Stirling and other easily misspelled place names

For a week we've been negotiating the alleys and closes of Edinburgh.  With the Liar's performance run finished, we decided to take a day out of the city.

Stirling is another city filled to capacity with Scottish history.  Between William Wallace, Robert the Bruce and the various Jameses, it's hard to believe anyone else ever visited the place.  The Wee William statue is nothing next to the Wallace Monument, a tower of Middle Earth proportions which dominates the surrounding area.

The Liar has often been told that he's named for Robert the Bruce, so it was good for them to get a little face-time.

Stirling Castle (where we spent most of the day) has within it's walls the regimental museum of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, which is well worth a visit if you like looking at old military weapons and uniforms (I love it).  At the castle entrance is a statue dedicated to the officers and non-coms who lost their lives in the South African War (Second Boer War, for those playing along at home).

Inside the castle's walls were cannons.  Lots of cannons.  The Liar took some time out to inspect them.

The majority of the cannon seemed to be trained on the Stirling country side.  Which is one way to run a country.

The castle walls offered commanding views of the surrounding area.  The position of this castle has made it instrumental in Scottish history; Robert the Bruce once ordered that it be destroyed so that the English couldn't hold it, as whoever held Stirling castle held Scotland.

Even from the castle, the Wallace monument is an impressive site.

The lasting impression was; Stirling is a beautiful place.

While we were there, we took a tour of the Earl of Argyll's manor.  The enormous kitchens, lovingly restored dining and state rooms and exhibit about the life of the Earl were all fascinating.  I only took one photo.

On the walk back from the Earl's manor, I got a good shot of the castle from a graveyard.

In the graveyard a number of statues commemorated the heroes of the Scottish reformation.

The three most prominent of these were Andrew Melville,

John Knox, the leader of the reformation, seen here flipping off the sky,

and Alexander Henderson, widely acknowledged a the second founder of the reformed church in Scotland.

As we left, the light was so good that I took another photo of the Bruce.

We returned to Edinburgh, and the mad swirl of humanity which is the festival.  We caught a comedy show.  Mr Tiller was honest enough to tell the fifteen people who turned up for yesterday's show that nobody at all had come to see him on Friday.  This was surprising, since he was very clever, and worked the audience very well.

Today we're splitting up; the Liar has returned to the festival, and I will head out to the portrait gallery to look at art and eat cake.