Stirling's Top of the Town – Castle, Kirk and Old Town Jail
A day on foot, from Stirling station and back.
The route
Stirling grew up on its rock, the castle of the Stewart kings at the top and the old town, the Top of the Town as Stirling calls it, climbing the hill to its gate.
Centuries of the town's story stand within a few minutes' walk of each other, and all of it is seen on foot. It comes to about three miles from the station and back, much of it steep and cobbled.
Before you go
Tuesdays and Fridays only, at 2.30pm: the only way inside is this tour, booked with Historic Environment Scotland as a ticket of its own.
Online, for a set time: it is £2 cheaper than at the gate.
Book online before you go, or buy on arrival at the Gate House.
The day
Stirling
Uphill first, from the station to the castle as its gates open, then a slow afternoon back down the cobbles, kirkyard to kirk and lodging to jail. It ends high on Gowan Hill with the Forth below, a short walk from the train home. Set off from the station just after nine.
Stirling Castle
An attraction
It's about a 20-minute walk up from the station, a 65-metre climb by King Street, Spittal Street, St John Street and Castle Wynd to the esplanade. Book the 9.30am slot and be at the gate as it opens. The Great Hall glows gold with its limewash, the Royal Palace of James V has its carved Stirling Heads and unicorn tapestries, and there are the Great Kitchens to find. Take the tour from the well, included in the ticket, and give it three hours, with lunch at the Unicorn Café.
About 3 min on foot
The Star Pyramid
An attraction
Three minutes down from the esplanade, the Old Town Cemetery lies in the valley below the castle rock. The stone Star Pyramid of 1863, with marble Bibles at its foot, was raised to Scotland's martyrs. Close by, the Martyrs' Monument stands inside its own glass case: Margaret Wilson, the young Wigtown martyr, and her sister Agnes, with an angel beside them. Climb Ladies' Rock, where the story goes the ladies of the court watched tournaments below, for a grand view of the castle and west to Ben Lomond.
4 min on foot
Cowane's Hospital
It's a 4-minute walk down through the kirkyard to Cowane's Hospital, built from 1637 with money left by John Cowane, a Stirling merchant, as a home for twelve guild brethren who had fallen on hard times. His statue over the door, Auld Staneybreeks (old stone trousers), climbs down, the story goes, to dance in the courtyard at Hogmanay. The John Cowane exhibition and the terraced garden are free, and from April to October the coffee hatch in the old Guild Hall does a light lunch.
Church of the Holy Rude
Next door, a minute's walk, is the Church of the Holy Rude, whose oldest walls go back to the 1400s. On 29 July 1567 James VI was crowned here at thirteen months old, with John Knox preaching the sermon, and very few working churches anywhere in Britain have seen a coronation. Look up at the dark oak roof, uncovered again in 1940. With the Argyll's Lodging tour booked, go round at your own pace: the church's own 2pm tour runs past half past two.
2 min on foot
Argyll's Lodging
It's a 2-minute walk up Castle Wynd to Argyll's Lodging, counted the most important town house of its age left in Scotland. The 9th Earl of Argyll bought it in 1666 and built it outwards round its courtyard, behind a screen wall with a carved gateway. On Tuesdays and Fridays a guided tour at 2.30pm takes you inside, through rooms furnished from the Earl's own inventory. Book it ahead, separately from the castle ticket, and check where it meets when you do. On other days, admire it from the Wynd.
Mar's Wark
A minute back down Castle Wynd, Mar's Wark is the front of the grand house that John Erskine, Earl of Mar and Regent of Scotland, built here from 1570, looking straight down Broad Street. Only the façade stands now, but it is carved all over with royal and family arms and wry inscriptions in old Scots, so take a minute to read the stone. It's free to see at any hour.
1 min on foot
Broad Street
An attraction
It's a 1-minute walk into Broad Street, the old burgh's market place, where a market has been held since 1226. The Mercat Cross in the middle carries a unicorn Stirling calls the Puggy: the column is of 1891, but the unicorn is the one piece left from the 1500s. Beside it stands the Tolbooth, rebuilt in 1704 to plans by the architect Sir William Bruce and now a music venue. Outside it in 1820, the radical weavers Andrew Hardie and John Baird were hanged and beheaded before a crowd of 2,000.
About 2 min on foot
Stirling Old Town Jail
Two minutes round in St John Street is the Old Town Jail, built in 1847 as the county jail, and a military prison from 1888 until 1935. The performance tours leave every half hour: about 25 minutes among the cells with an actor, then climb at your own pace to the exercise yard on the roof and up the observation tower, for a view over the old town. It's more theatre than museum, never gruesome, and fine for all ages. Allow an hour or so.
14 min on foot
Beheading Stone
An attraction
It's a 14-minute walk from the jail, down St Mary's Wynd past the Settle Inn, built in 1733 and worth a pint later, then up a steep path onto Gowan Hill. At its tip, on Mote Hill, the Beheading Stone sits in an iron cage beside two old cannons. On this Heading Hill, Murdoch, Duke of Albany, was beheaded with two of his sons in 1425. Look out over the Old Bridge and the Forth to the Wallace Monument and the Ochils. The station is 14 minutes back down.
If it rains
Most of this day is under a roof. The castle's Great Hall, Royal Palace, Chapel Royal and Great Kitchens are all indoors, and so are Cowane's, the Holy Rude, Argyll's Lodging on its tour days and the Old Town Jail. In the wet, give the castle longer, keep the cemetery to a look from the kirkyard, and leave Gowan Hill for another day: its path is steep and slippery.
Photographs by Ingrid Kacaniova, Arsen Shahinyan, Patrick RIBOT and Stirling Old Town Jail via Google