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Stirlingshire.
A modern pedestrian bridge with angled mast-like white struts and glass balustrades stretches toward a distant town and hills.

Getting to Stirlingshire and around.

The trains, the roads and the buses

Stirling is the region’s main transport hub, with direct rail services to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Perth and beyond. It’s a compact, walkable town with good bus links to surrounding villages and attractions. Trains also serve Bridge of Allan and Dunblane, making car-free trips to parts of Stirlingshire straightforward.

The M9 and A84 give fast access north and west, while smaller roads lead out to the Trossachs, the Carron Valley, and lochside communities like Balmaha. Driving is the most flexible way to explore rural areas, but traffic is generally light outside urban peaks.

Cycling is increasingly popular, with National Cycle Network routes passing through the region and plenty of quiet back roads for touring. Walkers have well-marked paths in and around the park, forest areas and hill trails, including routes to Dumyat, Ben A’an and the Campsies.

By train

Stirling has fast trains from Glasgow and Edinburgh, and on north to Perth, Aberdeen and Inverness.

Bridge of Allan, Dunblane, Falkirk and Alloa have stations too, so much of the region is easy without a car.

By road

The M9 runs from Edinburgh past Falkirk to Stirling and Dunblane, and the M80 comes up from Glasgow.

Stirling is under an hour from either city, and the A84 carries on north-west towards Doune and the Trossachs.

Getting around

Stirling's old town is steep and cobbled but best seen on foot, and buses run out to Bridge of Allan, Dunblane, Doune and the Hillfoot villages.

A car makes life easier for Killearn, Fintry and the quiet roads to the west.

Stirling puts you within walking distance of the castle and the old town, with trains in every direction. Bridge of Allan and Dunblane are quieter and close by, and Falkirk is handy for the Kelpies and the Wheel.

Two days covers Stirling Castle, the Wallace Monument and the old town. With a third, add the Kelpies and the Falkirk Wheel, or Doune Castle and the road to the Trossachs.

Allow at least three hours for the palace, the Great Hall and the views from the walls. Book ahead in summer.

Guided tours take you inside one of the heads at set times, but the sculptures and the park around them are free to walk round whenever you like. Evening is the time to see them lit.

Stirlingshire sits between the wetter west and the drier east, so the weather is mixed, with more rain in the hills to the north and west. Winters can be cold and bright, and the castle rock catches the wind.

Yes. Blair Drummond Safari Park near Doune, the boat trip on the Falkirk Wheel and the Kelpies are all big days out, and Stirling Castle has costumed characters in summer.

Photographs by Calum Mcgillivray and Makers via Google

More of Stirlingshire.

The crow-stepped gables and corner turrets of a royal palace glow in evening light, a stone stair and older tower standing beside it.See and doA royal castle, battlefields and the KelpiesA cobbled street curves past a row of gabled townhouses towards the buttressed corner of a large church, bare trees standing at the junction.Eat, drink and shopOld inns, cafés and coffee in the old townWhere to stayA castle crowns a rocky hill above fields of grazing sheep, hazy hills visible in the distance.History and storiesWallace, Bruce and the castle on the crossingThe curved white superstructure of a rotating boat lift arches over a canal basin and a stone aqueduct, a grass lawn in the foreground.ItinerariesDays we have driven, stop by stopOne of the towering steel horse-head sculptures known as the Kelpies rears beside its twin against a dusk sky, reflected in the canal water.What is on in StirlingshireSomething new from the region every day