On the way to our first castle, we pulled over to look at two impressive bridges spanning the Firth of Forth, or the estuary of the Forth River in Scotland. This is the river that can be seen in the distance in my previous picture of the new city taken from Edinburgh Castle. This bridge opened in 1964, replacing an earlier ferry service that ran for over 800 years. The bridge was built to last 120 years, but recent structural inspections have found that the steel cables are starting to rust underneath their casings. There is no way to fix this, so there is now a major debate in the Scottish Parliament over who will pay to have the bridge replaced. With 8-10% of the cable strength already lost, officials may have to divert some traffic to decrease the daily load by 2014. It may have to be closed completely by 2020.
Right next to the Forth Road Bridge is the Forth Railway Bridge. Situated just to the east, the rail bridge remains an engineering marvel and is something that Scotland takes great pride in (it's even on some of their money). Construction started in 1883 and was completed in 1890. It is the first major steel bridge in the world, and is still only the second longest bridge using cantilevered construction. It took more than 54,000 tons of steel and over 6 million rivets to build it. It was massively over-engineered to regain public confidence after a different bridge failed and collapsed, killing 75 people on the passenger train that was crossing it at the time. Like the Golden Gate Bridge, it needs frequent paint jobs to prevent corrosion. It has lead to the local phrase "Painting the Forth Bridge" referring to a task that is never complete.
After stopping to see the bridges, we continued on to Doune Castle. It will look familiar to fans of Monty Python and the Holy Grail as this castle was used extensively in the filming of the movie. The most famous scene that took place here was likely the one where King Arthur and Patsy arrive at the entrance banging the coconuts together to imitate the sound of a horse. The gift shop and ticket office has a pair of coconut shells that visitors can sign out to go take pictures with and recreate the scene for themselves.
In addition to the prominent role that Doune Castle played in the movie, it does have a significant historic value. It was built during the 14th Century by the Duke of Albany, and is one of the few examples of a castle that was completed in a single building period that has remained relatively untouched and complete. Many other castles were started in one period and later added on to gradually over hundreds of years to fit current needs. The windows in the curtain wall in the background of the picture above indicate that when the castle was designed it was intended to have more internal towers and personal quarters than were ever built. There would have been rooms in front of where the windows are, but for whatever reason that part of the castle was never built.
Doune fell into disrepair during the 18th century. The wooden roof caved in and by 1800 it was a ruin. It wasn't until the 1880s that the restoration began. The roofs were rebuilt and the interior rooms, like the Lord's Hall in the picture above, were restored. Today the castle is owned and maintained by Historic Scotland, a government agency that oversees historic buildings and monuments. The picture above is very strange in that there is that mysterious smoke in the center of the room. I had fallen behind the rest of the group and was alone in the room when I took the picture. What makes it even more strange is that the picture I took right after this one came out clear. Fog on the lens wouldn't look like that nor would it go away so quickly. I thought maybe it was my breath, but if so it should have appeared in more of my pictures. Jessica took a picture with a similar smoke in it in a different room of the castle. I like to think that there is more to it than a simple breath...certainly is creepy!
After Doune Castle, we continued into the city of Stirling to see the Wallace Monument. It stands tall at the top of a hill over the city. It commemorates Sir William Wallace, a Scottish Knight who became a national hero in the Scottish Wars of Independence. One of his major victories happened at the battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297, where he defeated the invading English army...something that was unheard of at the time.
Not only can you walk up to the top of the hill, but you can also climb the 246 step spiral staircase to the top of the monument. Along the way there are two or three rooms to stop in that serve as a museum honor William Wallace. They have some objects believed to have belonged to Wallace, including his sword.
The monument itself was constructed in a period of only 8 years and was finished in 1869 during a time of high national pride. The total cost was 18,000 pounds. The tower stands 220 feet tall and is made out of sandstone in the Victorian Gothic style. At the base, there is a bathroom, a cafe, and a gift shop. You can definitely tell how important this monument was to the Scottish people by the size and complexity of the building.
It was very foggy, as you can see, the day we visited. I can only imagine what the view from the top here would be like on a clear day. The fog was really neat to see though and, as one of the other students in our group pointed out, it was certainly an authentic Scottish climate experience.
After the monument, it was only about to 20 minutes to get to lunch. We ate at Nicky Tams, supposedly the most haunted pub in Stirling. Our group leaders always aim to provide the most authentic eating experiences and to avoid the chain restaurants. To make this possible, we called in our orders a few hours ahead of time so that they could accommodate our large group.
I had macaroni and cheese for lunch with a nice cold pint of Guinness. Syracuse paid for the food, but seeing as it's against school policy to buy students alcohol, we had to buy our own drinks at the bar. One of the waitresses was from California. I don't remember what brought her to Scotland...I think it may have been for school and then she wanted to stay. She described the challenges for Americans to get permission to live in the UK permanently. I think she said that she could only stay for up to 2 years to work and then she would basically have to get married to be able to stay. Britain has agreements with several other countries where they will allow citizens of the other country to come to live and work in the UK and British citizens can do the same in the other country. Britain and the United States do not have such an agreement.
A fitting picture to hang on the wall of a pub! Looks like the perfect size drinking glass to me.
After lunch we walked through a little more of the city and up the hill to Stirling Castle. From the parking lot of the castle, this was the view looking out over the city. That's the Wallace Monument sticking up in the distance.
This is Sterling Castle which, like Edinburgh Castle, isn't all that interesting on the inside but does provide great views of the surrounding countryside. It is also a historically and architecturally significant building. This has long been a strategically important site for defense because Stirling sits at what until recently was the last downstream crossing of the Forth River. Mary, Queen of Scots was among several Scottish Kings and Queens to have been crowned here. Like Doune, it is also owned and maintained by Historic Scotland.
One of the views from the castle.
The trees in front of the hills almost look like they are painted in. It is amazing to have such a view that remains for the most part unspoiled by development. That is one of the things that is so nice about Scotland...not only do you have beautiful historic buildings, but so much of the landscape has been preserved as well.
Looking across one of the castle yards...still within the walls.
All of the pictures of the countryside above were taken from the walkways behind the outer walls as seen here.
Even in the wintertime, everything is so green. This is another one of the yards inside the castle.
After Stirling Castle we made our final stop at Argyll's Lodging, just a block down the hill from the castle. I believe it is operated by Historic Scotland as well. It is the most complete example left of what a 17th century Scottish town house would have looked like.
This is the dining room. The wall covering on the far wall around the door is original, the rest of the room was restored to look authentic.
Finally, our bus driver (on the left) to take us home. Syracuse tries to use him for as many tours as possible because he is such a fun guy and always dresses up in tradtional Scottish attire. That is his brother on the right. It is amazing how paths cross. His brother (also a tour bus driver) took a group from Glasgow to Stirling Castle the same day as us, AND had a couple of Syracuse students with him that had elected to go to Glasgow rather than Edinburgh who had no idea we would be there too.
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