Stirling Castle

Once again we were travelling down to the Central area of Scotland for a funeral. It was dull and overcast but we stopped to take a photo of Stirling Castle, which looked even more imposing in the weather.

The Castle is one of the largest and most important, both historically and architecturally, in Scotland. It sits atop Castle Hill. It is surrounded on three sides by steep cliffs, giving it a strong defensive position. Its strategic location, guarding what was, until the 1890s, the farthest downstream crossing of the River Forth, has made it an important fortification from the earliest times. Most of the principal buildings of the castle date from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. A few structures of the fourteenth century remain, while the outer defences fronting the town date from the early eighteenth century. Several Scottish Kings and Queens have been crowned at Stirling, including Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1542. There have been at least eight sieges of Stirling Castle, including several during the Wars of Scottish Independence, with the last being in 1746, when Bonnie Prince Charlie unsuccessfully tried to take the castle.

I was rather a long way off and I am not sure my lens was up to the job. Actually, the best views of the Castle are from the M9, but you can't stop!