Stirling Castle

We visited Stirling Castle on a nice August Sunday afternoon, and had a lot of fun exploring this most "castle-y" of castles.

What do we look for in a castle?  Nools and crannies, and places where we can imagine people like us, hundreds of years ago, indulging in terrible conflicts.  Here's one one the tiny corner turrets.

Sam enjoyed Stirling Castle immensely.  As much as I remember enjoying it when I was his age in the seventies.  I wonder if he will bring his children here one day?

The castle is plonked on top of an unerodable lump of volcanic rock.  It's Very high up, but you don't really understand how high until you take in the panoramic views from the gun batteries.

Above you can see the royal hunting park stretching out for a couple of miles - all the green bits you can see were owned and stocked by the castle.

The Great Hall is....great.  At the far end is the musicians' balcony, which would have been hidden by curtains according to Sam.  And the vaulted roof seems to be so high above the hall's floor.

On the opposite side to the hunting park is a great view of the Wallace Monument, commemorating a Scottish terrorist who killed lots of English people unlawfully.  But they like him round there, for some reason.  The guns on this side of the castle could fire upon that hill if needed to.

Nooks and crannies....there are so many hidden passages and archways in Stirling Castle!  Here you can see Sam standing on the exact spot where a mutilated, dismembered nobleman, with pretensions to the throne, landed after being thrown out of a castle window above.  No butchered bodies landed here while we were around, disappointingly.

Most of the walls are open to be walked around, although some parts are closed for repair due to frost damage from the last winter.  There's still Lots to explore though.

To their great credit, the castle seem to have endeavoured to open as many rooms (even those small and with no grand purpose) as possible for the public to explore.  Recommended!