Publication Account
Date 1985
Event ID 1016570
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016570
Stirling Castle owed its importance in the medieval period to a combination of a crucial strategic position and a strongly defended natural fortress. Because it lay at the lowest bridging point of the River Forth, it commanded both major north-south and east-west land routes and its possession was vital to anyone seeking military control of eastern Scotland.
Although the site of the castle has probably been occupied more or less continuously since prehistoric times, and is on record as an important royal stronghold from the 12th century, the majority of the surviving remains date from the 16th to the 18th centuries. The late medieval castle lay around the highest part of the hill and comprised a massive curtain wall with square corner towers and a centrally placed twin-towered gatehouse (largely built about 1500). Within the enclosure formed by the curtain wall, there is a magnificent group of royal buildings reflecting the frequent use of the castle as the residence of the Scottish could in late medieval times.Principal among them are the Palace, Great Hall and Chapel Royal. The Great Hall is the ea rliest of these buildings, being contemporary with the curtain wall, and completed in the opening years of the 16th century. In form it is a typical medieval hall but built on the grand scale, outsizing Edward IV's Great Hall at Eltham and Hem), VIII's at Hampton Court. Unfortunately, it was badly mutilated in the 18th century and is now slowly being restored. While the inspiration for the Great Hall looked back to the middle ages the Palace, built only a generation later (between 1540-42), heralds the arrival in Scotland of the Renaissance style of architecture, and is witness to the renewed contacts between Scotland and France at this time. It is remarkable for the treatment of the exterior, particularly the sculpture; the interior, however, has been much altered and all that survives of the original fittings is a series of carved wooden medallions (known as the Stirling Heads) which once decorated the King's presence chamber. The Chapel Royal was built in 1594 for the baptism of Henry, the eldest son ofJames VI, and it is reputed that the best workmen were brought from all over the country to complete the work.
During the later 17th century considerable improvements were made to the north-west defences with the enclosure of the Nether Bailey, and within the castle the King's Old Buildings and the Grand Battery were erected. In the 18th century, following the Act of Union, an extensive programme of works was begun to improve the castle's defences. Between 1708-14 the outer defences were remodelled to take account of advances in artillery, and three large batteries were installed behind a broad ditch, the bottom of which was protected by a caponier (see also Craignethan Castle, no. 32). The castle remained an army barracks until 1958 when it passed into the care of the state, and the HBM (SDD) are now in the process of making good many of the alterations carried out to the castle in the later 18th and 19th centuries.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: The Clyde Estuary and Central Region’, (1985).
