Stirling

The Rock

Following the departure of the Romans, the castle rock became the focus of new struggles. Located at the extremity of rival Pictish, Scottish, Britonic and Angle kingdoms ('the crossroads of four different cultural streams' as one account puts it), the area became a battleground for power. Whoever held the rock controlled the river crossing and so the whole region. Well might the name Stirling mean 'the place of strife'.

It is also fair to say that the entire kingdom of Scotland was forged within sight of the castle rock, when king Kenneth MacAlpine of the Scots defeated the Picts in 843. A large standing stone in the grounds of Stirling University is believed to mark the possible site of that important battle. Thereafter, as the Scots went on to defeat the Angles and so gradually establish the modem kingdom of Scotland, their kings were to turn many times to the strength and strategic dominance of that fortress hill.

In 973 king Kenneth 111 mustered an army at Stirling, where he was almost certainly staying, before going off to defeat a Danish invasion at the battle of Luncarty. Around the year 1115 king Alexander 1 had a chapel dedicated within his castle at Stirling. He also died at Stirling Castle in 1124, from where he was taken to Dunfermline Abbey for burial alongside his mother Queen Margaret. more...