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| Kings Knot and Queens Knot seen from Sterling Castle |
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| Flowers growing at the top of the castle wall |
He who holds Stirling, holds Scotland – so the legend went
and today we had the chance to have a quick tour of Scottish history. Of course
things all interweave in this part of the world with a very convoluted history.
We first came across Robert of Bruce the famous Scottish leader who defeated
the English at the Battle of Bannockburn (Stirling) when in Ireland near the
Giant’s Causeway. He was in exile on the island of Rathlin off the Irish coast
supposedly watching a spider weave its web. It had the web blown down 6 times
but kept persisting. Robert had decided that if the spider managed to get the
web built he would return and try again in Scotland otherwise he would go to
the Holy Land. Needless to say the spider succeeded on the seventh attempt and
Robert returned to Scotland. He followed on from William Wallace in the quest
for Scottish independence from England. Stirling castle was in the midst of all
this and changed hands between the Scots and English numerous times from 1296
to 1314. After the Battle of Bannockburn Robert of Bruce destroyed the castle
so that the English could not reoccupy it. It was not until the start of the
Stewarts that current castle was built in stone. James IV started to build up
the castle for his royal court and to establish himself as genuine King in
Europe. He was allied with both the English and French through marriage and
agreements (that obviously took some doing and caused some issues). He was
married to Margaret Tudor (Henry VIII’s elder sister) and then his son James V
continued the building program and figured he was really important because he
could trace his lineage through both Scotland and England. The Royal Palace at
Stirling Castle was built by James V with the Stirling Heads – to remind
everyone in the palace of his lineage and his importance. A bit of
self-promotion and propaganda never went astray! Once the Stewarts come along
you start to throw in William of Orange and James V of Scotland (II of England)
and the Battle of the Boyne (an earlier post), Louis XIV, Henry VIII, Mary
Queen of Scots and so our heads were awash with history. It wasn’t the only
thing awash as we had typical Scottish weather – cold and wet. Our tour guide
did explain that the sun would be out shortly and indeed in the afternoon the
sun did come out although it still remained bitterly cold.
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| Royal Castle |
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| William Wallace memorial from Stirling Castle |
During the visit to Stirling Castle as we added in attempts
to track through the royal lineage of the Stewarts (Stuarts), Tudors and the
rest we decided that you could write whole volumes. To save this we will skip
over the whole convoluted mess but needless to say the marriages of convenience
were all about looking after their own skin and trying to protect the continued
dynasty. Given the number of the kings and queens who were crowned at 9 months
or 13 months the regents really ran the country and made the decisions.
Another of the displays at Stirling Castle were the Unicorn
tapestries. The tapestries were reproduced over a period of 13 years by a team
of weavers at the castle and the final tapestry was only completed this year.
Such an amazing project just emphasises the skill and industry of medieval
times. Historic Scotland commissioned the Unicorn tapestries to furnish the
Royal Castle with period art, the Unicorn was a symbol of the Stewarts and it
is believed a similar series of tapestries hung in the Royal Castle.
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| Stephen walking in Dales Woods |
Time managed to get away from us and it was time to head
back to our lovely little campsite. Given that the sun doesn’t set until after
10:00pm we took a walk through Dales Woods in the sunlight – just near the
campgrounds. Thought we had to walk through the namesake place – wasn’t a very
big woods so no need to get excited that we may have some claim on a large
country estate! We now start to make our way back down south to spend some time
in the Yorkshire Dales.
Love to all
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