England-Scotland Day 5 (Part 1) – Stirling Castle, Wallace Monument

7 April 2010

From Edinburgh, the plan for Day 5 of our road trip was to head up north towards the Scottish Highlands via a rather long, roundabout but scenic route through Stirling, Killin, Kenmore, Aberfeldy and ending up at Pitlochry where we would stay for the night.

Stirling is known historically as the place where Robert the Bruce and William Wallace defeated the English in two separate battles during the War of Scottish Independence. The two main attractions we wanted to see in Stirling were the Stirling Castle and the Wallace Monument.

It took about an hour to drive from Edinburgh to Stirling. We arrived at Stirling Castle at about 10.30 AM. Stirling Castle was built on high ground, like most castles. As we had seen enough of the interiors of old castle (as in Edinburgh Castle), we did not go in. Instead we took some photos from the outside and enjoyed the views of city from here.

Statue of Robert the Bruce outside Stirling Castle.

Statue of Robert the Bruce outside Stirling Castle with bird on head.

I was always wondering why monuments of heroes were erected for this to happen (i.e. bird standing on head and dropping their loads on the hero’s head).

Maybe it would be more fun to put up statues of the baddies near places where pigeons and seagulls congregate and see their heads and faces covered with “you know what”.

Nice views of Stirling could be enjoyed from the grounds outside the castle. There was also a cemetery located in the vicinity of the castle.

The National Wallace Monument (our next stop), on top of Abbey Craig, can be seen from Stirling Castle.

We left Stirling Castle and drove towards the Wallace Monument. 10 minutes later, we were at the car-park located at the foot of Abbey Craig where the Wallace Monument is located. There was a small cafe at the visitor centre/ticket office, so we got something to eat before making the “not-so-difficult” walk up the hill to the monument.

There are several ways to get to the monument from below – by a shuttle bus from the visitor centre, walk through the woods or walk along the tar road taken by the bus.

Wallace Monument viewed from the foot of Abbey Craig.

Nice walk through the woodlands up to the monument. Almost there!

This 220 feet (67m) high Victorian Gothic tower was opened in 1869 to commemorate Scotland's greatest freedom fighter, Sir William Wallace.

Close-up view of figure of Sir William Wallace, also known as Braveheart.

From the lookout point at the base of the Wallace Monument, we can see Stirling Castle and the surrounding countryside.

 

We did not enter the monument to see Wallace's famous double-handed broadsword. Outside, there were some actors re-enacting some historical scenes in a humorous way to entertain visitors.

 

Actors in medieval costumes, re-enacting some historical scenes to entertain visitors.

As we need to cover quite a long distance today, we did not linger too long here and slowly made our way down via the narrow, winding tar road, making sure we don’t get run over by the shuttle bus that may be coming up anytime.

Making our way down to Visitor Centre.

Wild daffodils – signs of spring.

Coming down via the road was a bit easier and we saw some yellow wild daffodils by the side of the road. Nice way to enjoy the spring weather in Scotland.