Stirling Castle

Yesterday my friends and I took a trip up to Stirling Castle! It's just a short train ride from the City Center here in Glasgow, and then the castle is about a 15 minute walk from the Stirling train station (all the way up the hill). On the way up tot he castle we passed by the old jail and the Holy Rood church, where King James VI was crowned.

We then made our way up to the castle, where we first walked around the gardens and Bailey and took in the amazing views of the autumn countryside.

After a lot of picture taking, we headed up to the royal palace, which houses the King and Queen's chambers. The castle was built by James V for his second wife Marie de Guise (the mother of Mary, Queen of Scots). Her chambers are decorated as they would have been while she was living there, featuring tapestries, furniture, and her coat of arms.

The King's chambers are displayed as they would have been after the death of James V, completely empty. The rooms do still feature elements of his coat of arms though. The unicorn (the national animal of Scotland) represents purity. The royal arms of Scotland are also featured throughout the rooms. The ceiling of the King's main room is detailed with carvings, known as the Stirling Heads. The ones in the room currently are all replicas, with some of the originals being displayed in a different room next to the royal palace. It is believed that there were 34 of these carvings originally on the ceiling. However, after one fell of the ceiling and almost killed a guard in 1777, they were removed and dispersed. It was not until fairly recently that some of the heads resurfaced and were returned to the castle. As of right now only 31 have been located, with about 20 or so residing in Stirling Castle, and the others at different museums in Scotland. The carvings are magnificent works of art. Where you look at the on the ceiling they seem fairly insignificant. However, once up close with them you can appreciate the craftsmanship and detail that went into making them (also they're actually huge!).

After that we went into the Great Hall and Chapel Royal, both of which are currently empty of furnishings. However, this does allow you to appreciate just how massive these rooms are.

Table at the end of the Great Hall.

We then head outside (when it started raining of course) and walked down to the outer bailey and artillery sheds to appreciate some more beautiful views.

Finally we stopped by the gift shop, where I got a nice little magnet and a little bottle of Stirling Castle single malt, distilled specially for the castle. Then it was time for lunch, which was very difficult with all the restaurants being closed (for the next 2 weeks) with our new restrictions here, but luckily we found a small cafe that was selling food. Then it was back to the train station and time to head home!

Hope everyone is still staying safe and healthy out there!