If you've seen one, you've basically seen them all. And odds are, you're really just there to drink, not to actually see anything. So here's two quick pictures and then I'm going to move right along to Stirling.

 

Stirling was one of my favorite stops. Well, all of our stops were among my favorite stops, so that doesn't really tell you anything. As medievalists, we loved the history there. Stirling is near the border between the Highlands and the Lowlands and once served as the capital of Scotland and has a fantastic medieval castle. Stirling's Church of the Holy Rude was where the infant James VI, son of Mary Queen of Scots, was crowned king.

Even if you are not a history nerd, Stirling is a pleasure to walk around. They have done a fantastic job making the city, which is admittedly tiny, clean and inviting, with lots of flowers and great shops to poke around in. And prices here are definitely better than in Edinburgh and I think were actually the best we saw in Scotland for touristy stuff. I bought my vaguely Celtic-inspired amethyst earrings here and absolutely love them, so I would save shopping for here and not one of the bigger cities.

Oh, and we can't forget William Wallace and Robert the Bruce of course.

A couple of significant battles in the Wars of Scottish Independence took place near Stirling- first at Stirling Bridge in 1297 and then at Bannockburn in 1314. William Wallace (Braveheart for us ignorant Americans) was one of the key players at Stirling Bridge and the picture above shows the view of the Wallace Monument just outside of town as seen from Stirling Castle. There's even a giant statue of Mel Gibson at the monument. Apparently visitors would have been confused if it actually looked like William Wallace instead of the movie character. Here's Stirling Bridge today:

It is a bit of a hike up to the Castle from the town. This is true of most castles, since you want them up on high cliffs to be defensible, but Stirling's is particularly high up there. This makes for some great views though. Near an odd little cemetery, there is what's called the Ladies' View, which is helpfully marked with this map so that you can identify what you're seeing.

 

And of course Robert the Bruce still watches out from the castle today.

I'm rapidly coming to the close of the Epic Road Trip of Awesomeness. After Stirling we swung back into Edinburgh to pick up some tartan that we could not find ANYWHERE ELSE in Scotland for Ellen, so unfortunately we missed Glasgow, which was supposed to close out our Scottish adventures. I know I was really disappointed that we managed to drive through most of Scotland and didn't get any fried Mars bars, but such is life. From there we swung down to hit the other end of Hadrian's Wall, where we actually got to climb on some wall and pretend to defend it from the invading barbarians. And then we switched sides and attacked those smug Roman invaders. Then a quick stop for Chinese food in Haltwhistle (see Illuminating Hadrian's Wall post) and back to York we went. So I'll be working on getting a Hadrian's Wall post together and then it will be time for Family Style Adventures, featuring my crazy family invading the UK for a week.