“Stirling, like a huge brooch, clasps Highlands and Lowlands together.” -Alexander Smith.

Not wanting to take that long train ride back to London before we started Part 2 of this d’aventure, I located a regional airport that happened to have flights going in our direction.  On Saturday AM, we were picked up by a taxi service and taken about 45 miles away to the small regional airport in Newquay. I was surprised at how busy it was for such a tiny airport.

We flew from there to Edinburgh, Scotland with Logan Air on a prop plane. It’s been a long time since I’ve had to walk outside on the tarmac to board (and deboard) a prop plane, but it was kind of a fun throwback to flights in my younger days.

After collecting our baggage in Edinburgh, our next step was to find the airport tram which would take us to a nearby train station for our train to Stirling, Scotland.  Stirling is about 30 miles from Edinburgh. We were supposed to get off the tram at a train station called Edinburgh Park, but accidentally got off one stop early at Edinburgh Park Central. OOPS!  Once off the tram, it didn’t take long to realize there wasn’t a train station there! Luckily, there was a sign by the tram stop with a map and we realized that the train station was only about a 10 minute walk away. We shuffled off to Buffalo as quickly as dragging our suitcases allowed and made the train in plenty of time. Whew!

Stirling Train Station:

This entire d’aventure was planned in a bit of a rush because we’d decided to go sort of last minute.  I was already kicking myself for not giving us enough time to really take a good look at Scotland.  My first mistake was basing us in Stirling for several days because I thought it might be a good jumping off point for some other touring. We’d talked about maybe taking an organized bus tour to see some highlights (because of not having much time to do it ourselves)…only to find out that this type of bus tour doesn’t depart from Stirling.   Now what to do with several unnecessary days to loaf around in Stirling?

Stirling is actually a small, walkable city -without too much going on.  While now holding “city status”, Stirling was created as a Royal Burgh by King David I in 1130. This year is the 901st anniversary of it’s founding.  It was one of the principal royal strongholds of the Kingdom of Scotland,  In 1975 Royal Burghs were abolished as a way to administer a city -although former Burghs continue to use the term.  In 2002, as part of Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee, Stirling was granted city status by the Queen.  

We stayed at a grand old hotel in a great location called the Golden Lion. It first opened in 1786. And we think it still hasn’t caught up to the modern world! What I didn’t know when I booked our room is that there is no internet in the rooms! You have to visit the lobby to go on line. I haven’t had to do that in years… and it added an extra aggravation to writing my blog posts. Aside from that, it is a quiet, genteel hotel in a great location.  A bit frayed at the edges, maybe, but confident in its long history.  

Our room was really big!  We could have hosted a slumber party.  

The main attraction in Stirling is Stirling Castle

Early records date the castle back to the early 12th century. Before 1603 nearly every Scottish monarch had either been born there, died there, or been crowned there. In 1603, James VI of Scotland ascended the English throne (as James I), creating the first time that England and Scotland both had the same monarch.  Even so, both England and Scotland operated independently, while sharing the same King until a later time in history. 

The castle was an early childhood residence of Mary, Queen of Scots. She was crowned Queen in the castle chapel in 1543. Mary was only nine months old at the time. In the past, Stirling Castle was the site of multiple sieges. The last took place in 1746 when Charles Edward Stuart, in popular memory known as Bonnie Prince Charlie, failed in an attempt to take over the castle.

The castle sits atop a rocky hill known as “Castle Hill” that overlooks the city of Stirling and is surrounded on three sides by cliffs.  On our first morning, I had reserved tickets to Stirling Castle -so we bundled up and walked UPHILL (seems to be a theme for this trip) to the castle.  Most of the existing structures were built in the 1500s.

There wasn’t a specific tour route through the castle, so we wandered outside a bit before going inside.

The lighter colored building is the Great Hall (1503).

There were some great views:

The tower off in the distance is the William Wallace Memorial.

Inside, they had some various historical displays – like the oak carvings (mostly of people’s heads)…some original and some were replicas.  They were kind of weird, to be fair.  I did take a picture of this carved wooden screen.

Inside, we saw the banquet hall and the reconstructed private rooms for James V, Mary of Guise (his queen) and Mary Queen of Scots.

This is the Queen’s outer hall, I think.

In the (creatively named) Queen’s inner hall, which leads to the Queen’s bedchamber, we were greeted in character by the young woman in the picture.  She asked where we were from and we answered -“The United States”.  She said she’d never heard of such a place.  We then said Florida and she said… “Oh, yes, we know about Florida, Mexico and Texas!”   

The Queen’s bedroom:

The fireplaces had interesting decor:

The banquet hall:

There were two chairs at the head table, so I took my rightful place!

We did walk through the Chapel Royal.  The current version was built in 1594.  It was surprisingly plain and unadorned. I didn’t get a picture of it because the room was difficult to photograph in a way that actually showed what it was like.  

On the way out, I just barely got a picture of a guy in a kilt ahead of me!

This is Robert the Bruce’s statue.  He besieged Stirling Castle in 1304 when it was in English possession.  He became King of the Scots in 1306, until he died in 1329. He has a convoluted history -if you’re interested:  https://www.nts.org.uk/visit/places/bannockburn/robert-the-bruce

After seeing the castle, we explored a shopping area that wasn’t far from our hotel.  We enjoyed having a lazy day to wander wherever we wanted to.

There were quite a few restaurants up and down the street our hotel was on.  We randomly picked a place called Monterey Jack’s for dinner and were quickly reminded that we’re never far away from home.  This sign was sitting on the table:

It isn’t new to us!  The Bushwacker is a well-known cocktail in Florida.  It has been a “thing” in our area for at least 50 years.  Although the Bushwacker was invented in the Virgin Islands, it was first brought to Florida by the owners of a local beach bar in 1975.

We told the server that we were from the town in Florida that made the Bushwacker famous . He didn’t seem very impressed.  HA HA.

Categories: Scotland -2025, Stirling