Stirling Castle

Stirling Castle
	Bird's eye view of Stirling Castle
Creation time :	First evidence from 1110, current buildings from 1460 to 1667
Castle type :	Höhenburg , bridge castle
Conservation status:	Received or received substantial parts
Place:	Stirling
Geographical location	56 ° 7 '26 " N , 3 ° 56' 50.9" W Coordinates: 56 ° 7 '26 " N , 3 ° 56' 50.9" W.

Stirling Castle is a castle in Scotland . It is located above the old town of Stirling on the Schlossberg ("Castle Hill"), a steep hill of volcanic origin. Stirling Castle is a national monument and is administered by Historic Scotland .

The castle played an important role in the history of Scotland due to its strategic location on the River Forth and has been besieged or attacked at least sixteen times. Three battles took place in the immediate vicinity, a fourth a few kilometers further north. From around 1100 to 1685 Stirling Castle was one of the main residences of the Scottish kings , then until 1964 the headquarters of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders regiment .

Most of Stirling Castle's buildings date from between 1496 and 1583, when the castle was built under the Scottish Kings James IV , James V and James VI. as well as under the widow of King James V, Marie de Guise , was significantly expanded. Some parts of the building from the 14th century have been preserved, while some of the fortifications date from the early 18th century.

history

Stirling Castle 2017

It cannot be said with certainty whether the Picts or even the Romans built fortifications on the towering rock from which the entire central part of Scotland was to be controlled . The first confirmed finding is the foundation of a palace chapel in 1110 by King Alexander I.

In return for the release of Wilhelm I , the English occupied the castle for the first time in 1174, but gave it back in 1189. Extensive construction work took place around 1280, but nothing remained of it. While the English King Edward I decided on the successor to the orphaned Scottish throne, Stirling Castle came under English control again in 1291. On September 11, 1297 , the Scots led by William Wallace won the Battle of Stirling Bridge and also recaptured the nearby castle. After the Battle of Falkirk , the castle was lost to the English again, but Robert the Bruce was able to take it again in 1299 after a siege.

Six years later, Stirling Castle was the last castle held by the Scottish rebels. From April 1304 she was besieged by the English . With a total of twelve siege devices (including probably a “ warwolf ” called trebuchet ) they ceaselessly bombed the castle with lead bullets, Greek fire , rocks and even a kind of gunpowder mixture . In the end, the thirty-man Scottish garrison surrendered in nearly four months.

Ten years later, the fortunes of war turned. The Scots under Edward Bruce now besieged the castle. After his brother Robert had crushed the English on June 24, 1314 at the Battle of Bannockburn , the nearby Stirling Castle could also be taken. After their victory in the Battle of Halidon Hill , the English retook the castle in 1333. After a failed siege in 1337, the future King Robert II was able to recapture the castle for Scotland in 1343. On February 22nd, 1452, James II stabbed the 8th Earl of Douglas at Stirling Castle .

On June 11, 1488, the battle of Sauchieburn between royal troops and rebels took place just three kilometers away , in which King James III. was killed. His successor Jacob IV began the striking expansion of the castle in 1496, which was converted into a representative castle by 1583. The coronation of Maria Stuart took place here on September 9, 1543 . An attack by their supporters on the castle was repelled in 1571. On April 17, 1584, insurgent lords occupied the castle, but gave up two weeks later.

Stirling Castle towards the end of the 19th century

On August 3, 1650, Oliver Cromwell's troops began to siege the castle and captured it on August 14, causing severe damage to the complex. On March 30, 1685, Stirling Castle lost its status as a royal residence and became a military base. Between 1711 and 1714 the defenses were expanded extensively. On November 13, 1715, the Jacobites were defeated in the battle of Sheriffmuir , a few kilometers north of Stirling. The rebel army of Bonnie Prince Charlie conquered the city on January 6, 1746, but had nothing to counter the artillery of the castle.

During the coalition wars with France at the beginning of the 19th century, much of the facility was converted into barracks to train the Scottish soldiers who would later fight on mainland Europe. In September 1906, King Edward VII publicly expressed his displeasure at the misappropriation of the historically important castle; from then on, monument protection groups demanded that it be returned to its original state. Eventually the military left Stirling Castle for good in 1964. Since then, numerous buildings have been restored and, in some cases, also reconstructed, so that the castle looks like it did towards the end of the 16th century.

Architecture and location

The great hall

Since steep rock cliffs fall on three sides of the castle hill, the castle can only be reached from the south and is therefore particularly well fortified. The gatehouse, through which one reaches the lower inner courtyard (Guardroom Square) , originally formed part of a "front facade", which was built between 1501 and 1506 and extended over the entire width of the rock. There were massive rectangular log houses at either end . In the middle, four round towers with conical roofs guarded the only passage. But when the facility was built, it was already out of date because of the emerging artillery . In 1559 and 1711–1714 extensive alterations were made, such as the erection of a casemate in order to be able to set up cannons . The southern log house (the Princes Tower , which is now connected to the palace, which was built later ), the adjacent perimeter wall, the passage with the lower part of the inner towers and smaller remains of the outer towers and the northern log house still exist today .

Another passage leads to the middle courtyard (outer close) . On the left side there are some service buildings like the house of the fortress commander (built in 1790). The former kitchen wing was leveled in 1689 and replaced by a battery in order to be able to defend the relatively weak east side with cannons. The lower part of the kitchen wing was partially reconstructed in 1921. Some of the gate on the north side dates back to 1380, making it the oldest part of the castle that has survived; the building above served as a mint for a long time.

To the right of the central courtyard are the two most important buildings of the palace, the Great Hall and the Royal Palace. The Great Hall, built between 1501 and 1504 in the Renaissance style, is 38.1 meters long and 14.3 meters wide. It was probably designed personally by King James IV . For about a century, the most important social events of the Scottish royal family took place here, often also sessions of the Scottish Parliament . After Jacob VI. After having become King of England and moved to London , the Great Hall was used as a stable for horses and carriages. During the 18th century, the hall was divided into several floors and rooms to provide shelter for the troops. After the military left the palace in 1964, the Great Hall was restored to its original state.

Statue of James V of Scotland on the east corner of the Royal Palace

The royal palace was built between 1537 and 1543 and is a combination of Renaissance and Late Gothic . The building is square and has a small inner courtyard, the " Lion's Den" . The north wing is the king's area and the south wing is the queen's area. Both are structured in a similar way: From the guard chamber you first get into the audience hall and finally into the private apartments. While the three facades are artistically decorated on the inside, the west facade facing the rock makes a shabby and raw impression, as it was never completed after the death of Jacob V. The ceilings of the royal audience halls were once adorned with circular portraits, the "Stirling Heads". However, these were removed in 1777 and transferred to the Smith Institute in Stirling and the National Museum of Antiquities in Edinburgh .

Palace gardens, south side of the Royal Palace

Between the Great Hall and the Royal Palace, a passage leads to the upper inner courtyard (Inner Close) . This is flanked by the old royal palace (King's Old Building) on the west side and the castle chapel (Chapel Royal) on the north side. The old royal palace was built in 1496 at the highest point of the castle hill, directly on the rock, and replaced a previous building. However, it only served as the main residence until around 1543 when the new Royal Palace was completed. After that, the building was mainly used as troop accommodation. The northern part was badly damaged by a fire in 1855 and then rebuilt. Today the building houses the museum of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Regiment.

The existence of a castle chapel has been documented since 1110. After a new chapel was built in 1412, it was demolished again in 1594 and replaced by the rectangular new building that still exists today. In 1633 the chapel was richly decorated by the artist Valentine Jenkins. Around 1900 the chapel served as a troop canteen, training room and warehouse. A comprehensive restoration began around 1930 and lasted until 1996.

The lower northern part of the hill (Nether Bailey) can be reached through the north gate and a staircase . In 1810 three powder magazines and a guard house were built here, followed by a fourth magazine in 1860. The northern outer wall forms the end of the entire complex.

The parade ground at the foot of the castle hill is often the venue for open-air concerts by well-known musicians, including REM , Bob Dylan , Wet Wet Wet , and Runrig . The city's official New Year's Eve party is also held here.

literature

Anonymous: Lacunar Strevelinense, A Collection of Heads in Stirling Castle . William Blackwood, 1817.
Apted, Michael Ross: The painted ceilings of Scotland, 1550-1650 . Her Majesty's Stationery Office, Edinburgh 1966.
Billings, Robert Williams: Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Scotland , Volume 4. Oliver & Boyd, 1852.
Cruden, Stewart: The Scottish Castle . Spurbooks, 1981, ISBN 0-7157-2088-0 .
Dunbar, John: The Stirling Heads . RCAHMS / HMSO , 1975, ISBN 0-11-491310-2 .
Dunbar, John: Scottish Royal Palaces . Tuckwell Press, 1999, ISBN 1-86232-042-X .
Fawcett, Richard: Stirling Castle . BT Batsford / Historic Scotland, 1995, ISBN 0-7134-7623-0 .
Gifford, John, Walker, Frank Arneil: Central Scotland (= Buildings of Scotland ). Yale, 2002, ISBN 0-300-09594-5 .
Glendinning, Miles, MacKechnie, Aonghus: Scottish Architecture . Thames & Hudson, 2004, ISBN 0-500-20374-1 .
Harrison, John G .: The Royal Court and the Community of Stirling . In: The Forth Naturalist and Historian . 30, 2007, pp. 29-50.
Harrison, John G .: Rebirth of a Palace: The Royal Court at Stirling Castle . Historic Scotland, 2011, ISBN 978-1-84917-055-0 .
King, Elspeth: The Stirling Heads and The Stirling Smith . In: The Forth Naturalist and Historian . 30, 2007, pp. 51-60.
McKean, Charles: The Scottish Chateau , 2nd. Edition, Sutton Publishing, 2004, ISBN 0-7509-3527-8 .
Shire, Helena M: The King in his House . In: Williams, Janet Hadley (Ed.): Stewart Style 1513-1542 . Tuckwell Press, 1996, ISBN 1-898410-82-8 , pp. 62-96.
Stair-Kerr, Eric: Stirling Castle, its place in Scots history , 2nd. Edition, Eneas Mackay, 1928.
Tabraham, Chris: Scotland's Castles . BT Batsford / Historic Scotland, 1997, ISBN 0-7134-7965-5 .
Yeoman, Peter: Stirling Castle: The Official Souvenir Brochure (= The Official Souvenir Brochure ). Historic Scotland, 2013, ISBN 978-1-84917-135-9 .

Web links

Commons : Stirling Castle - collection of pictures, videos and audio files