Publication Account
Date 1978
Event ID 1017688
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1017688
The first mention of the castle at Stirling occurs in the dedication of a chapel there by Alexander I (ESC, 1905, 146). At the end of the thirteenth century it was acknowledged to be one of the premier fortresses in the kingdom, the focal point of much activity during the Wars of Independence. It was the Stewarts, particularly those from James II until VI, who favoured Stirling as a royal residence.
Most of the principal buildings of the castle date from the sixteenth century, although some fourteenth- and fifteenth-century work survives. The fortifications and batteries which form respectively the inner and outer defensive barriers on its south east side date from the eighteenth century (RCAHM, 1963, 42). The Great Hall and the Palace are two buildings which command great interest. Completed by James IV, the Great Hall (also known as Parliament Hall) is a massive structure measuring approximately 126 feet (38m) by thirty-six (Um) and rises to a grand height of early fifty-four feet (16. 46m) (RCAHM, 1963, 42). The interior of the building was greatly mutilated in the eighteenth century when the structure was converted into military barracks, although restoration is currently underway. 'In contrast to the Great Hall, which is perhaps the finest achievement of late-Gothic domestic architecture in Scotland, the palace is an essay in the new manner of the Renaissance' (RCAHM, 1963, 42). Erected in the reign of James V, the Palace on plan was originally a hollow square comprising four ranges of buildings of which only three survive. Among its most noted Renaissance features are the grotesque and human statues which embellish its exterior. The Chapel Royal erected in the reign of James VI also is of some interest as it was one of few ecclesiastical buildings erected in Scotland at this period (RCAHM, 1963, 211).
Information from Scottish Burgh Survey, ‘Historic Stirling: The Archaeological Implications of Development’, (1978).
