The National Wallace Monument

This is the Wallace Monument just outside Stirling. I grew up living right next to it. My Great Great Uncle worked on it as a stonemason.

It is located on the Abbey Craig at Causewayhead - a volcanic outcrop and the location from where Wallace oversaw the battle of Stirling Bridge.

The monument caused as much political outcry in it's day as the parliament buildings at Holyrood after costs spiralled out of control and the architect was sacked.

The public had flocked in their thousands to see the ground broken and the first stone laid but when it finally came to completion it was barely reported in the press.

It has always been a popular tourist attraction however with the worldwise success of the movie Braveheart the interest in it grew considerably.

Stirling Council, in one of many pathetic attempts to cash in on the world wide success of Braveheart, commissioned and erected a disgusting statue of Wallace, erected in the car park, which Scottish nationalists and anyone with half a brain could clearly see was in fact a statue of Mel Gibson and not a very good one at that.

The statue, with the cry "Freedom" carved into the base ironically had to be surrounded by a protective security cage after various incidents whereby damage was caused to the statue in public protest.

The last time it was considerably damaged was about four years ago when the stone head, purporting to be that of the Protector Of York was actually hacked from under Wallace/Gibson's foot and stolen.

The "Sacking of York" which featured in the film Braveheart, the majority of which was filmed in Ireland, never actually took place and is fictitious.

Known locally as the "Wallie-Mollie" the monument houses what is claimed to be Wallace's sword. It looks enormous but is actually as light as a feather forged from Italian steel and lengthy because it was designed for use on horseback.

As with the Stone Of Destiny there have always been doubts about it's authenticity.

The sword was only allegedly discovered during renovation at Dumbarton Castle where Wallace had been held after his capture prior to being taken to England where he was executed for treason.

It's a fantastic monument not only to Wallace but to those who stood against tyrany and ethnic cleansing.