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Top Attractions in Stirling

Chapel Royal

Stirling Castle, located in Stirling, is one of the largest and most important castles, both historically and architecturally, in Scotland. The castle sits atop Castle Hill, an intrusive crag, which forms part of the Stirling Sill geological formation. It is surrounded on three sides by steep cliffs, giving it a strong defensive position. Its strategic location, guarding what was, until the 1890s, the farthest downstream crossing of the River Forth, has made it an important fortification from the earliest times. Most of the principal buildings of the castle date from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. A few structures of the fourteenth century remain, while the outer defences fronting the town date from the early eighteenth century. Several Scottish Kings and Queens have been crowned at Stirling, including Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1542. There have been at least eight sieges of Stirling Castle, including several during the Wars of Scottish Independence, with the last being in 1746, when Bonnie Prince Charlie unsuccessfully tried to take the castle. Stirling Castle is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, and is now a tourist attraction managed by Historic Scotland.

Airthrey Castle

Airthrey Castle is a historic building and estate which now forms part of the buildings and grounds of the University of Stirling in central Scotland. There are two suggested origins of the name "Airthrey" a corruption of Ard-rhedadie, or from the Gaelic "Aithrin" "a sharp point" or "conflict". This could refer to a battle fought near the site of the Castle in 839, when the Picts were defeated by the Scots under Kenneth McAlpine. The name appears in a charter of King David I, thought to be from before 1146. In 1370, the estate was granted to Sir John Herice, Keeper of the nearby Stirling Castle. Then the land passed to William Graham, 3rd Lord Graham, for gallantry he displayed in the Battle of Sauchieburn in 1488 . He was made Earl of Montrose in 1504 but died at the Battle of Flodden in 1513. The estate remained in the ownership of the Clan Graham down to James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, who fought a campaign in support of King Charles I from 1644 to 1650. By this time, the Airthrey Estate was in the ownership of a minor branch of the Grahams. In 1678, the estate was purchased by John Hope of Hopetoun who was succeeded by Charles Hope, 1st Earl of Hopetoun who was elevated to the House of Lords in 1703 with the titles of Viscount Airthire, Baron Hope and Earl of Hopetoun. In 1759, the estate was sold to Captain Robert Haldane of Plean. The 363-acre grounds and man-made loch were designed by Thomas White for the Haldane family in the late 18th century. In 1791, Captain Haldanes great-nephew, Robert Haldane, commissioned the design by the eminent architect Robert Adam, which is the basis of Airthrey Castle today. Despite the development, he sold it to Sir Robert Abercrombie in 1798. The castle and estate remained in the ownership of the Abercrombie family until 1889 when Donald Graham bought it and made a large addition to the castle in 1889-91. During the Second World War it became a maternity hospital and was used as such until 1969, supplementing the needs of Stirling Royal Infirmary. Then in the 1960s, as a result of the Robbins Report, the estate was selected as the site of the first completely new Scottish University since the University of Edinburgh was established in 1582. The University of Stirling opened in 1967. Its campus is located in 60 acres of woodland, 300 acres of mature landscaped parkland, a loch with an abundance of wildlife and incorporates Airthrey Castle, where the School of Law is based as well as the Universitys student radio station, Air3. Airthrey Castle retains many original features, as well as housing the Universitys Moot Courtroom. From September 2014 the castle will also become home to the Universitys new international study centre operated in partnership with INTO University Partnerships.

Cambuskenneth Abbey

Cambuskenneth Abbey is a ruined Augustinian monastery located on an area of land enclosed by a meander of the River Forth near Stirling in Scotland. The abbey is largely reduced to its foundations. The neighbouring modern village of Cambuskenneth is named after it. Cambuskenneth Abbey was founded by order of David I around the year 1140. Dedicated to the Virgin Mary, it was initially known as the Abbey of St Mary of Stirling and sometimes simply as Stirling Abbey. The major street leading down the castle hill from the royal residences in Stirling Castle to the abbey was called St. Marys Wynd, a name it retains. Cambuskenneth was one of the more important abbeys in Scotland, due in part to its proximity to the Royal Burgh of Stirling, a leading urban centre of the country and sometime capital. Its status as a royal abbey in the neighbourhood of a major national stronghold may be compared to that of Holyrood Abbey vis à vis Edinburgh. Royalty, including Edward Longshanks and later Robert the Bruce, prayed regularly at the abbey. Bruce held his parliament there in 1326 to confirm the succession of his son David II. In 1486 Margaret of Denmark died at Stirling Castle and was buried at the abbey. In 1488 her husband James III was murdered at the Battle of Sauchieburn and his body was brought to Cambuskenneth Abbey for burial. The elaborate marker of his grave, which was funded by Queen Victoria, is still visible at one end of the church. The abbey fell into disuse during the Scottish Reformation. By 1559 there were few monks remaining there, and the abbey was closed and most of the buildings looted and burned. The abbey was placed under the jurisdiction of the military governor of Stirling Castle, who had much of the stonework removed and used in construction projects in the castle. Of the once wealthy abbey, mostly only knee-high ruins and exposed foundations remain. Only the 13th century campanile is intact, following an extensive renovation in 1859. The abbey was acquired by the crown in 1908, and it is managed by Historic Scotland. The abbey is open to visitors during the summer months. Visitors can enter the base room of the campanile; the stairs to the upper floors are locked, but are opened for visitors on occasion.

Church of the Holy Rude

The Church of the Holy Rude is the medieval parish church of Stirling, Scotland. The church was founded in 1129 during the reign of David I, but earliest part of the present church dates from the 15th century. As such it is the second oldest building in Stirling after Stirling Castle, parts of which date from the later 14th century. The chancel and tower were added in the 16th century. Stirling Castle has long been a favoured residence of the Scottish monarchs, and was developed as a Renaissance palace during the reigns of the later Stewart Kings. The Church of the Holy Rude, adjacent to the castle, became similarly associated with the monarchy, hosting royal baptisms and coronations. It is one of three churches still in use in Britain that have been the sites of coronations.

Blackfriars

The Church of the Friars Preachers of St Laurence, Stirling, commonly called Blackfriars, was a mendicant friary of the Dominican Order founded in the 13th century at Stirling, Scotland. The Chronica Extracta and John Spottiswoode alleged that the Stirling Dominican house was founded by King Alexander II of Scotland . Spottiswoode was particularly specific, giving a foundation date of 1233. These dates are possible, but unconfirmed by contemporary evidence. The Stirling Dominican friary lasted over three centuries. Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie claimed that it was destroyed by Protestants in June 1559, a claim partially confirmed in a document of 12 September 1559, which speaks of the ejection of the prior and the destruction of the house earlier in the year. The possessions of the friary went into the hands of Alexander Erskine of Cangnoir, though on 15 April 1567, Mary, Queen of Scots, granted the revenues of all religious houses in the burgh of Stirling to the burgh authorities. Erskine however appears to have retained possession of this friary's revenues, while it is clear that the burgh of Stirling did not gain possession until 1652.

New Williamfield

New Williamfield No. 1 Oval is a cricket ground in Stirling, Scotland. The ground is owned and used by Stirling County Cricket Club. The first recorded match held on the ground came in 2007 when Stirling County played West Lothian. The ground was neutral host to a Women's One Day International in 2010 when Ireland Women played the Netherlands Women. In June 2014, Stirling will become the home of Scottish cricket after an agreement between Stirling County Cricket Club, Cricket Scotland and Stirling Council. It is hoped that the redevelopment of the ground will start at end 2014 with the intention being to upgrade it to international match standards. Scotland will play the majority of their home international games at the ground, starting with the 2015 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifiers. The tournament is from 9 to 26 July across eight Ireland and Scotland venues. The development will see a new pavilion and indoor training facility built at New Williamfield, the home of Stirling County Cricket Club, with Cricket Scotland relocating its headquarters from the National Cricket Academy at Ravelston, Edinburgh.

Abbey Craig

The Abbey Craig is the hill upon which the Wallace Monument stands, at Causewayhead, just to the north of Stirling, Scotland. The Abbey Craig is part of a complex quartz-dolerite intrusion or sill within carboniferous strata, at the western edge of the Central Coal Field, known as the Stirling Sill. The quartz-dolerite, being much harder than the surrounding coal measures, has been exposed due to erosion, including by glaciation. The characteristic crag and tail shape of the crag reflects this glacial shaping. Craig, or crag, describes a post-glacial crag and tail landscape feature. The abbey is Cambuskenneth Abbey, on the north bank of the River Forth, about 1 km to the south. The hill is the site of William Wallace's HQ ahead of the battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297, which was part of the Scottish Wars of Independence. The hilltop was also defended during the Early Medieval Period, and features a vitrified hillfort, destroyed by fire in the 6th or 7th centuries AD and then refortified in 8th or 9th centuries AD, as demonstrated by two phases of archaeological excavation, the first by SUAT Archaeology in 2001 and the second by Murray Cook, Stirling Council's Archaeologist in 2012

Stirling Sill

The Stirling Sill is an outcropping of a large quartz-dolerite intrusion or sill that underlies a large part of central Scotland, and may be contiguous at great depth. The sill is of very late Carboniferous age or more probably Permian, as it penetrates the coal measures, often in bedding planes between the various strata. In places, it rises through fractures in the strata to a new level, forming features that, at the surface, would be called dikes. At its outcrop on the west, the sill generally lies towards the base of the Carboniferous sequence, and just above the calciferous sandstone deposits and lavas, as can be seen in the upper part of the valley of the Bannock Burn. However, to the consternation of miners, it occupies a higher position amongst the useful strata towards the east, and in places has destroyed the coal, while in others the effect of the sill has been to convert the coal to more valuable anthracite. The slope of the Abbey Craig, or the Stirling Castle rock, gives a general idea of the angle of dip of the coal measures at the extremity or the coalfield, and the thickness of the sill can also be seen, which is approximately 100 metres. Geologists have had various theories about the formation of anthracite, as the coal has been most effectively baked near the Ochil Fault, however the theories are not necessarily incompatible. The source of the sill, where the molten rock rose from below, is not known; however it is known that there are risers in the Ochil Fault, although these are inconsistent with the overall structure. The main origin of the sill may be in the region of the eruptive centre that formed the Ochil Hills in a much earlier period, which geologist postulate is somewhere to the east of Stirling, possibly in the region of Kincardine. This ties in with subsidence following the first round of eruptive activity that lead to the formation of the coal basins, with a much later outbreak of intrusive activity from the same magma feeders, however the truth will remain unknown because it would take very many deep bores in hard rock to probe the depths and find the necessary evidence. The western extremities of the sill can be seen at the Abbey Craig, Stirling Castle, Kings Park, Gillies Hill, Sauchieburn and various points to the south. The quartz-dolerite was once quarried at several places including Cambusbarron and Murrayshall, but is quarried today at Northfield, primarily for roadstone.
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