Stirling Castle & Argyll's Lodging

This past Friday (15th), Tim and I went out to Stirling to see the castle and its satellite monuments.  My Scottish history begins sketchily with James VI (First of England) and continues from there, immediately becoming English.  In short, I've only ever taken note of Scottish history when its burn intersects the river of English history.  There were, however, a few names I recognized before the ignominious Stuart line - Malcolm, David, Alexander - but it was a bare acknowledgement of names that have seeped through the thicker fabric of English history.  So Stirling Castle was full of new things for me.





The Gothic-style building in the background is the front bank of the Church of the Holy Rude.



Trying to look over the forewall of Stirling Castle.  There is grass growing all over the place!

 

Queen Anne's garden.  It sports one huge, gorgeous oak tree, on the left, sadly out of the frame.








Reproductions of the famous Stirling Heads.



Part of a commemorative piece done by the same fellow commissioned to reproduce the Stirling Heads.

I wanted to see if they had Man Pie and a recipe for Marshwiggles, but there were three of these huge illumined cookbooks and I didn't have time to go through them all.



The dining room of Argyll's Lodging, a building at the foot of the hill on which the castle sits.

It was a blowy, cold, mizzling day and we were both tired by the end of it, but we loved Stirling Castle, Argyll's Lodging, and the church cemetery.  Indubitably, some of this will wind up in my novels.