1016570 |
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PUBLICATION ACCOUNT |
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. [...] |
1985 |
1016577 |
DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNTS |
PUBLICATION ACCOUNT |
The Peel of Gartfarren is one of the best-preserved and most accessible examples of a moated homestead to be found in central Scotland. Like its near neighbour Ballangrew (no. 42), it is trapezoidal on plan and is defended by a relatively low inner rampart with a characteristic broad, flat-bottomed ditch accompanied by a low outer, or counters carp, bank. Although the ditch is now dry, it may originally have been filled with water, and there are faint traces of what may be a feeder channel (marked by juncus rushes) leading from a small stream on the south towards the southwest angle of the ditch. The entrance is on the west, facing the road, and is marked by a gap in the rampart and a corresponding causeway across the ditch. The south section of the rampart has been extensively robbed, and on the south-west there are clear traces of where the carts have been brought into the site to carry away the stones. On the other three sides of the enclosure, there is a capping of stones on the crest of the rampart, suggesting that at some time a wall had been built on top of it, but it is not clear whether this is an original feature. In the north-east angle of the interior, there are the foundations of a rectangular building which is probably of comparatively recent date as the medieval buildings are more likely to have been of timber. [...] |
1985 |
1016590 |
DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNTS |
PUBLICATION ACCOUNT |
There are two islands in the Lake of Menteith; the smaller is occupied by the Castle of Inchtalla, while the larger houses the Priory ofInchmahome, which must be one of Scotland's most attractively sited monuments. The Augustinian Priory was founded in 1238 by WalterComyn, 4th Earl of Menteith, but there may have been an Early Christian monastery on the island. All that remains to be seen of the latter establishment, however, is a rather poorly carved slab preserved in the Chapter House. The Priory remained in ecclesiastical hands until the early 16th century when the land was leased to a lay family, after which it became, to all intents and purposes, the heritable property of the Erskines. Following the battle of Pinkie (1547), the young Queen Mary and her mother were lodged for safe-keeping with the monks at Inchmahome for three weeks, but by the end of that century the island had lost its religious community. [...] |
1985 |