Scotland Day Six: Alva, Tillicoultrey, and Stirling Castle

This would have been a familiar view to Fred's ancestors

Another full Scottish breakfast this morning. I'm sure going to miss that when we go home and I get back to my usual oatmeal-granola-yogurt in the morning. ;)

After breakfast, we drove to Alva, a little village nestled under the Ochil Hills. This area is where a long line of Fred’s ancestors lived, from the late 1600s till the mid 1800s. We visited the old St. Serf’s kirkyard where one of those ancestors is buried (Fred found the headstone in a previous visit more than 20 years ago) but this time we weren’t able to find it. Our search was a bit rushed because of the “entry prohibited” signs posted by the local Council, allegedly due to the danger of old headstones falling over onto people (really).

We then drove the few miles to neighbouring Tillicoultry, where Fred’s earliest-known ancestor had a farm, and died in 1681. The old graveyard was largely covered by later development, only a small section remains with a handful of very old, very weathered grave markers. It was still very cool to be standing in a place where our people lived and worked, so long ago. It’s a beautiful spot too.


After Tillicoultry, we visited Stirling Castle, which was just wonderful! The tour guide was hilarious -- when he was describing various battles, he would just suddenly erupt in shouts of BANG!! BANG!!! BANG!!!! He was very informative, and it was a great tour.

Stirling Castle is one of the largest and most important castles in Scotland, both historically and architecturally. The castle sits atop an intrusive crag, and is surrounded on three sides by steep cliffs, giving it a strong defensive position.

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. Before the union with England, it was also one of the most used of the many Scottish royal residences. Several Scottish Kings and Queens have been crowned at Stirling, including Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1542.

After the tour, we walked through the various rooms and displays ourselves. They are working on restoring the castle and bringing it back to how it may have looked in its 16th Century prime. For example, weavers worked on tapestries for years, using the old techniques, recreating the originals. Just amazing, gorgeous work. You can view a two-minute time lapse video of  a weaver working on one of the tapestries here.


And carvers recreated the 37 "Stirling Heads", which were 16th Century carvings of historical figures. The originals are on display behind glass, but the newly carved and painted ones are up on the ceiling in the King's Inner Hall, after six years of restoration work. There's a good article about it here.


So it was another fascinating day! After the castle, we stopped in the old part of Stirling and had tea and cake. On the way back to our B&B, we stopped at the pub and dropped off the umbrella we borrowed in last night's deluge. Of course we stayed for a pint.