Stirling, SCOT

We had heard early on that Stirling had one of the better castles to check out in Scotland, so it was always on our list of places to see. The process of getting there started out a little roughly. Having participated in yesterdays Glenfiddich tour, “nosing & tasting”, and the private after-party, I was feeling somewhat poorly in the morning. Really quite poorly. Some small consolation could be found in the similar condition of a fellow guest, who had joined us for the latter two events. Of course our host, a seasoned veteran, was spry and cheery. Unfortunately I did not do justice to the elaborate breakfast I had signed myself up for the previous evening, but Christina made a valiant effort at cleaning our plates. After getting packed back up we bid farewell to our hosts and hit the road.

Our selected route avoided the primary highway, and wound casually through the hilly farmland on very tight roads, sometimes only wide enough to permit one car at a time to travel. While not less pretty than the scenery of earlier drives, it was very agrarian and “domesticated”, rather than the more rugged or deserted landscapes through which we had come. Our first stop was Stonehaven, which we had been told had a large number of old granite buildings so on a sunny day would be a sight to see, with the granite sparkling in the sunlight. As it happened, it was mostly overcast and windy for us, but the town itself was very nice, and on a longer tour we might have spent a day or two there. We had a small lunch, and took a walk on the seaside boardwalk before retreating to the warmth of our car and resuming our drive. Electing to take the more scenic coastal route, we followed the A92 south until Montrose, then nipped over to the A90 via the A935 secondary connection. Now on the main highway, we drove through some rain and had a mostly “business” drive down to Stirling.

Initially we parked at the centrally located and inexpensive bus station lot and took a walk around town to see if we could hunt up some accommodation, but found that there wasn’t really much available in “Old Town” Stirling. At the tourist info desk they directed us to Causeway Street, a short distance away, which is laden with an ample supply of B&B and guesthouse rooms. We had a little trouble finding something using their guidebook, as all the numbers we called had no vacancy, but when we did the legwork ourselves a very nice option turned up. We took a room at Calsay House, about halfway down Causeway Street, and about a 20 minute walk into the heart of Old Town. One night quickly turned into two when we decided that we were interested in seeing more of Stirling rather than returning to Glasgow just to return the car and hopping the train back up to Edinburgh. We elected to pay the small penalty for returning our rented car here (instead of Glasgow, as contracted), spend an extra day then continue on to Edinburgh by train. We did exactly that, and spent our extra day walking all over Old Town, taking in the historic sights, including Stirling Castle.

As ardent readers will be aware, we haven’t really been paying to see the touristy stuff up close, and were not intending to do so here either. We had a good look from the parking lot, then crossed the drawbridge to the courtyard and checked out the gift shop and some of the viewpoints looking both at the castle and out to town. The portcullis gate was busy. It was a confusion of people coming and going, and we didn’t see anyone checking, so thought that perhaps it was access to the interior displays that required tickets. We had ourselves a very nice look around, avoiding those doors that led inside, and spent about an hour perusing the castle grounds. Then on the way out, at a much less busy portcullis gate, noticed staff scanning tickets of those visitors entering. I’m not sure it counts as “sneaking in” if no one asks for your ticket, but didn’t volunteer to go buy one retroactively either…

Our hosts at Calsay House informed us that the next day was to be the Highland Games in a nearby town, so we extended our stay by one night further in order to attend the games. In the evening we had dinner at Birds & Bees, another recommendation from our host, and had a very nice meal in a former farmhouse, turned pub, turned classy restaurant.

July 23rd 2011 marks the 140th annual Airth Highland Games, and it was providential good timing that allowed us to see this very Scottish event. After breakfast and a short bus ride to the neighboring village (actually, in the 6 miles covered during this ride we passed through two other villages, which illustrates how small and tightly packed these places are), we arrived in Airth. We had arrived just after the start of the highland dancing, which ran continuously through the day with competitions in a variety of dances performed by age groups from “baby” (for the youngest, who looked about 4, so not exactly babies) through “adult”.

After a lap around the track-and-field circuit we chose seats for the opening of the games, which was done by the local pipe band leading a limo with the “chieftain” in their own course around the grounds.

We watched most of the events, including Shot Put/Throw, Hammer Toss, Over Bar, Caber Toss (also knows as “how far can you throw a telephone pole?”), Smiddy Stane (carrying a huge rock),  Tug of War, and various less interesting running and cycling events.

Fortunately the Scottish weather took a break and we had a day so beautiful and hot that I got a little bit sunburned. We spent the whole afternoon taking in the athletics and feats of strength, and I heard enough bagpipe “music” to last until my next trip to Scotland.

In the evening we walked to Bridge of Allen, which took about twice as long as we had figured on, and had dinner at a nice Italian restaurant. It would be remiss of me not to mention the Wallace Monument, because since we arrived I have not stopped taking pictures of it, and each time we head out for a walk I am amused to see the otherwise normal hillside decorated by what looks like a life-sized Lord of the Rings movie set piece. It’s probably my favorite building in Scotland. Our next stop will be Edinburgh, which will be our last location in Scotland before we make our way to the mainland. At this point we still don’t know exactly where we are headed, but Holland or Belgium are likely targets.

Update, Feb 24 – 8:16PM
I had a bunch more images for this post, but WordPress is imposing some sort of limit, which was breaking this post until just now, so those will have to wait for the slideshow.