CHAPPIDI ABHIRATH REDDY,
C/O COL GKS REDDY,
Visit Stirling City.
Started from Oban early morning on 14 Oct 2013 and reached Stirling City by about 1000 h and went straight to the castle.
Stirling (Scots: Stirlin; Scottish Gaelic: Sruighlea [ˈs̪t̪ruʝlə]) is the largest city in Central Scotland. The city is clustered around a large fortress and medieval old-town. Stirling is the administrative centre for the Stirling council area. The city is located at the mouth of the River Forth. Historically it was strategically important as the "Gateway to the Highlands", with its position near the Highland Boundary Fault between the Scottish Lowlands and Highlands, indeed, it has been described as the brooch which clasps the Highlands and the Lowlands together. Its historical position as the nearest crossing of the Forth to the river mouth meant that many of its visitors were in fact invaders. The beast of Stirling is the wolf, which it shares with Rome. According to legend, when Stirling was under attack from Viking invaders, a wolf howled, alerting the townspeople in time to save the town. It is also claimed that the last wolf in Scotland was killed in Stirling.
Once the capital of Scotland, Stirling contains the Great Hall (restored 1999) and the Renaissance Palace (restoration completed 2011) within the Castle that rivalled any building in Europe at the time. Stirling also has its medieval parish church, The Church of the Holy Rude, where King James VI was crowned King of Scots on 29 July 1567. The Holy Rude still functions as a living church with a service every Sunday.
Visit Stirling Castle.
Stirling Castle, located in Stirling, is one of the largest and most important castles, both historically and architecturally, in Scotland. The castle sits atop Castle Hill, an intrusive crag, which forms part of the Stirling Sill geological formation. It is surrounded on three sides by steep cliffs, giving it a strong defensive position. Its strategic location, guarding what was, until the 1890s, the farthest downstream crossing of the River Forth, has made it an important fortification from the earliest times. Most of the principal buildings of the castle date from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. A few structures of the fourteenth century remain, while the outer defences fronting the town date from the early eighteenth century. Several Scottish Kings and Queens have been crowned at Stirling, including Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1542. There have been at least eight sieges of Stirling Castle, including several during the Wars of Scottish Independence, with the last being in 1746, when Bonnie Prince Charlie unsuccessfully tried to take the castle. Stirling Castle is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, and is now a tourist attraction managed by Historic Scotland.
A view of Stirling Castle and its Main Entrance from outside
The Draw Bridge across the Moat
The inner Court Yard, in front of the Gate through the Second Fort Wall
A closer view of the Entry Gate to Second (Inner) Fort wall
The Grand Entry or the Third Entry Gate into the Castle Compound
A Closer view of the Grand Entry Gate
The Palace Wall with Sculptures from the Inner Courtyard of the castle
The Corridor leading to the Gun Emplacements on the other side of the Palace
Gun Emplacements on the Ramparts of the Fort Wall
A view of the Cannon on the Fort Wall Guarding an Approach
The Castle Wall With the Cannons Deployed (Cannons to the Left)
Stirling Palace
Stirling Palace was built for King James V and his second queen, Mary of Guise. It is one of the most remarkable and complete Renaissance buildings in Britain.
(a) The Royal Wedding. In 1538, James was preparing to marry his second French wife. To mark the arrival of his bride, James commissioned a new Palace in Stirling Castle. It was intended to be as fine as any princely residence she would have known in the richer kingdom of France.
(b) Designed for Impact.
The Palace was designed to display James V’s wealth, learning and sophistication, as well as asserting his right to rule.
Its elaborate decorative scheme, inside and out, was inspired by the European Renaissance. It draws on ideas from the Classical world, employing elaborate symbols and motifs to broadcast messages of power and prosperity, wisdom and justice.
Both the interiors and the exteriors would have been painted in bright colours, with plentiful gilding, overwhelming the visitor’s eye with richness and flamboyance.
(c) How the Rooms are Arranged.
The Palace comprises Royal Lodgings for the king and queen. Each apartment has three spacious rooms – in ascending order of privacy: an Outer Hall‚ an Inner Hall and a Bedchamber. Access to these rooms was restricted according to the importance of the visitor and the royal privilege extended to them.
Both the king’s and queen’s suites are on the same floor, arranged around a courtyard known as the Lion’s Den.
(d) How the Rooms were Used.
These rooms were used for a variety of purposes, including taking meals, greeting important visitors, dancing and entertainments, royal audiences and meetings about affairs of state.
But the bed chambers were rarely used for sleeping. The king and queen slept in small private chambers known as closets.
(e) Reviving the Palace.
The Royal Lodgings have now been returned to something approaching their former glory. A major programme of research and re-presentation, lasting 10 years and costing £12 million, was completed in summer 2011.
Visitors can now glimpse life in one of the great royal residences of Scotland’s kings and queens. The decorative scheme is amazingly elaborate and colourful. It includes hand-woven tapestries, superb, hand-made furniture and painted replicas of the famous Stirling Heads – carved portraits in oak that once adorned the ceiling of James V’s magnificent Palace.
The Lion - The Scottish Symbol inside the Stirling Palace
The Lion's Den, where a Live Lion (The Scottish Symbol)
was Kept by the King James V, it is almost in the center of the Palace
Another view of the Lion's Den
Queens Outer Hall
The Queen's Bed Chamber
The King's Outer Hall
The King's Bed Chamber
King James IV's Old Residence, before new Palace Was built by James V
Another view of King James IV's Old Residence, now being used as a Museum
The outer walls of the New Palace with Sculptures
A close view of the Outer Fort Wall and the Fort
Rosslyn Chapel.
After Visiting the Castle, we had Lunch at a Restaurant in Stirling and drove straight to Rosslyn Chapel, as we had to catch a Flight back to London in the evening.
Rosslyn Chapel, formally known as the Collegiate Chapel of St Matthew, was founded on a small hill above Roslin Glen as aCatholic collegiate church (with between four and six ordained canons and two boy choristers) in the mid-15th century. Rosslyn Chapel and the nearby Roslin Castle are located at the village of Roslin, Midlothian, Scotland.
The chapel was founded by William Sinclair, 1st Earl of Caithness of the Scoto-Norman Sinclair family. Rosslyn Chapel is the third Sinclair place of worship at Roslin, the first being in Roslin Castle and the second (whose crumbling buttresses can still be seen today) in what is now Roslin Cemetery.
The purpose of the college was to celebrate the Divine Office throughout the day and night and also to celebrate Holy Mass for all the faithful departed, including the deceased members of the Sinclair family. During this period the rich heritage of plainsong (a single melodic line) or polyphony (vocal harmony) would be used to enrich the singing of the liturgy. An endowment was made that would pay for the upkeep of the priests and choristers in perpetuity and they also had parochial responsibilities.
After the Scottish Reformation (1560) Roman Catholic worship in the chapel was brought to an end, although the Sinclair family continued to be Roman Catholics until the early 18th century. From that time the chapel was closed to public worship until 1861 when it was opened again as a place of worship according to the rites of the Scottish Episcopal Church.
Since the late 1980s, the chapel has also featured in speculative theories concerning a connection of Freemasonry, the Knights Templar, and the Holy Grail.
A side view of the Rosslyn Chapel from the Courtyard
Another side view of the Chapel
A front view of Rosslyn Chapel from the courtyard
Memorial in the Chapel Courtyard in honour of Francis Robert
St Clair and Blanche, the Earl and Countess of Rosslyn
A Cat in the Chapel which seems to be keeping a watch on all the Visitors
Note:- The information about the places visited has been Extracted from Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia.
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