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in Stirlingshire.

It’s 01:31 in Stirlingshire.
Stirlingshire

Stirling's crag, the Forth and the Trossachs.

Stirlingshire is where much of Scotland's history was fought out, and where the Highlands begin. Stirling Castle stands on its crag above the Old Town, with the Wallace Monument on the Abbey Craig and the field of Bannockburn close by. Along the Forth there are old tower houses at Alloa and Clackmannan, the steel horse heads of the Kelpies and the turning boat lift at Falkirk. To the west lie the Trossachs, with Loch Katrine, Ben Ledi, the Duke's Pass and Rob Roy's grave at Balquhidder. The visitor centre at Bannockburn is closed until mid-2028, but its grounds and monuments are open every day.

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Place of the day1 hour ago

Finnich Glen.

A deep, mossy gorge of red sandstone near Killearn, where the burn runs blood-red past the rock called the Devil's Pulpit.

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Quiz59 minutes ago

Where was the world's oldest known curling stone, dated 1511, found?

From our archive43 minutes agoStirlingshireFinnich GlenStirlingshireStirling CastleStirlingThe Falkirk WheelStirlingThe PineappleStirlingMhor BreadStirlingThe Scottish Gantry

Stirlingshire this autumn, in our photographs.

Six places in Stirlingshire, each as we found it.

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Places to visit27 minutes ago

Ben Oss.

A rugged 1,030-metre Munro beside Ben Lui, climbed from Dalrigh near Tyndrum.

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Did you know11 minutes ago

The grandest part of Stirling Castle was built to impress a French queen.

Scotland took up the ideas coming out of Renaissance Europe during the reign of James IV, who spent heavily here to make the place fit for a European monarch, partly to impress his own queen, Margaret Tudor, daughter of Henry VII of England. His son, James V, carried it on for the same reason: the Royal Palace went up around 1540 to impress his second wife, Mary of Guise, who had come from the French court. Their daughter, Mary, Queen of Scots, lived in that palace as a child and was crowned here in 1543.

See Stirling Castle · Stirlingshire
From our guideJust now

The Japanese Garden at Cowden.

In a sheltered hollow under the Ochils near Dollar, the Japanese Garden at Cowden is a stroll garden around a still loch, with thatched pavilions, stone lanterns and bridges. The traveller Ella Christie made it in 1908 after a journey to Japan, and she asked Taki Handa to design it. Ella called it Sha Raku En, the place of pleasure and delight. Vandals wrecked it in 1963, and it has since been brought back to life under the Japanese designer Professor Masao Fukuhara. Cross the zigzag bridge, watch the koi in the water, then finish with lunch or home baking in the tearoom. Book tickets online before you go.

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Did you knowJust now

Alan Waldron, who makes bagpipes by hand on Broad Street below Stirling Castle, took his first piping lessons in Gibraltar in 1991.

His interest grew during a spell working in Galway, in Ireland, and when he came back in 1996 he knew he wanted to make and play the pipes. He spent three years selling them, was taught to play by the world-renowned soloist Allan MacDonald, and by 2000 was making his own. At Garvie Bagpipes in Edinburgh he mastered smallpipes and Border pipes, then Highland pipes, learning every stage from reeds and bellows to lathe work and tuning. He had always dreamt of a business of his own, and it came true when he found premises in Stirling. Today Stirling Bagpipes makes new sets by hand, repairs tired ones and keeps antique pipes by famous makers.

See Stirling Bagpipes · Stirlingshire
Places to visitJust now

Three Lochs Forest Drive.

A seven-mile one-way forest road above Aberfoyle, past Lochan Reòidhte, Loch Drunkie and Loch Achray.

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From Issue 8 of Hidden Scotland magazineIssue 8Just now

The 900th Anniversary of Stirling

The places that made Stirling’s story across 900 years as a royal burgh: the castle, the Church of the Holy Rude, Cambuskenneth Abbey, Mote Hill and the field of Bannockburn.

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Did you knowJust now

After Bannockburn, Robert the Bruce pulled down the defences of Stirling Castle.

After his victory at Bannockburn, Bruce had the castle's defences destroyed so that the English could never use it again.

See Stirling Castle · Stirlingshire
From our guideJust now

Clackmannan Tower.

Clackmannan Tower crowns the King's Seat, the small hill above the town, and you can see it for miles across the flat carse of the Forth. It is a tall tower house of the 1300s, built on land King David II granted to his kinsman Sir Robert Bruce, and the Bruces lived here for centuries. The last of them, Lady Katherine Bruce, was a fierce Jacobite, and the story goes that she knighted Robert Burns with her ancestor's sword when he came to visit. The tower is seen from outside, except on Doors Open Days. Walk up the lane for the view of the Ochils.

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From the magazineJust nowThe printed copy of Issue 10Issue 10Spring / Summer 2025

The tennis player Andy Murray and his wife Kim bought Cromlix, the hotel near Dunblane, in 2013 after Andy learned it was facing closure.

Asked to introduce himself in the magazine, Andy kept it short: 'I'm Andy, I used to play tennis'. Cromlix had meant a lot to his family long before. His grandparents held the very first event there when the house became a hotel, their silver wedding anniversary, and Andy and Kim later held their own wedding there. He wanted to keep it open as a special venue for local people and a source of jobs in Dunblane. In 2023 the couple took over running it themselves and refurbished it, naming the rooms after the wildflowers that grow on the estate, and Cromlix was named AA Hotel of the Year Scotland 2024-25.

See Cromlix · Stirlingshire

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