Stirling, just stirling

Stirling is about an hours drive from Edinburgh so worked out well as a day trip. We parked just outside the town (another park and ride) and caught the bus into town – I’m glad we did! While there was parking near the castle, it was limited and required navigating through tight winding cobbled streets – best left to the professionals.

There is a massive project underway to restore the castle to its original glory, which is surprisingly colourful. While today most of it looks very grey, it was originally painted very brightly. The Great Hall has been restored and certainly stands out in pastel peach! While the castle was a defensive one, successive Kings wanted to make it a showpiece for Scotland.

The exterior walls are covered in statuary of classical design. James V was influenced by the renaissance style, and even had a statue of himself carved and put up on the wall looking over the central courtyard with classical gods and goddesses.

Inside the Kings Inner Chamber the roof is covered with carved wooden reliefs, painted in very bright colours and a huge copy of the coat of arms is above the fireplace. They are replicas of the originals (on display in the castle) and have even been painted authentically, with the paint being made of the same materials that would have been used in James V day.

It’s almost disconcerting to see how bright all the paint was, the rooms are a far cry from the solid stone and tapestry vision of medieval castles, almost cartoonish.

All round, an impressive castle and you can see that in its day, living here was living in style!