Day 4 - Stirling

We both slept really well and didn’t get up until gone 9am. After showers and our usual breakfast we walked 10 minutes up the road to Fishcross where we caught the bus into Stirling.

The bus driver was very cheerful and helpful. Making sure we bought the cheapest ticket possible. It was a scenic drive along the other side of the river past the Ochil Hills that we can see from our van.

We arrived at Stirling at 11am and once again grabbed a couple of Cortados, I got one for free as my loyalty card was full. The server then gave me a new card and added three stamps with a wink.

It was during coffee we realised we had both forgotten to put our earphones in our bags. We needed these to access our audio commentary around the castle.

We hunted out a HMV and asked the lady if they had any cheap earphones. She was very helpful finding us the cheapest possible (still £10 each!) and then recommending a couple of eateries. Every Scottish person we have interacted with has been lovely and really helpful.

We walked up through the old town towards Stirling Castle.
We had bought tickets for entry at 12 noon. There are lovely views across the city from the castle car park. There were also at least 10 coaches parked up.

We walked around the main parts of the castle with our audio guide giving us plenty of information about Mary Queen of Scots and her son James VI who were both crowned as infants at Stirling Castle. We managed to avoid most of the large groups, timing entry or exits to rooms just right.

We also walked around the outside castle walls to see the Party in Park area being taken down. We had views to Wallace’s Monument and all across the city of Stirling. It’s amazing how far the view goes.

The audio guide was good but I would have liked a map just to be certain we hadn’t missed anything. At 2pm, and conscious of time, we left the castle and started the walk towards the Wallace Monument.

It was a 2 mile walk to the monument. On route we realised we were passing very close to the Beheading Stone so we walked up Mote Hill to find it. As the name suggests it is a stone that was used for beheading those who had been convicted of treason, well so legend says. The stone is now covered in a metal cage, to stop anyone re-enacting the legend again I assume.

There are also two cannons looking out towards Stirling Bridge, which like the ones at the castle, were ready to destroy the bridge if any unsavoury characters tried to use it to attack the castle.

After a few more photos of the views we continued up towards the monument. It’s a steep climb but took about 20 minutes. There were several wood carvings along the route to give the weary climber an excuse to stop, look and rest.

We decided against paying £12 each to go inside and instead headed for a viewpoint through the woods. We found a bench and watched the rain roll in from the castle whilst eating Scottish Tablet.

We were going to do a circular walk at the top but as it started to rain we decided to head back down to the cafe on the carpark.

We had a lovely cup of tea and scone each for the bargain price of £10.80! I then bought a couple of fridge magnets including a highland coo for the van.

It was approaching 5pm so we headed down the road to catch the bus back to Fishcross. Once back at camp we both had showers, before cooking chicken and chips in the airfryer.

After dinner we had a couple of G&Ts and watched John Wick. I was in bed by 930.Read more