Stirling

Did you Know

Did you know?

Over 80 places throughout Scotland claim a direct association with Wallace.
The Wallace phenomenon is world-wide: there are Wallace statues everywhere from Ballarat, Australia to Baltimore, USA
Four masked men forced their way into the Wallace Monument on the evening of Sunday 8 November 1936 and made off with Wallace’s sword.
Blind Harry’s biographical poem 'The Wallace' was the most common book to be found in Scottish homes after it was republished in 1722 (with the exception of the Bible). It is possibly the most influential long poem ever written in Scots.
Blind Harry’s epic poem is supposedly based on a book written by John Blair, Wallace’s personal chaplain.
On the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1997 an exhibition at the Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum featured many paintings and artefacts which were borrowed from private owners. Families, collectors and individuals donated everything from a Wallace umbrella stand and grandfather clock to ornaments, statuettes and a portrait carved in sandstone.
The European premiere of multi-Oscar winner Braveheart, Mel Gibson’s take on the story of William Wallace, was held at Stirling’s MacRobert Arts Centre in the shadow of the Wallace Monument. It was followed by a star-studded party at the Castle.
A huge statue of William Wallace overlooks the ruins of Dryburgh Abbey in the Scottish Borders.
Wallace had an able ally in the young Sir Andrew Moray, who had successfully cleared the English from north east Scotland.
The name Wallace, or ‘Walensis’, derives from the Welsh-speaking people of Strathclyde.
The sham trial of Wallace took place at Westminster Hall, London.
In April 1856 it was agreed that the Provost of Stirling should call ‘a great public meeting, for the purpose of promoting, effectually, the erection of a monument to the memory of Sir William Wallace’. On 24 June a ‘great open-air meeting’ was held in the King’s Park.
No fewer than six major battles which changed the course of Scottish and British history took place in or near Stirling.
It took the organising committee three years to select an appropriate design for the Wallace Monument. The design chosen was the work of John Rochead of Glasgow.
The Wallace Monument is built of stone quarried on and around the Abbey Craig.
The referendum on a Scottish Parliament took place on 11 September 1997 – 700 years to the day after the Battle of Stirling Bridge.
Braveheart director Mel Gibson omitted the bridge from his depiction of the Battle of Stirling Bridge.
The Stirling Observer and Midland Counties Advertiser describes the scene in the town on Monday 24 June 1861 as the foundation stone of the Wallace Monument was laid at Abbey Craig. “…no such gathering of Scotsmen has ever taken place within the memory of living men, and Stirling presented one of the liveliest and most incongruous of spectacles it has ever been our lot to witness. The streets were swarming with people, …and with firmer roads and a sunnier sky, the streets would have had quite the appearance of a Roman Carnival, or a masquerade on the Continent.” 80 000 people gathered for the occasion.
The official Programme of Proceedings at Ceremonial of Laying the Foundation Stone of the National Wallace Monument states that medals ‘impressed with a representation of the Monument’ to be worn by those joining in the Procession up to Abbey Craig were available for sale at: Mr Christie, Ironmonger, Murray Place; Mr Alexander Millar, Bookseller, Port Street; Mr Robert S Shearer, Bookseller, King Street; and at the Macfarlane Free Library, Murray Place, as well as the Railway Station.
100 000 people attended the opening of the Wallace Monument in 1869.
Wallace’s sword, on display in the Wallace Monument museum, is five and a half feet long, with 52 inches of blade alone. Such a weapon would have required Wallace to be around 6 feet 7 inches tall.
In 13th century Scotland the average man was 5 ft tall.
King James IV paid for a new hilt, pommel, scabbard and cords to be fitted to Wallace’s sword in 1505.
Wallace was tortured, executed, beheaded and quartered. His head was spiked on London Bridge, and his limbs sent as a warning to be displayed at four points in Scotland.
There is a local legend that Wallace’s left arm was sent to Stirling, spirited away in the middle of the night by the monks of nearby Cambuskenneth Abbey, and buried somewhere on the abbey grounds.
Robert Burns, a Wallace admirer, wrote Scots wha hae wi’Wallace bled to the old martial tune to which a Scots bodyguard was said to have escorted Joan of Arc to victory at Orleans.