Eastern Lowlands; Sunday, 07 May, 2006

With my luggage checked into the left luggage office in Waverley I boarded the train to another city which was once the most important in Scotland, Stirling. There is a saying that the person who controlled Stirling controlled Scotland, and its easy to see why. Its castle perched on top of a rocky outcrop (and looking the spitting image of Edinburgh in positioning and style) commands stunning views over the surrounding countryside from the Highlands to the Lowlands (or at least does when it's not raining, which face it, in Scotland, is not that many days of the year!)

First stop of the morning was the open-top bus tour. Useful for two reasons, one to get to the Wallace monument on the outskirts of town, which would be quite a hike without, and the other to get to the castle without having to expend any of your own energy climbing the very steep hill!

The Wallace monument is Scotland's national monument, to the man (immortalised on screen by Mel Gibson as Braveheart) who helped, temporarily, to kick the English out of Scotland. The monument is on the top of a big hill which you can climb up (taking about 10 minutes), or you can cheat and catch the free minibus to the top (about 90 seconds!). From the base of the monument you can climb up the spiral staircase (240+ stairs) to the top for, what I was reliably informed are on a clear day, stunning views over Stirling and across from Edinburgh to the Highlands. Unfortunately today it was a struggle to see the car park let alone Stirling or beyond.

On the way up at three internal floors are displays on the story of William Wallace, An exhibition called the "Hall of Heroes" dedicated to the famous Scotsmen of ages past (note, all men, no women - though they are the original selection made during the less enlightened Victorian era. The final exhibition tells the story of the building of the monument.

Having descended back down all to the base of the monument and then on down to the car park I had just enough time to down half a litre of water before the bus turned up. I caught the bus back into town and on up to the castle. Before visiting the castle I stopped off and four other attractions located in the same area. The Mar’s Wark is the remains of a fine house that was built near the castle. It is now in complete ruins and contains part of the graveyard of my next stop the Holy Rude Kirk. The church was the site of the Coronation of the then 13 month old James to become James VI of Scotland. It and Westminster Abbey (Where James was later crowned James I of Britain in 1604 bringing the English and Scottish crowns together) are the only two existing, working churches which have witnessed coronations.

Next door to the church is the old prison. This now houses a museum telling the story of life in prison during the initially enlightened Victoria times (Elizabeth Fry etc.) through to the more barbaric times at the end of the century. The museum also has a display on what life is like in a current Scottish jail, the Maximum security Shorts on the outskirts of Glasgow.

The Argyll’s Lodging house up the hill towards the castle is a preserved example of what a 17th century Wealthy Scots town house would have looked like. Having spent some time there I finally came back to the top of the hill and to Stirling castle.

The castle is very very similar to Edinburgh, but on a more manageable scale (though I only just got to see everything in the 2 hours I had before closing time, and that was without the audio guide) The castle also houses a number of displays and museums, the most interesting of which is on the great kitchens.

With weary feet I headed back down the hill to the station stopping for a spot of dinner before getting the 7 O'clock train back to Edinburgh.

I arrived in Edinburgh a little after 8, too late to do anything, but too early to get my luggage and go to the lounge for the sleeper. After an hour of wandering around town taking some more photos I headed back to the station, picked up my belongings and wandered over to the lounge for some tea before boarding the sleeper, hoping that when I woke up, this time I would actually be at my destination and not in a pretty field less than 200 miles from Edinburgh.